Far too nervous to type properly, let alone attempt any cheeky gags.
No. Today is not the day for such tomfoolery. It is a day for soldiers, for stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood. And hopefully ribald celebration come 7pm.
With our defence decimated (count them – no Almunia, no Gallas, no Sagna, no Clichy, no Djourou, possibly no Gibbs) we could very well end up with Alex Song at centre half and Silvestre at left-back. If anyone has any other suggestions, please can you let me (or preferably Arsene, actually) know asap. Word is that Gibbs is looking better than previously thought, though it’s a very big game for such a young fella to be coming into in doubtful shape. He will have to imitate the action of the tiger this afternoon, if he plays.
Song played in central defence at Old Trafford at the end of last season and did pretty well – Wenger always said this would be his long term position (though that has probably changed now). But he’s on form and high in confidence, so it may not be the worst thing, though it would leave our midfield shorn of its enforcer against Lampard, Essien and Ballack. <gulp>
It could be a very telling team selection today from Arsene, I think, especially (and for very different reasons) in the top half of the pitch. My guess is that he’ll sacrifice Nasri for Arshavin and play a kind of 4-4-1-1 as he did the other night, with Van Persie dropping pretty deep.
In their game at Anfield, Guus was intelligent enough to figure out that Liverpool minus Gerrard = Not That Great, and that Gerrard divided by Essien = An Easy Win for Chelsea. I really hope he won’t try and pull similar feats of central midfield algebra on Cesc today, but I rather worry that this is exactly the evil scheme up his sleeve. If Cesc’s playing with Essien on top of him all day, he will need to have an absolute blinder which, being famously good at football, is certainly not beyond him.
Is there an argument for playing the evanescent Eboue ahead of Theo? How much might Eboue’s knowledge of Arsene’s shady activities Last Summer win him favour for today’s team sheet? Interested to know what kind of front 6 you’d pick if you were everyone’s favourite alsatian Alsatian.
Chelsea’s Bruisers are in top cup form, and they showed on Tuesday that they’re not afraid to spoil a good story. Their main threats are: Hiddink (as RvP pointed out, the luckiest man in the world and apparently beloved of referees and linesmen all over the world), Essien, Lampard and Drogba.
The other night, Drogba was about as good as they get. Pretty unplayable. Let’s see some of that from Ade today, please, and none of that from Arsenal reject Didier. Wouldn’t it be great if Song totally outplayed him? That would really give the English press something to be confused about.
COME ON ARSENAL! Let’s give them a good Duffing! (We’ve been doing it since 1947 after all)
Tags: Alex Song, Alsatian, Arsene Wenger, Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea, Kieran Gibbs, Michael Essien, Semi-Final
April 18th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
i would like to see a midfield of:
walcott denilson diaby arshavin
cesc
with rvp sacrificed (if diaby is fit). I think we could use abou’s extra physical presence with song having to move to defence
i might be tempted to put eboue ahead of walcott to start the match, but he will almost certainly be needed at RB, no?
Eboue tends to play well against chelsea anyway, as he likes to get in their faces
and walcott is just about the best player i can think of to bring on when you need a goal, or just to keep the opposition worried at the end of a game
April 18th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
fabianski
eboue toure silvestre gibbs
walcott song fabregas arshavin
rvp
adebayor.
gibbs should be risked or better still put song in central defence and pair denilson and ramsey to play a defensive role.song was exceptionallygood against villareal and should not be kept in defence.data what i think