Friday, April 17, 2009

What A Month Ahead For Arsenal


Morning all. Post number 301 has been hard to get written. It's been a while, but I can explain. Last Sunday was Easter, so I had Church and then was with the family all day. Monday-Thursday I have class 8-5, and then each night I've had to work the baseball game from 6-10, so that doesn't leave a lot of time for posting! I know you don't really care but I felt the need to explain all of that. So it's on to Arsenal.

Tomorrow is a huge day in our season! We have the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley! We haven't won the cup since 2005 against United and so this is a whole new experience for most of the team. Personally I see this as the best chance for Arsenal to win a trophy this season, because we get Arshavin for it and I think Chelsea and United will both want the Champions League more. Of course I would rather us win the Champions League as well, but I just personally think this is our best chance. We've shown that we can beat United as well as Chelsea this year.

Injury news before the match is not especially good defensively. Kieran Gibbs, who has been shaky but decent for his age in the current situation, is a doubt because of a groin injury he suffered against Villareal. Clichy, Djourou, and Gallas are all out still as well. It doesn't leave us many options but I would say the best plan would be like this:

Eboue-Silvestre-Toure-Sagna

The only other option I think is to move Silvestre to left back and drop Song into the center, but I think that would be a waste of Eboue, who actually looked very good at right back against Villareal. We could really use Djourou and Clichy back asap. I don't fancy us going two matches against United with that back four, but sometimes a little grit and determination makes up for a little lack of quality.

Chelsea have been giving up goals left and right in the past week, allowing three at home to Bolton and four at home to Liverpool. The way we have been scoring lately, it makes me think we have a really good chance. They are certainly nothing like the team from a few years ago who nobody could ever score on. This team has cracks in it that we can exploit with players like Theo, Arshy, and Adebayor. Eduardo could also return to the bench, and he's certainly capable of scoring goals.

I'm really just hoping for a good match. I want us to win so badly but really I'm excited just to be back in the position where we can say we're in two semi-finals. It's what makes the rest of the season worth watching, being here at the end. The next month is going to be brutal. We've got Chelsea, United, and Liverpool in the league, along with Chelsea tomorrow, and United in the Champions League. Plus, if we beat Chelsea, we could get United in the final, so we'd be playing them four times this month! So it's going to be absolutely ridiculous the amount of good, important matches we have this month, so I hope you all are as ready for it as I am! Pray that we get healthier instead of getting more injuries, and I think we'll be able to pull through with flying colors! Remember, we have not lost to any of these teams so far this year!

That's about all I've got for today. I'm so excited for tomorrow. And there may be something new and big for this site coming in the next few days, so that is exciting too. Come on you Gunners!

5 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

This is what the end of the season is supposed to be like. Win or lose these are going to be some fun games.

Silvestre worried me at center back Wednesday, and the possibility of him head to head with Drogba is terrifying. Is Sagna a center back option you think, with Silvestre going to fullback?

It is a mess no matter how you fit that back four together, but Song is growing up before our eyes, it would be a shame to take him out of midfield.

Unknown said...

Well now Arsenal.com says Sagna is out for Chelsea for sure, so there goes that idea.

ArseNole said...

Yeah I'd have to think we'll go with Eboue, Song, Toure, Silvestre then with Sagna being out. Drogba is a terrifying player to face with lineups like that but the way they are shipping goals gives me hope. It may be a good old fashioned "who can score more" type game.

Vertino Aleci said...

I really hope Arsenal play a lot more cautiously and catch Chelsea on the break. We are by far the quicker team so we should let them play and shock and awe with a blistering counterattack..