Arsenal is already missing Mikel

Andre will miss seeing those abs

Feels a little weird to start off talking about another club in a match which doesn’t involve Arsenal. Or it does potentially involve us, seeing that if Chelsea do win the Champions League and doesn’t finish in third place. Combined that with us finishing lower than where we are now, there will be no Champions League for us next season. That and the fact they’re playing Arsenal this Saturday.

Yesterday, they achieved what Arsenal did last season. That is beat Barcelona at home. I only saw half of the match and wouldn’t be able to give in an in-depth reason as to why and how they were able to beat the reigning European champions. What I did see in those 45 minutes was absolute gamesmanship from one Didier Drogba. I haven’t looked through every single match report but from just the four UK online papers that I’ve seen, none of them had at least a mention about Drogba’s love of the grass.

In so many ways, I hope one of our players do that this Saturday. Try to cheat and con the referee into giving the opposition a red card for absolutely nothing. Roll around on the ground writhing in pain as if he’s been shot after stamping on the foot of a Chelsea player. I hope Robin Van Persie does it and I hope Alex Song does it. Then we’ll see whether the media will castigate an Arsenal player(s) for such disgraceful act. If they don’t, I’ll shut up about this.

Anyway, moving on to matters more important than diving… Mikel Arteta has an ankle ligament damage which could see him miss the rest of the season. It’s a big loss. He’s the one who holds the team together. We can’t defend without him, we can’t attack without him. Such is the influence of the former Everton favourite that I’m beginning to change from being confident about Saturday’s match to being terrified about it.

Most importantly, Arteta provides the experience and the leadership on and off the pitch. As it has been proven by Andre Santos acknowledging Arteta’s role in helping him to settle down in London. Our midfield on Monday looked lost without him and there’s no telling whether the same chaos will be repeated this weekend. While Arteta, Song and Aaron Ramsey has worked to some degree this season; the combination of Song, Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky has not shined to the same extent.

Of course, with Abou Diaby featuring in the closed door friendly game against Oman and completing 45 minutes, he could also be in the frame for a game against Chelsea. We did push him too start the match away at Liverpool (which incidentally also due to an injury to Arteta) and lost him again immediately after that. I’d rather see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain than see Diaby breaking down again. Francis Coquelin could also be back but having played none of the matches since he was red carded, it is hard to envisage him being ahead of Diaby in the pecking order to return from injury.

Coming the goalkeeping department, Wojciech Szczesny has been Arsenal’s number one for this season and has proved that he does deserve that spot. You can sense the growing maturity in him as well. It’s not an easy job, let’s not beat around the bush here. You’ll hardly find goalkeepers at any of the top clubs at such a young age, and playing so many games. Gianluigi Buffon, Hugo Lloris and Iker Casillas are exceptions rather than a rule.

Szczesny performances may have put his Polish friend Lukasz Fabianski on the bench but he’s not resting on his laurels yet. The former is frank and honest with the assessment of his game. The start of 2012 was not the greatest period in his short Arsenal career but that is not something he shies away from. He’ll be with us for years, not because he wants to win trophies but because he’s someone whom we can finally say, is able to continue the illustrious trend of remarkable goalkeepers that we’ve had at Arsenal.