April 4th
Good news to the start the morning is that Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Eboue have been declared fit enough to travel with the team to Turin today. According to the Guardian it’s the Spaniard that’s most likely to play as his swollen foot is not as serious as Eboue’s groin injury. How the manager chooses to replace him should he not make it is a far more difficult decision than replacing Cesc with Diaby who drew praise from Gilberto after his performance on Saturday. The Brazilian said “Abou is a very talented player. If Cesc does not play on Wednesday, Abou is a good player who can do a good job.”
Arsene Wenger is under no illusions about the task that lies ahead. While we have a good lead it’s not all over by any stretch and the players know that too. The boss says “The players are not stupid, they are intelligent boys. We have to attack and try to win the game. We cannot just defend. We will try to defend well, of course, but we have to fix our targets to play well and try to win.”
Similarly the captain says “Juventus at home are a completely different proposition to the team we played at Highbury. They will do everything to make it as difficult as possible for us, and our players need to know that.”
With Alessandro del Piero warning that there’s still a lot of football left to be played you can be sure the lads will not be approaching this game thinking they’ve already got one foot in the semi-finals. Former Arsenal and Juventus star David ‘Platipus’ Platt thinks Arsenal will be too strong for the Italians however and playing at the Stadio Delle Alpi won’t intimidate the players one bit. There’s no doubt the Italian side will use all their experience, in good ways and bad, but Gilberto insists Arsenal won’t be put off if they choose to play a physical game.
In the Guardian Richard Williams writes about the difference between Arsenal and Chelsea. Basically he says everyone will be rooting for Arsenal because we play nice football and aren’t cunts whereas everyone hates Chelsea because they play shite football and are cunts. It’s a little bit OTT to suggest the whole of England wants to see Arsenal win against Juventus but I suppose if you asked them if they wanted us to win or Chelsea to win they’d pick us. However, that’s like asking somebody if they’d like a ham sandwich or a poo sandwich.
And that’s it. There’ll be a proper match preview tomorrow. Till then, my friends…
