THERE ARE two probable scenarios at the JJB tonight.
We could see the Arsenal that scores the first goal, plays well, and wins 3-1.
Or maybe we will see the Arsenal that can’t get their passing going, gets bullied, and loses 1-0.
Chris Kirkland will be in goal. He has presence and talent and might have become England’s best keeper by now but for a series of injuries. Kirkland, a 25-year old giant, had a brain scan after sustaining a head injury when he collided with teammate David Wright at Middlesbrough on Saturday
GILBERTO is a better captain than Henry will ever be.
That is already obvious. But Henry will be skipper again when he comes back in January after recovering from his hamstring injury.
Gilberto was magnificent at Chelsea, especially in the 15 minutes after Robben came on.
Clichy showed that he can handle players running at him but we can’t yet say the same about Eboue, whose first half performance was shaky. Second half, he had been told to play the ball longer and he didn’t put his team in trouble so often, although he still got caught out.
A tense, low-scoring scrap, one suspects, rather than the 3-2 thriller of last November.Walcott might be the difference if it’s a very tight game.
This is Arsenal’s game in hand, at last. Games in hand are, to me, abstract, hypothetical.They seem to give you comfort, but you have to win them. If Arsenal turn up, it’s three points.
Especially if the post and crossbar play well, as they did in Arsenal’s last two games at the Dragao and the Bridge.
ARSENE WENGER has admitted Arsenal may seek an investor.
With Liverpool about to be taken over by Dubai, and the new Icelandic owner of West Ham installing Alan Curbishley as the new manager, Wenger has said that if other clubs start to spend multi-millions, Arsenal would have to seek an investor or face oblivion.
He said: “What is dangerous for us is when the financial potential of a club goes above the natural resources by far. We would be in trouble because we don’t have that. At the moment we have income from the gates, television and sponsorship. But if it is that, plus private gift, then we cannot compete.”
That might be no bad thing and there would be a queue of investors from here to Tokyo, willing to bung in £100 million or buy the club for £550 million.
However, traditionalists will always dream that, amid the explosion of foreign investment in Premiership football clubs, Arsenal will remain the only big English-owned football institution.
Clearly, new billionaire owners would not allow Arsene a free hand to pursue his obsessions, as he has now. They would not want to see an Under-21 back four, or so many raw kids who are learning the game. New owners would probably say, “Well, Wenger’s been fantastic for Arsenal but he’s not the only football coach in the world.”
WEST HAM left back Paul Konchevsky should be delighted by the appointment of Alan Curbishley as his new manager. It was Curbs who bombed him out of Charlton, sending him on loan to Spurs before selling him to the Hammers.