Some Thoughts on Arsenal versus Man Utd.

Written by @JCphoenixx

I 8 2 be writing this post right now. It has nothing to do with the fact that I 8 2 much food this evening, but a lot to do with the fact that I 8 2 be so jittery and apprehensive before a game.

I love The Arsenal. I really do. I’ve supported this club all my life, I live, breathe, eat and Worship the Arsenal but the beating our arses got in August from these bloody Rear Devils left me so sore and moody, I snapped at everyone for the next week.

Everyone would agree that we’ve come some way since then though. We’ve gone and brought in new faces: Gervinho, Arteta, Santos, Yossi, Big Friendly Giant, (Henry?)  and these guys have added a lot to our squad. Gervinho might be the most exciting, but Arteta’s importance to our team grows more obvious with every game he misses through his injury. This leads me to the cruncher: Only BFG and Yossi are available. Gervas off to the African Nations Cup, Santos is injured, so is Arteta, even the resurrected Thierry Henry is a doubt, Jenkinson, who made his debut for us in the corresponding fixture is also unavailable.

There’s a lot to be pessimistic about, Ramsey has been labeled “misfiring, Careless with passes, folding under pressure, Scolesesque in a tackle” but in my opinion, he needs to be cut some slack. With Gervinho out, Arteta burnt, none of our normal overlapping fullbacks around, he’s had fewer targets in front of him, only RvP, Arshavin and Theo (who has had to drop back more often than he would like to, and thus has become even less of an attacking threat than he would’ve been with Sagna). Arshavin has also had to drop back in recent games to help Miquel, whose effort no one can doubt, but whose ability is still short of Top class. Also noteworthy is the fact that he’s playing out of his normal centre-back position.  Our line-up in August was Szczesny-Koscielny-Djourou-Jenkinson-Traore-Rosicky-Theo-Ramsey-Rvp-Arshavin.

Our lineup is likely to resemble this, with Djourou slotting into right back, and Miquel replacing Traore. BFG and Koscielny (who has really impressed me, the most underrated defender ever. lol) will be in the center. No word yet on Vermaelen’s fitness for the match.

One major difference to our team compared to august is Alex Song. In my opinion he’s been our most consistent performer this season. RvP has scored the goals and grabbed the headlines, but Alex has been silently solid in almost every game he’s played, even when we’ve been generally dismal, he’s usually my standout performer.

So there it is, here’s hoping we have a good game, Arsene came out to say we “aren’t out for revenge”, RvP says “We ARE”…. Whose report do you believe?