Cannonballs: A Win, a Draw and a Derby

13 Vote

by Pittsburgh Gunny

What a busy week it has been so far for Arsenal. The week opened for the Gunners at Ewood Park on Tuesday against Blackburn Rovers in the Carling Cup. Earlier in the season the Gunners travelled to the north to face Rovers in the League and left there with only one point. That was the last time many Arsenal faithful saw Jens Lehmann in between the sticks. Arsenal ended up drawing with Blackburn in that match 1-1. For the Cup Tie it would pretty much be a completely different line up that Arsene Wenger would send onto to the pitch to face Rovers. As is his custom Le Boss sent out his young guns and rested many of the senior players who had performed so well against Chelsea the previous Sunday. And wouldn't you know it, Arsenal come away with a 3-2 extra time win to advance to the Carling Cup semi-finals. The winner came from Eduardo da Silva in the 105th minute. The dear Eduardo seems to have settled in nicely in Carling Cup and Champions League play but has yet to really make an impact in League play. What is even more impressive to me is that Arsenal had to win the match after being down to 10 men when Denilson was sent off just prior to end of the regular 90 minutes. So an opening goal for Abou Diaby and then two from the Crozilian and Arsenal are through to the semi-finals.

Today the draw was held for the first knockout stage of the Champions League, without too much blather here are the pairings.

Celtic	vs	F.C. Barcelona
Lyon	vs	Manchester United
Schalke	vs	F.C. Porto
Liverpool	vs	Inter Milan
A.S. Roma	vs	Real Madrid
Arsenal	vs	A.C. Milan
Olympiacos	vs	Chelsea
Fenerbahce	vs	Sevilla

Interesting Arsenal draws one of the oldest teams in the competition in AC Milan who are not only defending Champions of Europe but are now World Champions as well I suppose. They just triumphed over Boca Juniors in the FIFA World Club Cup that was held in Japan. That tournament it seems featured not only Milan and Boca but also a couple of pub teams so there you go, a real hard fought competition there. Some fans were dismayed that Arsenal did not win their group and ended up in Pot B for the draw, not me though. I say in order to win the toughest tournament in world you gotta face the best and why not start out with those geezers from the San Siro.

Finally this weekend sees Arsenal travel a few miles down the road to that pox ridden land of sp*rs for the latest installment of the North London Derby. Earlier in the season the Gunners slashed through that rabble at the Emirates 3-1. The rematch comes at a great time as Arsene Wenger will have one of the fullest squads he has had in a while to choose from. Theo Walcott appears to be the only one set to miss it with the flu. Plus with the young guns performing so well against Blackburn it will be fascinating to see who the boss sees fit to play. Oh, and if two North London derbies aren't enough for one season then why not add a third and a fourth. Arsenal were drawn against sp*rs in the Carling Cup semi-final first leg to be held on January 9. Oh how I would love it to see the young guns toss sp*rs out of the Cup again.

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