By Myles Palmer
It’s Arsenal’s turn now. The big moment has arrived at last.
All the big teams won last night.
Man United hammered Panathinaikos 5-0.
Real Madrid slammed Marseilles 4-2.
Chelsea didn’t start Damien Duff, but won in Prague with a late Gallas goal.
Crespo was rusty, should not have played.
Rangers came from behind to beat Stuttgart 2-1.
The revived Lazio won 2-0 in Turkey against Besiktas.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HECTOR CUPER?
He took Valencia to two Champions League finals and took Inter to the semi last year, where they narrowly lost to eventual winners AC Milan.
So Hector knows how to grind out results.
He has been talking about Arsenal’s “quality and velocity”.
The Ranieiri-Cuper defence at Valencia was fantastic. Better,cuter,harder than this Inter defence because they didn’t have a big oaf like Materazzi at Valencia.
The loss of Crespo and Vieri will make Cuper even more negative in his approach at Highbury tonight.
Some feel Kallon might play. I hope not.
I don’t know Cruz, the new Argentine, but Kallon is a very physical striker who can burst through tackles and get on the end of crosses.
Kallon is 23 and from Sierra Leone and he can score James Beattie-type goals.
He’s aggressive, a handful. So I hope Kallon does not play.
On this matchday morning, I’m thinking : crosses and Freddie.
Man United scored 5 goals from crosses last night.
Gallas scored from a Duff cross.
Arsenal can concede from crosses, but rarely look like scoring from crosses. So that is a bit worrying.
Indeed, it’s worried me for seven years.
Can you win the European Cup without scoring from crosses? I don’t think so.
Arsenal beat Juventus 3-1 and Juve are a better club and a better team than Inter.
They beat Lazio 2-0, but Lazio didn’t have anybody as tough as Cordoba, as solid as Javier Zanetti, as fiery as Emre.
In the drizzle at Highbury, Lazio gave up. Their best player was Veron and he wouldn’t go near Vieira because he was intimidated.
So Arsenal don’t fear Italian teams. They went to Rome to play Roma and won 3-1, so they know they can beat Italian clubs.
Inter are NOT a great side. They’re not as good as Serie A runners-up should be.
That’s why I think Arsenal will win, even though Inter will have the magnificent giant Toldo in goal and eight men behind the ball.
It might turn into an Ajaxy 0-0 game, or a Dortmundy game(no goal till 62), but I’ve never really feared that.
I’m expecting to see Vieira in top gear, Henry flying,Cole flying, Pires zooming into the box.
Gilberto will also get into the box.But not in the first 22 seconds.
I just think Freddie will get into the box and score or get a penalty.
The Swede has delivered before and he will deliver tonight.
I have faith in Freddie, just as I have faith in Lehmann.
Freddie is the smallest big game player in Arsenal’s history and it wouldn’t suprise me if he was standing tall again tonight.
ARSENE has told the players where it’s at.
He said yesterday, “I believe we are very close to doing it, but the extra little bit that makes you winners comes from deep within, from how much you really want it.”
That sounds like code for : My three French stars have had big pay rises, now they have to earn their money. It’s up to those three because I haven’t been able to afford re-inforcements this summer.The money has gone to Henry, Pires and Vieira, so it’s up to them now.If they are in a comfort zone, if they don’t give me 100%, we can’t beat Inter, and if we can’t beat Inter tonight then we are not UEFA’s fifth-ranked team. It’s now or never,chaps.
Looks as if Martin Keown will be brought in for his experience.
If Sol was playing well, I think Arsene would keep Toure.
But Sol is not playing well and will need Martin alongside him on such a tense night.
MY GUESS ON THE TEAMS:
ARSENAL : Lehmann; Lauren, Keown,Campbell, Cole; Ljungberg, Gilberto, Vieira, Pires; Henry,Wiltord.
INTER : Toldo; Javier Zanetti, Materazzi, Cannavaro,Cordoba; Van der Meyde, Cristiano Zanetti, Emre,Kily Gonzalez ;Cruz, Martins.
Kiev v Lokomotiv Moscow will be a deeply meaningful game for the Ukrainians.
If your culture has been repressed by Moscow for 47 years, you don’t like Russians.
As I’m sure you know, Stalin stole the grain and starved 10 million people to death in 1932-33, German troops demolished Kiev in 1941,then the Russians recaptured it.
The people were Sovietized, forced into collective farms, and made to recite Marxist-Leninist dogma in Russian.
Their language and traditions were crushed.
When the Soviet Empire crumbled in 1990, the Ukraine became a republic again, a democratic nation of 52 million people, an independent country as big as France.
DYNAMO KIEV really wanna win tonight.
17th September 2003.