Villa – Arsenal; Mmmm, tasty

It’s another one that has “great game to watch” written all over it, isn’t it?

After watching the cracker that was Luton 3 – 4 Arsenal, where I was gutted for Luton, I came away with the thought that the Gunners are really not that good. Very similar to City, they don’t like it up ’em and titchy Luton were very close to getting a point purely down to outworking the opposition.
I really felt sorry for the Luton lads, as they gave absolutely everything, only to see it worth nothing right at the end of the game.
I find it interesting how often this sort of thing happens so often and if you were writing the script that’s exactly how things would pan out.
But would Luton be complicit in fixing a game? I don’t see it.

Whatever, it’s what makes the Premier league head and shoulders better than any other.
Nowhere else can match the passion of the fans, the standard of the game and just the sheer drama of it all.
And this is probably game of the day. In the whole world. Because we’re such a good watch.
Hopefully we continue to gain fans.

So while I didn’t think Arsenal were very good, the result didn’t surprise me.
They’re just doing what title winning sides do, in winning and grinding results out, even when they’re not at their best.
And I very much think they’re favourites for the title now.

That said, do I think we can beat them?
Absolutely I do. Luton showed that it’s not that difficult to score against them and we’re a damn sight better at that than the Hatters are.
I’ve seen it said more than once recently from Arsenal fans, that they’d take a draw here. We obviously have them a bit worried.
And then we have the better manager/coach. Not to mention that Emery would probably love to get one over his old club, where the fans dismissed him so easily, even though his stats were very good.

So as much as I see reasons for us winning this, the old fogey in me resorts to type, where the concerns set in.
The big one is how long can we keep on physically outperforming the opposition?
I’ve always said that I can’t see an issue with players playing two games a week, but I’m slowly coming round to the idea that if you want them to play at 100%, things are going to take their toll.

Hitchens, my two 16 year old grandsons and myself gave our predictions for the recent run of games. It’s probably no coincidence that the lads sit at 1 and 2 (one predicted 6 wins and the other not far off that) and Hitchens and myself lag behind. I think it stems down to naturally being more cautious and naturally wanting to avoid disappointment , but following the Villa for donkey’s years hasn’t lead to much confidence either really.

So I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb here.
This game is so easy for me to call a 2-2 draw.

When I was 16, I was actually a punk and incredibly rebellious and contradictory.
I’ve actually found myself listening to the Buzzcocks all over again lately.
And I love it.They’re just as good as I remembered.
It reminds me massively of being a 16 year old.
And that rebellious, contradictory kid is going for a 3-2 win. One that will really open some eyes, all around the world.
Come on Villa, let’s see you enter the big time!

That’s not really contradictory at all though is it?
Well, I suppose it is for me.

UTV.