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So where is the game? Arsenal will look to get at Chelsea in wide areas with Madueke likely to be important. I’d probably have played White, with Timber on the left, now that you don’t ask, to increase the threat, and I’ve been enjoying Martinelli off the bench this season, but he starts ahead of Troassard. Otherwise, look for Eze to slide passes down the sides of the outside centre-backs for Gyokeres, who might find space behind the wing-backs, while I’d also expect rampaging third-man runs from Rice.
Email! “Can the mythical force of ‘tachlis’ be likened to what Mourinho brought to Chelsea two decades ago?” wonders Julian Menz. “Or is it closer to the (forget the word, sorry) spirit that surges through the Pakistan cricket team on occasions?”
The former – Mourinho is pure tachlis, no messing about with feelings and maybe. Haal, as experienced by Pakistan, is more like a flow, or being in the zone; the closest tachlis-type word I can come up with is kavanah, which means a kind of intense intentionality, to the exclusion of all else.
Arteta says Arsenal are going to go for it – the aim is to go and win the game from the first minute, as they do in every game. He doesn’t think Saka is too badly hurt but will know more tomorrow, and also hopes Odegaard will be ready for the weekend.
Eze, he says, has earned the start, and Arsenal have prepared to face a three and four at the back, knowing Rosenior has used both formations in his career.
The 3-5-2 makes some sense, I guess. It allows three centre-backs to head set-pieces away, while Gabriel and Saliba don’t often face twin centre-forwards – though it may also be the case that Joao OPedro roams.
Rosenior is happy with the spirit and intensity his players have shown and says he knows that they can play well enough to go through. When they’re at their best, they’re very very difficult to play against, but need almost the perfect night, set-pieces ad tactically, in order to go through.
Asked about a formation that looks like a 3-5-2, he says he’d be crazy to confirm the tactics in advance but adds that Reece James failed a fitness test, while he’s managing Cole Palmer’s minutes and Estevao has returned from Brazil but isn’t fit enough to start.
Otherwise, the subs will be crucial, so who Chelsea have in reserve to finish the game is almost more important that the XI that starts.
Back to the teams, and it transpires that, as rumoured, Arsenal must do without Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard; Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze, who replaced them at Leeds, keep their places. Otherwise, Victor Gyokeres continues up front, in preference to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.
Housekeeping: the away goal rule doesn’t operate – good, why should the basic truism that all goals are equal be compromised – so if we’re level on aggregate at full-time, we’ll move to extra time, with penalties to follow, if required.
Teams!
Arsenal (4-3-3): Kepa; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Zubimendi, Rice, Eze; Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli. Subs: Raya, Mosquera, White, Jesus, Norgaard, Trossard, Havertz, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly.
Chelsea (3-5-2): Sánchez; Chalobah, Fofana, Hato; Gusto, Caicedo, Santos, Fernandez, Cucurella; Delap, João Pedro. Subs: Sharman-Lowe, Acheampong, Badiashile, Holland, Palmer, Estêvão, Garnacho, Guiu, Mheuka.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Lancashire)
Preamble
Increasingly, success in football is measured, not in anachronisms like trophies won, but by proximity to the biggest two available. However you slice it, though, this contest is absolutely gigantic, taking in both aspects and multiplying them by hatred2.
Mikel Arteta has done a fine job as Arsenal manager, inheriting a mess and meticulously redeeming it with an exhausting, oppressive intensity that delivers the most suffocating out-of-possession work in the game. But after having near enough two full XIs bought for him, he now needs what the Talmud calls “tachlis” – the kind of essential substance that is not satisfied by three consecutive second-place finishes and no silverware other than a Covid FA Cup nearly six years ago.
But there’s more to it than that. Were Arsenal to cede a 3-2 aggregate lead, at home, to a despised rival, the accordant, exhibition shame and anguish – shanguish as no kids are calling it – might affect what feels like a fragile equilibrium, a downside of the aforementioned intensity that could hinder their pursuit of a first league title in 22 years. Similarly, if they move on tonight and win at Wembley, the relief and joy might inspire them to achieve who knows what between now and the end of the season.
And for Chelsea, there’s also more riding on this match than just this match. So far, their record under Liam Rosenior is good and much better than their performances, the uplifting comeback that beat West Ham a primer if ever there was one. Should they turn this around then go on to win the final, along with a shiny pot to dance about with it’ll earn their new leader valuable political capital – the kind of political capital on which empires are built.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT
