Morning all,
Got some Champions League footy today, Chelsea v Liverpool and Bayern v Barcelona. Both realistically are over, but you never know about the first if Liverpool can get their stuff together. Both matches are at 2:45 EST, the Liverpool v Chelsea one is on ESPN2. So a chance to see some footy in HD if you have the necessary equipment.
Wenger spent the day talking to Arsenal.com about various subjects. He started off talking about strategy for the match on Wednesday.
“We have scored that away goal so it could have an importance at the end of the day. I don’t believe that we are a team who can play for 0-0, that’s not our natural way. If there are five minutes to go and it’s 0-0 even goal kicks make you nervous.
“I personally don’t expect any weaknesses from them, I expect some strength from us to say, ‘listen, we have the opportunity to get to the Semi Final at home, let’s take it’.
“I am confident we will and we have the needed quality to do that. But you know from their game that they can be dangerous as well.”
I agree that we must go after Villareal, even though a 0-0 draw sees us through the next round, if we play for that we will not achieve it. Our defense, whoever we put out there, will be shaky, so we must use Fabregas, Walcott, RvP, Nasri, and Adebayor to control the match.
Wenger moved on to talk about when he feels the season changed.
“After our defeat at Manchester City we went to Chelsea and won. We played 2-2, 0-0 at home and still got a lot of negative publicity but still kept going.
“There was another decisive factor in Rome; when you miss your first penalty and come up against Totti, Baptista, Montella and Vucinic still to take a penalty with Pizarro. You know, you are away from home against penalty specialists.
“You have only kids really to take your penalties but you still manage to win. You need some mental strength and I believe it was a turning point in the belief of the team.”
I agree about the match in Rome. No one would of thought that with the team that was out there and who they were going against, that they would come through those penalties the victor. It showed all the youngsters like Walcott, Denilson, Diaby, etc. that you can do it, you can win a important match away from home in a hostile environment. That expierience will be brought on whenever we are faced with a situation like that again. I think we used it when we were down 1-0 in Spain with our backup keeper in last week. People can tell you can do it 1000 times, but until you do it, there isn’t that true belief.
Wenger finished up talking about Fabregas.
“I did think he needed a breather [earlier in the campaign]. Maybe it was too long for my taste but it will help him to finish the season strongly.”
Fabregas does look like the break really helped him. He had been going at it full strength since such a young age, he needed a break from the game. He got to get away, and now he is fresh. He has been tearing it up, and I think he will continue it. Same with Adebayor and his fresh legs.
Cani and Mati Fernandez return to the Villareal squad for the game tomorrow. Senna has been officially ruled out.
The Emirates Cup participants have been leaked for next year. They will be Inter Milan, PSG, and Rangers.
After what Rangers fans did after the UEFA Cup final in Manchester last year I have no clue why we would invite them back to England. But it will be nice to see Vieira again and check out Zlatan.
That’s it for today, Enjoy the matches today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a Villareal preview.
Poll of the day:
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