How much longer will Arsenal’s luck hold ?
After making seven changes, and failing to score after 45, and failing to score after 90, powderpuff Arsenal grabbed a very late goal against Wolves.
A 95th minute header by Nicklas Bendtner gave them three points.
Yet again Arsenal beat 10 men after Wolves skipper Karl Henry went for a 50-50 in the centre circle with Rosicky.
He got a a toe to the ball, caught the Czech, deserved a yellow card. But ref Andre Marriner sent him off.
Wolves defended honestly and very well, with keeper Hahnemann looking capable of stopping everything.
Eduardo doesn’t make it, and Vela, who replaced him, doesn’t make it either.
But Wenger is lucky.
If his luck continues he could finish second and get a new five-year contract. Then he will sign more kids and carry on telling us that Almunia is a solid keeper.
Good to see Sol back.
He organises well to cover his lack of pace, leads by example, and times every tackle.
Sol must play at the Nou Camp. He will have a week off before the Spurs game at White Hart Lane.
Spurs play Portsmouth in the FA Cup semi-final while Arsenal fine-tune their preparations for the Lane.
That game will be controversial.
That Bendtner goal keeps them three points behind Chelsea, who won 2-1 at Man United.
Sir Alex started his old men Giggs, Scholes and Neville, making defeat almost inevitable.
Amazing that he didn’t start Nani. A mind-boggling decision !
After watching Chelsea smash Aston Villa 7-1 last week, I thought Malouda would get into the box and waltz round Rio Ferdinand and score. But I didn’t bet on the game.
Malouda got into the box, beat Fletcher, and made a goal for Joe Cole to flick in after 19 minutes.
Joe started in an unchanged side. Drogba was on the bench.
At half-time I backed Chelsea to score the next goal. It looked obvious because United were so feeble. Drogba was a yard offside when he scored the next goal with a near-post thunderbolt. There was no flag. The linesman was level with him. A shocking decision but I didn’t mind too much.
In truth, United were dire. Chelsea were far more fluent.
My gambling greengrocer John had four bets on one game on Friday night : Blackpool to lead at half time, both sides to score, etc etc. He won all four bets. On Saturday he advised me to back over 2.5 goals at Old Trafford and both sides to score. I didn’t do that but at half-time I got surprisingly good odds on Chelsea to score the next goal. Always bet on a team that has won their last match, especially if they’re playing a team that’s lost their last match.
Football is unpredictable. As soon as I said Sir Alex has had a better season than Manchester United, he got it all wrong in Munich and lost 2-1 to Bayern, and then he bungled it again and lost 2-1 at home to Chelsea.
Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 tonight.
Youngster Bojan scored two goals and may face Arsenal because Ibrahimovic was injured in the warm-up. Ibra will have tests on a calf strain on Sunday. He won’t play on Tuesday.
Abidal returned at left back and did well but he may partner Milito at centreback on Tuesday night. Marquez is too slow to play against Arsenal, so Pep might go with Yaya-Milito. Yaya Toure is 6-4″ and has power and Pep doesn’t need his power in midfield. He needs it in the box at both ends. Toure did a great job against Drogba last season – Bendtner is no Drogba.
It’s an important call in a game most experts think Barcelona will win.
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