Amidst all the guff and flapdoodle that has gone on this week there’s the small matter of a game of football today.
It’s hardly one we’d choose to be playing at the moment but what can you do? We face Manchester United today in a game which could see them crowned champions. They need just a point and you only have to stop and think about it if it were the other way around (haha, as if – joking!) to know how up for it they’re going to be.
They’ll be desperate to win the league at home and have a big old celebration in front of their own fans. Arsene spoke in the week about how this game was a chance to restore some pride, and he’s right. Another capitulation would be rather too much to take. On the other hand a performance and a win might dampen down the negativity that’s clouding the club, and the manager in particular, at the moment.
On today’s encounter, Cesc says:
It will be hard to clap United off the pitch as champions and we will do all we can to make them wait another week for the title. But if we have to do it, we will. We have to be men about these things and they deserve to be champions.
Entirely correct. And on the season in general, he says:
We have a very big job to do and we didn’t do it well enough. We all feel we could have done better and maybe some things have to change before we start winning things again.
What those things are remain to be seen but I think we all have a good idea. He goes on to reaffirm his commitment to the club, dismissing talk of leaving in the summer (for about the 956464th time, it has to be said), and hopefully we’ll have a season next time where we see the very best of Cesc. This one, for various reasons which I may go into at a later date, will be one he’ll want to forget, I’m sure.
Anyway, today’s game. I’d be inclined to have a right go at them. Why not? We’ve got nothing to lose, and with the players available I’d play the following team:
Fabianski – Sagna – Toure – Djourou – Gibbs – Walcott – Song – Cesc – Nasri – Arshavin – Bendtner
That’s a traditional 4-4-2, or 4-4-1-1 with Arshavin just behind big Nick. Adebayor was dropped for the Chelsea game, sadly from not a great enough height, and his pathetic diving hardly merits a recall. Bendtner came on, worked hard, scored a goal and looked dangerous. He deserves his start.
It doesn’t really need any kind of tactical analysis. United will throw the kitchen sink at a defence they know is shaky, we need more of what we saw in the first 25 minutes of the Chelsea game, but with better finishing.
I can’t say I’m overly confident but this is football, you never know.
Andrei Arshavin has been talking to Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail. It’s interesting stuff, he tips Arsenal to win things very soon, reaping the benefits of having young players who have grown in experience but he also believes, like most of us, that the squad must be supplemented with players who have been there, done that and worn the t-shirt until it’s gone from black to a kind of faded, bluey grey. He says:
We must buy in the summer. Not more potential, but players who are ready to do it now, players like me. We need two or three. If Arsenal want to win, they have to do it. We are tired of waiting.
Exactly right. One of the things that got lost in all the other stuff this week was Arsene, when asked who his transfer targets for the summer were, spoke not about individual players (obviously) but the type of player he was looking for. His answer was that he would be looking for players of experience and yesterday he said:
There is money available to buy. Where do I buy or who, that is difficult to speak about because if you come out with that you pay double price. We are rich, but we are not rich enough to do that. However, we will buy.
But that’s twice he’s stressed that he wouldn’t be buying more potential. Which, of course, is a good thing. Anyway, the Arshavin article is interesting … when he’s talking about football.
Anyway, that’s about that. There’s other Wenger stuff out there but I said pretty much all I had to say on that in yesterday’s blog. The shareholders have had their say, Arsene has had his, now it’s time to step back, calm down a bit, and let the man get on with his job.
Fingers crossed for today. I do hope there’s a response from the players, as a team I think they owe the manager and the fans a performance, and given the circumstances at Old Trafford today it would raise spirits a little bit if we could delay United’s fireworks for a week.
Till tomorrow.
