Derby Preview: Lets smash ‘em 27 April, 2008

Now I don’t want to get too over confident, once apon a time I wrote a headline: ‘The Hammers are in for a hammering‘ and we lost 1-0. However tonight I’m just hoping we can put on a good show for the travelling fans; which I will be one of! It will be my last away trip for a long time so I jumped at the chance to go. I actually missed the home tie so I’m looking forward to seeing Derby County live for the very last time.

It’s been a terrible campaign in the top flight for The Rams; they have been the whipping boys of the season conceding an incredible 76 goals! They’re currently on 11 points at the moment and all they have to play for now is that unwanted record of lowest points gained in a Premiership season. Ouch.

We beat them 5-0 when they came to The Grove, Adebayor bagging a hat trick. Not much has changed since then and I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened again. I think it’s fair to say that if we don’t go and pick up 3 points at Derby then we really have to be embarrassed.

We might not have much left to play for, but we should still be fielding a half decent side. I mentioned the other day that it is still mathematically possible for us to win the league so maybe we should just win these last few games…just in case.

I think we’ll play a few of the non-regulars though. Wenger’s already hinted that Fabianski will play and he mentioned that he might rest some of the players involved in Euro 2008, which is quite frankly ridiculous. It’s hard for he to guess what side Wenger’s going to go with but if it were up to me I’d pick something like this:

Apart from the captaincy…I think that line-up is quite possible. I think Song, Gilberto and Bendtner should all get a game, all simply to see how they could play a part in next season’s campaign. I think Walcott definitely needs to start, whether up front or on the wing I see no reason why he shouldn’t be in the 11. It would be nice to see Adebayor play, I bet he’s still hungry for goals.

Both Derby and Arsenal’s positions in the league are pretty much sorted now anyway; they’ll come 20th and we’ll probably finish 3rd. So really, it’s all about pride now, there’s nothing to lose. However, I’m expecting a top performance from whoever plays, and that they give everything for the 90 minutes. It would be nice to see a few goals too but I would compromise that for just a great display of football.

I’m heading up north after lunch, should be just over two hours drive. We’ll find a nice little pub, and get to the game. In a way, it’s nice that we’re not in the title race, the game will be played with a smile and we haven’t got to deal with the pressure of our results. At the end of the day, all I’m looking for is just a good day out.

Someone said earlier that we could’ve won the league tonight if things had gone our way. Oh dear. Match report to come ASAP but I’m going to be quite busy over the next few days so just hang in there. Thanks for reading.