Vamos a Villarreal
Add comment April 6th, 2009
So, just a few hours until I board my flight to Barcelona, which will put me within a few hours drive of Villarreal, where tomorrow night I will stand among friends and strangers, all Arsenal fans, aiming to bring home that most valuable of trophies: AN AWAY GOAL.
The squad has been announced, and the good news is that Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott have been passed fit. Robin van Persie hasn’t made it, and Eduardo, Diaby, and Tomas Rosicky all remain on the sidelines.  Van Persie’s unavailability clears up a selection headache for Arsene: I imagine the team will be almost identical to the one that beat City, with Nasri coming in for the cup-tied Arshavin.
Emmanuel Adebayor will provide a focal point for the attack, and Arsene Wenger is confident the titanic Togolese is back on track:
“I believe he was like the team with a start that was not completely convincing and now he is back on track. He looks confident and is determined again. And his body language is positive. He is there to get on the end of crosses, and we have a few players who can do that.”
Whilst we do have a few players capable of scoring headers, no-one does it with the same regularity as Adebayor. Something like a goal from a set-piece could decide our European tie, and Adebayor will be a potent weapon on that front. The player himself, who scored in both legs of our quarter-final defeat to Liverpool last year, seems determined to go all the way this time:
“As a player, you always dream of winning things. When I joined this club, I was told by most of my friends and team-mates that I had a great chance of winning something. But for the last three years I have gone on holiday having not won a trophy and with an empty heart. Now it’s the time to achieve things. I didn’t watch the Champions League last year [after we went out]. I switched off as I couldn’t bring myself to watch it. That means I will do everything and give everything to play in it and once you are in the Semi-Finals anything can happen.”
Finally, tomorrow will see Robert Pires face Arsenal for the first time since his departure in 2006. Arsene has expressed his regret at the way Pires’ Arsenal career ended, and warned we’ll have to watch the veteran playmaker very closely. All I can say is that whatever happens in the game, I’ll probably be singing Pires’ name loudly. He is a genuine Arsenal legend.
That said, I hope he gets thrashed tomorrow. Come on you Gunners.
ps. Not sure how much I’ll be able to update out there, but I’ll do what I can.
