i’m glad big Per hasnt given up the possibility of exit from the Champions League in the same way he gave up his composure on a lacklustre Wednesday evening against an extremely beatable Monaco side.
The tall German was the voice of the team yesterday in the aftermath of the debacle less than 24 hours earlier and said that we have to believe we can re-address the balance when we visit the principality in a few weeks time. I’m glad he still has belief, because I’ve been knocked back too many times this season to think that the impossible can happen. Still, let’s cast the Champions League to the deepest, darkest, recesses of our minds, shall we?
After all, we’ve got two league games and an FA Cup quarter final to concern ourselves with before we need to start any rain dances or stroking any four leaf clover covered rabbits feet.
Arsène will meet the press today and after a gritty win at Palace I bet he wasn’t expecting to face the media with the mood suddenly plummeting. None of us were if we’re all honest. I thought this was the beginning of a run to the end of the season that could see dreams escalating to possible glories, yet when Le Boss faces the hacks today, it will be as if our good run of form never existed. The tired clichè that “you’re only as good as your last game” will never have felt more damaging to morale.
Yet Arsène needs to put on a brave face. This next week and a bit is where he earns his quite sizeable crust. Three wins in the next tens days and the garden is full of bloom again. Victory against Everton, QPR and United away (or at least a draw in that last one so we’re still in the FA Cup) and we repair the already fragile confidence, going in to the return leg with a least a smidge of form.
I do wonder if Arsène will play the ‘little bit injury’ card on some players today. He’s said himself in the past that he has spared players’ blushes by saying they’re injured when they’ve actually been dropped, so I do wonder after the midweek performance, if there will be cause for rotation against the Toffees. All will be revealed in the next few hours I suspect. Personally I’d like to see Ospina, Mertesacker, Özil and Giroud all being given time on the sides to prove their place isn’t secure, but with the latter you do wonder if that would just smash his almost certain drop in confidence further. Perhaps the manager will decide that these players will need to play themselves out of their midweek dip?
Do you know what’s equally as annoying as the defeat? We can’t even really laugh at Liverpool or the Spuds getting knocked out, because our result will just leave us open to counter-ribbing. Annoying, that.
I’m just coming in to Wembley Park tube station. It’s a bright sunny morning, there’s not a cloud in the sky and the national stadium is glistening. What a way to make it up to us fans it would be if Arsène could steer us to that place in May for the FA Cup final.
Let’s leave today’s blog on that positive note, shall we?
Catch Ya later.
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