Arsene Wenger and myself do not always agree in matters of tactics and teams selections, and even worse, substitutions. In recent weeks, he has erred and still came off tops. There are matches in which the ineffective Andrei Arshavin was supposed to be replaced by Nicklus Bendtner and he brought in Tomas Rosiscky, and others in which he had to bring Bendetner for Chamakh when the Moroccan needed Walcott for a partner.
During the 2010 World Cup in which we were both observers, I outscored him 3 : 1 in all issues from day one till the final. This is a combination of him trying to be modest to protect his high profile status and reputation and your truly being free to say my mind without any risk of consequence. In that case, he should be more analytical to shoot his status down by wrong assumptions and anticipation.
About the line-up that faced Shakhtar in Ukraine, I was 100% with Wenger in both the tactics and team selection, but as it turned out we were both so wrong in our different differences. This match must tell one something that is so easy to overlook. Shakhtar are a physically strong side in terms of conditioning but tactically, they are very much inferior. That was both our true observations of the team.
Given that, superior planning and the quality Arsenal have, any player selected for that match would not struggle. Wenger forgot the technical ability of the Brazilians in the Ukrainian side. It all boiled down to tacticians versus technicians. It that aspect, it would result in a draw match for the Gunners, which would be a welcome result in any case. I would still tip the English team to grind a result nonetheless.
What I did not factor in was the home crowd. It is exactly the only difference that mattered at the end of 90 minutes. The feel good factor just put wings on Shakhtar who were effective in dispossessing the nervous Arsenal and then launching counter attack after counter attack. It was enough to steal the points Wenger and I banked on. Arsenal live to fight another day.
As for Real Madrid, Ike Casillas had a nightmare of an outing as he gifted AC Milan with golden goals in a silver platter. Mourinho will be disappointed but the relief of the final minute goal can only be summed up by his run in celebrating the goal.
Chelsea will always give you that clear separation of boys from men with an all round intimidatory effort in both the Premiership and Champions League. With Drogba coming back, it looked a little easy for the Blues. Frank Lampard and John Terry were not missed much as the team showed steel and class to put away 4 even though they let in a silly goal.
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