Cannonballs: Of Cups, Rests and a Finger

9 Vote

by Pittsburgh Gunny

Time to do a little clean up in the wake of the epic draw over the weekend with Manchester United.

First off prior to the United match Arsenal travelled to Bramall Lane to take on Sheffield United in the Carling Cup 4th round. As with most Carling Cup matches I am forced to wait until someone posts the highlights on this wonderful thing called the internet. Last evening I found the highlights and what I watched was some wonderful stuff, even if the audio was some kind of soppy Spanish pop music. Eduardo scored twice in the 8th and 50th minute and Denilson scored in the 69th minute to secure passage into the next round. Seeing Eduardo score twice makes me think that the Carling Cup could be his competition this year. Although his chances with the first team in league play have been limited, Arsene Wenger uses the Carling Cup to help settle in some of the new players into the club thereby building their confidence, Eduardo is the latest. So Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners over the Blades whose defenders reminded me of the barrels I encounter while driving through a construction zone. The next round sees Arsenal face Blackburn Rovers in the 5th round. Earlier in the season we played Rovers at Ewood Park where the teams drew 1-1. Remember that was the last game Jens Lehmann played with the club this season and it was his goalkeeping error which allowed a sharing of the points. Don't look for Lehmann in this match as the goalkeeping will more than likely be handled by Lukasz Fabianski who appears to be our Carling Cup keeper for this season.

The Gunners return to Champions League play today as Matchday 4 sees them travel to Prague to face Slavia Prague. When Arsenal faced Prague on Matchday 3 at the Emirates Stadium the Czechs were completely destroyed 7-0. The Boss is making some line up changes as four mainstays will not be travelling with the team. Both Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb will stay home for a well deserved rest, while Kolo Toure and Tomas Rosicky will stay home due to picking some minor knocks against United. Arsenal have a 100% record in Group H so far and while this will be a slightly tricky match I expect at the minimum a draw which should all but assure Arsenal of a spot in the knockout round.

Finally, ALL HAIL THE FINGER LADY!

Add your Comment

ArmchairGM welcomes all comments. If you don't want to be anonymous, Register or Login. It's free

Main Page About Special Pages Help Terms of Use Advertise