By Myles Palmer
It feels about right.
A sunny March morning in London. A mild overcast afternoon. An almost windless day. An evening that won’t be cold or wet.
A full house.
A football lawn which has been trimmed, rolled and watered to perfection by ace groundsman Steve Braddock.
You can imagine Diego Tristan training at Highbury last night. He turns to Valeron and says, “Wow, I love the pitch!”
This afternoon, Tuesday March 12th 2002, is a moment of stillness in Arsenal’s history as they prepare to make a leap into the Champions League quarter-final again.
As they wonder : Can we go further? Are we one of the best four teams in Europe?
OK, the best four teams in Europe change every month.
But Real Madrid, Bayern, Man United and Valencia were the top four teams for two years.
Arsenal are playing very well at the moment. Unbeaten in 18 games. They feel confident.
Arsene has been talking it up for two weeks: We can do the treble, we believe, we can beat anybody, we relish a fixture pile-up because it proves how well we are playing.
He raised the stakes with his comments last week, and he has raised them again this week.
I just hope the crowd can relax and enjoy it. Rather than have anxiety attacks if Arsenal don’t score early on.
If Freddie was fit I would fancy them for an early goal. But he feels stiff and a bit tired after his 57 minutes at Newcastle.
He won’t start. Nobody thinks Freddie will start or should start, least of all the guy who picks the team. Arsene would love to pick the Swede, but he knows he ain’t sharp enough yet.
Despite that, Arsenal will win.
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1.45 pm Tuesday afternoon