Barcelona (Camp Nou, Barcelona)
Champions League Fixture (Quarter Final 2nd Leg)
Tuesday 6th April 2010
Kick Off: 7.45pm – Live on Sky Sports 2

We all know who Arsenal have missing.

William Gallas, Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and Andrei Arshavin are all out injured, Tomas Rosicky is rated 50:50 to make the squad and Sol Campbell is waiting on a late fitness test to see if he can make it. If not, we have the terrifying prospect of Mikael Silvestre playing against Barcelona.

But call it blind faith, but I still think we can do something tonight.

Don’t get me wrong, Arsenal will need to put in a near faultless performance to get anything from this game. Barcelona are quite rightly huge favourites to progress and completely deserve their title of the best club team in the world.

For me, this game will either go one of two ways:

Barcelona will score early and completely batter us. If they perform anything like they can do, and showed in the first leg, it could very well be 4 or 5 nil. They’ve ripped apart teams in Europe at the Camp Nou before so don’t believe it can’t happen to us.

But the second possibility is that Arsene Wenger gets his tactics spot on, and we use Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Eboue to their full potential. If we get that right, we can nick it.

At the Camp Nou, Theo will have space to exploit his explosive pace but the question is whether he is clinical enough to take his chances when they come. We have to hope that the game against Wolves is completely out of his system because opportunities tonight will be few and far between.

And Eboue is another player would could make that vital difference. He has a fantastic burst of pace with the ball and can effortlessly beat players at will – when he’s in the mood. If he gets the chances to take on players he needs to because attacking possession will be key tonight. He, along with Walcott, are the only players capable of going on a mazy run and beating a few players and creating a vital chance.

And don’t forget that Samir Nasri has shown that he is more than capable of pulling the strings in the Cesc Fabregas role, so we have a creative outlet there.

But of course, unless Arsenal defend heroically then it’s all ifs and buts.

Birmingham City (St Andrew’s, Birmingham)
Premier League Fixture – Matchday 32
Saturday 27th March 2010
Kick Off: 3pm

The last time Arsenal visited St Andrew’s was on Saturday 23rd February 2008. It was a lunch time kick off, and only 3 minutes into the match Martin Taylor inflicted that horrendous injury to Eduardo.

Birmingham City took advantage of Arsenal’s collective grief just before half-time, scoring a freekick through James McFadden. After the break though, Arsenal managed to regain their composure and Theo Walcott scored two great goals to give Arsenal a well-deserved lead.

But in time added on, we experienced the moment that would change our season.

Instead of just clearing the ball up-field, Gael Clichy inexplicably held onto the ball inside his own penalty area, only for Stuart Parnaby to nick the ball from him. Clichy recovered well, just about getting a touch to the ball but the damage had been done. Mike Dean awarded Birmingham City a penalty, captain William Gallas went completely insane and James McFadden scored the spot kick.

From then on, Arsenal collapsed in the league.

Leading up to the Birmingham game, Arsenal were on fire.

Eduardo and Adebayor were starting to form one of the best striking partnerships in the league – scoring a combined 14 goals in the previous 10 Premier League games. Their last defeat in the league was at Middlesbrough on the 9th December and since then Arsenal had won 8 games and drawn 2. They were hitting form at exactly the right time and were cruising at the top of the league, 6 points clear of Manchester United.

But the dramatic events at St Andrew’s were just more than the dropping of 2 points. Arsenal had lost one of their most dangerous attacking threats, our confidence had been shattered and the horrific nature of the injury took time to recover from. It would take Arsenal over a month to win again in the league, and in the process they had drawn 3 and lost 1, dropped a massive 9 points, and worst of all conceding the top spot in the Premier League to Manchester United.

Our consistent form in the league disappeared, and our March, April and May results were erratic. We ended up finishing in third, 4 points behind eventual Champions Manchester United. Birmingham City would get relegated by a single point, but that was scant consolation to a disappointing end to the season.

And now, we do it all again.

We revisit St Andrew’s under similar circumstances, chasing the Premier League title and needing nothing short of a victory.

The positive news for Arsenal is that they sit on top of the form table, with 6 wins from their last 6 games. Birmingham City however, despite their unbeaten run earlier in the season are 14th, with 3 defeats, 2 wins and a draw. Unfortunately though, they haven’t lost in their last 6 home league games.

Last 6 Games:

Arsenal: WWWWWW
Birmingham: LWWDLL

Arsenal’s Away Form/Birmingham’s Home Form:

Arsenal Away: WWDLWW
Birmingham Home: DDDWWD

So it could be anyone’s game.

But saying that, it should be mentioned that Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City and Tottenham have all failed to win at St Andrew’s this season, and they haven’t lost at home in the league since Bolton beat them way back in September.

So if Arsenal can manage to win at Birmingham then it wouldn’t just be a massive 3 points, but a real message of intent to the rest of the Premier League.

The biggest worry for Arsenal is who will play in central defence. 

Vermaelen is suspended, William Gallas is still out with, I’m not sure what, so our only fit centrebacks are Sol Campbell and *shudder* Mikael Silvestre.

Personally, with the fantastic performance of Campbell and Song at the heart of the defence against West Ham last weekend, I would be inclined to start those two at the back. Denilson looks like to have improved his form and he can partner Abou Diaby in a Cesc Fabregas spearheaded midfield. You of course have Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky would can play a little deeper and help the midfield.

The other concern was whether Nicklas Bendtner would be fit to start, but Arsene has confirmed that “he should be okay” for Saturday so that’s positive news. The Big Dane is hitting form at the right time, and his all round play is vital to opening up the opposition. Plus, he has prior experience of the Birmingham City set-up so that might just give him the edge he needs to give us an advantage.

Let’s hope Arsenal can keep this remarkable run going and take all 3 points.

Yet another cup tie, where only the result matters.

Chelsea (Stamford Bridge, London)
Premier League Fixture – Matchday 25
Sunday 7th February 2010
Kick Off: 4pm – Live on Sky Sports 1

Football is a funny old game.

In 2008, Arsenal were on fire and had every chance of winning the Premier League Title. Then that horrible injury to Eduardo de-railed our season and we slumped into second place.

Then this year, our player of the season Robin Van Persie was taken out for the rest of the campaign and it’s obvious we’ve struggled with his absence. His goals, assists, intelligence and power in the central striker role were invaluable and we’ve had big problems trying to replace him ever since November. Since he’s been injured we’ve dropping silly points against West Ham, Burnley, Everton and Aston Villa, and haven’t look convincing or deadly as we did with the Dutchman in the side.

Has another major injury to an influential striker cost us the title?

Well strangely enough, not quite yet.

But even after big defeats to Manchester United (twice), Manchester City and Chelsea and our relatively poor form recently (we’re currently 6th in the form table behind United, City, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool) a win over Chelsea on Sunday means we’re somehow only 3 points behind the league leaders.

How did that happen?

We haven’t played like Champions yet we’re still in with a shout. And that is the annoying thing about this season.

If Arsenal had strengthened in a couple of key areas who knows where we could be in the league right now? That little bit extra experience and power against the likes of Burnley, West Ham and Everton could have seen up top of the league! And how about if we had a top class goalkeeper? Jesus, we’d probably be 10 points clear…

No-one is taking taking advantage of this strangely weak season and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the Premier League table today.

Liverpool, who have been in complete meltdown losing a massive 7 games and (if you read the newspapers) in crisis are only a single point off 4th place! A team like Liverpool who are massively struggling are still in with a big shout of claiming that final Champions League spot. They’re only 8 points behind Arsenal, and on current form they might even threaten our 3rd place.

So it all comes down to the massive game on Sunday.

Defeat really would signal the end of our title challenge. I know I’ve said it several times (after the crushing defeats against Chelsea and Manchester United) but this really is the last chance saloon for the Arsenal.

A draw isn’t a complete disaster but doesn’t really help our situation and if anything it’s a result Manchester United would love to happen.

The problem with Arsenal this season is that they’re always got to the point where they are ‘just about back in the race’ and when it comes to a time in the campaign where they need that extra push to really close the gap we’ve stuttered. The was a time over the winter period where we were 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand, but ended up drawing against Burnley. We haven’t taken advantage of any decent position we’ve found ourself in.

The only positive we can take from the Manchester United game is that Arsene witnessed his Arsenal team get completely ripped apart.

It was a lesson in football.

They were better organised, had more desire and I hate to admit this but completely deserved the 3 points. And one of the most hurtful things about the match was it was effectively over in half an hour.

But it was clear that while United were sublime, Arsenal were equally inept defensively.

The first goal was great skill from Nani’s point of view but he should have never been able to score from where he was. And the second and third were terribly defended – talk about standing off and letting them walk the ball into the net.

So hopefully, the embarrassing defeat will have woken up Arsene and made him realise you can’t neglect defensive responsibilities. Hopefully, he’ll play a more cautious game with 5 in midfield so Chelsea can’t score at will. I don’t care how Arsenal win – if it’s a scrappy 1-0 victory with a goal from a deflected set-piece then so be it.

The most important thing is the 3 points.

What shape are Chelsea in?

Well despite drawing against Hull midweek they are still the in-form team with 4 wins and 2 draws in their last 6 games. They’ve struggled at times during the season but no-one has capitalised and the fact is they’re still top of the table.

If you look at the game objectively, Chelsea just have far too much power and guile. Their direct game is more powerful than Manchester United’s so if we crumbled last week then who says Chelsea won’t find it just as easy to score?

Our recent form has been poor and too many players haven’t performed. Arshavin is not clicking, whether that’s down to attitude or application, and our other main man Cesc Fabregas has struggled with the poor displays from Denilson, Rosicky and Nasri who are supposed to be the supporting cast.

Abou Diaby’s physical presence and attacking guile has been sorely missed. Despite his nightmare start to the season at Old Trafford it’s clear that he is a vital part of the first team. He is useful when defending set-pieces, and unlike several other midfielders has an eye for goal and can finish when required. If he can get fit in time and we start with a midfield of Cesc, Diaby and Song then I’d be a lot more confident.

The smart money would be on Chelsea, which makes our task even more difficult. If we can somehow completely transform our performance from last Sunday and win then it would be one of the best and most impressive results of the whole season. Every single time I watch Arsenal I believe that we can win, but whether it happens or not is another matter.

Something special on Super Sunday would surely be the catalyst to knuckle down and get a good run going up until May. So this game is massive.

We all know about the John Terry scandal, but that could work against us. Against Burnley, Chelsea were struggling and who pops up and scores the winner? John Terry. And you all know that wasn’t the first time he’s scored away from home, so don’t be surprised if he goes and scores at The Bridge.

Update: Well it looks like Capello has finally decided and Terry will no longer be England captain.

Manchester United (The Emirates Stadium, London)
Premier League Fixture – Matchday 24
Sunday 31st January 2010
Kick Off: 4pm – Live on Sky Sports 1

After the Aston Villa game, things looked bleak.

The disappointing 0-0 draw and failure to keep the pressure on Chelsea was followed with news that Thomas Vermaelen’s season could be over as it was suspected he had fractured his leg, but Arsenal confirmed that there was no break and his absence from the game should be short term [1]. He will miss the clash against Manchester United, but should be back soon after.

And that news is a massive boost. Colossal in fact.

Because the thought of Sol Campbell or Mikael Silvestre playing against United, Chelsea and Liverpool doesn’t bear thinking about. Fortunately Sol’s recently performances have looked half decent, but with Rooney in stunning form (19 goals in 22 league games) Arsenal will have to be at their defensive best.

But the more important news I believe is the return of Alex Song from the African Cup of Nations.

The last game he played was the 4-1 win over Portsmouth but since then we’ve struggled against Everton and Aston Villa. And even against Bolton at The Emirates, we contrived to give away two stupid goals before coming back to win 4-2. With Song in the side we’ve managed to get past the loss of Van Persie and kept ourselves in the title race.

And his performance against United will be vital to whether we get anything from the game. Cesc Fabregas has thrived alongside Song in midfield, and overall we’ve just looked more secure defensively. For me, Song has been one of the players of the season so far.

How will he perform after an arduous trip to Angola? Who knows, but I’m a lot happier he is back in the squad coming into this run of massive games. Especially with Vermaelen missing on Sunday.

Ideally we’d have our first choice midfield of Song, Cesc and Diaby but the big Frenchman looks to be short for Sunday but could be back for the Chelsea game. So it looks like Denilson will play in his preferred role slightly further up the pitch.

Eduardo is out with a “small, small” hamstring problem so it looks like a baptism of fire for the returning Nicklas Bendtner, although at the time of writing his is a doubt with a groin problem picked up at Villa. If he does make it, the positive news would be that Eduardo doesn’t like playing there anyway and we would get to see Arshavin play wide which is his preferred position. Having to play him down the middle would be a waste.

Then for the other attacking spots we have either Rosicky or Nasri (or both if Bendtner and Eduardo are missing). Or Wenger might opt to play Eboue instead.

So how will United play?

In recent games they have played a 5 man midfield and attempted to nullify Arsenal’s attacking threat. Earlier in the season at Old Trafford, we dominated large portions of the match but couldn’t add to our 1-0 lead. Then we collapsed in dramatic fashion and literally gifted the game to United and lost 2-1.

Last season we lost 3-1 and 1-0 in the Champions League games but managed to beat them at home with a double from Samir Nasri. Then in the away game (when United had already won the title) we played well but drew 0-0.

We all know about the form of Wayne Rooney and he has a knack of scoring against us. With the departure of Ronaldo he really has flourished and Manchester United haven’t really suffered as much as people thought they would.

Defensively, they welcome back Vidic from injury but lose Rio Ferdinand as he starts his 4 game ban for violent conduct [2]. John O’Shea is also out and will miss the rest of the season with a leg problem. So United have one or two injury problems of their own.

I’m sure United won’t be any different and will try and rough up Fabregas in the middle of the pitch, especially with players like Carrick, Scholes and Fletcher in the side.

Overall, it’s a tough one to call. On the one hand, United have been in stunning form, but I’ve always maintained that they have their shortcomings. Yes, I realise that it is a slightly ridiculous statement considering they’re second in the league but I’ve always felt that this season, if you get at United then they can be beaten.

And their recent wins have been against Manchester City, who have a patched up defence, and Hull City, who well, are managed by Phil Brown. I don’t really need to go on do I?

The bottom line is though their biggest threat is Wayne Rooney, and our biggest threat is Cesc Fabregas. And whoever steps up and takes the game by the scruff of the neck with emerge victorious. Fortunately Alex Song is back and if he picks up from where he left off then we’ve got a great chance to stop Shrek. I do believe that our supporting cast is stronger though (Arshavin, Rosicky) but their influence depends if they can find their form. We know how special Arshavin is but his game recently has been poor.

An interesting little side note to the game is that Arsenal v Manchester United will be the first UK football match to be shown in 3D [3]. The special 3D showings will be launched at nine public houses throughout the country, in selected pubs in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Although I don’t know much about it, the first thing that comes to mind is that it would give you a headache, but you never know, it might be completely awesome.

Chelsea (The Emirates Stadium, London)
Premier League Fixture
Sunday 29th November 2009
Kick Off: 4pm – Live on Sky Sports 1

The Maths

As it stands, Arsenal are 8 points behind runaway league-leaders Chelsea, having played a game less.

A defeat would leave us 11 points behind, which would be a massive gap even with that game in hand – which incidentally is against Bolton Wanderers at home.

But if we can end the match with a win, it’s amazing the difference it would make. Instead of trailing by 11 points we would be only 5 points behind, which would mean if we did manage to win our game in hand then the deficit would only be 2 points.

Talk about a real 6-pointer.

Despite our topsy-turvy away form (which will need to be addressed if we are to be considered worthy challengers), wins against Portsmouth, Wigan, Blackburn, Birmingham and Tottenham mean that our home form has literally been perfect in the Premier League, giving us five wins out of five.

It’s also interesting to note that in four home European ties (Celtic, Olympiacos, AZ Alkmaar and Standard Liege) and two Carling Cup games (W.B.A. and Liverpool) we’ve won all six. So in all competitions, Arsenal have won every home game.

And as if you weren’t sick enough of all the maths, in those 11 games Arsenal have scored 35 goals and conceded only 7.

Impressive statistics.

A lot of you will rightly mention the opposition we’ve faced in those home fixtures, but I’m not completely decided either way whether that is important in terms of the game against Chelsea. Yes, our home form is hugely impressive but in a game of this level, for me, none of that really matters. You could even argue that recent form isn’t even that relevant – look how Liverpool beat Manchester United at home, despite having the worst run in 1,205 years. In their last 10 matches (excluding the win over Debrecen midweek) Liverpool’s only win in that time was against United – and they drew 3 and lost the other 6.

So if the scousers have taught us anything (except it takes more than two decent players to win football matches) it’s that Arsenal versus Chelsea is anyone’s game.

I firmly believe that as is the case with many games between the Top Four, what makes the difference in the end is the performance on the day and which team takes their chances.

And at The Emirates with the home crowd behind them, Arsenal are capable of beating anyone.

The Injuries

The bad news is that the man who has proved to be the difference against Arsenal on more than one occasion, Didier Drogba, is back in the Chelsea squad after playing against Porto on Wednesday. And it looks like Frank Lampard is set to return early from his injury scare. So Chelsea look pretty much full strength.

Arsenal on the other hand aren’t exactly down to the bare bones, but missing big players.

Arsenal’s biggest goal threat this season Robin Van Persie is obviously out, as well as Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs meaning third-choice left back Armand Traore will deputise in their absence. That position will be something I’m sure Chelsea will try to exploit, and the alternative (which could actually be used) of Silvestre playing there really would put the shivers down my spine. And even worse news is that Silvestre might even play at centre back after Williams Gallas was only declared “50-50” after he still couldn’t get his contact lens into his eye yesterday. If that happens then Eboue will have to switch sides and play at left back.

A defensive back line including both Eboue and Silvestre would re-define the phrase “patched up” and unfortunately all I could see from that scenario would be a hell of a lot of leaks. And bad ones at that.

Van Persie Update: Just read the latest news that according to the Arsenal medical staff “Van Persie will now be out for between four to five months” and will require surgery on his ankle.

You can read more on this devastating news on the official Arsenal website.

Andrei Arshavin

I’m very interested, and excited, to see what Arshavin can do against a top quality side like Chelsea.

We’ve seen what he can do against Liverpool, and we’ve seen what he could do against Manchester United. He is a special talent and as both of those sides found out, give him even half a second and a bit of space he can hurt you to devastating effect. So I hope he has a lot of the ball and a big game on Sunday.

I’m sure a lot of you will still be confused to as why the Russian didn’t play against Chelsea last season when we played them in the semi-final of the FA Cup but that’s over now and we have to look forward. The only concern is that I’m not sure Arshavin is at his happiest playing in our new 4-3-3 formation. He’s managed to score 5 goals in this campaign but I haven’t really seen that same spark he had last season.

Hopefully tomorrow will be he’ll be able to mark his arrival to the new season.

Tactics & Style of Play

We all know Arsenal will come out and play their own brand of attacking football, but how about Chelsea?

I’ve only seen them a couple of times this season, against Liverpool and Manchester United, although both of those games were at Stamford Bridge.

If I remember correctly, those games were cagey and hardly entertaining. In the most recent, despite having a decent amount of play and playing a very compact formation with 5 in midfield and one up top Manchester United could feel unlucky not to get anything from that game. And when Liverpool travelled to London they were compact and defensive as well, but unlike United were never really in that game.

So if Chelsea are cautious at home against the Top Four, then you can bet they will be tomorrow against an attacking side like Arsenal.

But because they know how Arsenal play it almost makes the job easy for Chelsea. The basic game-plan is to sit deep, withstand some pressure in the final third and then hit Arsenal on the counter attack – and when you do get chances to get forward you need to make them count. And that is almost perfect for a solid, powerful and quick team like Chelsea – who have Anelka and Drogba in top form. Added to that, they have a deadly threat in the air, which is something that has cost us dear in the past.

It’s a cliché, but the team that wins here will be the one that takes their chances.

And unfortunately when it comes to a straight fight between Almunia and Cech to keep a clean sheet, the smart money wouldn’t be on the Spaniard.

Perversely, away from home Arsenal have really impressed against the Top Four. There was that 4-4 win at Anfield (which we should have won) and then the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge. But at home Arsenal will be more open and Chelsea will have their chances to punish us.

The Title Race

Ordinarily, a game this early against one of the Top Four wouldn’t be so important, but make no mistake about it, this game is massive.

Even though there’s 6 months of the season left, losing tomorrow and going 11 points behind would really put us in Liverpool territory. We’ve racked up 3 defeats already and last seasons Champions only lost 4, while the Champions for the 4 seasons previous to that all lost only 5 games – so another defeat at this stage doesn’t leave us with much wiggle room for the rest of the campaign.

But a win against Chelsea, who are seemingly cruising at the top of the league, would give them their 3rd defeat of the season, and show the rest of the Premier League that they can be beaten. With their lead at the top of the table there’s almost an aura that this Chelsea team are impossible to beat. Manchester United used to have that when they had Ronaldo but the team to beat this season is undoubtedly Chelsea.

And all 3 points should give us the impetus to push on strong over the winter period. With that disappointing defeat at Sunderland and the injury to Van Persie we need something to kick start our season.