FA Cup Draw: Man City at home if we beat Blackburn 19 February, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Cup Games.9 comments
The draw for the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup was made today and Arsenal or Blackburn were drawn against Manchester City at home. The other matches are: Middlesbro’ or West Brom v Man Utd or Reading, Chelsea v Spurs and Plymouth v Watford. The games will be played over the weekend of the March 10th and 11th however we’ve got to beat Blackburn at Ewood Park first. All our games won in the competition have been tricky ‘up north’ ties, hopefully we can do the business up the other side of the country again and progress to the 6th round.
Before we worry about that we’ve got the European cup to worry about. PSV await us in Holland for the first leg of the Champions League knockout stages. The squad has been announced and there’s no Walcott, no Hoyte and No Diaby. Neither has anything serious, I just think they are being rested for Sunday’s Carling Cup final. The team tonight pretty much picks itself but this is what I reckon anyway: Lehmann, Djourou, Toure, Senderos, Clichy, Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Rosicky, Henry and Adebayor. A strong team and I think we’ve been pretty lucky to be able to select such a team with the injuries we’ve had recently. Djourou will play right back for the injured Eboue and Hoyte who may have a niggle after a clash with advertising boards on Saturday. I expect Clichy to start ahead of Gallas who didn’t look match fit at all at the weekend but at least it means we’ll have the option of bringing on a quality defender.
I’m pretty confident about the game but I don’t think we’ll win it in this leg. My hope for tomorrow night’s game is a goal. I’d settle for a 1-1 and I know we’d still be ok with a 2-1 loss but a win would set us up really nicely for the 2nd leg at the Emirates. As long as we get an away goal I’ll be satisfied. We probably got the easiest tie in the competition so if we go out this round it’ll be just a bit embarrassing. I’m looking forward to the game; hopefully it’s better than our last performance.
Wenger has had to rotate the team quite a bit recently thanks to our very busy schedule. Since before Christmas we’ve pretty much played two games a week and it’s going to continue until well into next month too. Arsene blamed Saturday’s 0-0 with Blackburn on fatigue but there were 9 changes from the previous game. There’s only a couple of plays out injured at the moment so Wenger is lucky to have such a wide range of options to chose from. Gallas is coming back, I’d say Freddie has settled in already, Eboue’s back soon and Van Persie is out for the season. I think the manager’s had his eyes on tomorrow’s game, trying to get the best possible side fit. Fabregas and Toure are the only players who haven’t really had rests but both love to play football so much and are so valuable to the team Arsene hasn’t really had the chance to rest them.
There might be another update tomorrow but if not it’ll be the match report for PSV on Wednesday. Have a good day.
Arsenal 0-0 Blackburn – 17/02/07 – (FA Cup) 19 February, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Cup Games.9 comments
Sorry about the lack of updates recently. It should’ve given me sometime to think about what I can write about the game, but no. The worst game I’ve seen at the new stadium. It was a 12.30 kick off which meant I had to wake up at half 9 to get there nice an early but on a Saturday morning? No chance. In the end I got there just in time and early enough to get a 4 pound pie before the game, ‘cos I don’t want to be getting it while we’re playing or anything do I, incase I miss something? Even at that price, I wasn’t impressed with my pie. I’ve heard good things but I was disappointed. Hmm.
This is pretty much was this match report will be like.
Anyway I finished my lunch and the game was underway. It was a side featuring William Gallas making his return from injury. He’s been out of action for about 3 months and it showed. He started at left back and it didn’t take long for the runs down the left wing to stop. Before Clichy replaced him on the hour mark he was just strolling around the pitch totally out of the game.
It was the most surreal experience watching. Due to the short notice of the game it didn’t sell out and there must’ve been about 500 away fans there, no exaggeration. I just sat there, no noise whatsoever. It was a beautiful day and everyone just seemed so relaxed and watching the game. Most people I’m sure still nursing the Friday night hangover. As always the northwest corner were making an effort but it was dead everywhere else. I cannot recall any ‘highlight’ from the first half but personally I was content with the score line, confident we’d perform in the 2nd half.
It was so dire where I was sitting I decided to walk around the stadium to block 5 where everybody sings hoping to have a bit of a sing song. To be honest it wasn’t incredible there either. Well it was good but not like it normally is. You could put this down to the early kick off but there was nothing happening on the pitch to inspire the fans but if you think about it, it was probably vice-versa too.
The second half started as the first half began and you started to wonder whether we were actually going to see something exiting. The first chance came just before the hour when Aliadiere put Walcott through but Theo’s shot went into the side netting. Just after that Clichy came on and helped stop Blackburn taking the lead clearing Christopher Samba at the far post from Bentley’s free kick. Wenger brought on Adebayor and Rosicky for Ljungberg and Walcott to try and get the team actually playing and try to get that goal. I thought Theo was better on Saturday; he impressed me a lot in the first 20 minutes or so but let himself down after that. Before he came off he was looking dangerous and getting into decent positions but his first touch was letting him down.
Ade and Tom did help the team push forward. They both used the space out on the left well and threatened goal a few times. However there were still no clear-cut chances and I had a feeling a penalty might settle this. A few minutes later it looked as if we’d got one when Aliadiere was brought down by Warnock in the area. It looked like a decent shout but the referee waved the claims away. When I watched the replay on TV it was an obvious penalty and I can’t believe it wasn’t awarded. When you’re in the stands, you’re some distance away from the ball and when a decision like that isn’t given I accept there was probably something I didn’t see but I do not understand why the ref didn’t point to the spot. Martin Atkinson was a terrible referee all game; I read in the paper today he was extremely bias towards Arsenal, I didn’t really see it but I do know he didn’t have a clue.
We should’ve been 1-0 up now and the players were trying to make up for it. Friedel made a few good saves in the final stages including a one-on-one with Rosicky who was sent clear on goal. Also there was a bit of a goalmouth scramble that ended in Hoyte missing from 4 yards out. It was a slightly tight angle and I’m not sure whether he hit the side netting or it was saved but he should’ve scored.
At the end there were boos, I can understand them but I hate it when our players get booed by their own fans. Ok they were pretty shit but it’s not as if they didn’t try. There were cheers at the end from the one or two Blackburn fans that’d shown up and it was obvious they came for a draw. So it’s another cup replay and I’m going to be away in Scotland for it. I might be able to see it somewhere. It means the Man City game gets moved again. Hopefully we play much, much better against PSV. Build up to that one tomorrow.
