SOCCER ANGLES: Tomorrow's clash between Arsenal and Manchester United will give us a clearer picture of where the challenge to Chelsea will come from
THE TEMPTATION is to be flippant, to say that the most obvious winners from tomorrow’s Arsenal-Manchester United match at Ashburton Grove will be Chelsea.
By the time Arsenal and United kick-off, we expect Chelsea to have pocketed three points from their trip to Turf Moor today and therefore sit four points above United and five above Arsenal.
Once those two have met tomorrow, Chelsea will again have one game in hand, which is at Hull on Tuesday night. If Arsenal and United draw, then by Wednesday morning Chelsea could be six points clear with 15 games to play. That does not seem an unreasonable deduction and if proven correct, then this is Chelsea’s title to lose.
What then are Arsenal and United playing for tomorrow? For second place? Of course not. If there is a winner in tomorrow’s game, they will feel very much part of a title race and will be entitled to point to Chelsea’s last three away fixtures in April and May being at Old Trafford, White Hart Lane and Anfield. Chelsea have negotiated January without Didier Drogba and Michael Essien but there are other potential pitfalls. This could go to the wire.
If Arsenal emerge victorious tomorrow then Arsene Wenger will feel emboldened. This is the second of a four-game run that would test any squad. There has been a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa to begin it, then United come. After that there is a trip to Stamford Bridge tomorrow week followed by a visit from Liverpool three days later.
Victory over United would see Arsenal move into second place and tee up tomorrow week at Chelsea as a potential title-decider.
Wenger has said all along his young squad are capable of sustaining a challenge. We shall see. He did not appear overly concerned to exit the FA Cup at Stoke last Sunday but that leaves Arsenal with two chances of a trophy this season, the two hardest – the Premier League title and the European Cup.
As everyone, including Arsenal fans, keeps pointing out, it is five years since the club won a trophy. They have been defeated finalists and semi-finalists since the FA Cup win in 2005 and each time they have been beaten up close, there has been a fresh wail about Wenger’s philosophy.
One imagines this will get louder should May be potless again. Where is the Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres or Drogba in Wenger’s line-up? You can hear that being asked.
It would probably produce a shrug of the Wenger shoulders. Or he might mention Robin van Persie, out since November with ankle ligament damage. If the moaning got too loud, Wenger could just say yes to Real Madrid’s next phone call.
It’s bound to come. (So there are more than two things at stake this season for Arsenal.) Van Persie played in the 2-1 loss at Old Trafford in August. It was not a game Arsenal deserved to lose, however, Abou Diaby’s eccentric own goal being the difference.
Arsenal are in form as they go into tomorrow, and an argument has been advanced that they will be less drained by the 0-0 at Villa than United will be by their late winner in the emotional League Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City the same night.
Nicklas Bendtner is available again, which will add physicality to the team, as is Alex Song, who is a contender for most-improved player of the season. Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin are added reasons for Arsenal to be cheerful. Wenger has praised his team’s growing “personality”, though take Fabregas out of it and you wonder.
It is not all glee. Tomorrow there is Thomas Vermaelen’s absence and Sol Campbell’s presence. Campbell versus Rooney, it’s one of those clashes that could prove destabilising.
In a week when United pipped Arsenal to Fulham’s Chris Smalling – apparently because United offered more money – the centre half issue has been in vogue. Rio Ferdinand has, in an Alex Ferguson phrase, “taken the poison” of a four-match ban so he could play against City. But United have Nemanja Vidic to step in, rather than bringing back Gary Neville for example.
United should also be buoyant after Wednesday’s drama, as opposed to drained, and a point or three would enhance their sense of momentum. Next up for United it’s fast-unravelling Portsmouth at home.
Considering this month has contained that infamous FA Cup humiliation by Leeds United, the publication of the Glazer family’s debt details and the green and yellow uprising against it, United could well end January in decent shape.
In Smalling they have also made a signing. In the League Cup they have a Wembley final – another one – so they have one more possibility than Arsenal of silverware. Ferguson also has the cushion of the last few seasons’ achievements. If Arsenal lose, the dissatisfaction there will be greater than vice versa.
Milan players pushing on and it shows
THEY SAID David Beckham was like a “waxworks” exhibit in the Milan derby last Sunday night. You just don’t know whether Beckham would see a compliment in that. It wasn’t meant as one, obviously. And it was undeserved. Beckham was far from outstanding as AC Milan lost to an Inter side reduced to 10 men for more than an hour – then to nine men for a couple of minutes in injury-time. But Beckham was not alone in that.
Considering AC Milan host Manchester United in the San Siro a fortnight on Tuesday, they looked a team unprepared for major European knock-out competition.
Beckham will be 35 in May. Around him on Sunday were others in their 30s and while that does not always show, it did against Inter, who were sprightly by comparison.
Massimo Abrosini, captain, will be 33 soon, Andrea Pirlo 30, Gennaro Gattuso was 32 earlier this month. Stand-in centre half for the night was Giuseppe Favelli, who is 38. He was there because Alessandro Nesta was injured, but Nesta has his 34th birthday approaching.
When Milan tried to change the sway of the game at half-time, they introduced Clarence Seedorf, who made his Ajax debut in 1992. He will be 34 in April.
They may have one last hurrah in them, this group growing old together, but it would be folly to bet on it. United have their own older players of course – Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand is 31 – but they have young legs elsewhere.
