Amidst this tight fixture schedule, we should be thankful that we would be playing against Man City, Sheffield Utd and Watford while Man Utd will be playing Bolton and Blackburn. This kind of fixture congestion can be especially bad news when you always have an injury list as is the case with Chelsea. Wayne Bridge is out for three weeks due to a knee injury and Sheva injured his ankle in the training. A possible good news is Jonn Terry starting the match.

Time and again, Jose has said this kind of congestion is only in English Football and in other leagues, it is lot better:

In the next three-and-a-half weeks, my players have to play Premiership against Manchester City, Sheffield United and Watford, Tottenham in the FA Cup and two international matches. We have to play six matches. So of course it worries me not just because of injuries, players get tired. As a manager, I cannot do my work. When they come back from international duty, we play Watford in two days and then Valencia a few days after that. It is very difficult.

Man City are in troubled waters. Ahead of the relegation battlers by hardly few points. They are in a losing streak, the last being the FA Cup exit last week. Not really the ideal time to play the Champions who have not lost or conceded a premiership goal since that fateful match at Anfield. After Man City’s loss to Blackburn in the FA Cup, there is too much speculation about Stuart Pearce losing his job.

Talking of Cup exits, there was one piece of news that truly made my day. William Gallas crying over Arsenal’s multiple cup exits:

Our exit was hard to stomach, I think about it a lot. What made it even harder to swallow was I told my team-mates to be extra careful at set-pieces. We conceded the goal as the result of a completely stupid and needless foul. The ball was in the corner and all we needed to do was to wait. It was down to youthfulness.

We lacked finishing skills. We created far more chances than PSV yet failed to convert a single one. We had to rely on Alex helping us out by scoring an own goal. When you are a top-level footballer, victory is the only thing that counts. But there will be no trophy to lift. We will do all we can to finish third, but that is not the target you dream about. Everybody will motivate himself in his own way, but it is not going to be easy.

People say Arsenal produce beautiful football and that it’s a pleasure to watch us as we create lots of chances, but I look at the statistics. We don’t often score more than one goal in a game. If we can manage to fix that problem next season, we will be really strong. At present we don’t have enough of a killer instinct in front of goal.

Cry bitch and that’s what you deserve. I never thought Billy would bring this kind of value addition to the Arsenal squad. Look at him fingerpointing on the ‘youthfulness’ that caused the costly mistake. Also he says only victory counts. His manager may not see him eye-to-eye on these principles. So funny that he has to say ‘people’ say that they produce beautiful football. That shows that he himself does not believe in this line. His comments have annoyed quite a lot of Arsenal fans and all their blogs talk about this. He must realise that he made a blunder by leaving Chelsea and Jose Mourinho and joined a club which has nothing to play for now and where the manager says this after all their cup-exits:

I’m a little bit lost at the moment.

Such a disgrace and demotivation for the players from the manager. I see them slip below the 4th place and playing the UEFA Cup next season.

When quite a lot of Chelsea-haters have been praying for Roman Abramovich to divorce Chelsea Football Club, he has divorced his wife. That’s his life. Anyway, this has no bearing on Chelsea Football Club. And guys, as most of you know, Roman has set up a 500 million pound trust fund, just in case, he leaves Chelsea.

Back to our match. In the absence of Sheva, we would play 4-3-3 with Kalou and Robben on either wings. I felt that Ballack played well in the last match and he was really giving his best but after 70 minutes or so, he hardly moved. May be he is not able withstand 90 minutes of English football. But I still think he should play and he can be subbed for Maka later on.

With Man City in their current form, we have absolutely no excuse in not scoring the first goal of the match in the first half. In fact, I can go to the extent of saying we should win the match in the first half itself. The width offered by 4-3-3 should pose some problems for Man City. Jose did promise that Kalou would start a couple of matches this week but I dont want Kalou to be used as one of the strikers in 4-4-2. He excels better when he is in the wings with some crowd in the box that he can cross to.

Also I expect Jose to have watched the video of the disastrous first half against the Spurs, alongwith the players. I dont think Jose is a kind of manager who would tolerate repeating of blunders. So, we should not see half a dozen blue shirts going after the ball leaving space behind. If we defend in a decent way and attack as we always do, we should expect a roaring win, that is if strike the first blow as early as possible. Man City are already down. The last thing they want is to concede a lead to the Champions within say, 20 minutes. If we do this, they’re going to concede more, for sure. Terry back, Essien in midfield, 4-3-3 with pacy wingers . . . 0-3.