Arsenal v. Middlesbrough: match preview

This will either be a wonderfully successful moment or a tremendous failure, and I don’t just mean the game. It’s damn near midnight (will be past when I’m done) and I just returned from a wonderful party at my friend Alex’s house and I’ve had quite a bit of ‘tipple.’ So maybe the blog will reflect life in a sense? Maybe we’ll all wake up and watch a drunken Arsenal play a stone cold sober Middlesbrough tomorrow morning. That’s a scary thought considering what’s at stake in the morning.

What?

Oh you’re like my friend and thinking “why should I care about this game? Why should I get up at 8am (10:30pm in Antipodea) and watch Arsenal play ‘Boro in a game in which, frankly, we’d all like to see ‘Boro pick up some points.

Well, let me tell you why.

First, and most importantly, 3rd place is still in play and 3rd place is still important. I’ m not going to bore you with details about how 4th place in the EPL now means open qualification in Europe and thus potentially a first round qualification against the likes of Roma rather than Twente Enschde. No, I’d rather point out that 3rd place is 9 points away owing to Chelsea’s lucky escape from West Ham earlier today, and so Arsenal need maximum points from here on out to shove 4th place down Nicolas Anelkas throat.

Second, ‘Boro has had a bit of success against Arsenal in recent times and who wouldn’t like to relive the 7-0 lashing we put on them back in January of 2006: when Henry scored a hat-trick and surpassed 150 goals.  I would love to see Arshavin get 3 goals and inspire Arsenal to a famous win. Recent history suggests that a draw is more likely, but with Arshavin anything is possible.

Anyway, I don’t have any more sqaud news than you do, at the moment, so I suggest you check the feeds first thing in the AM. And I suggest you get up first thing and root for the Arsenal, they are your team after all!

0 comments

  1. What a snore, I should have stayed in bed instead of watching that on crappy stream with Arabic announces.

    Couple nice looking goals, and Adebayor is total crap. That’s my synopsis.

  2. Game was decent Matt, not sure why you thought it was a snore. It wasn’t exactly a high tempo 4-4 but Boro made it way too easy and with the CL in mid-week the team had no reason to try to rack up a high scoreline. It was still very interesting to watch because the midfield worked very hard and played some nice passing. Nicky B was mostly anonymous again aside from his flick in the build up the first goal. He missed some of his chances as well, as usual. As I said Ade had no reason to run his socks off so why do you want some high level game every week? So we can be tired for one of the most important game of the year? Great management there. The fact that it was so casual for the last half hour or so leaves us fresh and without injuries as far as I could see. The previously injured got a bit of game time to get back into the groove and I’m ready for the Mancs to go down!!!

  3. @WC Calm down. It was a quiet 90 minutes and the game was pretty much in hand the entire time. I love the three points, but considering the result was never really in doubt (did Boro even field 11 men today?), I stand by my snore comment.

    Also, it was damn early for a Sunday, and I was watching the match on a stuttering 2″ x 2″ stream with Arabic announcers.

    @Carbidkid The next two league games are on FSC, and the CL are of course on the easily accessible ESPN. So that makes me happy.

    I am already excited for Wednesday. I can already feel the stomach churn.

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