April 5th
Good morning, everyone. It’s seemed a long time since the Villa game as the build up and chatter about tonight’s game has been rather intense. The boss named a 19 man squad yesterday as there were injury doubts over Cesc and Eboue. As mentioned yesterday it seems Cesc is likely to play with Eboue the major doubt. The boss rated his chances at 30% yesterday but also said “Eboue will have a final test tomorrow, because we don’t want to take any chances – but we are certain he will be okay.”
This morning’s Sun however is reporting that Eboue is set to miss out and that Robert Pires is ‘fuming’ after being told he’s being dropped for a fit again Freddie Ljungberg. It seems there’s no question we’ll be playing the 4-5-1 formation that has served us well in Europe and as good as Pires was at home last week the boss obviously feels Freddie has got a bit more work rate and energy. I’m not sure what more Pires could have done last week to convince AW but maybe the boss is basing his decision on more than one game. The only worry would be Freddie’s injury which forced him out of the last game he played after just 5 minutes.
If Eboue is not fit then there’s an even bigger decision to be made. The most experienced defender in the squad is Sol Campbell but bringing him back means breaking up the Senderos – Kolo partnership which has done so well. Kolo could play at right back but we’d be doing ourselves a disservice taking away his energy and pace from the centre. The other option is to bring in Djourou at right back and given the fact Nedved is back and we might need to be a touch more defensive down that side then it’s probably the best option as he won’t be as inclined to go forward as Eboue. Ideally though a fit Eboue would make everyone feel a bit more comfortable.
I know the boss has been telling the players all week that the job is only half done and that there’s still a lot of work to do. A 2 goal lead is nice but in no way insurmountable and there’s no way we can sit back. He says “We need to defend well as a team but not to hide. We have to be positive and try to win the game.”
Again it means a lot of work for the midfield and we have to put everything into this game like we did the first leg and the two Madrid games. We have found our form again, which is great, but there is a pressure on us tonight that there hasn’t previously been. In Madrid nobody really thought we’d do it and even at Highbury there were suggestions that their strike power would be too much for us. Then the runaway leaders of Serie A and again we had nothing to lose being big underdogs. Tonight we’re expected to go through to reach our first European cup semi-final but make no mistake the same press that have been building us up for weeks will take great pleasure in letting everyone know we choked under the pressure should the worst happen tonight. I think that pressure will sit more with the senior players than the youngsters to be honest but the stakes are high. Jens Lehmann reveals that the players have been angry with their domestic form this season and that it’s acting as motivation for the European run.
I did like Arsene’s quote about our season and how we were written off not so long ago – “I’m very realistic because two months ago everybody considered us a joke and now suddenly we are favourites to win the European Cup. The truth is somewhere in between. We can make it, but we need to play at our best against Juventus to get through into the semi-final.”
If we perform like we have done in the previous games then I think we’ve got a fantastic chance of going through but Juventus have a great deal of experience, they have a canny manager and I suppose they’re a bit wounded at the moment so that can be dangerous. That said I’ve got tremendous belief in the team’s motivation and ability and I know they’re capable of getting the result we all so desperately want.
Today is going to be a long day, isn’t it? Right, I’m away to get some breakfast, ponder over possible team selections and then I might go to the gym. Let the fun begin and come on the lads!
