At moments like this I always think of Jock Stein, who said, ” A football match is about the players who are playing. It’s not about the players who are not playing.”
So the Slavia match is not about Toure, Fabregas, Hleb and Rosicky because they’re didn’t travel to Prague on the plane from Luton.
On Saturday Arsene said he would rotate in November and here it is. He wants to keep his lads fresh through January, and avoid going out of three competitions in 11 days in February, like last season. He put that down to fatigue and PSV Eindhoven having a winter break.
Song comes in at the back, Gilberto is restored to midfield, and Walcott is expected to start up front with Adebayor.
The possible line-ups are : Arsenal (4-4-2): Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Song, Clichy; Eboue, Gilberto, Flamini, Diaby; Adebayor, Walcott.
Slavia Prague (4-4-2): Vaniak; Drizdel, Suchy, Brabec, Hubacek; Selassie, Svec, Tavares, Jablonsky; Ivana, Krajcik.
Slavia are six points clear of Sparta Prague at the top of the Czech league but their top scorer Stanislav Vlcek was injured at the weekend and will miss tonight’s game.
Four big men in midfield rather than three nimble playmakers? Do they need the neat and nippy Denilson ?
That balance, with Diaby, Gilberto, Flamini, and Eboue, doesn’t look good, so don’t expect too much from tonight’s game.Think of what you would like to see, then halve it. Then take a deep breath and halve it again. That way you won’t be disappointed.
Last night I was delighted to see Peter Crouch score the first and last goals in Liverpool’s 8-0 win over Besiktas at Anfield. I’m a Crouch fan.
Celtic were outplayed at times by a very skilful Benfica side but sheer guts gave them a 1-0 win after Aiden McGeady’s shot deflected in.When is Nakamura coming back ? They need the Jap.
The Schalke-Chelsea game was extraordinary. Most of the contest looked like the last ten minutes of an FA Cup tie as Schalke hit the bar and the post and had an effort cleared off the line. Every five minutes a Schalke player seemed to be running into the box at high speed and I wondered if it would be a goal and at half-time it was amazing that 45 minutes had elapsed without one.
There was one truly shocking moment when I saw Makelele bounce off a German player. I’ve been watching this guy for years and he is a judo master, a black belt anchorman, an assassin who is never off-balance. I’ve never seen Maka bounce off anybody, even though he is tiny.
Right back Belletti was having a nightmare, Alex looked slow, and the awesome Carvalho was playing the Germans on his own. I was sure a goal would come in the second half but somehow Chelsea survived. They lost Cech to a calf strain but hung on for a 0-0.
Liverpool have to win their next two games : at home to Porto, and away to Marseilles in December.
Ricardo Quaresma is a swervy, flicky kind of winger who comes infield a lot, and hits crossfield passes, rather than going outside his man and crossing. But when last night’s Marseilles game was poised at 1-1, after Niang had headed an equaliser early in the second half, and Porto needed a win to stay top of the group, he crossed a useful ball from the right and Argentinian striker Lisandro Lopez headed wide.
Then Quaresma took on the left back again and I was expecting him to shuffle inside and outside and inside again, fiddling about. But Quaresma didn’t do that. Instead, he did a simple thing beautifully. He went straight for the byline and hit a cross at a good height with plenty of pace. It was a ball that was begging to be headed into the net and Lopez sent a scorching header into the corner for 2-1.
Highlight of that game, and the goal of the night, was a thrilling centrefield slalom by jet-heeled Moroccan winger Tarik Sektioui, who waltzed round the goalkeeper before administering the coup de grace. Fantastique !
Olympiacos 0 Real Madrid 0 was a surprise, perhaps. Real have never won in Greece in seven visits.
Moral of Matchday 4 so far : a draw away from home is not a bad result.
But a draw for Liverpool in Marseilles would be elimination. And Marseilles beat them 1-0 at Anfield.
Rosenborg won 2-0 in Valencia last night but nobody believes Rangers can do the same in Barcelona tonight. Rijkaard says Ronaldinho is staying.
SINCERE APOLOGIES for early-morning typo on the 4 absentees. I promise to stop writing pieces at 8.30 a.m. when I’m asleep.