What is it with these former players of ours? unless they are asked to speak about their former team mates from their management. It is quite annoying though. Hleb’s role at Barcelona is now 90% Cesc poacher, the other 10% is to warm the bench for the Barca stars

Suddenly this match against Liverpool at Anfield has a big importance attached to it, not because of the usual needed points but for psychological reasonings.

The squad have been dealt a big blow from losing in the semi final to Chelsea, one step away from the final it is never easy to take no matter what competition it is, football players are winners who want victory no matter what the circumstances so they will need to bounce back from that. We have seen defeat kill our confidence in the past, 49 unbeaten games was halted at Old Trafford a few years ago and a string of bad results followed, that wasn’t coincidence. Arsene Wenger will want his team back with the belief that they had leading up to the Chelsea game. As a massive semi final against Manchester United is lurking around the corner.

The best thing for this squad would be a moral boosting victory at Anfield, a team fighting with Manchester United for the title, it could give the boost that the squad need ahead of the Champions League semi final.

Arsene is likely to rotate his squad around and play some more of our attacking midfielders that missed out against Chelsea. I think he could go two ways. Cesc could drop back into his more usual central midfield role with Nasri playing behind a lone striker, probably Bendtner who will replace the rested Adebayor.

It is great that Bacary Sagna is back to help our very inexperienced back line, his positioning and airel ability will be a massive plus.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

There is also a good chance that Wenger will want to match Liverpool in midfield as he attempted to do against Chelsea on the weekend, this could see Cesc push further forward and either Diaby or Denilson stand alongside Alex Song.

It is funny how Alex Song is now the established senior figure in that midfield. Many fans who were screaming for Song against Chelsea could not stand him a couple of months ago. So all those who are doing the same to Diaby etc should remember that. Games under your belt and confidence gives a player more than some can imagine.

Theo Walcott could be rested to the bench with Nasri and Arshavin coming in. Our last match at Anfield saw Theo run almost the length of the pitch and set up Adebayor, maybe he can reserve his energy and make the same impact from the bench.

If Eduardo does start the game, do not surprised to see him playing from the left as Van Persie did in the FA Cup, but the clever betting is that he shall be sitting on the bench waiting for his chance to come on in the last 20 minutes or so depending on the result.

Liverpool will be without influential talisman (always wanted to say that) Steven Gerrard which is a massive plus for us, he has caused us many a problem in the past. Fernando Torres will be a massive threat to our makeshift defence, Kolo Toure will have to step up to the plate to deal with him.

Liverpool have had a rest since their defeat against Chelsea in the Champions League so they will be fully focused on the game.

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

Other News

Mikael Silvestre said some very strange things about Drogba’s goal on the weekend.

“He (Drogba) had an edge on me. The ball arrived his way and the keeper went for it, whereas he could have waited for an intervention, or for us to force Drogba into going to one side.”

“I am highly disappointed by the final result, but as well by the performance. We are capable of playing much better, like we have done over the past few months.”

“We dominated the game during some spells, but Chelsea were in command. Missing out on the chance to play a final in Wembley is a pity.”

Shifting the blame to a young goalkeeper leaves a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth, especially when he is so experienced. From what I saw, Fabianski was quite away from Silvestre and Drogba when they were tussling for the ball. Silvestre should have continued the fight for the ball regardless of how much he thought Fabianski was coming for the ball. He stopped running, then realised that Fabianski wasn’t going to get there and then started running again, too late. I am sure Wenger would have had a word with him after that.

Mattieu Flamini has been given a new part time role of scout to make sitting on the Milan bench a little more enjoyable. He has turned his attentions to our very own Emmanuel Adebayor.

“He [Adebayor] is a great player and if he was to move to Milan he would boost us,” Flamini told Datasport.

“He was already very strong when he arrived at Arsenal, but he has improved a lot up there, and became one of the best strikers in the world.”

What is it with these former players of ours? unless they are asked to speak about their former team mates from their management. It is quite annoying though. Hleb’s role at Barcelona is now 90% Cesc poacher, the other 10% is to warm the bench for the Barca stars when they need to come off for a rest. David Bentley has a new role of 99% knob and 1% reserve team player. Well done to him.

I hope our current players look at these examples when thinking of greener grass. I think our Emirates turf is as smooth, crisp and green as it gets, don’t you?

There is stuff about mind games, title chances of Liverpool and Man U etc that I cannot be bothered to get into because it has little to do with us so quite frankly I do not care, not enough to write about it anyway. I would rather write about not being bothered to write about what I am not bothered about, which I suppose could be deemed as writing about it but I digress, in a big way.

What I will talk about is Brazilian strikers, ok maybe just the one. Remeber that 16 year old who scored 4 against Norwich in a trial? Whatshisface?.. Wellington, thats it. Apparently he is on the verge of signing for us. He looks remarkably like Nicklas Bendtner to me, check out the LINK If anyone has a video clip link then send it my way and I’ll stick it up

We have some bloody good players in that age group. Wilshere, Coquelin and Frimpong to name a handful. What’s the future again?… Red and White! (not holdings)

Before I go, I just want to let to know that I am opening the doors, keeping the lights on and free entry on this article for some during and post match comments. Many think its lights off after the match but it would be a good time to express your views and feelings. If it is your first time on then bookmark this site and come back later, if not then just make sure you pop back during or after the game.

Come on you mighty Gooners!!

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