I thought we played okay against Bolton last Saturday, apart from our defending. To be honest, Bolton deserved their point but it was really annoying to give a goal away in the 85th minute of the game. Cygan can’t handle physical strikers and that is a fact, and as much as I like Lehmann, I really do hope this is his last season. Two perfect players to replace them would be Robinson and King, who were both brilliant against Chelsea yesterday (although they would never come).
Anyway, today we take on Man City and we seem to have a very away good record against them away; our performance against them two seasons ago was awesome (we won 5-1). Things have changed since then as they have bought in new players and moved into a new ground, which I personally think looks phenomenonal. Just look at how many Arsenal-related players they have:
Anelka: Former Gunner who left because of his immaturity at the time.
Robbie Fowler: Was a prime target for Arsène Wenger in the past.
Wright-Phillips: The son of the legend (Ian Wright).
I do like Kevin Keegan: I think he is a good manager, he tends to get the most out of his players and he is always honest. Man City will also be on a high after a much needed win against Crystal Palace.
I know people talk about Henry, Van Nistelrooy and Shearer a lot but I don’t think Anelka gets enough credit as he deserves. He has matured a lot since his early Arsenal days when he was at his best, but I have been watching him closely recently and I must admit he has been looking very scary by the way he is so dangerous with his pace and his willingness to run at defenders and is reminding me more and more of the Anelka we saw at Arsenal.
Their most dangerous player in my opinion is SWP. He is just so direct, fast, Skilful and has a great footballing mind for someone so young. He tortured Ashley Cole last season when we beat them 2-1 and since then he has improved a whole lot more. This season he has provided some brilliant assists for Anelka, and has also scored some crackers himself.
Below is a list of Man City’s key men in my opinion:
Wright Phillips – Key Man 1
Anelka + Fowler – Key Men 2
James – Key Man 3
Sibierski + Reyna + Barton – Key Men 4
Distin – Key Man 5
Below is the best team line up I would go with for this match:
Lehmann
Lauren Campbell Touré Cole
Ljungberg Edu Vieira Reyes
Bergkamp Henry
City will desperately want to beat us because of the way we have tortured them for the last few seasons. They will really be up for it and will want to learn from their mistakes. That is why I am guessing that this will be a very close, tight match. At the end of the day the team that wants it more will win. Hopefully that will be Arsenal.