Arsenal will take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final today with both in search of their first trophy of the campaign.
It would be crazy to say that our side want the trophy more than our rivals, but it would definitely mean more to our club with the added European football that would accompany it.
Unfortunately our season has not gone according to plan, and our eighth place league finish has left us without any chance of securing Europa or Champions League football through our league position, meaning we simply must win today.
We were the victors against this very same side in the final only three years ago, and with Mikel Arteta now in charge, we are now a side that cannot be taken lightly, even without the same level of personnel at present.
We come into the match with torrid form, winning against Watford in a crazy game which saw five goals and plenty of defensive errors, and losing 1-0 to Aston Villa in the match before that, but looking back to the Manchester City semi-final we know that we can bring that big-game mentality, and we should put our recent league form behind us.
The Blues come into the match with slightly better form, and the boost of having earned Champions League football will have brightened their morale, but they have not been close to foot-perfect, and their defence actually has the worst record in the top-ten of the division.
Chelsea do not have one out-and-out goalscorer either, with Tammy Abraham starting the season on-fire, he has dropped away, but the fact that their goals are shared out relatively equally means it is hard to focus on one player with a game-plan, while Chelsea will definitely have extra impetus on stopping Aubameyang, who narrowly missed out on the Golden Boot this term.
While I believe we will be set out to nullify the Blues attack, I can’t help but see goals at both ends of the pitch today, but I don’t see there being any more than three goals in the match.
I’m going for a 2-1 win at Wembley today, and for some reason believe that we will be coming from behind after an early Chelsea goal, maybe snatching the win in extra-time.
What are your predictions for today’s big game? Will Arteta be too focussed on stopping Chelsea or will he set-up the team to pile pressure on their leaky defence?
Patrick
