Finally, Arsenal are playing some football again. It is always hard to have the weekend pass by without the mighty Arsenal playing and that is made even tougher when we have just had the christmas fixtures every 2 or 3 days. The wait shall be no more though...well another 9 hours or so.
I will start off by saying, that was a great game of football between the two Channel 5 teams yesterday, with Mancini and the Man City fans seeming like the happier bunch even though they lost. If Man Utd had not won that game after being 3-0 and playing against 10 men for 80 minutes, it would have in my eyes been worse than their 6-1 loss earlier in the season. After watching the Kompany tackle many times, i don't think it was a red card, but as soon as he left the ground with two feet, he was risking being sent off whether he got the ball cleanly or not. I would love the red card to be rescinded though as if its not, he will miss the Spurs game. The last bit on that is, it was the better result for us in terms of winning the FA cup as Man Utd are much more likely to get knocked out by a lesser team than Man City.
I shall quickly discuss the draw before Leeds. The draw could have been a lot easier for us, but i think Aston Villa at home will be a more than winnable game providing it is taken seriously. With Man Utd and Liverpool being drawn together (Hilarious), there will be only three big teams and Spurs left in the draw, providing they all win of course, so i think there is a good cup run to be had and we should be looking to win it. To do that of course, we need to beat tonights opponents Leeds.
We have been drawn against Leeds again and what we do not want is a repeat of last season. All the replays in January destroyed us last season and they were all against winnable opposition. We are going to have to take this game seriously from the off, keep our shape and close them down quickly. If we can win the ball back high up the pitch from their midfield or defence, then they will be easy to pick off.
This is a hard game to predict the line up for as there are so many options, i would imagine Henry is going to be on the bench and that Chamakh and Park will start. This makes me think that its going to be a 4-4-2 formation as it would be stupid to play those two in any other sort of line up. I would also imagine Arshavin and Chamberlain will start on the wings of the midfield four. I would say Benayoun deserves a chance in the creative role and i have a feeling Song will be holding the midfield. The defence is a lot harder to predict but i would have a feeling it will go something along the lines of Miquel, Koscielny, Mertersacker/Squillaci and Coquelin. I would prefer Mertersacker and he has been talking about the magic of the FA cup to the Arsenal website, so you never know. In goal is going to be Almunia, would be shocked if its anyone else.
Almunia
Coquelin Squillaci Koscielny Miquel
Chamberlain Benayoun Song Arshavin
Chamakh Park
Thats what i would roughly predict, with a strong bench holding the names, Walcott, Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky and of course Henry. I expect him to come on with about 20/25 minutes to go whether we are winning or losing. When Henry does come on, i can see us reverting back to our 4-3-3 formation as well.
I expect us to win tonight and comfortably after all the drama we had in this round last year. We have had a little break after the festive fixtures and we have some players tonight who have something to prove, especially Arshavin, Camberlain and Park who will want to prove that they can play a bigger part with players gone for the ACN.
Have fun if your going to the game tonight, i am watching it on TV but will be cheering on the return of the King just as much as you guys.
Come the Arsenal!!!
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