Obviously, Sunday’s Arsenal v Chelsea clash is more important for Arsenal.
They are not in the FA Cup Final and not in the Champions League semi-finals this week. And they’ve never beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea in seven games, including the Community Shield.
Last Sunday I couldn’t raise my game for Fulham, since the Bolton and Everton results meant that Arsenal would finish top four anyway.. Fulham are a rabble and they were beaten 3-1.
The Chelsea game will be much more intense than the Fulham game and not because of the verbal abuse Gooners will aim at on Cashley Cole, the traitor who had a secret meeting with Jose Mourinho and Peter Kenyon.
When they went to Stamford Bridge in December, Arsenal had just lost their last three away games, so Arsene went with 4-5-1. Flamini was on the right, van Persie on the left, Ljungberg on the bench.
Arsenal started well and then Ballack fired an amazing shot just wide and then Shevchenko hit the post. After half an hour it looked as if Arsenal couldn’t score and the marvellous Martin Tyler was commentating in italics : “This Arsenal team rely on defending through having the ball.”
Essien’s shot was kicked off the line by Fabregas, Eboue lashed out at Lampard after they tangled, and Lehmann put his knee into Shevchenko’s back. As the second half went on the Arseboys were earning the respect of Chelsea’s men but then Robben came on and made a big difference but no goals came from his raids, and then Flamini scored when third-choice keeper Hilario slapped his shot into the net.
Chelsea had scored in 51 games at the Bridge under Mourinho and that record was now in jeopardy.Then Essien scored with an astounding shot which went in off the post. And Essien hit the underside of the bar from three yards and Lampard’s shot hit the post after deflecting off Flamini’s boot.
The last 25 minutes, in rain-soaked conditions, was exciting stuff and it finished 1-1 and Gael Clichy and Ashley Cole swapped shirts.
Sunday’s game may not be such a pulsating spectacle.
But Adebayor has improved since that game, and with Carvalho crocked, the big man has an opportunity he did not have on December 10.
WILLIAM GALLAS was injured from November 21 to February 17 and missed that game.
When Gallas came to Arsenal he must have wondered what he had joined. He had left a team based on defensive discipline and joined a team based on advenurous ensemble attack.
Both Gallas and Cole must have suffered culture shock, Cole because Mourinho spends a lot of training time on nullifying his opponent, Gallas because Wenger doesn’t..
That transition must have been hard for both players. But, in my view, it must have been harder for Gallas. Hence some of the frustrated statements he has made.
In last Sunday’s Observer, Gallas told Amy Lawrence that Arsenal should mark man-to-man on set-pieces.
“I don’t like zonal. Maybe it’s a good system when you have the right players. When Arsenal had a lot of tall, strong players a few years ago – Sol Campbell, Martin Keown, Patrick Vieira – it can work. But this season is different. We don’t have a lot of tall, strong players. Zonal is difficult for us. If you mark one v one that means that is your man and when your man scores it is your fault. It is your responsibility to mark him. With zonal when you concede a goal everyone looks at everybody else.”
Gallas has promised to lead next season, to talk and organise. But natural leaders are very rare these days. You look around and you don’t see another Bryan Robson, another Roy Keane, another Tony Adams, another John Terry.
Chelsea’s mood at the Emirates on Sunday will depend on whether are in the European Cup Final or not.
If they are heading for Athens, they won’t care about Arsenal, only about an FA Cup-European Cup double.
So tonight’s Liverpool- Chelsea second leg will affect Sunday’s game in a big way.
In the first leg, Liverpool played worse than they have ever played in a Champions League game under Rafa Benitez. OK, Chelsea make it very hard for you. But last week Liverpool were so sloppy they were unrecognisable.
CAN LIVERPOOL play that badly again?
Carvalho, Ballack and Shevchenko are injured, although I’m not convinced Sheva is genuinely injured. He has a lingering groin strain and wants to play but Mourinho says he doesn’t want to risk losing him for the rest of the season. Looks like a diplomatic “injury” to me.
Ballack has just had an ankle operation in Germany, without Chelsea’s permission, to remove a piece of floating bone.
Joe Cole could be Chelsea’s key player again.
It was Cole who scored against Liverpool last week, a fantastic goal from an excellent move. That Carvalho-Drogba-Cole move would have been a goal against Arsenal, against Milan, against anybody. And it was Joe Cole who came closest to scoring from a similar position in the 0-0 at Newcastle the week before. He hit Paulo Ferreira’s low cross towards the far post and the ball went just wide.
Kalou has been playing better than Shevchenko but he’s a 19-year old kid who might freeze when he hears and sees the Kop. I’m expecting it to be 0-0 at half-time but anything can happen in football.
Rafa will go with Kuyt and Crouch and bombard the box and try to score early. Journalists all say, to a man, that Steven Gerrard should play centrally tonight. Rafa always says : I’ll play Gerrard where I want.
Wait and see at 7.30 on ITV1