Cup draw and Southampton Away

It was strange thinking about Arsenal playing on a Friday night, it's happened in the past but not very often. However when you look at the stats maybe we should play on Fridays more often. Anyway we beat Coventry fairly comfortably and our reward for that is a 5th round tie at home against Liverpool. Looking at the rest of the teams in the cup we could feel hard done by but that's the cup and with City taking on Chelsea in the same round the winner of our tie will certainly fancy their chances.

Tomorrow gives us a chance to extend our lead at the top of the table, for a day albeit, against a Southampton side who have been a bit of a surprise package in this league and I think Pochetino has done fantastically well. It will be a hard game for us but then every match in this league is hard, Southampton have pace and power and they use them well when they click. They made it hard for us earlier in the season until their goalkeeper decided to show Ronaldo how it's done and gifted Giroud the opener. 

Playing before your rivals or playing after when you're top really makes no difference the simple fact is if you win, you will remain top. We can't go into it hoping that other teams drop points, we go in knowing a win will do the job. Looking around I can't see our North London Rivals taking anything from City, baring a miracle and baring a miracle of biblical proportions I can't see West Ham taking anything from Chelsea either so we treat it as we do every other week.

Following this game we have Crystal Palace then we hit the start of a truly horrific run of fixtures which reads: Liverpool, Man United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich. And that's just the prelude to the quite ludicrous run we have in March but I'll rant about that nearer the time.

In other news there's good news that Ramsey, Vermaelen and Arteta are all back from injury and are available for the game although Wilshere is a doubt for the match. According to all the right people we are still working on contract talks with Bacary Sagna who I think deserves exactly what he's asking for, he's been a servant for the club and this will be his last big contract and I'd love for it to be wit us. He's a fan favourite and the best right back in the league.

Transfer news is slow around us in this window, like most windows to be honest. We shelled out a fortune on Ozil and I really can't see us repeating that despite our obvious need for a striker. I think there is concrete interest in Draxler but firstly I'm not sure he's what we need to kick our season on and secondly I think a January move is far more likely for the young German.

So we take on Southampton tomorrow night and let's hope that we can do the business to keep our title surge going. COYG.   

 

Fulham (H)

We ground out another result on Monday and another three points to take us back to the top after, as everyone predicted, Chelsea, then Manchester City jumped to the top of the pack. This weekend presents us with a potential chance of opening a slight lead against Chelsea as they welcome a very shaky United tomorrow. To do so we'll have to overcome a Fulham side who have been in poor form recently.

Ahead of the tie it seems we will have a few players missing. Rosicky will miss the match after the referee deemed a very bloody broken nose to be unworthy of stopping the match. Nacho Monreal is another doubt after picking up a knock to his ankle on Monday so I think Gibbs will step back into the team. Ramsey and Arteta remain out so I can see the two holding roles being retained by Wilshere and Flamini. Cazorla seems to be rediscovering his form last season so I think he'll start along with Ozil and of course Giroud up front. The right wing however will be interesting. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made his return from the bench against Aston Villa after Serge Gnabry started so they'll jostle for the start. Knowing Wenger I think Gnabry will get the nod as he likes to ease players back in.

Annoyingly Hangeland and Stekelenburg will be back to face us today which gives them experience. Hangeland also gives them power at the back so Giroud could be in for a very physical game. Going up the pitch obviously Berbatov remains a real threat for them and seems to have a worrying habit of scoring against us so our defence will have to keep in quiet. Although Hangeland offers power at the back he isn't the fastest so we will need speed to get through the defence as I think our chances of winning ariel duels could be slim today.

Another important match today where we can't afford to slip up, we go into this game knowing that 3 points means we'll be top for another week and if we do win we'll pile the pressure on Chelsea tomorrow.

Tottenham Hotspur (H)

Well after a nervy 88 minutes of football yesterday, we snatched a victory breaking Welsh hearts. Nicklas Bendtner was in the right place at the right time to blast home after Sagna's header was saved. Unfortunately for him, he got injured before he could even celebrate rolling his ankle and will be out for weeks. Seconds later Walcott who has been in fantastic form clipped his shot over the keeper and we wrapped up the three points. It was the sort of match that a season or two ago we would have drawn or even lost. People talk about grinding out results and that's just what we did.

This weekend however the whole game scape changes. In a match that divides families, defines seasons and that our very own Paul Merson has said is the only time he misses playing football we take on Tottenham in the FA Cup. The draw has made me think about the intensity of this rivalry. It is up there with the big ones, it's by no means a friendly derby and it's also not one simply about two teams a few miles apart. The history of the derby goes back well before all that, but that's for another time.

The thing about this weekends match is that, although both teams are doing well in the league form usually goes out the window for these matches and along with that the fact it's a cup game just adds to the unpredictability. The team that takes it is usually the team that goes the extra yard and wants to win the game more than the other. Hopefully that's us.

At the beginning of the season I said the depth of the squad concerns me and now we are starting to see what I was worried about. We are without Ramsey and Ozil but the midfield is the one area where we do have enough depth so I'm not too concerned there. Up front we are without Giroud and now Bendtner too leaving Podolski who was virtually invisible yesterday or Walcott who I still believe is more effective down the wing. The need for a striker in January is a pressing one although I still don't think we'll see new faces.

I think Arsene will start Podolski again and maybe change it about if it doesn't go to plan. The German is a great player that we know but his style is so different from that of Giroud which means we can't expect him to hold the ball up while players dart off on runs that's just not him. That said we have plenty of midfielders who can find the net when needed. 

It will be interested to see how Tottenham set up having played with two strikers at Old Trafford. It worked for them yesterday but playing a team that can counter attack they will quickly get found out. Whether that's against us will remain to be seen but in this day and age it's a risky tactic. Especially with their full backs who like to bomb forward, they have Capoue who will sit back but on the break we could find ourselves against 3.

Trying to call the game is nearly impossible so we can but hope that we beat them and progress to the next round. A victory would boost moral which could be vital as we enter the second half of the season, along with that it would keep us in another competition which we may need at the end to end our so called trophy drought. COYG!