Up For Grabs Now

So. After the furious chaos of the last week it almost feels like we’re into something of a fallow patch with all things Arsenal before the big game at Stanford Bridge tomorrow.

I say big game but I suppose in some ways it’s not really. It’s a big game in so far as if we win, we’ll be a few fewer points behind and there’ll be a raft more ‘Don’t write off Arsenal’ stories in the media but any other result and we’re in the same position as we are today. I guess a good performance might help, but the problem is consistency, not whether the can team can rouse themselves for Chelea.

Still, Nasri, Adebayor and Sagna are all back and it will be nice to see them, particularly with stories like this floating around to make all Gooners want to believe in Santa and the inferiorities of the Italian game.

I wonder what our formation will be. You’ve got to think with Chelsea’s midfield, and a fit Adebayor, the boss’ll be tempted to go with five across the middle, and hope that we can snuff them out and hit them on the break, perhaps with a characteristic Adebayor hanging header. That would be fine for me. You certainly wouldn’t think we’ll be aiming to dominate them man for man.

There’ll probably be a bit more as they get into the psychological warfare – I’m expecting some people to say some stuff about Gallas through the day, none of it very interesting. The barometer of opinion seems to be swinging back in his favour, though a lot will rest on how he can perform tomorrow.

There are also a lot of people saying they’d settle for a draw tomorrow. Psychologically perhaps, but mathematically no. A draw tomorrow does nothing for me, like Harriet Harman eating ryvita in clown shoes.

Laters, grabbees.

A very good early afternoon to you all. Talk today is mostly of the United match, with each side lying about tomorrow in their own ways. From our side, the injured Adebayor says he wouldn’t take any of the current United team and put them in our team. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, since if you took any of Manchester United’s strikers at the moment and put them in our team Adebayor would be out of a job quicker than you can say ‘Togo’ which is, helpfully, rather an amusing word to say very quickly. So we can conclude that whilst amusing, Adebayor’s statement is a lie. On the form of the last two weeks we would take several members of the current United side. Possibly all of them barring Cesc and Gael Clichy. If any further proof were needed, over the summer we willingly took, in Silvestre, a player who was not so much part of the United side as practising using his free bus pass to get to and from the training ground.

On the side of United Christiano Ronaldo has come out and said that he’s apprehensive about playing Arsenal. This, equally, is complete bollocks. The only thing Christiano Ronaldo’s scared of is Martin Keown, and quite right too. Given that Stoke didn’t seem that scared of playing us last weekend, it seems unlikely that the strongest club side in the world will be that worried.

Still, this could work in our favour. Had we been winning loads of matches, I’d reckon Saturday for a surefire United victory. However, since we haven’t, I reckon these are the sorts of games where players come out with their surprise hats on, and do some surprising of the opposition. Particularly in this regard I’m hoping the midfield can turn up and do some damage. I’d love to say they’re fighting for their places, but they’re not really at the moment are they? Still, it’s matches like these where players can show they mean business, and shouldn’t be put out to pasture after our Off-The-Nanger-Good-Central-Defensive-Midfielder (OTNGCDM) arrives in January. Wouldn’t it be great if Eh?Boo-him could be part of this? Wouldn’t it be great if he didn’t know what Arsene did last summer?

Anyway.

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