As I’ve said previously, I feel a little conflicted about the competition. Do I want to win? Yes, of course. But I have mixed feelings about how we treat the competition. Because, to be clear, Arsene Wenger does not really care about winning the Carling Cup. He views it as an opportunity for younger players to get to play–in that sense, it’s kind of a glorified reserves league for Arsenal. And if the manager isn’t too concerned with whether the team gets knocked out of the competition, it’s hard for us fans to get too worked up (or as my co-worker says, “be-jiggedy”) about it if we lose.

Still, I have to admit, I enjoy watching the matches when I get the chance. Part of it is the novelty of seeing a group of young players I haven’t gotten to watch very much before, but I think a lot of it is although the players are not as good or as skilled as the regulars, they are at a stage in their careers where a good performance or two can have a big impact on their career trajectories, and they know they will only have a few opportunities all season to play in the first-team, so they play with a real palpable drive and passion.

This match is a little bit odd. Usually at this stage, we’re playing a bottom of the table team or a lower division team, for whom playing us is one of their biggest, if not the biggest, fixture of the season. Their players are usually very motivated by the opportunity to play in front of such a big crowd in a match with so much exposure. But Liverpool are largely in the same boat as us–they’ll be playing youngsters and reserves, and have about the same motivation to win as we do. As Ben Folds would say, it’s a battle of who could care less.

In terms of team news, as usual, there’s some good, some bad. Let’s get rid of the bad first–Rosicky, Denilson and Djourou are still down with injuries, and Traore and Wilshere are out with minor knocks. The latter two are disappointing, especially Wilshere, who has shown a world of promise but hasn’t gotten much in the way of first-team opportunities. He’s precisely the type of player that benefits most from our Carling Cup strategy, and it’s too bad he won’t be able to show what he can do against Liverpool tomorrow.

In good news, though, Nasri and Fabianski is back, and will both start. Nasri had a good first season for the team last season, and is still quite young–he could really be a difference maker down the stretch for us. Even more important, he could keep Diaby out of the lineup. Bendtner and Eduardo, who both came on as late subs against West Ham, will supposedly start. My best guess at a lineup:

Fabianski

Gilbert-Senderos-Silvestre-Gibbs

Coquelin-Ramsey-Nasri

Eduardo-Bendtner-Vela

That’s assuming we go with a 4-3-3, which is far from certain. But honestly, at this point, isn’t Vela like the all-time leading goalscorer in the Carling Cup? I think he’s only scored a goal or two in every other senior competition, but it seems like he scores for fun in the Carling Cup. He’s like Crash Davis. Got to get him in the game somehow, right? Hopefully we’ll have enough quality to get through Liverpool–the home field advantage should help, and they’ll be playing reserves as well.

The big news for Liverpool is that it should be the first start for £20 million man Alberto Aquilani, who was brought in to replace Xabi Alonso over the summer but has been crocked since he last played for Roma (in the Champions League match against Arsenal, ironically enough). He’s a quality player, and will be looking to put in a good performance to convince Rafa he’s ready to play regularly, but hopefully he’s still rusty enough from the lay-off that he won’t damage us too bad.

Right, well, that’s about it. Come on Arsenal.

I think this brings the Arshavin video count up to six or seven for the summer, but here’s a look at Andrey Arshavin’s four-goal haul against Liverpool. Not the best video, but that’s not the point…

I don’t know that I buy into it, but there’s an argument to be made that yesterday’s result was the worst thing that could have happened for us. If we had won, we’d have only been 3 points behind Chelsea, but picking up a single point doesn’t help us that much. If Liverpool had won, we’d still have been far clear of Villa for 4th, but Liverpool’s 3 points would have applied the pressure on United, forcing them to balance between league games and the Champions League. As it is, Liverpool’s 2 dropped points basically means that United wins its third consecutive title, and now can focus on the Champions League semifinal matches. Again, I’d still rather have drawn than lost, but it’s something to think about. Anyway, on to the good and the bad from last night:

The Good:
1. Well, it was a tough debate as to who should win our man of the match, but after much thinking, I think it’s got to go to Andrei Arshavin. The little Russian single-handedly snatched a point for us yesterday, and if anyone was questioning whether or not he was a good signing for us, they’re not anymore. He’s so versatile and can do so many different things well (shoot, finish, run, dribble, pass), as well as play in a number of different positions, that he may well be our single most dangerous attacking threat. Which given the talent and skill in the club is saying something. (Begin bitter sarcasm) It’s just too bad he was unavailable for the FA Cup match, because if he had been he surely would have played and probably would have made the difference. (End bitter sarcasm) In all seriousness, he has definitely established himself as a player who should always be starting in every big match. The cruel irony, of course, is that he established this fact three days after being left on the bench in what was likely the last big match he would be eligible to play in this year.

2. Kieran Gibbs. Was it really only a week and a half ago that the young left-back looked overwhelmed and out of his element against Wigan? Since then it seems like he’s grown up before our eyes. He’s athletic and technical, with a lot of pace and skill. He may very well be Cashley’s heir apparent as England’s left-back. If he keeps it up, he’ll also give Wenger a lineup dilemma next season, with 3 very good full-backs for 2 positions. But if this season has taught us anything, it’s that it’s much better to have too many decent defenders than too few.

3. Fabianski in the first half–as I said, we got outplayed badly in the first half, and it really was miraculous that we hadn’t conceded several goals by that point. That was largely due to Fabianski, who really showed his worth by making a number of good saves that kept us in the game. He’s got his faults, but mercy, he’s a good shot-stopper. He looked well on his way to reestablishing his confidence and proving why Wenger has so much faith in him. Until…

The Bad:

1. Fabianski in the second half–Look, he was let down by poor defensive play all day, but really could have done better with several of the Liverpool goals. There was nothing he could do on the first or fourth goals. But on the second, he inexplicably lost awareness of where he was on the field and ran into the goal–by the time he realized where he was and tried to jump forward to knock the ball away, it had already drifted across the line–if he had stopped running when he got back to his line, I think it would have been a fairly easy save. A keeper has to know where he is in relation to the goal at all times, and he lost track of it in a key moment. And the third was more difficult–football’s a game of inches, and if Fabianski had gotten another fraction of an inch of his hand on the shot, he would have turned it around the post–as it was, he only turned it into the side netting. This can’t have been the best thing for the young man’s confidence, so here’s hoping for a good game against Middlesbrough to get his head straight. Because if Almunia’s not healthy by next week, Fabianski is going to be tested by United and we need two good games out of him.

2. Bacary Sagna–I like Sagna a lot, but he was putrid all game. The “clearance” that led to the first goal is as bad a play as you’ll ever see on a football field. If somebody did that in a 7-year old girls’ rec-league game, they’d get yelled at by their coach. And all game he was defending poorly, giving the ball away badly, etc. I kept hoping Wenger would bring Eboue on for him. Sagna’s normally solid and reliable, so hopefully it was just that he’s not fully recovered from the nasty virus which sidelined him the last couple of games. I have every faith he’ll bounce back.

3. Mikael Silvestre–indescribably bad. A Senderos, a Senderos–my kingdom for a Senderos!

4. Denilson–I’ve defended the young Brazilian all year, but he’s making it harder and harder. In contrast to Gibbs, Song, and Arshavin, he seems to be getting worse and worse every time he plays. He’s played a lot of minutes for us this year, maybe he’s just fatigued. Or maybe the purchase of Arshavin, the return of Cesc, and the rise of Song have left him unsure of what his role is. Whatever the reason, he’s hurting us every time he plays at the moment. Wenger either needs to give him some time off or relegate him to bench status for the rest of the year. If Walcott or Eboue had started on the right yesterday, we definitely would have played better, and may very well be talking about a win instead of a draw.

5. Samir Nasri–really looks like a different player at the moment than the sparkplug who was so confident and crafty on the ball at the beginning of the year. Maybe I’m forgetting something, but it seems like ages since he’s done much anything of consequence for us. It’s not that he’s making mistakes that stick out, he’s just completely anonymous. He’s still just 21, and I think he’ll be a very good player for Arsenal for many years, but he’s not doing us any favors at the moment.

Maybe the best news is that we’ve actually got some time off before the next game. There’s four days off before we play Boro on Sunday–hopefully the players can just get some time off to rest and get geared up for the run-in and the semifinal with United. It’s going to be a hell of a month, with 3 games against the reigning European and English champions, plus a match against Chelsea, in the span of 3 weeks. But we do need to be careful about overlooking Boro–they’re fighting for their premier league lives, and they’ve shown they can trip up a big team that’s not completely focused on them. They put a nail in Liverpool’s coffin by beating them 2-0 a month ago, and beat Aston Villa at Villa Park. And they handed us our first defeat last season, 3 points dropped that proved very costly indeed in the final calculation. So while the Champions League semifinal against United is obviously huge, we’ve got to take care of business on Sunday, b/c if we don’t we’ll have a battle on our hands the rest of the season just to stay in fourth place.

There’s a bunch of injury stuff floating around, but I’ll wait until something concrete is issued by the club and post something within the next few days. The short version is that Almunia says he’s coming back very soon, Wenger says he’s not, and there’s a chance Djourou could be back soon. Djourou’s no world-beater, but he’s Cannavaro in his prime compared to Silvestre at the moment, so if he could be back by Wednesday it would be a huge boost for the squad. Rosicky and Gallas are both done for the season, I think Clichy may very well be done, but Adebayor and van Persie should both be back soon, if not by Sunday than almost certainly by Wednesday.

Until then.

That aside, thank you Arsene, for finally buying a player. A player who scores four. Nuts. A look at the goals:

Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio, Alonso, Mascherano, Benayoun, Kuyt, Riera, Torres. Subs: Cavalieri, Dossena, Babel, Lucas, Ngog, El Zhar, Skrtel.
Arsenal: Fabianski, Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Arshavin, Song Billong, Fabregas, Denilson, Nasri, Bendtner. Subs: Mannone, Diaby, Eduardo, Vela, Walcott, Ramsey, Eboue.

No Gerrard = good. Fabianski and Silvestre still in = bad. Eduardo must not yet be fit either. Sagna is back into the squad, but no sign of Clichy yet. Three points would be massive today. Leave all thoughts before, during and after the game below.

Current Position: 2nd, 20-10-2 (70 points, +38 goal differential)

Home Form: 10-6-0

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Last Meeting: Arsenal 1-Liverpool 1 (12/21/08)

Everton Watch: at Chelsea

Well, it seems very sudden after the big disappointment over the weekend, but we’re back in action tomorrow as we travel up to Anfield to play Liverpool. I don’t know how you feel, but I don’t dislike Liverpool nearly as much as Manchester United or Chelsea, and I’d rather see them win the title than either of those teams. Still, apart from the normal happiness that a big Arsenal win brings me, I would find it very satisfying to be the team that ends Liverpool’s title hopes and sends them home with a trophyless season.

There’s this sense going around that somehow this game doesn’t matter to Arsenal. That is dead wrong, for 2 reasons: (1) Given the clubs’ history, a trip to Anfield always matters, even if only pride is at stake; and (2) as previously explained, the Champions League format is changing next year, and the 4th place club from England will be placed into an open qualifying round draw, where the club could now draw ANY of the other clubs in qualifying. In other words, we won’t be able to count on the protection of being seeded so we could only draw a team like FC Twente or Slavia Prague, and could instead now be faced with the prospect of having to play (if the season ended today) Valencia, Hamburg, Genoa, Lyon, Rangers, or Benfica just to get into the group stages. Aside from the prestige, the group stage games bring in a huge amount of revenue to the club, and missing out would really hurt the team. So getting to 3rd place, which will get an automatic entry into the group stage next year, would be huge for the club. We’re only 6 points behind Chelsea, who play an in-form Everton on Wednesday. We’ve still got a game against Chelsea at the Emirates in May, so if we could trim that margin to 3 or 4 points by then, we’d really apply some pressure to the Blues, and they could most definitely slip up in the homestretch of the season.

Sir Alex has come out and said that he believes Arsenal will give 100% to try to win tomorrow at Anfield, because Arsene Wenger is a “winner.” It’s a nice sentiment, and rare words of praise for Wenger from Fergie. But SAF can get fucked as far as I’m concerned–to dress up as praise what is so transparently part of his b.s. mindgames with Rafa is laughable. He and Rafa can keep manipulating the media to try to “psych each other out” all they want, but don’t drag us into it. We’ll be trying to win, but we sure as hell won’t be doing it for him.

For our part, the players are all saying the right things. Robbie said, “[w]e are disappointed, but we need to get our stuff together and fight for the other two titles.” Gibbs said the club would take it as “a lesson.” Kolo said, “[w]e just have to put all this to the back now and focus on the next game. Our target is now the League and Europe.” Wenger said, “I would love to play Chelsea again in the Champions League Final. We could take our revenge. But we have another little team to play before then.”

Those are all the kind of things you want to hear after a disappointing loss–everyone seems willing to look towards the future instead of dwelling on the game, and everyone is now focused on improving our standing in the league and winning the Champions League. But talk is cheap, and the real barometer of whether or not we’ve moved on will be on the field tomorrow. This is always a very tough game–Liverpool have won five league games in a row, including dismantling United at Old Trafford, and have not lost a game at Anfield all season.

While we will be going in looking for points, we will be doing so shorthanded. Clichy will not only be out for this game, but for the foreseeable future, as his “back problem” has turned out to be a stress fracture in his vertebra, which puts him out for about a month. That’s the kind of injury that requires pure rest, so by the time he recovers and gets back into game shape, the season will be over. If we see him again at all this season, it won’t be for more than a game or two, I wouldn’t think. It’s a tough blow for Gael, one of my favorite players, who has really had an up-and-down year after being a rock all year for us last season. He’s still very young (will turn 24 this summer), and hopefully has many great years of service in an Arsenal shirt ahead of him.

Adebayor and van Persie, both of whom were substituted late in the Chelsea game, will be left out of the squad. Adebayor hurt his hamstring and van Persie hurt his groin. Wenger called both of these problems “little,” (hehe, he said “little groin”) so hopefully both players will be ready to go against United next week. Djourou is still out (although the club still hasn’t said anything about what his injury actually is and how serious it is–if anyone has heard anything, please leave it in the comments), as are Gallas and Rosicky. In better news, Sagna and Eduardo rejoin the squad, and Almunia is expected to be back in the lineup on Sunday against Middlesbrough. I expect the lineup to look like:

Fabianski

Sagna-Toure-Silvestre-Gibbs

Walcott-Fabregas-Song-Nasri

Bendtner-Arshavin

Many are tipping Eduardo to start up top, but given that he hasn’t played in so long, I see Wenger going a different way. Besides, when Bendtner and Arshavin have played up front together this season, they’ve been nothing short of spectacular, albeit against lesser competition–this is a great opportunity for them to see if they can be as effective against a top defensive team. It also would not surprise me if Walcott, who has seen a lot of action over the last week, was given a game off, and either Arshavin or Eboue started on the right.

Liverpool will be missing Gerrard, but the rest of the squad will be rested, not having played since their game against Chelsea last Tuesday. Everyone knows Liverpool well enough that I don’t need to go into personnel and lineup, suffice to say that it’s a world-class side with a lot to play for, and will be a tough test. They have had problems getting service to Torres without Gerrard, though, so if we can mark him tight and control the midfield, we may be able to keep them off the board. They do like to play balls over the top, though, and Torres has an abundance of both pace and skill, so Fabianski really needs to be careful in deciding when to come out and when to stay back.

Let’s get back on the horse and start a new unbeaten streak. 3 points would be great, but you can never be too disappointed with a draw at Anfield, either. At any rate, all the pressure is on them so hopefully the team can loosen up and put Saturday’s disappointment behind us.

Come on Arsenal.

Gallas–out for season (knee)
Almunia–out 3 weeks (ankle)
Clichy–out 2 weeks (back)
van Persie–possibly fit for Saturday (groin)
Eduardo–possibly fit for Saturday (groin)
Rosicky–”not close to coming back” (hamstring)

That is ummm….not good. In case you needed reminding, Saturday marks the beginning of a brutal stretch of 4 games in 11 days–away to Wigan, home to Villareal, Chelsea at Wembley (FA Cup), and Liverpool at Anfield. The importance of these games cannot be overstated–a good run will see us in the CL semis, the FA Cup finals, and firmly in fourth place in the table with a shot at third. A bad run will leave us without a trophy for the 4th consecutive season and in a dogfight to hold off Villa and/or Everton for next year’s final Champions League spot.

As I said yesterday, I like our substitutes that will be pressed into action (Djourou, Fabianski, and Gibbs), and I’m optimistic that they will hold the fort until we return to health. But with 4 games in 11 days, fatigue is going to be a real issue for our defenders, and the only other healthy defender we have is Silvestre. I hate to say it, but we’re only an injury or two away from a nightmare scenario of going into a big match having to play an out-of-position Alex Song at centre back or Eboue at fullback, or even calling up someone from the reserves to play. Ugh.

As for our strikers, it’s good news that van Persie and Eduardo are nearing health again. Groin injuries are notoriously difficult to treat and easy to reaggravate, so, given that Adebayor, Bendtner, Vela, and Arshavin are healthy, I say let van Persie and Eduardo sit out the Wigan game, or at most use them as late subs if needed. Maybe it’s arrogant and I’m overlooking Wigan a little bit, but we really will need them both against Villareal, Chelsea, and/or Liverpool, which are all much more important games.

All this is concerning, to say the least. But despite all the ups and downs, this team has definitely shown itself to be a resilient group of young men this season that never gives up and can never be counted out. Here’s hoping the lads will get through this and do us proud. Wigan preview coming tomorrow.

Things started off fairly brightly at the Emirates, and Robin Van Persie’s chocolate leg found the back of the net in the 24th minute. He chested down a brilliant long ball from Nasri, flipped it around Carragher and smashed it home. Van Persie continues to either miss everything or finish brilliantly. Not too much to complain about, and I thought that perhaps we’d continue our sublime form against the top four. But the lead didn’t last til halftime. Robbie Keane, everybody’s favorite former Spur, who had been getting behind our backline, latched on to a long punt from Agger to volley home past Almunia. I’ve got to hand it to him – sublime finish.

In fact, a draw was a decent result at the half, considering Gerrard made a meal of a Kuyt cross. Soon, it became evident that a win would be hard to come by. The one player that I thought couldn’t get hurt – Cesc – went in on a 50-50 challenger with compatriot Xabi Alonso and came along worse for the wear, resulting in a substitution for Diaby. At that point, I wrote “game over” in my proverbial notepad. The only question was whether or not Liverpool would steal the three points.

A loss seemed to loom over the fixture after Adebayor was unfairly sent off. I’m not sure if it was a straight red or a second yellow – either way, Howard Webb’s first yellow was questionable, and a straight red for the challenge or Abeloa was harsh. The Togonator put it best:

“The defender threw himself on the floor as if I put a knife in him. I hope when the referee goes home and watches it on the TV, he will see it was a foul but I didn’t deserve a card,”

“Of course I’m annoyed. I cannot say he cheated but what he did wasn’t fair play at all.
“It was a mistake by the ref. He said it was for the leg but if I don’t put my body in there I would never score a goal in this league.”

Before Adebayor’s sending off things were looking shaky, and it seemed to inspire our players for a short spell – although no real threats were made on Pepe Reina’s goal. I was skeptical that a midfield consisting of Abou Diaby, Denilson, Samir Nasri, and Alex Song was going to lead a comeback of ten men. Of the four, Nasri is the only one that I feel comfortable with on the pitch. Not that I have anything against the other three, it’s hard to imagine them striking fear in the heart of the opposition.

With Adebayor sent off and Cesc done for the day and perhaps a few weeks, all that was left was to hope for a draw. It’s a wimpy place to be, but a loss would kill any bit of a title hope this team can hold on to. And they came through, with Liverpool coming close on a couple of occasions. Howard Webb continued to dish out the cards as well, with a total of six bookings on both sides. As the final whistle blow, a sense of what might have been lingered as the players left the pitch. Perhaps a winner could have been found if Cesc hadn’t picked up a knock or if Adebayor hadn’t knifed Arbeloa – but there’s nothing you can do except hope that Chelsea loses today and the deficit remains at 8.

To no surprise, Wenger was angry at the decision:

“It is just an unbelievable decision; if Adebayor goes off, then [Robbie] Keane has to go off in the first minute. It seems we have different rules. The decision cost us two points today, and I do not agree with it all.”

Not sure if I can agree with the decision costing us two points, but I hear his claims. I think the Cesc injury had more to do with it, and this team could struggle mightily with the new skipper out for a undetermined amount of time.

Does this latest result put the title challenge to bed, once and for all? I will cling to the same absurd hope that Wenger seems to bring up whenever he is asked. This team isn’t dead and buried, but they aren’t far from it. Teetering on the precipice of title race extinction is more accurate. It’s hard to see this team coming back to make some noise, but as long as the gap isn’t in the double digits they aren’t all the way out of it. That being said, it’s hard to see anything optimistic, aside from that fact that it wasn’t a loss. Mr. Wenger, you are going have to use that transfer kitty in January. Please?

Looking beyond today, there’s Villa on Friday as well. So they’ll be a chance to make up spots on fourth, but if this team is really going to make any sort of title challenge, a win today is a must. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – no more dropped points. Chime in below if you’re watching near a computer.