By Myles Palmer
Playing the FA Cup Final during the season, a week before the last day, means there isn’t the usual hype, the usual publicity blitz about the game.
This week it’s been play-offs, Millwall hooligans and Real Madrid’s 1-1 draw against Barcelona.
Not the normal FA Cup Final preview stories.
So Cardiff feels a bit like another away game. A game that is not against Cardiff, but against Chelsea.
That’s good because it’s better to play Chelsea in Cardiff than at Stamford Bridge.
After thinking this for a couple of days, I read a good quote from Arsene in tonight’s Standard.
He said,”We have to be faithful to our own tactics. My game plan will not be dictated by Chelsea. Our strategy will be to go forward,score goals and play the way we are used to. I’ve told the boys that it’s a bit like another away game for us. We’ve enjoyed very good form away from home this season.”
Interestingly, the Standard’s Michael Hart picks Parlour, not Edu.
Parlour has not been the same player since he was dropped from last year’s final. Will he start ahead of Edu this time? I doubt it.
Hart says Ranieri was impressed by Steve McClaren’s pressing tactics when Middlesbrough made Arsenal struggle in the semi-final.
That would be a good way for Chelsea to play, pressurising the back four, stifling their moves at source, and winning the ball so that Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink can blast cannonballs at Seaman.
But I’m bored with previews. Enough already!
I just want to see the game now. I just want to see the game.
I want to see Freddie score the first goal. I want to see Dennis slice those passes through, see Cole overlap vivaciously, see Edu ping the ball here and there, see Vieira play beautifully efficient two-touch.
How good will Chelsea be in a pressure game like this?
I like Melchiot. Good athlete,good player, sometimes breaks up the pattern with unexpected runs.
I liked Melchiot from day one and I’m glad he’s made the right back shirt his own.Henry will test him today.
Lampard was in shock when he joined Chelsea.He was overawed for the first six months.The club is so different from his homely, unambitious old Hammers.
Lampard is an up-and-downer, a bang average player.
Petit will not be going for any 50-50s with his mate Vieira.
He hasn’t really tackled since 1998. He just runs and presses, but doesn’t really put his foot in any more.
But Petit has that strategic intelligence, that knack of reading a game, knowing when to fall back, when to cover, when to break forward.
CHELSEA’S MAIN STRENGTHS?
They have great defenders in Terry, Desailly and Cudicini.
That means that it won’t be a high score. Arsenal might dominate,might play them off the field, but with those three guys there it won’t be a high score.
Terry also has the same scoring knack that his hero,Tony Adams, had at the same age.He is dangereous at set-pieces.
Watching Real Madrid and Barcelona on Wednesday I was struck by how many touches the players wanted. They were often very slow in moving the ball from one end of the field to the other, compared to Arsenal.
Arsene does not get enough credit for the originality of his style of play, which is one of the themes of The Proifessor.
His style is based on initiatve, pace and well-rehearsed movement.
Arsenal pass the ball forward more than any other team, and earlier as well. That is the originality of Arsenal’s conception of the game.
People always talk about the pace of Henry, the vision of Bergkamp, the movement of Ljungberg.
But this team makes tthe ball do a lot of work as well. The ball is often being passed at lightning speed, and passed forward.
Petit knows what Arsene teaches, and will try to nullify their quick breaks, smother those forward passes as much as possible.
But, as I say , it’s all about the action, who plays well on the day, who makes a mistake.
Arsenal can handle the day. And they can handle Chelsea.
May 3rd 2002.