Hurrah, there’s football tonight. It seems like so long since we’ve played that today is a countdown to a huge, enormous game, and not simply an FA Cup 4th round replay against Cardiff (no disrespect to them).
Speaking about how goal-shy we’ve been in the recent past, Arsene Wenger said:
I still don’t think it is completely characteristic of our team. We are used to scoring goals and we will score goals again, don’t worry. I am convinced that if we keep working well as a team, playing well as a team, that we will come back quickly.
Tonight’s line-up is going to be interesting. Despite the boss saying he’s unsure of who he’s going to play up front I suspect he’ll rest van Persie and the obvious pairing is Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela. Unless he plays Vela on the left hand side of midfield and pushes Nasri over to the right and uses van Persie up front. Of course we do have Eduardo back again but I don’t think he’ll start.
Midfield is the most interesting area. The right hand side is Eboueless, Arshavinless, sin Walcott, so perhaps we might see Aaron Ramsey start if he’s fit. If not the only other option (beyond the Nasri/Vela switcheroo) is Jack Wilshere.
At the back I’d expect Gallas and Djourou to play with Sagna and Clichy, provided his head has closed up, either side. If it were me I think I’d pick the following team:
Fabianski – Sagna – Gallas – Djourou – Clichy – Wilshere – Song – Denilson – Nasri – Bendtner – Vela
That’s assuming Ramsey is out and the boss wants to rest Robin.
Anyway, whatever team we put out we should be strong enough to beat Cardiff. That’s not playing down their threat, they showed in the first game they’re a decent side who have the ability to cause us problems and create chances. But we’re at home, we need a good win to get ourselves motoring again, and we should be raring to go.
Further motivation is provided that we can see our way to the semi-finals very clearly. If we beat Cardiff we have a 5th round game against Burnley, and should we beat them then we’ll face either Hull City or Sheffield United in the quarter finals.
We’ve certainly gone through much more difficult draws in our time and this really is a good opportunity to do well in this competition. Bacary Sagna is up for the cup, saying:
The FA Cup is really important for the fans and for the club and for ourselves. It is one of the competitions we can win, along with the Champions League.
Interesting that there’s no mention of the league in the competitions that we can win. A slip of the tongue or an acceptance that it’s well and truly beyond us now? Either way he’s right about the FA Cup. It might have diminished in importance over the years but it’s still got great history and it’s a competition Arsenal fans have enjoyed greatly down the years.
So, fingers crossed we can do the business tonight then we can get ourselves ready to try and make up the ground in the league.
Till tomorrow.
