Manchester United v Arsenal is on Monday.
The Champions League draw is on Friday, December 17.
Arsenal will be lucky to lose 3-0 on Monday night. And they’ll be lucky to avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Round of 16.
If they get Bayern Munich or Schalke, they’ll be doing well.
Worst case scenario : lose the Carling Cup, exit the Champions League dishonourably.
Best case scenario : win the Carling Cup, lose honourably in the CL quarter-finals.
Matchday 6 is one of the dodgiest days in the football calendar and the only good thing about it is that it ends the tedious, money-spinning telefest that we call the Group Stage.
Four EPL teams now join three Spanish teams, three Italian, two German, two French, plus FC Copenhagen in the Round of 16.
The first half was played in a vacuum and a farce interrupted only by a Robin van Persie penalty after he had been clumsily brought down by Jovanovic. It became a match after a neat move that left Koscielny staggering and Cleo equalised with a shot that hit Squillaci on the foot. There was no cover. Squillaci backed off at first to cover a run, showing what a clueless defender he is. That gave Cleo time and space to shoot and his late lunge served only to send the ball looping over Fabianski’s dive for 1-1. Fabregas was watching this from the stand. What did he think of his team ? What did he think of that goal?
Arsenal had to concede before they could begin to end the farce by raising their game and scoring two good goals. A proper game started on 52 and Arsenal soon won that game 2-0. Nasri’s goal was superb and Song did well find him with a short pass.
With Arsenal leading 2-1, fans were facing 21 minutes of drama. The game wasn’t even over at 3-1 and Sagna’s red card in 85 was for a professional foul on Lazevski, a player the right back thought might score.
Be clear on this : Partizan are crap. Of the 32 teams in the Champions League, only the Slovaks of Zilina and the Serbs of Partizan have lost all six games. Partizan only scored twice in six games : a Cleo penalty against Arsenal and that Cleo deflected shot.
Arshavin had a shocker. He likes playing in the Wilshere-Fabregas-Chamakh team. If Wenger changes that team, Arshavin sulks and becomes peripheral, lazy, disenchanted. He made one good pass all night.
If anything the game on Matchday 6 showed us that van Persie might be redundant in this side. He came back, for Wilshere, in what was almost a midfield position and it didn’t really work.OK, he is rusty. But the team has moved on in the huge time he has been out and RVP is a guy who needs his team to play with him and for him.
Meanwhile, the Premier League is wide open and Arsenal are missing William Gallas.
They need a big, nasty, dominating centreback in January but Wenger has said he won’t buy. That’s wrong. Even if he’s not gonna buy, he should say he’s looking.
We fear no one, say Arsenal, was one headline yesterday. That headline looks hollow and sounds hollow.
The truth is that this team struggle at home and after West Brom, Newcastle and Spurs, the crowd is nervous. Watching this team, no wonder they are a bit schizo : How can we be top of the league when we defend like this?
They can see that Arsenal are shaky, fragile, too open. It’s not a neurotic crowd that makes the team nervous. It’s the fact that Arsenal’s centrebacks are third-rate, and that the team has no effective defensive habits or mechanisms, and that makes crowd very jittery. Djourou, Squillaci and Koscielny are pants and almost everybody knows it. On Saturday, Fulham looked dangerous almost every time they attacked. Song was useless – technically, positionally, in every way. Against Partizan, Wenger started Denilson, who can’t run. Sagna can run fast and smart opponents let Sagna have the ball because he never produces anything.
Yesterday I saw this headline : Wenger thinks he’s found another Walcott. What? This Walcott did everything wrong against Partizan, except the goal. He chested the clearance and banged it in beautifully. Everything else he did was rubbish. Theo Walcott is what he is and he’ll never be any better than he is now. But Wenger thinks he’s found another Walcott? Christ, I hope not.
Vermaelen is still injured and Fabregas is jogging again but won’t make Monday’s game.
He didn’t make the Chelsea game either. We heard a week before that he might be fit but by Thursday the noises suggested he wouldn’t make it. Last season Fabregas would have played against Chelsea whether he was fit or not.
Top of the league and playing Manchester United?
It used to be exciting. In the duopoly years, the glorious Bergkamp-Vieira years, when Arsenal took the title off United, and then United grabbed it back, every game between these two clubs was thrilling because Arsenal had a team packed with winners. Players who knew how to win a game and keep it won.
Sunday and Monday will clarify the Premier League season if the results go as I expect.
Spurs will batter Chelsea, who have won only two of their last eight games. The Blues can’t score goals any more, while Defoe, Bale & Co score loads.
Arsenal will have Nasri at Old Trafford. He’s the best player in the league right now but he can’t beat United on his own. Arsenal might even be superior in midfield and at least this game is not being played in front of their own jittery, doubtful fans.
I’m fairly sure that Manchester United will crush Arsenal and go on to win the league.