Good morning from a very wet and windy Dublin. I’m hoping this is the storm before the calm … the calm, precise, clinical demolition of Chelsea today.
We know it’s a huge game and how much is at stake when it comes to our league title challenge. We haven’t had any update regarding the potential involvement of William Gallas so I’m just going to assume he can play. Trying to preview this game without him makes me a bit scared, I have to say. Assuming he does make I think the only choice the manager has to make is who will play at left back. During the week he said he had two options, Traore and Eboue.
I think the Ivorian will start. I just don’t think Traore’s got what it takes to play in a game like this yet and I think Eboue’s experience and greater physical strength will tip the balance in his favour. I think the midfield three will be Song, Cesc and Denilson while the front three Arshavin, Eduardo and Nasri. It means we’ve got plenty on the bench if we need it too, Rosicky, Walcott and Vela all available if we need to change things.
While offensively this Arsenal team has been almost beyond compare this season I think if we want to win this game we’re going to put in a seriously good defensive shift. And that’s not just down to the back four coping with the very real threat of Anelka and Drogba, it’s got to be a team effort. It means stopping the service to their front two, it means putting their back four under pressure when they’ve got it. The classic defend from the front thing.
We also need big performances from our big players. Song and Denilson in midfield should give Cesc a good platform to get forward more, Arshavin is a man for a big game. We’ve seen him score four against Liverpool, he scored away at Old Trafford and in the absence of van Persie we need him to be at his best. The heartache of his World Cup exit is irrelevant now and there should be no hint of that in his performance today.
Eduardo is a lethal finisher on his day but it wouldn’t be unfair to say his form this season hasn’t hit the level he, or Arsene Wenger, would have liked. Today is a big day for him. The forwards at the club have a month, more or less, to covince the manager that they have what it takes to get the goals van Persie would have got. He will probably struggle a bit playing centrally against two strong centre-halves like the cokelifter and Carvalho but over 90 minutes it’s hard not to think he won’t have a chance or two, he’s got to be clinical today.
A win and we’re 5 points back with a game in hand. Win the game in hand it’s 2 points. And then, my friends, it is on. Defeat really is not an option today. Hopefully the atmosphere today is appropriate for a match this size. It should be red hot. Those of you lucky enough to be going can play a part, be the old 12th man and all that. Remember who is coming to play. Cole, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Terry, Lampard, Cole, Terry, Drogba, Drogba, Drogba. Men who have kicked us and cheated us and dived and cheated and kicked and generally been as welcome in our lives as cock measles.
Arsene said it’s time for his team to show that they’ve got what it takes. He’s challenged them to do the business – and if we really want to win this league then that’s exactly what we have to do. No passengers today. Nothing less than 100% from every player because if that happens Chelsea are good enough and strong enough to exploit that weakness. I’m hopeful we can get a result. There’s so much riding on this game and I hope, as well, that the players remember the pasting we got at home from them at the end of last season. That hurt and I want us to put that right today.
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Sunday round-up. Arsene is unhappy with the Dutch FA after their misdiagnosis of Robin van Persie’s injury. I’d be interested to know what the procedure is there. They say ‘X’, do we not check or do we just take their word for it? Either way I don’t think it’s made a huge difference to how long Robin will be out for, a couple of weeks at best, but it’s easy to understand the manager’s displeasure. For me it also opens up the compensation issue – clubs should not have to suffer the financial cost of a paying a player injured on international duty. There should be a responsibility for the international FA to cover at least some of the wages. They can surely do this via insurance anyway and it’s time this was sorted once and for all.
Ivan Gazidis says success that is built is better than success that is bought. At this moment in time I would be of the opinion that success that is bought is better than no success at all and until we’ve got trophies to show for our work then it might be advisable not to talk about things like this. I know where he’s coming from and all but still …
The Sunday Times talks to Thomas Vermalen:
Not counting a dead rubber with Manchester United at the end of last season, it is two years and 18 matches since Arsenal last kept a clean sheet in a meeting with a Big Four rival.
Not sure about that stat though. It’s a bit like saying ‘Not counting the double Arsenal won in 2002, the Gunners haven’t done the double since 1998’. I have to say I’m not hugely confident we can keep a clean sheet today though. Let’s just hope we score more.
The Guardian on Andrei Arshavin – nothing in there we haven’t seen before really.
And that’s about that. Time for the papers and to watch the rain until kick-off. Come on you Goooooners!
