Hello Everyone,
Until two weeks before, our today's game with Manchester United was touted as the title decider, but things have changed dramatically now. It is still a must win game, but for different reasons. Chelsea's victory against the Scums yesterday means they are 6 points ahead of us now and Manchester City are only 5 points behind us with a game in hand. We must win this game, not only to raise our hopes of finishing second, but also to stay safe from Manchester City who are right behind us.
Against Bolton last week, we saw the usual Arsenal. We dominated possession, created more chances, failed to take them, got beaten in set pieces...sigh, it has become a frequent scene nowadays. I have been mentioning a line in my last three previews and I will repeat it again. We should rectify our habit of making silly defensive mistakes to go any where near the top next season and to a certain extent, it is due to the absence of Vermaelen.
The Verminator returned to action on Thursday for the reserves and according to YoungGuns blog he played pretty well. It was a big positive to see him back in action after a seven month break. I don't expect him to get involved in much first team action this season, but merely seeing him back playing is in itself a great news.
On the injury front, we have Diaby missing out again, but Rosicky is back. For Manchester United, Giggs is set to be rested, Fletcher will miss out, but Berbatov is back.
We might have been out of the title race, but as Arsene says, we have to beat them for our pride and also to stay away from the other Manchester team. I assume we will start with the same team that started against Bolton last week. ManU have some good offensive players like Nani, Park, Rooney and now Hernandez, who all have caused trouble for us before. I am not being negative, but If we put in a defensive shift like the one against Bolton, then I am sure we will get battered by ManU. Both Hernandez and Rooney are good both on the air and on the ground, so its a must for us to defend properly. Djourou and Song had a rare shaky game last week and I really hope it was just a one off blip in performance from them. Speaking of Djourou, here's an excellent interview about his on and off the field matters on Guardian.
We struggled a bit offensively in the game against Bolton. Struggled in the sense, we created some very good chances, but failed to take them. Nasri twice and Chamakh once, to name a few. Again RVP was the one who scored our only goal in that game. I can't even imagine where we would be now without his goals in the last four months. We should not repeat those mistakes against ManU. They are very much better than Bolton defensively, so we should convert every single chance we get to avoid getting punished at the other end.
I expect us to line up like this
Szczesny
Sagna Djourou Koscielny Clichy
Cesc Song Wilshere
Walcott RVP Nasri
I am sure ManU will adopt the tried and succeeded formation of 4-5-1 against us, so we can mix up our formation a bit and go with a 4-4-2 but Arsene rarely changes our formation before game, so I will be pleasantly surprised if we do go with a 4-4-2 . Since ManU will pack our midfield, our key players like Jack and Cesc needs to be at the top of their game. Defensively Nani has troubled Clichy more than once but Gael has improved his game very much recently and so I expect him to take care of Nani. On the other side Park has also damaged us many times, so its important for Sagna also to be alert. Our whole defensive back five needs to put in a good shift for us to get a victory.
The referee for today's game is Chris Foy. Our record when he is referring is really good and I for once would like to see a game involving Arsenal and ManU to be played fair without any referring controversies.
Its been three years since we last defeated ManU, so the time is up for our boys to step up and beat them and make Arsene and Arsenal feel proud. I am going for a 2-1 victory for us.
VICTORY THROUGH HARMONY
Until two weeks before, our today's game with Manchester United was touted as the title decider, but things have changed dramatically now. It is still a must win game, but for different reasons. Chelsea's victory against the Scums yesterday means they are 6 points ahead of us now and Manchester City are only 5 points behind us with a game in hand. We must win this game, not only to raise our hopes of finishing second, but also to stay safe from Manchester City who are right behind us.
Against Bolton last week, we saw the usual Arsenal. We dominated possession, created more chances, failed to take them, got beaten in set pieces...sigh, it has become a frequent scene nowadays. I have been mentioning a line in my last three previews and I will repeat it again. We should rectify our habit of making silly defensive mistakes to go any where near the top next season and to a certain extent, it is due to the absence of Vermaelen.
The Verminator returned to action on Thursday for the reserves and according to YoungGuns blog he played pretty well. It was a big positive to see him back in action after a seven month break. I don't expect him to get involved in much first team action this season, but merely seeing him back playing is in itself a great news.
On the injury front, we have Diaby missing out again, but Rosicky is back. For Manchester United, Giggs is set to be rested, Fletcher will miss out, but Berbatov is back.
We might have been out of the title race, but as Arsene says, we have to beat them for our pride and also to stay away from the other Manchester team. I assume we will start with the same team that started against Bolton last week. ManU have some good offensive players like Nani, Park, Rooney and now Hernandez, who all have caused trouble for us before. I am not being negative, but If we put in a defensive shift like the one against Bolton, then I am sure we will get battered by ManU. Both Hernandez and Rooney are good both on the air and on the ground, so its a must for us to defend properly. Djourou and Song had a rare shaky game last week and I really hope it was just a one off blip in performance from them. Speaking of Djourou, here's an excellent interview about his on and off the field matters on Guardian.
We struggled a bit offensively in the game against Bolton. Struggled in the sense, we created some very good chances, but failed to take them. Nasri twice and Chamakh once, to name a few. Again RVP was the one who scored our only goal in that game. I can't even imagine where we would be now without his goals in the last four months. We should not repeat those mistakes against ManU. They are very much better than Bolton defensively, so we should convert every single chance we get to avoid getting punished at the other end.
I expect us to line up like this
Szczesny
Sagna Djourou Koscielny Clichy
Cesc Song Wilshere
Walcott RVP Nasri
I am sure ManU will adopt the tried and succeeded formation of 4-5-1 against us, so we can mix up our formation a bit and go with a 4-4-2 but Arsene rarely changes our formation before game, so I will be pleasantly surprised if we do go with a 4-4-2 . Since ManU will pack our midfield, our key players like Jack and Cesc needs to be at the top of their game. Defensively Nani has troubled Clichy more than once but Gael has improved his game very much recently and so I expect him to take care of Nani. On the other side Park has also damaged us many times, so its important for Sagna also to be alert. Our whole defensive back five needs to put in a good shift for us to get a victory.
The referee for today's game is Chris Foy. Our record when he is referring is really good and I for once would like to see a game involving Arsenal and ManU to be played fair without any referring controversies.
Its been three years since we last defeated ManU, so the time is up for our boys to step up and beat them and make Arsene and Arsenal feel proud. I am going for a 2-1 victory for us.
VICTORY THROUGH HARMONY
