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!
