Aston Villa are at West Ham on Saturday
Arsenal play Liverpool at 4pm on Sunday.
Rafa and Arsene are completely different animals.
I can’t think of anything they have in common.
Rafa is building a CV.
Arsene is building a club.
Rafa loves to study the other team and nullify them and win.
Arsene loves to rehearse and play the same way in every game.He tells his team to focus on playing well.
Rafa, like George Graham, concentrates on winning because when you win, you never have to say you’re sorry. If you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose.
Arsene wants to play with style, to play his own brand of football.
Rafa uses defensive midfielders who have positional discipline, technique, strength and experience.He had Albelda and Baraja at Valencia and he has Mascherano and Xabi Alonso now. The Argentinian is quick and hard, like Nobby Stiles, a marker, a destroyer. Alonso has a range of passes and can score goals. Rafa also has Lucas in reserve anchor. He craves Gareth Barry but cannot afford him.
Arsene has Song and Fabregas, plus Denilson, three youngsters. He lost Flamini and Diarra, two destroyers, although Diarra, who can pass under pressure, is much more like Mascherano than Flamini is.
Typical headlines before Sunday’s clash :
1.Rafa Benitez Planning Tactical Masterclass Against Arsenal
2. Wenger says Arsenal are contenders.
So Rafa knows what Arsenal will try to do on Sunday. They’ll pass it out quickly from the back, they’ll get width from their full backs, Adebayor will make runs for Fabregas’s longer passes, and van Persie will shoot hard from silly positions.
Arsenal will create two or three chances in a tight game. So what matters is the finishing by both sides, not the possession stats. This game is not about territory, it’s about who misses and who scores. Recently, RVP has been shooting just past the post.
You might think it’s Arsene Wenger versus Rafa Benitez.
If Aston Villa win at West Ham on Saturday, they’ll be four points ahead and Arsenal will really need to beat Liverpool.
If Villa win, it could be Wenger v Martin O’Neill all through January, February and March.
Are Aston Villa equipped to gatecrash the Big Four, as Everton did in 2005? Everton finished fourth, above Liverpool, who win the European Cup by beating AC Milan on penalties after being 3-0 down at half-time. So Uefa allowed five English clubs to compete the following season.
Martin O’Neill has been in the top four for ten minutes while Arsene Wenger has been there for ten years. O’Neill is not accustomed to the pressure of having to win every week because he’s been an underdog at Leicester and Wycombe. A winner at Celtic, yes, but that was in Scotland and he had one of the great strikers Henryk Larsson, the bionic little Swede.
Aston Villa have more team spirit than Arsenal. They have a team of Englishmen with an American goalkeeper cand Martin Laursen, a Danish centreback. Brad Friedel was a massive player for Blackburn and they miss him more than any player that’s left Ewood Park since Damien Duff.
Can Martin O’Neill handle it? He can organise and motivate. We know that. I reckon Villa can fight back after set-backs. I think they’ve got more bouncebackability. If they lose a game, they can stop the rot by winning or drawing the next game. They might be formidable. It could go to the wire.
If you like ANR, you’ll love The Professor.
A classic paperback that took 10 years to write. You can read the first chapter for free.