Hull come to the Emirates at a time when Arsenal are flying high.
They beat Newcastle 3-0, Blackburn 4-0, and Bolton 3-1.
Hull beat Fulham and Newcastle, drew with Blackburn and Everton, and lost 5-0 at home to Wigan. Their games have tended to be low-scoring in the first half and high-scoring in the last 25 minutes. The fact that Arsenal are top makes no difference to Hull boss Phil Brown. When the fixtures were published, he knew this would be one of his hardest games of the season.
Arsene’s brilliant kids thrashed Sheffield United 6-0 in the Carling Cup so, at the moment, it’s a conjuring trick by the manager as he develops a bunch of young players simultaneously, rather than one at a time. The change to allow seven subs has allowed him to give vital experience to more youngsters, so he now has a stronger bench than before. He has more weapons, more goalscorers. He knows he can bring on players who can change the game, if it needs to be changed.
Cesc Fabregas now says, “I know I can’t go to sleep at any time because they will get older and older, and me, I will have to be better and better, because they will go on to play more and more, and the manager will want to play them more and more. Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Fran Merida all play in my position and it’s great because it’s competition – and I love competition.
“Sometimes when the players are so young you can feel your place is too secure and so it’s fantastic to have some kind of competition, that they wake you up a little and they can make you a better player. I was at the game on Tuesday and I was really excited. It was sensational. “
Fabregas really craves more trophies after winning Euro 2008. November is a really big month forArsenal, so let’s hope Arsenal’s best player is back to his best form when they play Fenerbahce, Man United, Aston Villa, Man City, Dynamo Kiev and, on the last day of November, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
John Obi Mikel bossed 60% of Chelsea’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United last week.
He was awesome. He had power, finesse and authority. A strong kid who is beginning to look like the best half back since Graeme Souness.
Scolari is teaching Chelsea how to attack but also control the game at the same time. They haven’t got the hang of that yet but they’re winning comfortably. We can see that Anelka isn’t good enough and we’re wondering whether Drogba is in Drogbaland now, unable to be the stupendous warrior he was for Jose Mourinho.
Manchester United are 15th in the table but have only played four games, one of which was at Old Trafford.
Their last two games were at Liverpool, where they lost 2-1, and Chelsea, where they scored first through Park but were outplayed in a 1-1 draw last Sunday.
Sir Alex is missing his Portuguese assistant Carlos Queiroz, who was so good at talking to Cristiano Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani, and keeping them on-message. The last time Queiroz left United was in 2003-2004, when they finished third and Arsenal won the league.
Ronaldo started his first comeback game in the Carling Cup against Middlesbrough and scored the first goal with a header in a 3-1 win. We know that Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo can play together but we don’t know whether Berbatov fits into the high-speed interchanging style that won the title and the Champions League last season.
The Bulgarian needs games, so Sir Alex is playing him. Berbatov was good in the first 25 minutes at Chelsea, but then vanished because the home team dominated after that. A player as gifted as Berbatov can play with anybody, in my view, but will he subordinate himself to Cristiano? The team’s biggest star is returning to the attack before the new £30 million centre forward has established himself in the side.
Suggestions that Sir Alex can play Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez and Berbatov in the same side are bollocks. He can’t and he shouldn’t and he won’t, OK ?
Everton v Liverpool is Sky’s Saturday lunchtime game at 12.45pm.
Everton are ninth and Liverpool third and Robbie Keane might just score his long-awaited first goal. Rafa didn’t even start Torres or Gerrard against United and still won it 2-1. Liverpool are not playing well but still very hard to beat.
Keane, now 28, says, “The north London derby with Arsenal while I was with Tottenham was fantastic and I’m sure this will be no different – and even better. Playing against Everton is something that I’m really looking forward to. I think every player wants to be involved in big games and they don’t come any bigger than Everton against Liverpool. It’s the first one of the season so I think everyone is looking forward to it – especially me.”
Strugglers Portsmouth and Tottenham meet in Sunday’s 1.30 p.m Sky game with Sol Campbell and Defoe playing against their former club. Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal of the season when Spurs won 2-1 at Newcastle in the Carling Cup.
Wigan v Manchester City is the 4pm Sunday game, so I can check out Zaki, the lively Egyptian striker Steve Bruce got on loan for the season.
Shaun-Wright Phillips is playing every week now and he’s a lion again. Shaun has the heart to go in for a 50-50 with anybody, and the pace to make devastating runs from the middle third to the front third, with the ball or without it. And since Shaun knows that the Brazilians can find him with a pass, he’ll run faster and more often. His pace is driven by desire and I love to see that.
City’s 6-0 demolition of Portsmouth shocked people last week, not least because there were six different goalscorers : Jo, Dunne, Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Evans and Fernandes.
SWP, like Ray Parlour, is a footballer who needs to play every week to get in the groove and stay in the groove. He needs to be trusted, cherished and allowed to play instinctively. He can’t follow orders but he can improvise and do things that no other England forward can do. When Lampard was injured, he was linking with Anelka last December-January. I went to Chelsea five times last season and saw him shine against Aston Villa and Reading in that period and mentioned it on ANR. Those two started to get something going. But Shaun was too far down the pecking order and Lampard came back after injury.
In this City side, Shaun is a local hero who can score every week and get back into the England team. Fabio Capello will not be able to ignore him.