Chelsea Preview: My Christmas Wish
689 comments December 27th, 2010
Iiiiiii… don’t want a lot for Christmas,
There is just one thing I need,
I don’t care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree.
I just want this for my own,
More than you will ever know,
Make my wish come truuuuueeee…
AND BATTER CHELSEA.
Paraphrasing Mariah Carey is an unusual way to open a call to arms. It’s noteworthy that Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech didn’t refer to the novelty Christmas singles of any RnB divas. But at this time of year, it felt appropriate. I got some cracking presents this year, but there’s one I’m still waiting for: victory tonight.
Our recent record against the ‘Big Two’ of Chelsea and United is woeful. In our last 11 games in all competitions against Manchester United and Chelsea, we’ve managed one draw and 10 defeats, with five goals scored and 23 conceded. It’s embarrassingly bad for a side with supposed title aspirations. Arsene puts it down to a mental hurdle:
“I believe that my players are quite solid mentally but they have not won yet and that is a mental hurdle everyone in life has to get over.”
Which is all well and good. Except that recent attempts to overcome this particular hurdle have been… well, a bit like this:
Whenever the big occasions come up we freeze, hampered by a metaphorical, psychological handbreak. Arsene’s hype becomes a ball and chain that we drag to another demoralising defeat.
Enough times I’ve come on here and said ‘we have to change it around’. We don’t. If we lose, the pain will have a dull familiarity. The awful truth is that every passing defeat makes failure all the more acceptable.
Instead, we can hope. Hope that this is the day when we finally free ourselves of the shackles of inhibition to play our best football on the big stage. Hope that Cesc, Nasri, Arshavin and Wilshere are able to be at their creative best. Hope Marouane Chamakh is over a bout of fatigue. And hope, against all rational evidence, that our defence has finally learnt to cope with Didier Drogba.
As Arsene has pointed out, our home form between now and the end of the season will be defining. We have Chelsea tonight, then City, United and Liverpool. So far this season, we have three home defeats – just one less than West Ham, who have the league’s highest with four. If we bury that poor form with a win tonight, then we can start to talk realistically about the title.
All yesterday I felt sick. At first I thought it was due to the ludicrous combination of food and drink I had deposited inside myself during the preceding festivities. But then I realised, it was only partly that. More disconcerting was the fact that I had to endure a day in which Manchester United, Spurs, Man City and Stoke all emerged victorious.
Only one thing can make me feel better. Only two things can make me feel better: Rennie, and an Arsenal victory tonight. Do not let me down, boys. I’m not sure my digestive system would cope.
COME
ON
YOU
GUNNERS!
