FIGHTING TALK: RETAINING THE FA CUP by Uche
Dear Arsenal fans, I have a question for you. Are we scared of losing to Aston Villa tomorrow? I mean, they have had a few decent results since Tim Sherwood took over but they are not Barcelona, and they recently shipped in seven goals against Southampton. So if we are not scared of Villa, why don’t I hear it coming from our players? What’s with this Benteke praise worship? No Tim Sherwood team has ever beaten Arsene Wenger’s side. Don’t you guys ever feel that we are too prim and proper in this club of ours? We are too well behaved. We have a super chance of winning our second trophy in two years tomorrow and all I hear is polite talk about how we have to respect Villa and be switched on for ninety minutes. What nonsense. We have the players, the know-how and the tactics to kill them!
If they attack us, we will stay compact, collect the ball and counter through speed machines like Walcott and Sanchez. If they park the bus, we will pick them off like we did against West Brom and smash them anyway. We have got this one, so where are the mind games? I don’t see no mind games. In our last two meetings with Aston Villa, we hit eight goals past them. They were pathetic and we should use that knowledge to our advantage. Yes we should show them respect because finals are unpredictable but that respect shouldn’t be made public. Out in the open, I expect us to scare the hell out of them. Are we winners or what? We are the current FA Cup champions or have you all forgotten? So we had better start acting like it!
The art of mind games is very much a part and parcel of tactics and winning games. There is a reason we repeatedly lost to teams like Chelsea and Man United in the past. It is because we were scared of them – and it showed each time we played them. We usually played better than them and still lost the game out of stupid nervous mistakes. I say bring on the mind games against Villa. We need to win this game before a ball is even kicked. We need these guys to be scared going into Wembley against us. We need to bring back that fear factor because this team has earned it. We have earned it. Which Premier league defence will want to face Walcott, Sanchez and Ramsey? None. So we should make it known to our rivals that they should be scared, very scared.
I understand that one of the reasons people avoid being publicly over-confident is that they are worried about looking stupid if they lose, but who cares? Ever heard of positive thinking? It is about believing that what you desire will happen for you without a doubt. If history has taught us anything through the brash talk of champions like Mohammed Ali, Floyd Money Mayweather and even the much hated Jose Mourinho, it is that beating your opponent psychology usually works to your advantage 90% of the time. So we should come out all guns blazing before the game. We should be running our mouths and getting the Villains quaking in their boots. Look at Mourinho’s manager of the year acceptance speech which he used to further ridicule us, Man City and Man United. I hate him for doing that – but do you know why he did it, even though the trophy has already been won by them? He already has his mind on next season! So he has started intimidating Wenger, Van Gaal and Pellegrini in advance!
So come on and say it with me! We will smash them Villains and teach them football. Koscielny will fit Benteke inside his ample pockets and that defense of theirs will be assaulted mercilessly for ninety minutes, because we don’t just wear cannons on our chests. We are assassins with the mighty Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott shooting through brick walls. We are blessed with the best pass masters in the game with Cazorla, Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey gracing this Arsenal side. We have a missile defense shield called Le Coq and our back line is manned by the Boss! And most of all, our manager Arsene Wenger has won this FA cup a record five times! Need I say more? This game is won already. Can someone please tell the FA to just give us the trophy already and tell Aston Villa not to bother turning up tomorrow because we don’t appreciate having our time wasted.
Ha ha ha! I am in the mood! Can you guys tell? Peace.
Uche Edochie
Lagos – Nigeria