Match Report - with newcastle
It may seem a forlorn hope but Arsène Wenger is trying to make tonight’s trip to Newcastle as pressure-free as possible.
Anyone influenced by the pre-season predictions surrounding Arsenal would have been ecstatic to be three points clear at the top of the Premier League with over a third of the fixture list played. Well that’s the position they will be in if they LOSE tonight at St James’ Park. Their lead will be doubled if they win.
However, at the same time, an away victory would sharpen the criticism directed at Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce at the moment. His Bolton outfit may have been Arsenal’s bogey side for most of the last decade. But since moving to Newcastle, ‘Big Sam’ has struggled to mould a team with a similar ferocity.
“[The pressure] is a bit harsh,” said Wenger. “But firstly I don’t know if it is true and secondly I don’t know what is really going on inside the club. However if the speculation talked about is true then it is surprising as he has just been appointed.
“For me Newcastle has a big support. Every time you go up there, you feel there is a great potential within the club. But of course in order to turn things round you need time.
“As for us, we have a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our lead in the Premiership, and we want to take this chance like we did at Aston Villa. Villa can be very inspirational for us because they were the first of three [away games] and we dealt very well with the situation. Now we play our game in hand and that is what our focus is on.
“We are not going into this game in the situation that if we don’t win it is bad. [The situation is] one of ‘if we make it’ then it can be a great excitement for us.”
Arsenal are without four midfielders. Alex Hleb (hamstring) and Mathieu Flamini (thigh) picked up injuries at Aston Villa on Saturday. They join Cesc Fabregas (hamstring) and Abou Diaby (back) on the sidelines. Denilson has been drafted in to the squad to help plug some of that gap. Striker Robin van Persie is still out.
Although Wenger’s side rightly won huge admiration for their first-half display at Aston Villa on Saturday perhaps the second half was more important. For years we have known Arsenal can play the beautiful game. Fraught one-goal victories away from home with their backs firmly against the wall have been less easy to come by. Especially when they have arrived on the back of a deeply disappointing defeat.
“First of all the Villa game will give us the belief that at 1-0 down away from home we can come back, like we did before at Emirates,” said Wenger. “That will strengthen our belief that, no matter what happens, we can come back and win the game.
“In the second half our level dropped and overall in that game we were both brilliant and resilient. We have shown that we don’t give in and we fight for each other. Even if our football is not as fluid as we want it to be, we can still come out with a good result.”
Given the pressure on the home manager, the visiting one may require a similar kind of approach this evening. |
發表於 2007-12-6 12:28 AM
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