The great thing about supporting a football team is that despite having so many bad times, there’s always a little speck of light at the end of a very dark tunnel, as fans remain optimistic that the team they support would turn up with a better performance in the next game.
Despite the shocking display at Goodison Park last week Sunday, there has been a lot of tension at the club as many believe that it’s high time the club invests in a new manager. Then there was the Santi Cazorla interview where he spoke about the team’s lack of winning mentality as well as the club’s failures to address it’s depth issues last summer. There are five Premier League games to fight for as well as two potential FA Cup clashes, so the players have to rally themselves and fight for their lives in the club’s bid to end it’s long-standing trophy drought.
As for the issue of the depth of the squad, that remains in the hands of Arsene Wenger or maybe. that new young hotshot that would come in his place. With the club’s financial stability the envy of the football world, Arsenal can compete with their rivals to challenge for major honors but they have to sort a couple of things this summer. With the World Cup serving as a distraction, let’s hope that the club will invest early enough, instead of waiting till September 1, 2014 to make a couple of late signings.
Tomorrow, Arsenal has a date with destiny as the fabled ‘giant-killers’, Wigan Athletic, come to Wembley for a place in the final against either Sheffield United or Hull City. Arsenal’s run to the semis has seen them play three Premier League teams as well as a Championship side but it’s also worth noting that all these games have been played at home.
Tottenham were the first to visit the Emirates in January under the new management of Tim Sherwood and it took two goals from Santi Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky to send the Gunners to the fourth round. A comfortable home clash against Coventry City followed and Lukas Podolski shined the brightest as the Gunners ran riot past their opponents.
Following the 5-1 drubbing in the hands of Liverpool at Anfield, the second game in the space of a week was a cautious affair but the Gunners had enough in the tank to ease past the title challengers and the quarterfinal clash against Everton turned out to be a routine affair as the Gunners gazumped Everton.
It’s also worth noting that the Gunners’ second-choice goalie, Lukasz Fabianski, has been the custodian between the sticks in all these encounters and the manager has confirmed that he’d play tomorrow, despite the fact that Fabianski has set his sights elsewhere after refusing to sign a new deal,
Let’s play on Saturday. You play football on your merit and your performance and he [Fabianski] has turned up with top-level performances until now in every single game. You could say that even after the game, he has done extremely well. He has been man of the match in the three games.
“When you are a professional you work until the last day of your contract. That’s for me being professional. All the rest has nothing to do with professionalism.”
At least we are sure of one player that would grace the starting line up in Wembley tomorrow.
It has been a great run thus far and with Manchester City taking out Chelsea before their shock loss to Wigan in the quarterfinals. If the Gunners were facing the Citizens with their current form, the fans would have been very pessimistic but fate has allowed the Gunners to have a real chance of winning silverware after nine long years.
A match preview of the Wigan game would be published tomorrow morning.
Sayonara.
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