By Bakerman
December 10 2004

There is a certain cocky air emmanating from the Chelski camp, and there is a lot more nonsense to come as the match is not played until Sunday afternoon.

This Saturday will be made to feel as important as after the Lords Mayor show, but in advance, as the build up for Sunday is hyped up to fever pitch.  All weekend we will endure silly ads about Judgement Match of the Century /decade/............/ .......... fill in dots with your own silly slogan. But what of the game itself, is Chelsea cockiness justified? A lot of it is probably based on the fact that Vieira is suspended and our recent run of 2 losses and a several draws. However Arsenal are on the up now and I feel that the so called "November Crisis" is over.

"What is a bigger concern is the issue of Paddy's absence and I make no apology for repeating what I posted earlier on the message board.

"At the Brummie match I said to a mate we will be alright against Rosenborg, but Vieira will be missing for the Chelsea game. His reply was "he has been missing all season".

Now Henry says Paddy is carrying an injury, and I remember the same thing the season before last, and Arsene kept playing him, and it cost us the championship.

This season we had a good start without Paddy and Cesc was brilliant - then Vieira came back and we began to tail off. Now I know this is considered unthinkable by some Arsenal Fans, but I dont see why we have to give up thinking, would we not be better off not playing Paddy until he is really fit.
Secondly would we really miss him that much if Edu and Gilberto were fit.

True we wont have either on Sunday, but will Cesc and Flamini be a worse combination than Paddy and Cesc?

Its going to be a tough match the Chelsea mob think they are going to walk it because Paddy is away - but how much will he be missed?" It will be interesting to evaluate that after the match.

See message board for further discussion on this issue.