Sunday 2 February 2014

Crystal Palace (H)

We came unstuck the other night against and very good Southampton side who broke with pace and quality and on the face of it considering how long it took us to get into the game a point was probably fair. West Ham somehow did us a favour at Stamford Bridge keeping Chelsea two points away. Tottenham, naturally, didn't fare as well and City jumped to top of the table.

With a huge game tomorrow in which Chelsea travel to City where we can hope that a dull draw will be on the cards (HA) we have a chance to re-take top when we take on Palace this afternoon. I'll come onto our transfer which quite honestly have baffled me later. 

The boss has admitted that we're stretched in the middle of the park with Wilshere out, Flamini out and Ramsey out. I think we'll probably go for Arteta and Rosicky in the holding roles. On the flanks I think we'll have Cazorla and then I'm not so sure on the other side. Gnabry has shown a lot of promise but he was struggling against Southampton the other night. With the typical Pulis brand of brutality I think the power of the OX or Podolski would win out. Obviously depending on who would depend on which side Cazorla plays.

We'll need to be on our game though as Palace have been picking up points here and there. They do have a few dangerous players in the form of Jedinak and Puncheon. Chamakh up front should pose no surprises, but the defence will have to be sharp. With the run in we have coming up we need to make sure we don't slip up at the first hurdle.

This presents us with an opportunity make sure regardless of the score tomorrow we'll still be in the top 2 and potentially with a bit of luck go top and with the run we have coming up every point is going to count.

I want to end with a brief bit about our new signing which is just honestly baffling. News began to emerge yesterday that he was injured in his first training session but as the day wore on it actually came out that he had a back problem before we'd bought him. We were told about this and still brought him in. Now bringing in an injured player to cover for injured players is beyond stupid and I personally can't believe Wenger went ahead unless we're missing something...

Anyway on to the football after the madness of the window. COYG!