So the weekends histrionics are over, another last ditch winner from Nicklas Bendtner moved us within a point of United and three points of Chelsea at the top.
There’s only so many last minute winners you can score; there team spirit seems fantastic, the determined and never say die attitude is commendable beyond description, but when the injured list page has had to be turned over and continued everything is not looking quite so rosy. It has appeared players have dropped like flies this season – at the moment they are dropping like they have concrete blocks attached to their feet in the middle of the Atlantic.
The list in endless, Alex Song and Carlos Vela have not even traveled and Tomas Rosicky is “50-50″ to play tonight. All added together the absentees amount to pretty much half the side we fielded last week, its getting beyond a joke and something has to be done about it, its going to cost us silverware this season if we are being realistic.
The likelihood of Silvestre starting alongside Vermaelen is real. Sol Campbell has a muscular problem and after playing at the weekend too, you just cant see him starting at the Nou Camp, just another blow to a side that quite frankly is on its last legs. Its worth pointing out that Barca have a couple of missing players too but nothing comes close to the losses we have, theres no point defeating ourselves before the whistle has gone though, I believe we can win – and if its pulled off it will be one of (if not the) greatest win in the clubs history.
The team need to believe, to not let their heads drop if things don’t go their way – they have to stand up themselves, there’s no Cesc, van Persie or Arshavin to pull them out of a hole and fix everything. The players have to fight for every ball, give 100% and if that happens and we win I’ll be delighted. If we lose, I’ll be gutted but proud.
Everybody knows how good Barca are, the only good thing is they can’t be as good as last week – its nigh on impossible.
Now its our turn.
Enjoy the Barca sun all you people over there.
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I think the question is not so much can Barca be as good as they were last week, because I would agree that would be near impossible. The question is will we be as bad as we were in the first 50 or 60 minutes of last week. With a squad as depleted as it currently is, that is much more a possibility. The one thing that I am hopeful of is that if Diaby can rise to the level that he has played at for the last few months (as opposed to what was displayed last Wednesday), and really aggressively attack the ball and frustrate Barca’s possession, perhaps Almunia won’t have to make 10-20 brilliant saves.
Key to tonight: keeping the ball.
If we can do that then we may just have a chance. If we don’t – we’re sitting ducks and will be shot down. It won’t matter what team we put out if we don’t have the ball. That Barca team has, on average throughout the tournament, an 89% pass success rate. Thats basically 9 out of 10 passes successful. I think that sums up the necessity of keeping the ball and not losing it stupidly.
I anticipate the worst but I can see a way of winning if Wenger gets his tactics right and the players aren’t over-awed by the Nou Camp. But, as we all know, its a tough ask.