My Wembley dream is over again after my beloved Watford lost 2-1 to Tottenham in the Carling Cup quarter-final last night. Watford were outclassed but not humiliated, so in these fairly desperate times for the Hornets, I’ll settle for that.
‘Nice prediction’
With my team out of the cup, at least I’ve got my world renowned skills of prediction to to turn to! Yesterday, as well as predicting in hope rather than belief that Watford would win, I confidently predicted that Blackburn would beat a weakened Manchester United side at Old Trafford. As ‘Kids Soccer’ said in the comments on my article, ‘nice prediction Fisher.’!
As it turned out, Manchester United put on a wonderful show, beating Blackburn 5-3. It could have been more and only a lack of concentration allowing the visitors to score twice in the last six minutes made the game seem closer than it actually was.
Formidable
We have all marvelled at Arsenal’s reserves this season, rightly so, when they destroyed Sheffield United and Wigan. It all came to an end at Burnley the other night, but they are a pretty formidable young side.
What is scary for the rest of the Premier League about last night’s Manchester United win is that against an almost full strength Blackburn, United achieved the result without, Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Ji Sun Park, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.
Remarkable
Just eighteen year old Rafael Da Silva remained from the team that beat Manchester City on Sunday. That is remarkable. That is what you call strength in depth!
The difference between Arsenal’s Carling Cup side and Manchester United’s Carling Cup side is that Arsenal’s brilliant team consist almost entirely of promising teenagers. United can turn to the likes of Ben Foster, Gary Neville, John O’Shea, Nani, Anderson, Ryan Giggs and Carlos Tevez.. These are not promising players, they are experienced Premier League, international players who have been there and done it.
Learn
How wonderful it must be for the likes of Evans, Gibson, Possebon, Welbeck and Manucho to learn from playing alongside these types of players. The Arsenal youngsters have to do it on their own. How they would benefit from playing alongside Gallas or Fabregas or Adebayor.
The star of the show for United last night was the twenty-four year old Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez. He chipped in with four goals. It was a timely reminder to Sir Alex Ferguson of just how good he is. He could have done little more to stake a claim for a place in the team at the weekend.
Dilemma
It is an interesting dilemma for Sir Alex. Does he stick with those two average strikers Rooney and Berbatov or does he bring in Tevez? Does he keep faith with Carrick and Fletcher or will Anderson or Giggs get the nod? Will Park keep his place or will Nani come into the side? Does he stick with young Da Silva or turn to the experience of Gary Neville?
How many of these type of selection issues have the young Arsenal Carling Cup side actually given Arsene Wenger? Good and promising though the youngsters are, how many of them are genuinely challenging for a first team place?
Confidence
I believe this is the major difference between the two clubs. Edwin van der Sar knows that if he has a couple of bad games, Sir Alex will bring in either the Polish international Tomasz Kuszczak or the England international Ben Foster. If Almunia slips up, will Wenger really turn to Fabianski with any confidence?
The dilemma that Tevez has given Sir Alex Ferguson in his front line is a genuine one. Have Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela really made Wenger consider leaving out Van Persie or Adebayor?
Competition
There we have the reason why Manchester United will challenge for the Premier League title and Arsenal won’t. United have competition for every position on the pitch. Arsenal don’t.
Having made that very bold statement, Arsenal fans should rejoice because my prediction skills are such that the Gunners will now almost certainly run away with the Premiership and leave me with even more of the proverbial ‘egg on my face’ than I already have!
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