EskWeston

One thing about the Arsenal is that when things do not go their way (as we say with them against Tottenham in the cup) they do not react well at all. Should they lose the 2 cup games it will affect them i am sure. I can't say i am basing my belief on much but i just think it is going to be extremely tight at the end and any of the 3 teams could win it.

Arsenal did have a big advantage playing on the Monday! We have never done great after the international breaks.........

Arse Run in: Man Utd (A) (FA Cup) AC Milan (H) (C League) Birmingham (A) Aston Villa (H) AC Milan (A) Wigan (A) Boro' (H) Chelsea (A) Bolton (A) Liverpool (H) Man Utd (A) Reading (H) Derby (A) Everton (H) Sunderland (A) In bold are serious potential slip ups. Should they lose the next 2 cup games (very realisitc) then they will lose confidence.

They have some difficult fixtures still to come and are not the most consistant of teams. Should they lose 1 or 2 of their key players then they will definately struggle to keep their spot. I am sure by the end it will be very close and it is too hard to call who could win it.

It would depend on what team he will start with. In these sorts of games a manager will either go with a strong starting 11 with young subs if we are comfortable or he will go with a young team with strong subs if they are struggling. I would guess that Di Santo would be on the bench or starting and as i said i think it is time to give Miroslav Stoch a run out, hopefully with Grant and Roman watching last night he did enough to impress.

I would think at the moment that would be the most likely....

Yup give him the Huddersfield game and then a good loan spell at Charlton would do him the world of good. He is a class player still but needs to play regulary to get to the level where he can play more often for us.

After last nights reserve showing i would say it is 50/50 if Di Santo will play or not. He did well but may not quite be up to speed of the physical nature and pace of the game yet! Could come just too soon for him. Sinclair i am sure will play and did enough last night to earn his inclusion. However if we are going to include any youngsters then there is only 1 person who should get the not and that is Miroslav Stoch, has absolutely dominated the reserves this season and even though he is a little fella he will hold up to the physical nature of the game, i think a lot of excitement would be generated should he play.

.........................Cudicini........................... Ivanovic.....Alex.............Ben Haim....Bridge SWP.........Sidwell..........Lampard....Sinclair ................Di Santo......Anelka................... Wouldn't mind seeing that, debuts for Ivanovic and Di Santo in a relatively safe game. Another chance for run outs for Sinclair, Ben Haim and Sidwell. A game to build up fitness for Lampard and SWP and Anelka to make claims for a regular place.

I see no reason why Ivanovic, Di Santo and Sinclair won't be playing, it will be an ideal time to give them some game time. Would be suprised to see Sahar get a game. Also Terry is not going to be fit.

Hmmm, Essien wasn't the sort of player i had in mind. I was thinking more of a creative spark who can open teams up. In an ideal fantasy world playing 3 in midfield and on the basis of 2 for every position i would look for these sorts of players: Defensive midfield: Mikel, Essien Central Midfield: Lampard, Ballack Attacking Midfield: Modric, Van Der Vaart ................DM............... .........CM...................... .....................AM.......... This for me would create the perfect midfield balance.

I don't believe Arsenal have what it takes to kick on from here and take the league with the lead they have. They might well win the league still but i believe that it will go right to the wire with us and Man you in a 3 way fight with the Arse.

So would you go for something like this for the final against the spuds: ...........................Cech........................... Belletti..........Alex............Carvalho....A.Cole J.Cole............Mikel.........Ballack..........Kalou .................Drogba.........Anelka................. Subs: Cudicini, Ben Haim, Lampard, Malouda, Shevchenko Wouldn't be so bad would it?

Would be great to see Ivanovic and Di Santo in this game. With the CL game days later there will be a lot of players rested for that, could be a chance to try out some new combinations.

Nah, Joey was a good boy yesterday and sensibly stayed away from any tackles I agree i think 4-3-3 will remain in place, but only if Kalou can continue his form because i don't believe it is effective enough with Malouda or SWP on the wings especially for the bigger games. If we was going for a 4-4-2 i think the Mikel and Ballack central combination would be the best to go with.

Lol, bit hard to call though isn't it. 9 straight wins and 2 draws isn't bad, plus a cup final in 2 weeks time. I wouldn't say Liverpool was inventive, they had 2 outlets long ball to Crouch and the ball to Babel who had the beating of Belletti...

I would not be suprised at all if Kalou was our top assist maker. And Cech was another of the good performers. Some big choices to make now for the team - formation, team selection ect... can Anelka play on the wing and play with Drogba? Will we go for 2 up top? Midfield 3 or 4?

Kalou has been pretty impressive all season to be honest, a real livewire that defences can't handle, his assists and goals have been first class this season, can't wait to have him back. Good call on Ashley Cole, it was obvious from the start he was a man with a point to prove and he did very well. Mikel was class when he came on but Riccy and Alex again were very solid.

Everything about that game yesterday was dour, Liverpools game plan was to completely stifle the game and pump long balls up to the freak! we had no invention in our team to open the game up and it turned into a bore-fest! Time will tell in these circumstances i feel. If the man isn't good enough to manage the team, sooner or later it will be shown up! If it isn't shown up and we keep on winning then great. Happy Days either way

Thought Mikel did very well replacing Lampard and it had an impact on the control of our play. Malouda is a very odd player for me, in general his performances are not that great but he will pop up once or twice a game and do something to make an impact, he is a little lightweight too. Kalou would have been ideal with Joe on the right and SWP down the middle because the scousers love it when the game is slowed down and they would have struggled with them.

I just can't see how any other manager could have done any better since Jose left. With injuries and the ACN added to the turmoil of losing our most successful manger we have gone on to be challenging for all 4 cups still in February.......... Until things start going tits up we have nothing to complain about. I can understand people are not happy about not beating the Scousers which is why there has been an upsurge in the posts on the anti-grant threads, but we didn't lose and games against the other big 3 clubs can go either way all the time and seasons are not won on those games.

God forbit anyone should say anything negative about those scumbags!!!!

I wouldn't say that. What manager in their right mind would come into a team like ours with the players we have in the middle of the season and try and changes things around too much, it is suicide and would have left us struggling to compete in anything. Come the start of next season there will more than likely be a lot more changes, the fact is we don't have the players for a fast attacking style of football.

Bottom line of that game was that our passing was poor, actually it was beyond poor it was bloody awful!!! SWP isn't half the player when played on the wing, either play him inside or not at all. Our attacking threat was cut down by Lamps and Ballack both being man marked and Maka isn't going to get forward and with SWP being non-existant the only threat we had was from J.Cole and Anelka. We are definately missing a cut and thrust impact player in the central midfield which SWP has brought to us but we need someone who can do it even better. We played a lot better when Mikel came on and brought some decent passing to the midfield at last. We needed to win that game and it was an oppertunity missed with Man you losing.

Lol bold talking there. If you read between the line though he is actually saying "We will sell for 30 million Euros"..... for the right price they will sell. We should have paid what they wanted in the summer, outstanding player.