Chelsea Preview: ‘Make or Break’ time 22 March, 2008

That’s the general opinion from the English media at the moment and we’ve got the chance to rub it in tomorrow. Ashley Cole has gone from the heights of being a fans favourite at Arsenal, a young English defender, an Arsenal fan who made his way through the youth system. Now he’s right down in the dumps, a money-grabbing cunt who cheats on his wife, second choice at Chelsea to Wayne Bridge and now the most hated player in the league, not just by Arsenal fans.

He’s really fucked himself up and he deserves every bit of it. As a Gooner, I’ve loved watching him plummet to the scum he is. He could be playing tomorrow and I just think it would be perfect if we could just put the final nail in his coffin; He joined Chelsea at a time when they were a growing force and every player that moved there believed they would be joining the best club in the world and dominating Europe. That hasn’t been the case though and I think if we can beat Cole’s Chelsea tomorrow it’ll just show him what a stupid, stupid boy he’s been.

Tomorrow’s not just about Cole though. It’s about the Premier League title. Wenger reminded us yesterday that ‘Grand Slam Sunday’ won’t decide the championship, however it could definitely have an effect on the title race. If we were to beat Chelsea tomorrow and Torres sticks a couple past United then we’ll be joint top and the team in confidence. However if United carry on winning and Chelsea take the three points then we can almost count ourselves out of it.

We’ve drawn four in a row in the league and it’s not pretty. I think the main reason for this has been inspiration. When you face the likes of Wigan, it’s hard to focus on delivering a top performance. Whereas if you were playing AC Milan, the concentration would be on maximum and you know every player would put more than 100% of their efforts in.

Going to Stamford Bridge should hopefully inspire us to put on a good show. The players have fucked up in the last four games so they owe the fans a win. They need to show us that they’re still in there for the fight.

The team news is the same from the last game, no new injuries. It’s just Eduardo, Rosicky, Diaby and Denilson who are out so the team pretty much picks itself. You’d have to think we’ll go 4-4-2 with van Persie up front but he was pretty anonymous in the last game. Arsene will have been looking at his sharpness in training this week and hopefully he’s made an improvement.

We could go with just the one up top. Or maybe even play Hleb behind Adebayor depends how Arsene’s going to approach it. I don’t now what he’s thinking, I can’t read his mind. However I can guess that he’ll start Eboue ahead of Walcott…

I’d quite like Theo to start tomorrow. He’s great coming on from the bench, that impact is a massive part of his game. However we could do with his talent for the whole 90 minutes, not jus tthe final 15 or whatever. I’d like it if Theo starts the game but I wont be too fussed if we bring him on from the bench.

Flamini is going to be key tomorrow. He still hasn’t signed that new contract but Wenger says he’s completely committed every day despite the ongoing negotiations. Arsene says in that piece he hopes to get the deal signed next month. Once Matty puts pen to paper I’m going to be so relieved, until then though it’s a bit worrying. I’ve heard that he wants 80,000 a week! Completely breaking our wage structure, and of course if we was to get that then everyone else is going to want a pay rise. It’s a tough call for Wenger and the financial department.

It’s going to be two good games tomorrow. Liverpool vs. Man Utd is the early kick off, that starts at half one. We’ve got to hope our Champions League opponents can do something to stop United. Torres is in goal scoring form and I’m backing him to get us them a goal. I’m definitely going to be watching both games. I was thinking about going down to the 12 Pins to watch ‘Grand Slam Sunday’ but I’m just going to go to Walkabout in Watford. I’m hoping to break a run of bad results there, every time I’ve been we’ve lost so yeah…if we lose it’s my fault, sorry.

It’s gonna be massive, so make sure you’re watching. I’ll write up the match report on Monday, speak to you then.