Ahh, Saturday. Day of mellow fruits and something something.
We’ve got a relatively calm Saturday what with us not playing the Mugsmashers till tomorrow afternoon. I think I’m going to play the new PES game all day long. These things have to be done, you know.
Ahead of tomorrow’s game there are no new injury worries beyond Philippe Senderos and Robin van Persie. The manager is calling this kind of game, against another top 4 side, our ‘last test’. He says:
Playing a big side is the last question mark against this side. I feel that, this year, if we repeat our same record against the big teams, we’ll be very difficult to catch. At your strongest opponents, you want to make sure that you’re at your best. But I know we have the ability to do it.
Our record against the other sides in the top 4 was very good last season. Two wins against United, two draws against Chelsea, a fine win against Liverpool at home. The only blot on the copybook was this fixture last season which was as maddening a result and performance that we’ve seen under Arsene Wenger’s reign. We weren’t at the races at all, didn’t compete and ended up getting spanked 4-1. Hopefully that performance and result is still fresh in the minds of the players because it serves as a good lesson as to what happens if you don’t go there and work hard.
No matter how good our form or how poor Liverpool’s they have the quality to hurt you. Of course last season was slightly different. Our season was just about over at that stage, this time around we’ve started fantastically. Some people are comparing it to the United game when we had gone 49 games unbeaten. I’m not sure it’s quite the same as that and I don’t think the reaction to a defeat would be quite as bad either.
I think the boss is doing a great job of ensuring the players are concentrating and focussed on only the next game and not getting carried away with themselves. The players know that the good results are coming not just from playing good football but because of the effort and workrate they put in during each game. It’s our first game against one of the teams considered to be a title rival and they’ll be hurting after their midweek defeat. Whether they end up playing poorly because of that or playing like they have something to prove remains to be seen.
I certainly think if we can cope with Crouch, and I think after he destroyed Gallas and Toure last season Benitez will put him in, then we can can win the game. We have enough going forward and in midfield to cause Liverpool serious problems. It’ll be interesting to see who the boss plays up top. I suspect he’ll stick with Adebayor and Walcott having seen the difficulties Carragher and Hyppia had midweek with the nippy Besiktas striker. I am looking forward to this one.
A quick Saturday round-up of the other stories for you now. Mathieu Flamini (new deal please) talks about his resurgence, or even just plain old surgence, this season, while Bacary Sagna explains his hair and how he’s settled in so quickly. I have to put on record how much I’ve been impressed by Sagna in the short time he’s been here. Not flashy but just consistently good and an obvious improvement over both Eboue and Hoyte.
Cesc says we’re just like Brazil due to the ‘quick and precise’ passing game we play. He does have a point, you know. Except we don’t have any really bucktoothed strikers. That could well be a good thing.
Emmanuel Adebayor reveals his lofty ambitions in the game and just how quick he actually is in the speed tests they do at the club. I know the big man hasn’t scored for a few games now and the people who have doubts about are beginning to express them again but I think he’s been fantastic this season. He works so hard and brings so much to the team, whether he scores or not. As well as that I think people are much quicker to forgive Robin when he doesn’t play so well and doesn’t score. Having not been convinced by him at the start I’m quite happy to eat humble pie over Adebayor. Sure, his finishing is a bit dodgy at times but he’s now a very important part of this team and I fancy him to make a mark tomorrow.
His likely partner tomorrow, Theo, reveals just how bad his shoulder injury was last season.
Everyone could see the pain I was in. It had got to the point where even just drying myself with a towel or rolling over in bed, the shoulder would pop out.
I’d challenge anyone to play well when you’re struggling with that kind of a problem. It’s probably taken him a while to get confident in his new, non-poppy out shoulder, and I think we can see what a difference it’s made to his football. Keep it up young (action) man.
And that’s about it. Time for breakfast and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
