“United is the biggest game in our careers”

By: Martin | May 4th, 2009

So says Theo Walcott about tomorrow’s semifinal match-up. And he is right–this is just a massive, massive game for the club. Although if Theo stays at Arsenal (new contract, please!), I suspect he’ll play in quite a bit of big games.

There’s good news for a change coming out of the Grove. And that good news is that “Robin van Persie is available and back in the squad.” Silvestre was also in training today, and may be available subject to a late test tomorrow. As we’ve discussed before, we need to bring out all the big guns tomorrow b/c we’re going to have to score some goals, and Robin van Persie has been huge for us all year. It’s also only fitting–when we were at our nadir in late fall and early winter, and looked like we were in real danger of a finish outside the top 4, it was van Persie who stepped up and made a big play time and time again. When you consider what a 5th place finish would have meant (reduced prestige, no Champions League revenue, a possible exodus of talent over the summer) to the club, it’s no exaggeration to say van Persie saved our season. It really would have been a shame if he had labored so hard to pull the club through the dark days and not have been able to play in the spotlight in such a big game.

Wenger has also come out and all but said that Fabregas will be playing in a true central midfield role, because “When Cesc Fabregas plays behind the striker, as he did at Old Trafford last week, the striker looks to be a little isolated.” It’s absolutely right, and a good sign that Wenger is leaning towards fielding our strongest lineup/configuration. Which is:

Almunia

Sagna-Toure-Djourou-Gibbs

Walcott-Fabregas-Song-Nasri

Adebayor-van Persie

As I said, Silvestre may be fit, but does anyone want Silvestre to play ahead of Djourou? I certainly don’t–experience is all well and good, but doesn’t count for much if you’re not actually any good. But if that’s the lineup, I’d feel pretty good with that.

Once again, everyone is saying the right things. Wenger has promised “a magnificent performance.” Cesc has said, “We just have to play our game, be confident we can do it because I know we can do it. Let’s focus on our game, be positive and go for it.”

The media have already put United in the final, and United is already planning their victory parade for when they win the Champions League. Games like this are what dreams are made of, the reason we follow sports/football in the first place. I cannot wait for kick-off, which is still 27 hours away.

But we’ve still got a chance in this thing. We’re only down a goal, and we have not conceded a single goal at the Emirates all season in the Champions League. Granted, we haven’t played a team of United’s caliber, but we have already shown that we can beat them at the Emirates–we sent them packing with a 2-1 win early in the season, a game in which we were without both Adebayor and van Persie. Our options for success are as follows–(1) if we eke out a 1-0 win we go to extra time and possible penalties; (2) if we can keep them off the scoresheet then 2 goals or more will win it; (3) if they score a goal, that gives them the all-important away goals tiebreaker, which means we’ll have to nab at least 3 to move on–tough but not impossible against that defense.

I’ve already given my quasi-motivational speech for why I still believe in this team and think we can still play in the final in 3 weeks. I won’t repeat myself, but I do still feel like that. Look, at this point everyone expects United to go through–they’re the defending champion, the best team in Europe, they’re a goal up, etc. So the pressure is off, we go out there with nothing to lose.

Furthermore, if we can somehow manage to advance tomorrow, it will validate Arsene Wenger’s theory of team-building, which has come under so much fire the last couple of years. The bottom line is that United have a lot more expensive talent than we do. Look, I won’t slag United off as Chelsea–United do actually have a fair amount of players who have come through the academy ranks. But the facts are the facts, and United is not afraid to go out and break the bank for some mercenaries:

Rio Ferdinand–£33 million
Dimitar Berbatov–£30.75 million
Wayne Rooney–£25.6 million
Michael Carrick–£18.6 million
Anderson–£18 million
Nani–£16 million
Cristiano Ronaldo–£12.24 million

By contrast, look at our entire first team that will suit up tomorrow:

Almunia–undisclosed (but probably minimal given that he was playing in the Spanish second division)
Sagna–£6.1 million
Toure–£150,000
Djourou–academy
Gibbs–academy
Walcott–£9.1 million
Fabregas–brought over as youth
Song–£1 million
Nasri–£12.7 million
van Persie–£2.75 million
Adebayor–£7 million

Sum:£38.65 million

So our entire first-team tomorrow will cost slightly more than Rio Ferdinand or Dimitar Berbatov. If we win, Wenger is a genius. If we lose, the accusations of Wenger being too stubbornly set in his thrifty ways will only increase. To understate it, there is a lot at stake tomorrow.

Come on Arsenal.