We have won the FA Cup there three times in the last four seasons and we had to win the semi finals to get to those finals too. Added to that there were Community Shield victories and I’m struggling to remember the last time Arsenal lost a game at Wembley. Quite a lot of our players have very fond memories of Wembley and hopefully those fond memories will continue today.
We haven’t been good away from home this season though with only three wins from our 13 games so far and we’ll have to reverse that form to get anything from the game. On the other hand our home record is second only to table topping City and it’s difficult to believe the sharp contrast between our home and away records. I have to believe that away form is down to belief and confidence or lack thereof and it’s within our playing ability to reverse the trend.
If we’re going to get the result we need so much will depend on our approach to the game and the tactics we deploy on the day. If we can defend in depth and hit them on the break we have every chance of getting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in behind them and that’s probably our best route to victory. The other option is to press them high and force mistakes, but I think that would leave us very open at the back.
We need to be clever and incisive when we have the ball and that’s something we just haven’t done away from home often enough this season. The performance at home to Everton last week was so promising that it’s given us enough hope to believe the players just might be able to do it away from home too. The additions of Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan seem to have had an effect on the team and just maybe the departure of Alexis Sanchez has lifted a weight from the collective shoulders of the players.
The performance of Aaron Ramsey last week was a huge boost too and it’s difficult to believe we didn’t miss him when he was out injured. He’s very fond of a goal at Wembley and he could be the man to win us the game if he can get into some of the positions he got into last week. I think he has to play and the big question could be who accompanies him in midfield with Granit Xhaka probably more likely to get the nod than Jack Wilshere.
The other big question is the formation Arsene Wenger chooses as he has opted for a back four at home recently, but three central defenders might offer us more stability. I think we need Petr Cech to recover from the knock he took last week because David Ospina does not fill me with confidence when he plays. These are questions the manager has to ponder ahead of what’s probably our biggest game of the season so far.
If he can get it right and we can win the game the top four becomes a possibility, but a defeat would surely end those hopes with 11 league games still to go. The defensive performance at Chelsea might offer the template we need today, but that performance was at a price as we sacrificed a lot of our attacking options and the players picked today might not all have the defensive discipline of those who played against Chelsea. I would be very surprised if we kept a clean sheet today and that means we will have to score at least twice if we’re going to win.
We have a two week gap to our next domestic game after today as we’re out of the FA Cup and our next game is the Carabao Cup Final which is also at Wembley. There’s the small matter of the home and away legs of the last 32 of the Europa League to play before that cup final though and that could end up being our best chance of making next season’s Champions League. Hopefully that won’t be the case though and we can take the three points and bragging rights against Spurs today.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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