Of all the Premier League matches over the weekend, Arsenal's home match against Saffield United should be the one with the least suspense and the home team will win.
After the away game against Lens and the home game against Manchester City, then the international day, followed by the away game against Chelsea and the midweek trip to Spain to beat Xavier, Arsenal has finally survived a hellish schedule.
I think Adi Da will admit that his team has not been very hot during this period, but I think the most important thing is that Arsenal have shown a strong and impressive character in these games. In the win over Man City they didn't have the ball at their feet for most of the game and had key players missing, and then in the last league match they fought back to equalize after a mistake by their players and fell to a 0-2 defeat to city rivals Chelsea. In the last league match, after the players made a mistake and fell 0-2 to city rivals Chelsea, City managed to fight back and equalize, and then in midweek, they beat Westville to get an important victory, showing immense courage.
That kind of determination and thirst for victory is exactly the kind of aspect that this team has been criticized for lacking over the past few seasons, and if they can continue to show the same kind of steel that they've shown this season, this could be a very good ball season for Adidas and his players.
I think this weekend we'll see Arsenal back to their attacking free-flowing best, they're on a 13 game unbeaten streak at home against Siffield United and I think this one will be no different. Gabil Jecsis looks likely to miss out again due to injury, but they still have enough players to win comfortably. I believe the only debate at the moment is who is playing in goal, and I think Adidas have created an unnecessary situation where mistakes made by whoever is playing in goal will be infinitely magnified, such as David Lahaye's mistake against Chelsea, will be talked about. This puts an invisible pressure on them, and while I agree that competition for a place in the starting line-up is a must for a team, the goalkeeping position is a special one, and often you'd want your goalkeeper to be as calm as possible and free of any additional unnecessary thoughts. In midweek Adidas insisted on starting David Laryea and I'm sure he'll do so again this weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised if he chose to give Lansdal a chance to fall on his sword and beat his old boss.
Another player I'd like to highlight is Gabriele Martinelli, who I've praised many times in this column, but I don't think he gets enough praise from the outside world compared to some of his other teammates. I think his season is about to take off, and with a goal in his first proper start in the Eredivisie in midweek, he looks to be fully recovered from his injury, and I think he can continue his hot streak of form and keep scoring goals from now until the end of the year.
Siffield United are known to outsiders as the City of Steel, and a team led by Higginbotham will desperately need to produce similar qualities against their opponents.
They have yet to open the season with a win cum a goal conceded in each game, they really need to start showing some grit and determination or I fear they may end up as lifters.
I mentioned last week that they've suffered a few injuries and absences on defense, and I know the leaders have tried a few different defensive systems to improve the problem, but so far they've had no success. They had a glimmer of hope last week against Man Utd and came close to getting a point, but that was mainly due to Man Utd's off-field problems more than Siffield's great play on the field. Frankly speaking, a difficult game like the one against Arsenal will not define their season, but the team must keep their unity and faith by playing with a positive attitude, and they must believe that they can get something out of this game.
