Push Push.
So our traditional football playing day of Sunday has come around again and Arsenal get to play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at 4pm this afternoon. I described last Sunday’s match as our most
important of the season so far and we didn’t show up with the football that we can play. It’s been gone through with a fine comb all week and suffice it to say that if we defend like that and
allow Chelsea as much space as we allowed Manure then we will suffer the same fate this week. With their 2 main rivals playing today Manure took full advantage yesterday by thumping Portsmouth
5-0 with the aid of 3 own goals. I know they deserved to win and it could have been more but they are also having a great deal of luck at the moment and when that stops it will be interesting
to see how their results fare.The other big winners yesterday were Liverpool ahead of our game against them on Wednesday night as their continued their recent good run by beating Everton while
all the other teams looking to finish 4th dropped points.
The team today should be fairly similar to last week’s team with the possible exception of Bendtner playing the centre forward role. With RVP’s season as good as over this is his chance to show
us what he can do and hopefully he can take it. He probably would have had the chance a lot sooner but he has been injured himself and he certainly has enough confidence in his own ability to
succeed. I’m not too sure he’s the man for the position but he would seem to be our best option today. With the boss saying that Almunia will start in goals and if fit Diaby will be in the
squad I imagine that the only change will be Bendtner as he also shows faith in Denilson. That means either Rosicky or Nasri will miss out unless he plays 1 of them in midfield instead of
Denilson. I would like to see Ramsey play but I’m almost certain he won’t and even if he does it never quite works when he plays alongside Cesc. So with virtually the same team on the pitch the
only thing we can change is our attitude and committment and they will need to be spot to combat a team who always seem to show up for the big games.
With all the controversy surronding their skipper I’m sure the home fans will give him a great reception but listen to the Arsenal fans singing and I’m sure he won’t get off so lightly. The
boss said that last seasons home defeat to them was a bit of a freak result as we had just gone out of the Champions league and even though we lost 4-1 we played quite well. It was a very tough
spell for us asour whole season fell apart before our eyes and the boss has no doubt that after last week’s defeat to Manure we will see the response that is needed today. He has said we are up
to the challenge a few times in the past 9 months against both of those teams and mostly we haven’t been but today needs to be different. I don’t care if the performance is bad if we get the
right result but if we lose we need to have put in a really solid performance and shown how much it means to the players to play for Arsenal in such a big game. As I said earlier in the week we
should try to wind Terry up and not be afraid to get stuck in as we’re too nice for our own good at times.
Today’s blog should have had a lot more to it but after walking the dog to Puck’s Castle and the smelting tower in the local hills we got a bit disorientated and lost about 45 minutes in a
heavy mist. That means the roast beef is cooking as I type and I have to get myself to the supporters club in time for the kick off. We have decided to make a club trip to the Man City game in
April and I hope to be going to that game along with hopefully 20 other members. It would appear that Chamakh says he wants to join us in the summer and he certainly looks like he would be a
better cover for RVP than any of our current candidates on current form. We do need top class cover for RVP because I for 1 don’t know if he will ever make it through a season unscathed. There
are stories about today saying we tried to sign Sorrensen from Stoke on deadline day and with them signing the Portsmouth keeper there might well be something to them but we didn’t and we can
only hope Almunia can repay the faith the boss is showing in him at the moment. The boss did say that mistakes at the back can spread uncertainty through the whole team but our mistakes come
from 1 main source and a few other lesser ones and I’m sure that despite his defence of Almunia he knows that. That’s it for today except to say that I as always predict an Arsenal win and I’ll
go for 3-2 with hopefully Drogba getting injured in the 1st minute so that he can’t inflict more pain on us.
Here’s a little bit of what Clichy looked like when he was playing really well. Let’s hope he can regain that form.
And to finish today’s title track from Black Uhuru. We need to make sure Chelsea aren’t allowed the time and space that we allowed Manure last week and we will have to push them really
hard to do that.
See You Tomorrow.