On Saturday, Arsenal played an amazing first 25 minutes and then looked edgy for the remainder of the game. Henry hit the bar early on and was very unlucky and then Pires scored a beauty thanks to Bergkamp’s good work of holding the ball up for him. Then an over hit Henry pass to Bergkamp was brilliantly finished first time without even sparing a touch to control it.
Bergkamp has been playing brilliantly recently and he will be crucial in this coming month with so many tough fixtures. We just about held on at the end, but another three points in the bag was the most crucial thing. It definitely looked like some of our players’ minds were on the crucial match against Chelsea.
I saw a bit of the Chelsea match and Gudjohnson scored a beauty before Fulham equalised thanks to a deflected free kick. Duff capitalised on some poor Fulham defending and slotted in a good goal to give all three points to Chelsea.
We have already played Chelsea three times this season and beaten them three times so there is no doubt we can beat them. The first leg of the Champions League tie is at Stamford Bridge and it would be ideal for Arsenal to bring them back to Highbury with a couple of away goals.
If we win (and hopefully we will) then it will give us great confidence for the Manchester United match next Sunday where it will be a make or break match for both teams. We beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a couple of weeks ago – we didn’t play beautiful football but we still won.
I know Chelsea haven’t beaten us for a very long time, and they are desperate to do us over especially as we have knocked them out of the FA Cup as well as having taken 6 points off them in the Premiership.
Chelsea will be in front of their home crowd and will have a point to prove, and even though Arsenal have been playing fairly well like we know they can, I expect them to give it 110% to prove to Chelsea once again no matter how much money you spend on a squad, you cannot buy togetherness and unity as we have in our team at Arsenal.
Chelsea have a quality squad, but below is a list of who I think are their key men:
Duff + Gudjohnsen – Key Men 1
Mutu + Hasselbaink +Gronkjaer – Key Men 2
Lampard + Makelele + Parker – Key Men 3
Terry + Desailly + Gallas – Key Men 4
Cudicini – Key Man 5
Since Duff has come back, Chelsea have looked much more dangerous and he definitely adds a new dimension to their play. They certainly missed him when he was injured. If you were to ask a neutral who Chelsea’s best striker is, they would probably say Crespo or Mutu, but I think their best striker is Gudjohnson. He has a great mind, great touch and is a very clinical finisher. Duff and Gudjohnson will have to be marked tightly.
Ljungberg didn’t start on Saturday, but came on later so I think Wenger had Wednesday’s match in mind and so he should start. Another boost for Arsenal is that Bergkamp will be able to play – as it is in England he will be able to play in both legs; he will be crucial. He may be rested though, after playing a full 90 minutes against Bolton. Reyes could play, and he can certainly score against Chelsea.
I think the best squad Wenger should play against Chelsea is:
Lehmann
Lauren Campbell Toure Cole
Ljungberg Edu Vieira Pires
Bergkamp Henry
I know Arsenal can beat Chelsea, but the way to do this is to pressure their back four, and not let them get any control in midfield.
Come On You Gooners!