Arsenal’s next game is Spurs but their main opponent, I think, is Manchester City.
What about Blackburn on Sunday?
Well, Arsenal have enough skill and energy to beat Blackburn, Birmingham and West Ham.
But they need to defend well and avoid complacency
The main thing about Matchday 2 wasn’t that Arsenal took 78 minutes to score.
It was that the team was up for it. Arsenal were really, really up for it. Their performance-level was 30% above their Premier League level. They were very keen, energetic, determined, concentrated well, and did a lot of good things in the 78 minutes before RVP scored.
That difference between their league form and their Champions League form is a worry because Manchester City are not in Europe and don’t have that distraction.
City have a big squad of experienced players who want to play in the Champions League. If they don’t achieve that, half of them could be replaced.
Man City are fifth on 15 points, Arsenal sixth on 12.
On what we’ve seen so far, City could finish fourth, or even third.
However, their defence is shaky and shabby. Richards is playing like a zombie, Toure is way past his best, Lescott runs stiff-legged and doesn’t win the headers he used to win at Everton, and Shay Given, an ace goalkeeper, doesn’t come for crosses.
But they have explosive pace and many goalscorers. With their firepower, they might win more games than Arsenal, especially if Arsenal are more interested in the Champions League, a competition which suits them.
So the $64,000 dollar question is : is Mark Hughes the kind of manager who can get consistent performances out of this newly-assembled squad?
Therefore I’m now asking myself : What do I really know about Mark Hughes?
Answer : not a lot.
He was hard case as a player, a quiet striker who combined great balance, huge strength, and loads of aggression. Mark Hughes was Alan Shearer with far more skill.
But he was so silent that he was very hard to read. As Sir Alex said last week : Mark never gave me any hint that he wanted to be a manager.
I met hundreds of managers when I was a football reporter for 25 years, but never met Mark Hughes. He appears to be temperamentally suited to a very stressful job. He seems dogmatic, implacable, tough-minded, very clear about what he wants to do. He gives the impression he can pull this squad together and control them and motivate them. And it helps that he is much smarter than his team.
His players include Craig Bellamy, Stephen Ireland, Shawn Wright-Phillips, Joleon Lescott, Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Micah Richards and Robinho, so City might be the team with the lowest IQ in Europe.
Still, you don’t need brains to play football. They have plenty of goalscorers and might win more games than Arsenal.
Aston Villa take on Man City on Monday night in the ESPN game.
If Arsenal have beaten Blackburn, as I expect, City will need a win to stay fifth and maintain momentum.
Arsenal v Man City is on Saturday, April 24 and that might be a massive game with £40 million riding on the result.
With Crouch, Defoe and Robbie Keane, Spurs also have firepower, plus a very effective powerhouse in Palacios. But, on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t see them finishing in the top four this season, mainly because King, Dawson and Woodgate will not be available often enough.
Arsenal v Spurs is on Saturday October 31 at 12.45 p.m.
Yesterday I bumped into a Gooner pal at the gym. A season-ticket holder who missed the Olympiakos game, he said, “I couldn’t be bothered, just watched it on telly. My mate, the guy I usually go with, was doing something at home with his girlfriend, he didn’t go either.”
He said one of his friends runs a company and had six season-tickets last season, five for clients. But he couldn’t give the tickets away, so this season he’s only got three.
He told me his Mum is an Arsenal supporter and her birthday’s coming up, so, after talking to his brother, he called Arsenal to see if a box was available. And he got one. So they’ve got their Mum a box for Arsenal v Spurs.