Big 3 ponits , coming Carling cup Final..

By Myles Palmer

Sunday is a must-win game.

Arsenal really, really need that Carling Cup.

Fans need it, players need it, Fabregas wants it badly.

Cesc's family are coming over and he hopes to become the first Spaniard to lift a trophy as captain of an English club. He tweeted emotionally last night and the way he's talking, Birmingham is more important to him than the second leg in Camp Nou.

His hamstring will be assessed today.

All day yesterday, Gooners were telling me that Stoke is a must-win game. At the gym they all said it was a must-win game. On the phone they said it was a must-win game.

Arsenal 1 Stoke 0, Squillaci header.

Jack Wilshere was outstanding last night. Very creative. He had room to play in and used it well.
When Fabregas gave Bendtner a  ball to chase, he won a corner off Huth.

Wilshere took a left-footed inswinger that landed near the far post six yards out. A very dangerous delivery. Stoke like to attack that area with crosses and throws, so they know that is a position of maximum opportunity. Ryan Shawcross headed the ball away but it went sideways to Bendtner, who chested the ball and half-volleyed it across the goal and the unmarked Squillaci headed in from three yards.

After eight minutes, 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Six minutes later Fabregas went off with a tight hamstring and Arshavin came on.

Stoke fought back with a tidy move that ended with a searching ball forward which drew three Arsenal defenders, and Jon Wａｌ ｔｅｒs produced the slickest knockdown of the week to John Carew, who blasted a spectacular half-volley from 25 yards.

Szczesny saved it with his strong right hand.

That was a big moment. Carew tried to score a Drogba goal from distance with a dipping thunderbolt. If that shot goes in, Arsenal could have lost the game.

The Pole is now looking more and more like a young Peter Schmeichel. He’s a goalkeeper with natural authority.

That’s either in your personality or it isn’t. He thinks like that and plays like that because that’s the young man he is. I wasn’t being insulting last week when I called him a gobby young Pole.
He has to shout as his defenders. That’s the way he is. He needs protection, all goalkeepers need protection, and especially Arsenal goalkeepers because they’re playing for a manager who doesn’t teach defence or drill his defence, so they have to improvise a lot, depend on recovery pace a lot, depend on skill to get them out of trouble.

Rather than organisation and good habits. They will need Sagna’s defensive instincts at Wembley. His anticipation could be the difference between winning the game and not winning it.

The team is now on an encouraging run in a season where Wilshere has come good, and Szczesny’s come good, and Nasri’s come good with loads of goals ands assists.

Since Arsenal hammered Chelsea 3-1, they’ve won 12 of their 17 games and lost 1-0 at Ipswich in a Carling Cup first leg. In that time they’ve played moderate opposition like Wigan twice, Leeds twice, Ipswich twice, Huddersfield, Everton, Wolves and Leyton Orient.

Second half last night, Stoke improved, Arsenal hung on.

The details don’t matter What matters is three points and the sequence. Football is a game of sequences and Arsenal's sequence is a good one .

With Theo Walcott out with sprained ankle, Arshavin will get the start at Wembley that he deserved against Chelsea, when Wenger bungled his ｓ ｅｌｅｃｔion. Being an fanatical ayatollah when it comes to his Youth Project, a fundamentalist, he played Abu Diaby ahead of the classiest player in Euro 2008. He only gave Arshavin 14 minutes. After losing that FA Cup semi-final 2-1 to Chelsea, Wenger said he wanted his young side to know they could beat a big team in a big game, but it didn’t work.

It certainly didn’t work for the angry Gooner who wrote to me months later, having taken his three kids to the game. He  said he felt cheated when he got to Wembley and found out that Arshavin wasn't playing.

Eleven days on from scoring the winning goal against Barcelona, Arshavin can score the winner against Birmingham.

Remember, Arshavin is a winner. He has won trophies.

He was the top assists provider when Zenit St Petersburg won the Russian league in 2007 and the top assists man in the Uefa Cup in 2008, when Zenit beat Rangers in the final and Arshavin was man of the match. Barcelona offered 15m euros for him, Zenit wanted 22m, Spurs offered 16m in August 2008.

He was the best player in Euro 2008 but Russia lost their semi-final to Spain, who became European champions on the road to becoming World champions in 2010.

What’s your favourite football cliché? We played the football, they score the goals? It's a game of two halves? One nil is never enough? 

Or is it : Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Arshavin has class, Fabregas has class, Nasri has class. I reckon all three will start the game in Sunday and class will win the Carling Cup.

That’s my preview of the game.

It’s highly unlikely that I’ll write another preview.

We know that Arsenal are better than Birmingham because they beat Birmingham 3-0 at St Andrews on Saturday, January 1st.

What else do you need to know?

Only this : Wenger's been selling us the future since 2005 and that was a helluva long time ago. If a week is a long time in politics, how long is six years in football?

Last night against Stoke it was a big three points and now Sunday is a bigger 90 minutes. Wenger’s credibility depends on it.

Feb 24, 2011