The Everton-Arsenal game is not on TV, so you might have to listen on the radio and make up your own pictures.
The following pointers might help you to visualise the game
Arsenal are the best team at keeping the ball.
Everton are the best team at playing without the ball.
Everton gets results without the ball.
Most of their games are low-scoring with many goals from set-pieces.
They are a competitive outfit who have played together a lot. Keeper Tim Howard made his first mistake of the season when he let in that shot from Stevie G on Sunday, which was close to his body and very low. Jagielka and Lescott are playing so well that Yobo is on the bench. Right back Tony Hibbert has come back strongly and Leyton Baines is doing OK at left back. Phil Neville is the kind of anchorman you love to hate because he doesn’t give you anything, Arteta is playing out of his skin, Pienaar at last producing the form he showed for Ajax when he gave Patrick Vieira the runaround.
Tim Cahill is a smart, self-made Australian who has a lot of spring and times his headers brilliantly.
Since all four strikers got injured, Everton have improved. No Yakubu, no Saha, no James Vaughan, and Victor Anichebe limped off again on Sunday. But since losing all their strikers they are unbeaten. The way Everton play now is a bit like the 4-5-1 they had three years ago when they finished fourth. But with better players.
Their star is Fellaini, the giant Belgian, who is box-to-box, wins tackles and is great in the air, which many tall players are not.Fellaini got 10 yellows and was suspended. But now he’s back for Arsenal and the Liverpool replay. Fellaini could destroy Arsenal on his own. He will eventually cost £15 million and he’s a steal at that price.
The FA Cup tie in Cardiff was 0-0 because Song-Ramsey was wrong.
I thought Wenger would play his strongest side but include Aaron Ramsey. If you play Ramsey, you play your best available midfielder with him. You play Denilson-Ramsey, you don’t play Song-Ramsey.
I couldn’t believe it when he did that. I thought : How did he talk himself into that? I thought: He’s lost in his data, he’s lost in his laptop, that’s the only possible explanation for such a stupid selection. Song can’t pass the ball and Ramsey was overawed going back to his home town to play against his old club. Mainly because of that bizarre selection, Arsenal were useless in the first half of the first half. Cardiff had a very good 20 minutes when they created five chances, of which three were very good chances. None was taken, so Arsenal were not 3-0 down at half-time.
Second half, Arsenal took the game over, didn’t create much, Cardiff defended very well, Adebayor came on and missed a sitter. Nothing new there. Ade often needs four chances to score one. He miskicked and sent the ball bouncing down and into the keeper’s hands. A pathetic effort.
As I’ve said before, Arsenal have the ball too much and it makes the game dull.
To play on the break, you have to give the other team the ball. But you need to be mentally secure and organisationally secure to give the other team the ball and say : Do your worst, we can handle it. Man United and Liverpool have the defenders and the mentality to do that, Arsenal don’t. Collectively, this team was too immature, too fragile, too wobbly to give Cardiff the ball and let them come forward with it, so that they could counter-attack and score and win the game.
Even so, Arsenal should still beat Cardiff in the replay. Then, with a home advantage in the Fifth Round, they should beat the winners of Burnley v West Brom. So they are still on course to win the only trophy they are good enough to win this season.
Very sad to note the death of Dr John Crane, who was the Arsenal doctor for 30 years.
I will never forget seeing him in action. I often sat in the back row of the press box, where, over a period of 20 years, I got to know the regulars who sat in the row behind us. One day there was a small alarm behind us during the match. A middle-aged man, sitting five seats away in that row, had somehow managed to disclocate his knee. The stewards called for help and Dr Crane soon came up and took hold of the man’s leg and just clicked his knee back into place. And the guy carried on watching the game. No fuss, no bother. What a doctor ! A handy guy to have around.
I will watch Sky tonight to see Emile Heskey’s first game for Aston Villa tonight because it’s at Portsmouth and he will be playing against Sol Campbell.
When Sol played for Spurs, and Heskey played for Leicester, Heskey used to give Sol problems that no other striker gave him. I was always amazed that by the way Heskey got past Sol, who was bigger, faster and stronger than most strikers. Heskey was a beast and I was fascinated, and baffled, by what he did to Sol. So I will watch that game to see how Heskey does in his first game. I was a bit worried that Martin O’Neill would buy another striker.
Portsmouth boss Tony Adams needs a result after losing 2-0 at home to Swansea in the FA Cup.When Tony got the job, Arsene phoned him and said, “Welcome to hell !”