Today, at 11 am on a bright Easter Monday morning, two comments.
1. If Cesc Fabregas plays in both games, Arsenal will beat Villareal.
2. The manager has sent an implied message to his players.
At Old Trafford he dropped Henry because Henry was never going to do anything against Man United, and he might get injured, and because Arsenal were always going to lose that game.I don’t have a problem with resting Henry in that game. I just thought he should have rested Fabregas as well.
Logically, if you have a 29-year old captain, and an 18-year old, you would rest the kid..
But if the captain is Thierry Henry, you rest both.If you want to be clever, be really clever. Don’t be half-clever.
At Portsmouth he made seven changes and drew the game 1-1.That result could prevent Arsenal finishing fourth.
He beat West Brom 3-1on Saturday and both his subs scored, Pires and Bergkamp. Just as well, as I’d backed Arsenal to win by two goals. And I’d backed Fulham to beat Charlton, which was 2-1.And then Celtic let me down by drawing 1-1 with Hibs.And then, banker of the day on Sunday, Valencia against Espanyol by two goals.Valencia are chasing second place in the Primera Liga, so that finished 4-0.
Three out of four wasn’t bad.But today there are no obvious bets.
IF YOU WERE an Arsenal player, and you saw the teams Arsene Wenger picked at Old Trafford and Fratton Park, you would be receiving this implied message from your manager : “Let’s go to Paris and win the 50th European Cup in Thierry’s home town. A door has opened up for us, let’s go through it. We have been waiting eight years for that door to open up for us, we would be mugs to miss the chance of a lifetime.That chance might never come again.”
Now I’m off round the corner to buy The Guardian, come back, fix some lunch, watch Spurs v Man United on Sky.
Tomorrow I’ll explain why Arsenal will beat Villareal.