Almost zero hour to kick off on Charity shield day...and despite the best efforts of neutrals (United fans mostly) to scoff at the occasion calling it nothing more than a ''pre-season friendly', this will not be your regular run-out in the sun. Pride, self belief and Squad morale will be on the line today. The occasion will showcase two clubs who have over the past few years come to represent the opposite ends of football Oligarchy in England...Arsenal the ''have-nots'' and Mancity the ''haves''. As far as results go, the London Club has repeatedly come off worse both on and off the pitch in recent times. Stats show we have won just once in our last 8 games with Mancity (Lost 4 drawn 3). Not to mention the exodus of stars we have lost to them, some of whom were very much against our will. It is the latter antecedent that has mainly contributed to making Arsenal vs Mancity games more intriguing than previous years. Just the mere sight of previously worshipped Arsenal heroes now clad in Skyblue facing their ex-team mates will always remain a surreal aspect of this tie, as attested to by Rosicky himself in an interview. However, this is an Arsenal team driven by a hunger never felt by any previous Arsene Wenger side in the last 7 years. Only few of the present team ever played with Clichy, or Nasri so little or no sentimental affinity will be in the air. This Arsenal side,(arguably) less talented individually than the Vanpersie, Fabregas,Nasri, Arshavin team appear a stronger side mentally and having tasted success recently on the same Wembley pitch where today's game will be played, will surely be up for this big time.
Make no mistake, this is a huge examination for us. If comments in the media are anything to go by, it looks like we convinced none of our critics with our FA Cup win last season. I say this because the daggers are already being drawn again about how slim our chances are to win anything this season. Its back to comments like: ''Oh Arsenal will still struggle for 4th'', ''Yes they may have won the FACUP, but can they win the league?'', ''Their trophy drought is over, but has a new one Begun already?''... These are some of the stuff i read and you get the feeling, we aren't out of the woods yet. The team knows the scrutiny out there still persists and probably understands that they (the players), the fans and the Club as a whole need to keep answering these doubters with further success on the pitch... And what better way to do that than by thrashing City today at Wembley.
Victory however will not mean we will sweep all to the title come May next year, No...but as far as the psychology of the team is concerned, it will be a massive shot in the arm. We are at a point where we are still building confidence after several years of gut-wrenching disappointment from serial failures on and off the pitch; so lifting the Charity shield will demonstrate significant progress in that context. The boss claims we aren't as financially disadvantaged as we were in the dark years of 07,08, and 09...and can compete with the biggest cats in Europe now..pointing at the signing of Ozil and Sanchez as proof of his claim..All said and done, its on the pitch Arsenal will be judged and the jury will be out today in abundance, no doubt about that.
Little is known regarding team news as of writing this, but its expected that the make up of the team will consist of those who prosecuted the Emirates cup. Debuchy, Chambers, Campbell and Sanchez are set to be involved, whilst the World cup winning Germans will play no part. Girouds participation is in the air following an indifferent Emirates cup outing..but if his fitness is better now, expect him to be involved. Mancity will be without 8 players, Sagna will not be involved,while Negredo is injured. Zabaleta, Demichelis, Fernandinho, Kompany and Arguero who were all involved in the latter stages of the Worldcup are unavailable.
Weakened as Mancity may appear, any approach other than total commitment from the Lads will see us at the end of a bad result, which you'd agree with me,we don't want to begin the new season with.
..Promises to be exciting...c'mon Arsenal
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