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By Myles Palmer
It's true that Arsenal have various problems on the field and in the dressing room.
But every club has problems.
REAL MADRID are fifth in La Liga and just lost 4-3 to Sevilla at home.
MANCHESTER UNITED peaked in Moscow on May 21 and Cristiano doesn't want to be there any more. He's 23 and hes won the Double and the Ballon d'Or and he grew up in a sunny climate and wants to play for Real Madrid. United have bought another goalscorer, Berbatov, to replace him but the Bulgarian's artistry makes him very different from the tenacious Tevez and many fans prefer the little guy.
LIVERPOOL have two American owners who don't see eye to eye. Rafa signed Robbie Keane for £19 million but he's only scored two Premier League goals so far. Their style, an unusual one designed to employ Gerrard and Kuyt, doesn't suit Robbie and on Saturday he couldn't even get a game when Torres was injured. And Liverpool won 3-1 at Blackburn with him as an unused sub. I still rate Robbie highly but Rafa is a tactical coach who moves his toy soldiers around from game to game. That never helps a striker, as several have found out.
CHELSEA are cutting costs and might have to sell to buy. Their away record puts them second, one point behind Liverpool. Eight home games : three wins, three draws, two defeats. If that continues, Chelsea cannot win the title. They are at home to Cluj tomorrow and need to win to be sure of qualifying for the last 16.
EVERTON have no money and nobody wants to buy the club and Yakubu is out for the season. They conceded in 24 seconds to Villa at Goodison, battled back to 2-2 in 93 minutes but lost to an Ashley Young goal 12 seconds from time.
ASTON VILLA are scrapping hard for fourth place and Martin O'Neill is telling us that Young is a world class player. If he is, Villa might actually finish fourth. Arsenal are 10th in the form chart with 9 points from the last six games.Villa have 8 points from those games.
SPURS can't afford a new stadium and are in the relegation zone and they go to West Ham tonight with Harry Redknapp needing a win to put them on more points than Sunderland and Newcastle. I feel very sorry for Niall Quinn and Roy Keane. It's clear that Keane must have been feeling unbearable pain in recent weeks and Eamonn Dunphy's knife in the back was shocking, even for Dunphy.
So the hardcore of moaning, blinkered, neurotic Gooners should not think that theirs is the only club with problems.
They've been spoiled by years of thrilling football, by two Doubles, by the all-conquering Invincibles. Many fans naively thought they would always be watching winners as awesome as Adams, Dixon, Bergkamp, Vieira, Overmars, Pires, Henry and Ljungberg.
Now they're watching Cesc Fabregas. Theyre watching Fabregas, Clichy and Sagna. The rest of the side are players many people are not not sure about. Arsenal's goal against Wigan was a bit lucky : a ball volleyed forward by Fabregas went through the legs of the clumsy Song (who tried to play it) and hit Bramble and broke perfectly for Adebayor to score. A rash barge by Kolo Toure into the back of Henri Camara in the box could have been a penalty. He won't get away with that on Wednesday night.
In all the furore about Eboue, the crude scissor-tackle by Palacios, which injured Nasri, and therefore caused all the fuss, has hardly been mentioned. When Nasri went off, Eboue came on, although Wenger could have used Ramsey or Wilshere, who had done well in the 3-0 victory against Wigan in the Carling Cup. Vela scored in that game and might have been used, since Arsenal were 1-0 up at the time of the injury. As it was, Van Persie missed two good chances and the opportunity to prove that he CAN give us two matches in a row.
The chances missed against Burnley and Wigan don't augur well for Porto on Wednesday night.
But Arsenal have already qualified before Matchday 6.
Dec 8, 2008 |
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