Andrei Arshavin: Time To Shut Up

At last Monday is here and we get to see Arsenal play for what seems like the first time in an age. Mind you, if the team decide to stroll through the game like they have being doing recently, it won't have been worth waiting for. With today being a bank holiday the game is kicking off at 5 pm, and I can't ever remember Arsenal playing a game at that time on a bank holiday Monday before.

Before I get to my preview, I'd just like to mention how generous a player Gerrard is as he was good enough to hand Chelsea the first goal in their 2-0 win at Anfield yesterday to almost guarantee them the league title. It was an excellent ball he played to put Drogba through on goal and I'm sure the majority of Liverpool fans will be happy that "Manure" haven't overtaken their tally of league titles.

Watching the game I wasn't impressed with Chelsea at all until they went ahead, but Liverpool were very poor as well. When Chelsea took the lead, they then started to play like league winners and it looks like the double is theirs to lose now. In the later game Steve Bruce did his usual trick of rolling over and playing dead as "Manure" took them apart without having to try too much.

If Berbatov had his shooting boots on it would have been a much bigger victory for them, but they had to settle for a 1-0 win courtesy of a goal from 1980s Michael Jackson look-alike Nani. If the best team over 38 games deserves to win the league then I suppose that Chelsea deserve it, as this is probably the worst "Manure" team I've seen in a long time.

The biggest shame for me has been that Arsenal didn't keep our challenge going for longer because the teams above us aren't as good as they used to be and it was a real opportunity wasted.

There is a theory that you don't have to beat the top teams to win the league, but if the Gunners had beaten Chelsea twice instead of losing to them we would now be ahead of them in the league, and without our recent collapse we would have wrapped up the league title.

I know we never looked like winning those games and Chelsea beat us, Liverpool, and "Manure" home and away but struggled against other teams at times away from home in particular. I think they have a problem with their attitude at times and with their squad being a year older next season they will need to buy big in the summer to retain the title I'm sure they will win this season.

Will Abraowich be prepared to invest the sort of money needed to replace the likes of Deco, Ballack, Joe Cole, Terry, and Lampard, who will all have to be replaced this summer or the summer afterwards?

Ahead of today's game there is still no news on whether Arshavin is fit enough to be included in the squad or not. We were told a few days ago that he was a possibility but we have heard no more since. The club site is always very quiet over the weekend and even more so on a bank holiday weekend and any stories on it are of very little interest.

It's funny that we hear almost daily from some source or other that Arshavin is going or staying but there is no news on his fitness for today.  I don't want to hear another word from him as it is time for him to do his talking on the pitch and nowhere else. I won't bother to deal with the latest rumors about him as it's all too tedious at this stage.

With the manager's choices for today severely limited we can expect to see more or less the same team that played at home to Man City, and the only exception might be the inclusion of Arshavin if he is fit—although any of Eboue, Eduardo, or Bendtner might possibly get a game as nobody particularly impressed in that game.

It's an opportunity for the fans to finally celebrate St. Totteringham's day and the players owe us a performance that would deliver that goal.

There's no point in saying that we need to play with pace and tempo and do all the hard work because that's obvious but the fans want to see the players playing as if it mattered to them and giving Blackburn a footballing lesson like we are capable of doing.

I'm sure RVP will be the captain again and he will show the commitment that we want but as he's the lone striker he needs the wide players and attacking midfielders to support him as much as possible.

We all know how Blackburn will play and who their manager is. When you add the likes of Diouf to their team, you know what we are in for. But despite how often Blackburn foul us, we can expect Song to get the first booking of the day as per usual when he gives away his first free kick.

I'm sure they will bombard our defense with high balls at every opportunity and target Fabianski and Silvestre as our weak points and they would be crazy not to. I hope Fabianski can play well but I don't expect it as he's an Arsenal goalkeeper and I hope Silvestre can avoid too many mistakes but I'm hoping for an awful lot there.

I can't see us keeping a clean sheet today as Blackburn have a fairly good home record, although they lost their last home game 3-2 to an in-form Everton. Hopefully we will get the first goal today as I think we will find it very difficult to come from  behind against a packed defence of cloggers and time-wasters who will do anything to stop us—whether it's within the rules or not. 

As for a prediction, I think we will win 2-1 with RVP getting his first goal since his comeback to show his national team manager what he can do before the World cup and it would be nice if Walcott could put on a show for the England manager too.

However, Walcott is so up and down that I don't know what to expect from him really, and to be honest I think his World cup chances are gone at this stage. As Arsenal fans we are sometimes overly critical of our players, but it's very frustrating watching players who we know have talent running around like headless chickens at times.

We need our leaders to show today and Clichy seems to be developing into one of those now that he is back to his best after his back injury earlier in the season.

Along with him, Campbell and RVP are the players who we can expect to show leadership qualities on the day, although Rosicky is capable of it too but doesn't really seem to say or do much at all in recent games. I suppose we will have the usual greater percentage of possession, but it's how we use that possession that counts.

I asked a question on Twitter a couple of days ago about Arsenal's goals from set pieces and got a vey interesting answer from Orbinho . Apparently seven teams have scored more goals than us from set pieces in the Premier League  this season but only one team has scored a lower percentage from set pieces.

That more or less proves the theory that we don't do enough work on them in training to me and it's something we have to rectify for next season. I know having RVP in the team will push those stats up a little but we need to be scoring from a much higher percentage of those set pieces.

Finally for today, good luck to our ladies team in the FA Cup final against Everton. It's live on Sky at 3 pm, which means we can all watch it before the Blackburn game kicks off at 5 pm.

They are attempting to win the Cup for the fifth year in a row and to add it to the league title that they should be wrapping up very soon for their sixth double in seven years. If only the mens team could dominate like that.

Here's a look at one of our finest away performances of the season.

See you tomorrow.