Arsene : 1000 games a Manager , Chelsea Preview

Usually I have a title of a post way before I start writing, I might tweak it in the end when I’m done but I usually always do have a title before I start. However, I didn’t for this post largely because it was hard to determine what I really wanted to focus on, the game which in itself is huge and could determine our title hopes this season? Or the Manager who sends his team out for the 1000^th time today in England a momentous feat in itself especially in an era where coaches have lifetimes shorter than cigarette stubs.

Hopefully this is a not a problem the players should have as after all is said and done as historic as the event is Wenger would have many more games after this one and a victory in this game might spur them to a title winning run whose memory would last longer than Wenger’s number of games.

What Wenger has achieved at Arsenal is immense and loads have been written about him on almost every blog and mainstream media. For some of us Wenger is the only Arsenal manager we have known and just reading what Gooners who have experienced Arsenal before Wenger describe the change that has occurred under his tutelage is very engaging and provides some serious learning points.

There has to be something galactic about this match and Spurs before it. It seems the stars and other galactic bodies are trying to give us a sign or something.  Wenger’s 999^th match was against our eternal neighbours (not rivals because we are not in the same class), Spurs and his 1000^th is against Chelsea managed by a man who recently called him a specialist in failure. Wouldn’t it be just fitting that he marks this event with a huge win at the bridge? A place where the self-acclaimed specialist in success has never seen failure? I don’t know about you but even I a huge non-believer in all this zodiac thingys seem to seeing some pattern here.

Tried to have a mental picture of what the headlines would have been going into this game if it wasn’t clouded by the #Wenger1000 tributes

Daily Sun – Title Decider, Will Wenger Fail yet again?

Mirror     – Rumble at the bridge, Wenger set to Stumble again

Daily Mail – Ozil-less Arsenal set for special failure at Mourinho’s fortress.

The game is a near must win for Arsenal if we intend to remain in contention for the league and it’s hard to take in the fact that we are the only top team not to have beaten United and aside from Liverpool we haven’t beaten a top side this season. Chelsea has Willian and RamiDIVE out of this encounter from the defeat against Villa last week but I don’t think it hampers them any bit. They have a squad that can very well cope with players missing for a few games and in any case our situation with injuries and suspensions is worse than any other club all season.

Mou all season has tried to shift the attention from his team perpetually claiming they are the little horses is a four horse race. First he went on against Arsenal with the claim of the fixture list helping us and went after City and how they are the outright favourites because he is building a team for the next billion years and City are for the now and currently he has moved it to Liverpool due to the fact they play in only one competition. Everybody but Chelsea are the favourites to win the league ,I wonder who he really thinks believes all this stuff he says and then the media goes on to write it like he is playing mind games. At some point someone has got to call it what it really is borderline stupidity. Seriously, what’s all these minds games, it’s almost like someone is questioning your intelligence. If you tell me something with a view to influencing how I reason or just to annoy me and I know that you are doing it with a view to influence me or annoy me how is that any mind game. It’s just plain me knowing what you doing and there is no game in it and its definitely not working on anyone’s mind that doesn’t allow it be worked. You read mind game so much you begin to think he is a chess master picking all the other managers queens. Good thing Yaya Toure and Fabregas put him in his place.

And that’s exactly what I hope Wenger does tomorrow with his team. Beating Chelsea would be hard but it’s not impossible. Mou might crash to Villa but he knows how to set up his team to play the big sides and it would be interesting to see how Wenger counters that even though we know even if Wenger was playing against an Inter-Galaxy eleven he would still set his team the same way. Sadly Ozil and Ramsey are out of this encounter but Oxlade and Rosicky are great additions to the side. Somewhat sad that Gnabry hasn’t gotten the run we expected he would have with Walcott out but he still has all his best football in front of him and Rosicky has shown time and time again why wine tastes better with age.

The Spurs game was crying out for Flamini at some point and I would love to see if Wenger goes in with him and Arteta shielding the defence or start with just one of them. This game is huge and a win here for us would be worth more than 3 points but I’ll very well settle for a point rather than lose it knowing fully well that with about 9 games to go like Aston Villa showed points can still be dropped anywhere. Giroud was lost against Spurs hopefully he would have found himself for this encounter and nothing would give me more joy than seeing our top striker killing a big team. When was the last time we saw that? Messi, Zlatan, Suarez, Costa, Ronaldo, Aguero have given their respective fans reasons to be scream this season, Giroud is well over due one in a big encounter.

Its Wenger’s 1000^th and it presents a great occasion to pull the spectacular, hopefully the man who says his job is to give the people who work hard all week something to enjoy on Saturday and Wednesdays will have something to enjoy himself. Cheers!

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