A much earlier blog than usual as I’m heading Londonwards this morning for the game.
There’s nothing new to report in terms of the team. Wenger confirmed Fabianski’s injury and said he’d be missing for “three to four” weeks, which is no doubt a blow to him. He was giving nothing away when pressed about who would play today. The journos at the press conference do like to try and get info via their leading questions but Wenger is too canny for that kind of thing.
He says he knows who’ll play but was saying nothing. Asked if he was tempted to pick Almunia he said “I am always tempted to pick Almunia”. To me this was no hint that the Spaniard would regain his place, it just deflected the question right back at the questioner. As I said yesterday I think Mannone will continue to get the nod. I could be wrong, but either way the absence of a real number 1 at the club though remains problematic and whoever plays today I hope they perform like one.
The team pretty much picks itself. The only question remains over who will play in the third forward position. Eboue played there against West Ham but I think I might cry if he plays there tomorrow. His last outing in a North London derby was nothing short of a disaster and while he might offer some ‘defensive balance’ I’d prefer somebody with a bit of an attacking threat. Hopefully Bendnter’s goal in midweek will have convinced the manager he’s the man for the job and his aerial presence has famously undone Sp*rs before.
The bench should be strong enough as well with Nasri, Eduardo, Ramsey, maybe Vela or Wilshere, alongside the number 2 keeper and the defensive options. The game, obviously, is massive. There’s the small matter of the position of the teams in the league but more than that is the rivalry. Sp*rs players and their manager have been very vocal over the last few days about how they’re catching us up, or have even caught us up. We need to teach them about hubris.
Arsene Wenger says:
When the game starts tomorrow at 12.45 it will be just down to the quality of the display no matter how much other psychological involvment is in the game.
Which is true, to an extent, but there’s always more to a big derby game than just the respective merits of both teams. There’s more than just 3 points to be played for today, the teams know that, the managers know that and most of all the fans know that. ‘Form goes out the window’ in a derby, and it’s true.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that the 4-4 from last season still haunts me. I caught a clip of Lennon’s equaliser yesterday – bizarrely in Wenger’s interview with the official site – and it made me shudder. That was a game we should have won but we gifted them 2 points. They were on the ropes at that stage last season, that result sparked them into life and quite literally knocked the stuffing out of us.
That game was a sucker punch which sent us reeling. It was a midweek game, that weekend we lost away at Stoke, then played out a turgid 0-0 at home in the Champions League with Fenerbache and although we rallied to beat United and the kids beat Wigan in the Carling Cup, we still hadn’t fully recovered and lost two weeks running to Aston Villa and then Man City who took us apart at Eastlands.
I’m almost positive none of that would have happened if we’d won the game against Sp*rs. Perhaps it exposed weaknesses that would have emerged but it was such an incredible, once in a lifetime occurence that it damaged the team, the fans faith in the team and the manager and made last season one of the least enjoyable I can ever remember. You just don’t draw a game when you’re 2 goals ahead in the 89th minute. Especially against them.
We self-destructed that day and it cost us. We were out of the title race by the end of November. Not that I think last season’s team was really a title contender but there’s no doubt that game badly affected us on many levels.
And from a fan’s perspective it was utterly soul-destroying. This is why there’s more to today’s game than the respective quality of the teams. Desire and sheer will to win goes a long way in football and the Arsenal players, most of whom would have played in the corresponding fixture last season, have to go out there wanting to right that wrong. Yes, they want to win because it’s the next game. Yes, they want to win because we’re at home. Yes, they want to win because it’s against the old enemy.
But fuck me they should want to win because they want to exorcise the demons of the 4-4. They should want to win because last season hurt them as much as it hurt us. And when you look at your scars you know where they came from, who inflicted them, and you want revenge. You want payback and while what happened might have been our own fault, it’s not us who should pay, is it?
Most of all they should want to beat them because we are the Arsenal, and they … well they’re cunts, aren’t they?
See some of you there.
COME ON YOU GOOOOOOOOOOOOONERS.
