Will Chelsea v Arsenal be a massacre?
London’s strongest team play London’s most popular team at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Last week Chelsea lost 1-0 at Manchester City. And Arsenal lost 3-2 at home to West Brom.
Arsenal’s Saturday game was a typical pre-Champions League dip, a game in which only Nasri looked up for it.
Right now Sky’s 24/7 barrage to sell their Ryder Cup is so continuous that they may fail to mention what’s usually a well-hyped Super Sunday game.
I started to think about Chelsea v Arsenal but I didn’t get far. My first reaction was : this could be a massacre. After that, I didn’t want to think any more.
One of my readers has insisted that I write a preview of this fixture, so I’ll do that when I’ve had time to think about what might happen. Even if I think it will be a massacre, I’ll do a preview.
Weak teams are spoiling the Champions League.
Many Group Stage teams are weaker than they were ten years ago, so the games are not very interesting.
Example : After Marseilles lost 2-0 at Chelsea, Didier Deschamps admitted his team are nowhere near Chelsea’s level.
Long-lost centreback Rio Ferdinand made a fine comeback for Manchester United in a tight game in Spain, where United have not won since beating Deportivo 2-0 in April 2002. Eight years is a long, long time in football.
Fergie’s subs had a big impact and Nani was the game-breaker, dribbling from inside his own half, zooming down the right flank, finding Macheda, who passed to Hernandez, who took one touch and fired a low left-foot shot into the bottom corner.
Desire, balance, and sharpness from a striker United scouts tracked for seven years. The way the Mexican hot-shot scored that goal did remind me of somebody but I couldn’t think who it was until Sir Alex told me : Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Hernandez scored the best goal of the week. Plenty more where that came from, I think. Berbatov also played well.
Valencia 0 Manchester United 1 was a slightly surprising scoreline.
But all the British teams won, even Rangers.
Arsenal won 3-1 in Belgrade, while Spurs had some luck in a 4-1 victory over Twente Enchede and lost the excellent Rafael van der Vaart after a daft bodycheck.
Here was a Dutch player too fired up by facing a Dutch club in his first CL game at White Hart Lane. When RVDV sees that challenge on TV he’ll understand just how silly it was. He’ll miss their next game against Inter Milan.
Harry picked an attacking team against the Dutch champions but he will be more circumspect against the European champs.
Frankly, I haven’t really caught up with this week’s football since I went out on Wednesday night.
Last night I came home and put on a recording of Man City v Juventus and saw that Adebayor was starting with Carlos Tevez
Juventus have lost the talent they once had but retained the organisation and physicality. Quite simply, Ade was pitiful. His ball-control isn’t good enough for him to contribute to a game against Juventus .
Striker Iaquinta surprised Joe Hart with a bouncing, rocketing 25-yarder that a great goalkeeper might have saved but Adam Johnson levelled from a straight ball by Yaya Toure. It was 1-1 at half-time and I was enjoying an interesting game, apart from the fact that Adebayor was unwatchable. He made me go to bed without knowing the score. This morning I found out the game finished 1-1. I’ll make time to watch the second half to see more of Alec Manninger, who was in goal for Juve.
I’d come home from Book Slam in a great mood, after two filthy and hilarious sets from poet Salena Godden, and a reading of daring originality from Lights Out in Wonderland, the new novel by DBC Pierre.
As I walked out towards the big black cast-iron front gates of The Tabernacle, the author was chatting with two young women, so I stopped and shook his hand.
“Vernon is the funniest book I’ve read since Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, ” I said.
“Thank you very much,” he replied.
DBC Pierre is tall, masculine and gracious. He seems fairly mad onstage. But he’s very together offstage and, by all accounts, a really nice chap.
PS : I’ve just put in a link to a very wise magazine article on our Review Page.