Chelsea Players Making Headlines Ahead of Arsenal?

Y’know I’ve often wished players would just keep quiet before games instead of giving the press tit-bits to feed off and blow up into headlines alluding to over-confident predictions.

 

Unfortunately though, this week Michael Ballack has fed the vultures ahead of Sunday’s derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. He stated, “We are on top of the League and they are 10 points behind us and need to win. At the moment they are not the strongest team because they have other problems now. It is our intention to beat them. A 13-point gap is a lot and we hope we can do this. It will be hard for them.”

 

And yet, whilst the press were busy sensationalising headlines of Ballack’s threats to end the Gunners’ title hopes, they seemed to have overlooked the bit where he said “At the moment, Arsenal look like a strange team. They have many problems, some from within their dressing-room, but this kind of opponent is very dangerous.  They’re like a boxer who has been knocked to the canvas. They want to get up and keep fighting, and that is what makes them so dangerous for other teams.”

 

Still, at least they got it about right in Jose Bosingwa’s case. Although he’s hoping the home crowd will get behind the players and give them the boost they need, with Spurs, United, Liverpool and Newcastle all leaving Stamford Bridge with points already this season, the Chelsea defender seems pretty realistic about our chances.

 

Add to that the chances of a backlash after Arsenal’s recent troubles, and our right-back was correctly reported to be a bit wary, stating “This is going to be a huge game and no doubt Stamford Bridge’s fans will help us a lot to take all three points.  I do not know if this is the best moment to play Arsenal because of what [William] Gallas said. You cannot expect them to decrease, they are Arsenal. Who am I to judge them?”

 

I wonder what headlines they’ll come up with by Monday morning?