As an idealist, I must say I am starting to believe the Carling Cup was one of our least likely bids for a title this season. We are all painfully aware of the fact that Arsene is stubborn in his philosophy to use youth and reserve players in the Carling Cup; the media likes to remind us every week. How was it likely that we were going to win it while Chelsea throw on Didier Drogba for 45 minutes in their match at Ewood Park? If we put the match into context, Manchester City had just tied a string of matches; seven to be exact—making history. Mark Hughes put all of his eggs in one basket because he was simply fed up with the winning drought he and his Arab bosses were feeling. Adebayor, Tevez, Bellamy, SWP, and the list goes on. The side Manchester City played would be the same if they were playing in the FA Cup Final, rather, playing for the premiership. The light blues style of play is convoluted. It can be compared with a side that an oblivious 16-year-old boy playing FIFA would put on his all-star team to beat his 11-year-old sister with.
Now, credit must given to the quality of the goals that were scored. Tevez' goal was a result of dreadful defending from Arsenal supporters' favorite, Eboue, and the veteran Silvestre. His goal crashed and ricocheted off the crossbar and the inside of the post, reminiscent of Drogba's graceful touch that broke the 0-0 deadlock at the Emirates last Sunday. In the 70th minute, it was Shaun Wright-Phillips who scored a superb solo-effort goal that got me asking: why didn't we try to sign him earlier? We know his step-father quite well, don't we?
I can say with delight that our defense will look different when we face Stoke at home this Saturday. Clichy needs to heal swiftly because the fragility of Traore will always be exposed at this point. He has attacking prowess, but after seeing him bounce of Drogba, his strength on the ball needs significant improvement if he is set to replace Gael in the future.
On another note, the world cup draw is in less than 24 hours...For what it's worth, here are my predictions:
Group A: Holland, United States, Cameroon, Serbia
Group B: Germany, Australia, Chile, Switzerland
Group C: Spain, South Korea, Ghana, Denmark
Group D: Brazil, New Zealand, Algeria, France
Group E: Argentina, Honduras, Nigeria, Greece
Group F: Italy, Japan, Paraguay, Slovakia
Group G: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, Slovenia
Group H: England, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
May the draw go the way of the United States and South Korea.
