Morning all,
We go to the new Wembley today for the first time. Big match against Chelsea, this is our best chance for silverware this year so we must be up for it.
Starting off with some team news.
Arsenal:
Squad: Fabianski, Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Arshavin, Song, Fabregas, Walcott, Adebayor, Van Persie, Mannone, Nasri, Diaby, Bendtner, Vela, Eduardo, Denilson.
Gibbs faces a late fitness test. Wenger said he is 80% to play. I have to think that a 19 year old at 80% that gets a chance to play at Wembley will play.
Sagna is ruled out with his virus.
Gallas, Almunia, Djourou, and Clichy are still out.
Chelsea:
Squad: Hilario, Belletti, Alex, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Mancienne, A Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Obi, Kalou, Essien, Malouda, Di Santo, Anelka, Quaresma, Stoch, Drogba
Terry returns after suspension, Boswinga is back in training but not likely to feature.
Formation:
I would say put Song at CB to get Silvestre out of the lineup, but I think we will definitely need Song in the midfield to deal with their 3-man midfield.
I have the squad rotation that we can do in there. Arshavin in for Nasri, Eduardo in for RvP. We will need to do what we can to keep people fresh and those are the two switches we can do without a drop off.
Prediction:
There are match ups all over the pitch that will decide this match. Cesc v Essien, Kolo v Drogba, Walcott v Cashley, and Adebayor v Terry. Whoever wins those match ups will win the match.
It’s obvious what we need to do to win, we need to control the tempo, hang on to the ball, and get them off our weakened defense. With Walcott, Cesc, Arshavin, Eduardo, and Adebayor, we have the weapons to tear apart their defense that has been average at best the last few weeks. They let in 3 goals in 12 minutes against Bolton, and 2 goals in 14 minutes against Liverpool in their last 2 matches. We need a spell like that early where we get up 2 or 3 goals.
If it ends tied and goes to penalties, I think the expierience in Rome will help us, and for some reason I have a feeling that Fabianski is good at stopping penalties.
We will have Nasri, RvP, and Vela to bring off the bench to add some different attacking options if needed.
At the end of the day I think that the run we are on right now will get us through. Sure we don’t have the experience, we are weak at defense at the moment, but there has been a passion for silverware in this team and we know they will be up for it. I’m going with a 2-1 or 3-2 victory for the Arsenal.
Wenger on the match:
“We want the pressure [of success] and are happy to have it.
“I don’t expect any weakness from Chelsea, I just expect full strength from our squad.
“Football is not predictable and it can change quickly from one game to another. They will try to defend well and attack well but I always focus on our strengths and the way we want to play the game.
“We’re on a good run, we know we can score goals so let’s go for it.”
That’s it for today. I’ll be back with a review of the match tomorrow.
Poll of the day:
[polldaddy poll=1547739]
