A New Look, A New Season, A New Captain

Summer signing Mark Hudson has been named as The Addicks new captain for the 2008-09 season, replacing Matty Holland.

I must admit, I've not seen enough of Hudson to comment on him as a player or captain but its a big change for the coming season and I'm sure that Matty H will take it in his stride - I hope that it takes a bit of pressure off him and will allow him to really enjoy the season!

I think it makes sense having a centre-half as the captain this season, particularly given we need the experiance back there!

Either way.... the countdown has started.... bring on saturday!!

T - 48 Hours and Counting......

Its 48 hours until the kick off of the 2008-2009 Coca-Cola Championship Season, 48 hours until we are all back at the Valley for the start of what we are hoping will be a huge season for the Addicks. I can’t wait for the season to kick off. I’m nervous and I think its going to be a long and frustrating season, but I’m confident that with a few additions to the side we will have that formula needed to progress back to the Premiership.

I thought I’d put down a few thoughts about the forthcoming season, the squad and just some general comments as we countdown to kick off.

The Squad
With the squad numbers announced for the season, we can now decide which player’s name we will get put on the back of our replica shirts (which the club shop might not have in the necessary size due to unprecedented demand!), but I’m not so sure we are all confident about what the starting eleven will be come Saturday. It’s always bemused me why players opt for random numbers (take my mate Kyriakos Papadopoulos who plays for Olympiakos as an example) and why we don’t just go back to the old system where 1 to 11 were your first team, the rest were subs and your second team! But rather than digress as I usually do, I’ll try to keep focus!

The most affected area of the team is clearly the back 4. With the sale of Majid Bougherra and Paddy McCarthy, the release of Ben Thatcher and the return of Sam Sodje and Greg Halford to Reading and Sunderland respectively there has been a lot of change in this department and it worries me that we’ve only really brought in Mark Hudson from rivals Crystal Palace. Our defense last season seemed quite settled and I didn’t think it was the poorest part of the team, even if they were susceptible to the odd moment of madness and lapse in concentration. I’m much more concerned this year that it will take the back four more time to bed in and settle, time that we cant really afford to waste! In addition to this, I think we are very light at the back and should we encounter any injuries we may well find ourselves scouring the loan market for a replacement!

Zheng Zhi’s participation in the Olympics ruled him out of the entire pre-season and means he will miss the first few weeks of the new season which is cause for concern in my opinion. ZZ looked to really tire during the middle of last season, I think he looked visibly shattered on the pitch and what worries me is that he will have forgone a preseason to continue where he finished last season and move straight into a relatively intense competition on the other side of the world. ZZ at the top of his game is a quality member of the side, but for much of the middle of the season I thought he was a passenger in a midfield that needed his youthful presence! I’m hoping that he will be substituted a bit more this season and that we can start to utilize some of the younger members of the team to give them the all important match experience that they’ll need to eventually take over the mantle as we move back into the Premiership.

To finish up with the midfield, I am expecting big things from our younger midfielders. Ambrose and Thomas really need to step up to the plate and ‘grow-up’ in a footballing sense. All too often last season both players faded into and out of matches showing brief flashes of brilliance in what were largely mediocre performances. I want to see Thomas roll up his sleeves and learn to tackle rather than shitting out of every tackle he goes into! Both players have promise and with the departure of big Chris Iwelumo, they should be encouraged to stamp their authority on the game and run at players and generally attack attack attack, rather than hoof hoof hoof!

I’m hoping that the departure of Iwelumo will rule out the ‘route 1’ hoofing that we became so used to last season and that with Andy Gray, Luke Varney and Toddy all fit and fighting for places we will be able to use the speed and skill of these players (and I really do think they are great strikers all of them) to tear apart Championship teams this season.

I think August is going to be a crucial month, I think we need two or three more additions to the squad to give us the depth to cover the entire season…..I’m largely against mid-season spending, rather prefer a proactive manager who will see the gaps in the team and plug them earlier rather than later (and usually at a higher price!)


The Season
I’ve spoken with a few people this week about the forthcoming season and the one thing that has been common throughout all of my conversations is that EVERYONE thinks this season will be infinitely more difficult than last season. In what was my first season of watching the Championship it became crystal clear that the Championship is not somewhere I’ll be putting my money this season. It’s the most random league I’ve ever witnessed with random results occurring throughout the course of the season.

Offering my prediction, I think that the top 6 will be made up of: Birmingham City, Watford, Wolves, Charlton, Crystal Palace and Ipswich this season. But beyond that I think its too tough to call who will get promoted out of this group! Well, I’m sure that Palace won’t, well, I hope not!


Final Word
I’ve had two more friends move down from Liverpool this year both of whom are mad Reds and one of whom I travel away into Europe with following Liverpool. I’m hoping to get them along to a few games this season so if you do bump into three Scousers at the match that’ll be us!

I’m going to try to get to a few more Charlton away matches this season too, I enjoyed the ones that I got to last season, even though we didn’t win any of them, they were always good days out and usually involved lots of beer and a pizza on the way home!

Get some rest tonight and tomorrow night….. its going to be a long ride this season!

Back to Basics - Preseason Training....

So.... It's been two months since our last post.....which is unacceptable, however, in terms of justifying it, it should be clear... it's because of the amount of 'talent' on show this summer thanks partly to the European Championships, but also to the relatively hot weather that we've seen here in the UK this summer....so my search for new Charlton players has clearly been a fruitful one, with a team of cheerleaders the top of my wish list for the Valley this season!

It's difficult to pick up where we left off, a lot has happened both in the footballing world and outside of it, which includes but is not limited to, a mid-life crisis for me in the form of a new motorbike and a career change for my partner in crime....

I won't beat about the bush and just rehash what has happened this summer, but there are a few dealings' that have caught my attention....

Starting with the news that all Charlton fans wanted to hear, the departure of Marcus Bent to Birmingham City for a fee rumoured to be in excess of £1m. I've seen the best and worst of Marcus Bent. In 2004 I bought myself, and my brother (who is blue) an Everton season ticket in the spirit of brotherly bonding.... How silly could I have been?... Bent arrived following a season long loan at Leicester City and provided the 'loaner' that David Moyes was so looking for to spear-head his band of journeymen. I was devastated to see him aid Everton to 4th place in the league, ahead of my very own Liverpool.... Amends were made however, when we won the Champions League in spectacular fashion and when Everton fans realised that the £10m windfall they all thought they'd won only really kicked in, in the group stages of the champions league, which they so gloriously missed out on, during that lovely summer night in Villareal! (I digress.......). That was the good, but I then witnessed what could only be described as the plain ugly. A shocking season with Charlton, in which I think the striker only scored 4 goals in 40+ games, one of the poorest returns on a striker that I can remember.... I think that a fee of anywhere near £1m is good business from the Chalton board, it was clear they paid too much for the player, but I'll put that down to a moment of madness from manager and board. They've made amends though, getting rid of the player so accurately described by David Moyes as "average".

Chris Iwelumo's departure for Wolves was a piece of news that I was actually pleased to see. Although Chris works his socks off and is often subjected to what most would label 'assault' when deployed as the lone striker for Charlton as he so often was last season. I remember commenting to Richard on several occasions, that I really do think he has a detrimental effect on the Charlton side. The urge to 'hoof'the ball upfield to the big Scotsman was just too tempting for the Addicks last season and I am hopeful that with his departure and with the lack of a 'target man' in the side that the players will settle down and play football, concentrating on the basics which I'm confident will be enough to rip through championship defences this season. I'm sure all will wish Chris the best with his future, so long as he doesn't come back to hurt us this season, in which case he is a tw@!

"Irangate", one of the more random stories of the summer, and I'm still not sure what the hell happened with this.... I would like to think that politics did not come between the two teams and that it was a 'mistunderstanding' that led to the friendly (if there ever was one booked) to be called off, but in my current cynical state, it wouldnt suprise me if the British Government applied pressure on the Charlton board to call the match off....... If there is anything that can solve the worlds problems, its football - we all know that.... its a global language!! We need to keep it like that and keep politics out of football!!!

Boris and the Bus Lanes - not football related, well it is sort of, but not directly! With the newly elected Boris Johnson in power and as a motorcyclist, I'm eagerly anticipating news of whether he will stick by his election promise of allowing motorcycles into bus lanes! There are rumours that the cyclist association in London are protesting that us bikes actually create more danger in bus lanes.... this suprises the hell out of me... how can motorcycles make a 14 foot strip of tarmac more dangerous than it is with BUSES in it!!!! These cyclists are unreal - crying and playing the danger card when most of them 1) dont wear helmets anyhow, 2) dont stop at red lights and 3) ride straight through junctions when they are on a redlight....... *breathe* hopefully they will all agree that us motorcyclists are not as dangerous as a bus which is already in the lane and I'll get to the valley on saturdays with plenty of time to make my weekly purchase from the club shop!

Well thats it from me this Saturday evening.... I need to get some sleep, got a long day ahead of me, I'm off to buy as much "Carbrini Sportswear" as possible, in the hope that they too won't go bust this season.... I mean come on... Llanera....who wants spanish property??? I cant even afford one house, let alone a second along a golf course in spain....

Palace, Contracts, Transfers & Dowie

Over a week has passed since the final game of the season although it seems like a lot longer ago. I always seem to get myself into this position of willing on the end of the season (a feeling of being ‘all footballed out’) only to realise that I will miss it and willing August around as quickly as possible! Anyway …

So Palace failed in their play-off promotion attempt. I must say, a small smile came across my face when I saw the result from last night’s second leg game at Ashton Gate. On the flip side, I think they will certainly be a very strong outfit to face next season and are likely to be serious promotion contenders, more so than Bristol City who I do not think will sustain their form from this season if they remain in the Championship. The division is shaping up to be quite a strong one and the less competition the better frankly. Still, we did the double over them this season so what’s to say that we can’t do it again.

On the home front, Kelly Youga, Grant Basey and Robert Elliot have all signed on the dotted line and I think in each case that is a good thing. New contracts for Basey and Youga add to the increasing speculation that Ben Thatcher won’t be a part of Pardew’s plans next season. The situation regarding Chris Powell is becoming increasingly unclear, although sadly I do not think we will see him at the Valley next season in any capacity. Hurry back soon Chris. For the remainder who are out of contract - Matt Holland, Svetoslav Todorov and Osei Sankofa – I really do not know what is in Pardew’s thoughts. I would imagine Holland will be kept on but perhaps have less of a prominent role next season. Todorov’s situation is an interesting one. He has hardly been given a fair crack of the whip given that his season was ended after the injury he sustained against Plymouth (and he had looked good upto that point) but Andy Gray was effectively brought in as his replacement, so can Pardew justify his wages for another season? As for Sankofa, he seemed to disappear into a black hole in the second half of this season so it is difficult to know what to think, although I imagine much will be determined by whether or not Halford is kept on.

In other transfer news, Madjid Bougherra has reportedly been the subject of bids (or at least interest) from Real Betis and Wigan. I don’t think he has ‘impressed hugely’ (as Sky Sports put it) since he arrived, but he certainly has not played badly and has shown he can form a decent partnership with either McCarthy or Sodje. It would be a shame to lose him. Regarding players coming in, we have been linked with Forest Green’s Stuart Fleetwood and Plymouth’s Paul Connolly, although I see today that the latter appears to be on his way to Derby. I have to say, I am not sure either would dramatically improve our squad and the priority has to be a creative midfielder to fill the significant gap left by Andy Reid.

Finally, I have just read that Iain Dowie has been appointed the new manager of QPR. I have to say, this is slightly surprising given the new owners appear to want a bit of glamour at Loftus Road and that Zinedine Zidane’s name was being touted around as a potential appointment last week. I guess Dowie does have a history with the club though and as sporting director Gianni Paladini says: "Iain Dowie has a proven track record in the Championship and we're delighted to have him on board”.

Did you watch Coventry at all this season Gianni?

Charlton 4 - 1 Coventry City

With nothing for us to play for and the Sky Blues still trying to fight off the threat of relegation, I honestly thought this one would go very differently. Refreshingly however, you would have thought it was the men in red who needed the points with a competent and encouraging ninety minutes.

There were more at the Valley than I was expecting and those who had made the trip were rewarded with the display that Pardew had promised. The line up was partially dictated by injury but some things were telling. Does Thatcher's absence mean he is not in Pardew's thoughts for next season? Does Halford's continued presence mean he will be here next season (I would be happy if that were to be the case)? And another start for Jonjo Shelvey (admittedly in a dead rubber) suggests he may have some part to play in next season. I also hope that Sodje's inclusion as a substitute is an indication that we will try and retain him.

Whatever the thoughts behind the team he put it out, it seemed to work with the Addickted being rewarded within five minutes as Kasper Schmeichel rushed out for Bougherra's speculative pass, only to be neatly lobbed by Luke Varney. Quarter of an hour later, Varney teamed up excellently with Andy Gray to add a very decent second. Michael Mifsud's goal a minute later could have been the catalyst for another Charlton capitulation but 2-1 it remained at half time.

Into the secound half and any thoughts of a Coventry come back were all but extinguished when Grant Basey drove low and hard from inside the box, the ball hitting the back of the net courtesy of a rather large deflection. Charlton could have had another two or three over the course of the half, with Luke Varney twice shooting wide and Holland hitting the bar from a wonder strike that surely would have won him goal of the season had it gone in.

As it was, the fourth goal was worth waiting for ... minutes after having taken to the field to the standing ovation he so richly deserved, Chris Powell found himself in the opposition box with the ball at his feet. He made no mistake and I can't remember the last time I celebrated a goal so enthusiastically. Lifted up onto the shoulders of his team mates, he deserved that goal more than anybody and, given the circumstances, it was the perfect way to end the season.

I was encouraged by what I saw yesterday. Varney and Gray seemed to operate well together up front, Shelvey looked like a real prospect, McCarthy had an excellent game (a consideration for captain next season?) and there seemed to be a bit of fight and desire. Of course it is easy to get carried away, and as Pardew himself pointed out it was a result achieved without any pressure. However, there are signs that things could be OK next season and the position Coventry found themselves in yesterday is a timely reminder that things could be a lot worse.

"He's not happy there mate"

I’ve put off writing anything about Charlton for quite some time now as frankly even the thought of it has pained me. My last post was a preview of the Southampton game and sadly it really has been all downhill from there. I can’t delay any longer however, so here are some thoughts on the past three matches and past three weeks.

To start, how predictably frustrating was the Southampton game? Having secured an excellent result away at Plymouth, it was so very Charlton to put in such a half arsed and limp display against a very poor Saints side. It’s a bit harsh to put attribute too much blame to Darren Randolph for his blunder because frankly we should have had about five at the other end. Remarkably it was still mathematically possible for us to reach the play offs after that game although you certainly wouldn’t have thought it if you were at Loftus Road the following week.

I have to say, I wasn’t overly optimistic on the Central Line on the way to the ground. Loftus Road seemed like quite an enclosed and intimidating ground to go to. However, with a play off place still within reach (just about), I was looking forward to an energetic and gritty performance from the Addicks in attempt to plunder a victory. How wrong could I be. What I witnessed was arguably the worst ninety minutes of football I have seen from a Charlton Athletic side for quite some time. There was absolutely nothing there. The formation was wrong, the players attitude was wrong and the desire to win was almost completely absent. It was quite a sad sight watching Matt Holland try and rouse some kind of energy and motivation from the rest of the players. Kelvin turned round to me during the match and said he would struggle to name one Charlton player who had a decent game and it was difficult to disagree. I enjoyed the warm up and the half time competition more than I did the game.

Saturday’s result at Barnsley was grimly inevitable and frankly the season can not end soon enough now. Lita back to Reading, Cook back to Fulham and time for Pardew to go back to the drawing board. A trip to SE7 on Sunday seems almost entirely pointless, but as my Dad said ‘you’ve paid for the ticket, you may as well go’. So I imagine I will be there with a few other mugs watching us put in the kind of display that will make me not want to renew my season ticket. Credit to the board to extending the free season ticket offer into next year, but they must have made the decision without being too worried at the thought of actually having to cough up having watched our displays this season. I will prolong looking ahead to next season until this one is officially over, but Pardew better have a brilliant plan to make up for the shit awful football he’s made us watch this season. Roll on 4pm Sunday.

The Feeling Inside....

It’s that time of the year again (when I say ‘year’, I mean football year, not the bloody financial or 'traditional' calendar year) when I begin to tire....and generally become a miserable sod…. I was thinking about it the other day, chatting with the lads in the boozer about why I get like this every April and May?

So... what were our conclusions... well, we came up with a fair few:

• The long winter?



• The weather still being shite when the days are getting longer?



• The fact that we'd just been to watch Charlton vs QPR on a shite day and too be honest, in a shite game?



• The end of the football season?



• No England in the Euros? Fuck Off, I’m Scouse.
  

No, it wasn't any of the reasons above (although I'm adamant I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, however, the lads generally laugh at me and I'm usually accused of being a shithouse) instead I put it down to the fact that It's Champions League Knock-Out Time.... and we're not talking the round of 16 or the quarter-finals.... specifically its Champions League Semi-Final Time.... It’s that time in April and May when the 4 best teams in Europe are pitted together by the UEFA machine.....

It’s that time of the year where football isn’t fun, where it becomes more than just a game…. It’s the time of the year that it’s for keeps. No second chances, just two legs of football separating you from progression to European greatness, or relegation to European mediocrity.

But this still doesn’t explain everything, surely that alone can’t make me miserable and tired? SO I kept thinking, what is different? What is it? And when I thought about it, I did think that this year is a little different, this year is the first year since 2004 that I decided not to follow Liverpool throughout Europe; the first year since 2004 that I wasn’t getting up at 4am and flying to random locations via half a dozen other locations to save a few quid; that I wasn’t sleeping on the floor of Schipol Airport; that I wasn’t blagging my way into executive lounges to shower and change....and it got me thinking.... "do I miss it?"

The answer was simple. Of course I fucking do.

Who was I kidding.... last year, I travelled over 80,000 miles, travelling to and from Australia (where I was working on a temporary assignment) to watch the Kings of Europe… Arriving in Manchester direct from Oz, only to go and jump on the pikey air from Liverpool two hours later, landing in a random field in Southern France to watch us play Bordeaux.... or touching down in Barcelona at the same time as dozen other flights on from all over the UK, all full of reds, ready to take the Nou Camp (and we fucking well did)…or congregating at Trafalgar Square in the sun with hundreds, if not thousands of other reds wanting to watch Stamford bridge fall down…

So I was getting closer and closer to solving my riddle….

Commuting from Australia to watch Liverpool in Europe was certainly a way to drain my energy and this coupled with the fact that “it was just that time of the year again” could certainly have been the reason last year….

But what about this year and the years before? Well, looking at the years before, there were a few key things that stuck out in my mind: Gerrard vs Olympiakos, the nerves….. Luis Garcia’s wonder strike against Juve, and then having to go to the Stad Adelphi to play Juve with our ‘history’ these were again, not just matches, they were more than that. They were what stood between Liverpool Football Club and regaining its position as the Kings of Europe.

Closer we edge to answering all my questions… but we are still left with this year to answer for, and I think I have hinted at it above. This is the first year I’ve decided to give Europe a miss, and boy do I miss it. I still have ‘that’ feeling when it comes to the Semi-Finals, the arse twitching, the excitement, the buzz, so it cant be the fact that I’ve fallen out with football, that is making me miserable, but what I do think it is, is the fact that I’m not attending ‘church’ regularly…. It’s the feeling that somehow I am letting myself down…letting my granddad (who proclaimed me a red) down and letting the team down that’s getting to me.

So going 360 on myself, I’ve worked out that if I go the match, I’m tired and miserable when it comes to the big games and If I don’t go the match, I’m equally tired and miserable….. One thing is for sure…. I know I’d rather be tired and miserable having watched the reds in Europe than not….

I’d best get my passport renewed for next season, or the wife will divorce me!

Southampton Preview

A week is a long time in politics they say and this week has also seemed like a long one in football. This time last week I had all but written off our season, now there is a glimmer of hope. A stunning result at Plymouth and a lot of results going our way (with the exception of the Palace win away at Stoke) and suddenly tomorrow’s match against Southampton becomes a bit more interesting, added to which it looks like we might be approaching something close to a full house.

The result at Home Park was immense and I couldn’t contain my delight when I got the news through. To go a goal and man down away from home and come back to take all three points doesn’t happen very often and it couldn’t come at a better time. By all accounts Elliot acquitted himself very well in goal when called upon, we worked a lot better with a narrower midfield with Zheng on the right (although I guess that only got tested for about 5 minutes before Lee Cook was hauled off to make way for the substitute goalkeeper) and Iwelumo and Lita again looked good together up front. On the evidence of this performance, Pardew seems to have instilled a shit or bust attitude into the players (or at least I hope he has) – nothing but a win from here on in will do.

I am hopeful that we can keep the dream alive a bit longer tomorrow, although how typical would it be of our season to follow up such a victory with a mediocre draw? There will be a couple of enforced changes – Sodje seems to be out for the season but the return from injury of Madjid Bougherra and the part he played in last week’s game would suggest he will start with Fortune warming a spot on the bench. The goal keeping issue presents Pardew with a real poser – go with Elliot who performed so admirably on Saturday or choose the recalled Randolph who has (marginally) more experience? My feeling is that he will go for the latter although Elliot should feel extremely unlucky. Other than that, I do not think any further changes are required – this is about as close to a settled side as we are going to get at this stage.

In football outside of Charlton, Kelvin and I set very nervously through the Champions’ League semi-final between Liverpool and Arsenal on Tuesday, the best game I have seen for quite some time. Walcott’s surge up field for Arsenal’s second deserved to win any game, but you have to admire Liverpool’s tenacity to come from behind twice. In my opinion, they also have the league’s best striker in the shape of Fernando Torres – an incredible finish for the Reds’ second. It was a rollercoaster of a game to watch and I think the feeling at the end for my Scouse friend was one of relief.

Charlton are some way off the Champions’ League and I’m not sure we will see such an exciting game at the Valley tomorrow. As long as we get three points, I don’t care. We’ve been given a play-off life line, let’s hope we don’t hang ourselves with it.

Plymouth Preview

It has been a pretty sobering week all round to be honest. Back to work after a terrific week in the French Alps, wading through all the match reports for Saturday to see what I had missed out on (or not as the case may be) and then staring at the stark reality of the table – eleventh place, four points of the play-offs, five games to go. If it hadn’t hit home before, it certainly has now – the final straw has been clutched, we are spending another season in the Championship.

It is difficult to get too excited about the remaining games of the season. Having read a lot of the blogs, most of the Addickted will be spending the next few weeks doing DIY or counting grains of sand such are the levels of apathy at this stage. The debate as to whether selling Andy Reid effectively ended our season has also been reignited. This is a topic that I sat firmly on the fence with initially. My initial reaction was that I was devastated to see him go – he was a player who always looked like he cared, put a rocket up the arse of the rest of the team and simply played very well for us. However, it was also easy to understand the argument that we could not afford to turn down £4 million (or however much it was in the end) for him, he was too injury prone and that the team played too much football through him.

Sadly my initial thoughts appear to be right, never more clear than last weekend when he smashed home a last minute winner for his new team on the back of a man of the match performance. I was always more confident of a decent performance when Reid was in the team – his passing was outstanding, he marshalled play effectively, he drove us forward and he had a positive impact on the players around him. As much as I admire and respect Matt Holland, that is not something that I see from him, not helped by a relatively poor second half of the season from Zheng Zhi. Would we be serious promotion contenders if Reidy was still around? Impossible to say, but I can’t help but feel that we would have been in a much better position. Ifs, buts and maybes …

Anyway, the post mortem can wait as there are still five games left to restore a bit of pride and perhaps a bit of confidence before next season, starting with a trip to Home Park on Saturday. If now is not the time to throw caution to the wind then I really don’t know what is but sadly I am not sure we have too many options to go crazy with. I would continue with Weaver between the posts, retain Halford, Sodje and McCarthy in the back four whilst replacing Thatcher with the more attacking minded Kelly Youga. The midfield I do not know where to start with. Is ZZ still recovering from his trip to China? Is Lloyd Sam fit? Given that I don’t know the answer to either of these questions, I would go with Thomas, Holland, Semedo and Ambrose (although surely Lee Cook deserves a decent run out). Apparently Lita and Iwelumo worked well up front together against Wolves so that front pairing is alright by me, although it would be good to see Luke Varney involved at some point.

I am trying desperately to see us getting something out of this game and many have pointed out that we play best when we have been written off. Plymouth took four points off two of their main promotion rivals before slipping to a 3-1 defeat at Coventry last week so it is difficult to know what to make of them. I think we can expect to feel the backlash of the defeat at the Ricoh Arena though, added to which Home Park seems like quite an intimate venue to go to. I have no idea how this game will go but if it ends in defeat to Charlton then it is safe to say then I will be looking forward to the end of the season as much as Paul Jewell. Let’s hope we show a bit of fight. Come on you reds.

Champions League Quarter Final

Arsenal vs Liverpool @ The Emirates

Although I’ve ‘taken’ to Charlton this year, I’ve still managed to get my fair share of Liverpool matches in and when I can’t get to see them at Anfield or away in the Premiership or in Europe, I do catch them on TV most of the time and I was sitting in the Duke of York this week with Richard and a few other mates to watch this one…

1-1 was a fortunate result for the visitors if I’m honest. Rafa’s Dirk has provided the side from Liverpool with that vital away goal, which means Arsenal will need to come out firing on all cylinders at Anfield in a fortnight which should provide a great spectacle for the neutral supporter. With long periods of control and a very strong penalty appeal, the Gooners can feel a bit hard done by, but football is swings and roundabouts and we’ve been hard done by a few times this season, so I think it was karma for us…

There were no real surprises in the starting line-ups for either side. Mascherano returning after the debacle that was his dismissal at Old Trafford was partnered alongside Xabi Alonso in the middle of the park, with Captain Steven Gerrard on the right and Ryan Babel on the left. The unstoppable ‘Nando Torres was up front with Dirk Kuyt and the back four was made up of Carra, Skrtel, Hyypia and Aurelio. Arsenal had Adebayor and Van Persie up front with Fabergas, Flamini, Hleb and Eboue in the middle of the park.

Arsenal were the quicker team out of the blocks and from the opening whistle they looked the more comfortable of the teams. In fact I thought that they looked extremely dangerous in the middle of the park, but there was a distinct lack of ‘bite’ up front. Whether they are missing Eduardo is debatable – I’d not seen him set the ground alight even before his injury, but what is clear is that Arsenal rely too heavily on two players – Emmanuel Adebayor and Cesc Fabergas. At the beginning of the season when Arsenal were the pace setters, both players were on fire and looked lethal, however, following the Christmas break, and a drastic hair cut in Adebayor’s case, the two have seen a downturn in their fortunes and that of their team.

Adebayor left unmarked in the six yard box from a corner kick is a recipe for disaster and once again this season, Rafa Benitez’s ‘zonal’ defence lost the plot and allowed the most dangerous man on the park an open header. 1-0.

Liverpool responded almost instantaneously, through Dirk Kuyt who slotted home following a great run into the box from Captain Steven Gerrard. 1-1.

Arsenal started the second half how they had played most of the match, coming at Liverpool and putting the reds under sustained periods of pressure. With the exception of a Stevie G snapshot and an effort from Kuyt and Torres, Liverpool spent much of the second half defending and with 20 minutes remaining, Arsenal brought on Nicholas Bendtner who’s first contribution was to block a goal bound Cesc Fabergas effort off the line (cheers Nick, you are a champion).

Bendtner’s clearance was the last clear cut opportunity of the match, and I was happy to walk away with the away goal which could prove crucial.

Liverpool will have to concentrate on playing possession football in the next leg. I’m particularly interested to see how Arsenal will react to ‘Fortress Anfield’ - a completely different ground on European nights to the one they will be used to playing at in the league. Given the need for Arsenal to come at Liverpool, I will be bold in my prediction and go with a 2-0 Liverpool win in the home leg.

Man of the Match: Dirk Kuyt (he might not be prolific, but he gets around the park better than anyone else on the pitch and his work effort is immense)