By Boris Mellor
February 24 2006

Hardly a coincidence that the return of Kolo and Eboue has seen a much improved defence. Without them there would have been no 1-0 in the Bernabeu.

 Every team needs a spine and against Madrid it was Lehmann, Kolo, Fabregas and Henry. Unfortunately, as ever, the spine is disrupted with Lehmann unlikely to play. Freddy also joins the injury list and only Bergkamp is likely to leave it. The rest including RvP, Cole and Clichy are yet to return.

 

Sparky is promising to kick us off the pitch as he is fed up of being outplayed by us match after match. Don’t bother to write in Blackburn fans, your man has made it clear what his intentions are. He was most disappointed that a game of football happened in the Bernabeu. What was needed was the dour stuff that packs them in at Blackburn. However previous attempts to bully the Gunners, by Savage, Todd and co have failed. Bolton did not bully Arsenal out of the cup, a defensive error did.

 

It’s impossible to predict how Arsenal will play. The thing about youngsters is that are not consistent, and our old timers are not up for it every week. Another issue will be how quickly the team recovers from the exertions of a midweek game in Madrid. Arsenal have a long and unfortunate tradition, of playing poorly after CL games. By the way it’s not just Arsenal that are affected in this way, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U often suffer too.

 

If the spirit of Madrid can be built on, as Kolo Toure has called for, then football should prevail.