Grant to Wenger: ‘Piss Off’

By: Jack | March 22nd, 2008

Super Suuuuuuunday. Anyone else think of those local monster truck/car show radio commercials when they here that? ‘Fans, racers, hot rodders’ … ‘Sunday, Sunday, Sunday’

Sorry, got just a tad off track.

Back to the goods. Chelsea and Arsenal are poised to beat the s**t out of each other Sunday in the two clubs’ biggest match of the season thus far — forget defeating that senior discount side at the San Siro Arsene, this will decide your Premiership championship fate. And Grant, well, you know how we feel about you.

Coming off that more than frustrating result in midweek, Chelsea will need to step it up — mainly in defense — if they plan on extending their league home unbeaten run to 78 games. How Grant decides to make sure we’re concrete at the back is unsure. The Telegraph suggests Grant may employ a 4-5-1 to give the team an altogether “more solid look.” Sounds fair; doubt Grant will make that move. I, for one, would start the cleansing by benching Terry, who was atrocious against Tottenham, for Alex (forget the whole captain garbage). But whatever, we’ll see which way he decides to roll.

Possibly the biggest problem for Chelsea is the fitness of Petr Cech. Cech is in a struggle to be first in time for the match, meaning Carloooo will get the nod once again. And while he’s a superb shot stopper, let’s be real, he’s poor on crosses and set pieces. That in itself drains confidence from the backline — and me.

Funny enough, Arsenal, deemed the offensive titan of the Prem, has scored just six goals in their past six matches. Chelsea, on the other hand, have mustered 18 — yes, 18. So, if we’re to believe goals are going to come Sunday then why would we believe they won’t come from the Blue half. Among those principal to our success in that category will certainly be Joe Cole, who is on an absolute tear at the moment. He’s on one of those runs that, for me, has catapulted him into the ‘top 5 players in the EPL’ dicussion. If Joey is on, I think it’s safe to say we’ll threaten.

Crucial to our success will also be stopping Fabregas. His marauding runs and vision will be something Makelele, if he starts, must thwart. How Flamini deals with Lampard-Essien-Ballack will be equally critical. Up top, Drogba is rounding back into form. Adebayor, however, has hit a barren spell. If we do go with one striker, Drogba’s battle with Kolo Toure could take center stage (and I’ll take Drogs all day).

And then there’s the homecomings. If fit, Anelka will be facing the team, and coach, that made him. On the other side, Bill Gallas returns to his old stomping grounds. I’ve always admired Gallas, though I much rather enjoyed him keeping his mouth shut in a Chelsea kit.

Many pundits and the like are favoring Arsenal in this matchup. Explain please. Chelsea, at home, 77 games unbeaten, deep and intimidating roster. Hmmmm. To me, seems like a draw would be a mouth-watering result for Arsene and company. (Then again, Avram is in charge.)

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