arsenal v blackburn, hughes' double bluffing is laughable
kojodinho - talkingOfArsenal.com
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So Mark Hughes thinks Arsenal have "toughed up", huh?
That's an interesting turn of phrase for a manager who's players are probably tired of hearing the words "kick", "head", "groin" and "ground" 5 minutes before they run out at each of their home games.
Might it be that he is playing a game of double-bluff? Could it be that shorn of key players due to suspensions and injury, he will revert to what his team know best, the 'kicking' game?
Publicly declaring that Arsenal can match Blackburn physically, and then privately telling his team to do exactly that in the hope of getting something out of the match and starting off a turn-around in their fortunes?
I think Hughes is double-bluffing, and without making any kind of claim on 3 points tonight, I think trying that on Wenger the mind-games maestro is laughable. Even Hughes' former boss, Ferguson, who fancies himself (with some justification, I might add) when it comes to mind-games, has never gotten the better of Wenger.
The chance Hughes had to go all out against Arsenal was when we played them away, and in that game the Arsenal kept their discipline remarkably well in what was clearly an opponent bent on causing injury.
This evening, Wenger's investment in team play over the years, as opposed to individual flair should come to the fore. Yes, we'll have Adebayor and Fabregas and Clichy and Sagna and Gallas and Eduardo and Lehmann, all important individual players. But those that are missing through injury will be replaced others who ought to fit in the team ethic.
The self-same reason why the Arsenal second XI, the Arsenal reserve team, the Arsenal youth team, all resemble the first team when in full flow - it's the Wenger ethic, the universal requirement at Arsenal for skill, technique and pace that will be key to a win tonight, given our absentees. Of course, individuals can also play a part.
Tonight's showdown should be quite simple:
(a) if Hughes' team come to play ball, then fine, we'll see a good game in which I would expect us to increase our points tally, and reduce the goal difference advantage that Manchester Utd have (even though they trail us overall in the table).
(b) if Hughes' team come looking for a fight, then I expect to see a lot of kicking and shoving and yellow-carding and shirt-pulling and fouling and disjointed tackling - there might even be a penalty in the game for us. However I would still expect this new-look Arsenal side to increase our points tally.
The referee tonight is Steve Bennet, who has an average of 3.5 cards per game. If Blackburn the Physical turn up, his card issuing average will increase considerably.
When it comes to Hughes' Blackburn Rovers, there's no such thing as middle ground between the two extremes above.
We'll see.
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