A Replay Awaits Us: Another Fixture!

So after the 0-0 draw with Cardiff this weekend we now have to replay the match at the Emirates next week. Now, usually I wouldn't mind bringing a team we have to beat back to the Emirates, but with our already congested fixture list, this one might be a little tricky.

It was a good match. I really had a horrible feeling before the match that we were going to slip up against the Championship side. They were determined, played hard, got in our faces, interrupted our passing game, and had a loud and raucous crowd behind them. This very well could have gone in their favour, but we came through it with a 0-0 draw.

We weren't very inventive, but that seems to have been the story of the last few weeks, in fact the story of 2009 so far. But defensively we weren't actually that bad. It's still not great, but I think the defense has been improved from mid-table status to about 5th place status. Still it needs work, but I think Arsene Wenger is right when he keeps telling us that the defense has improved: it has.

So with the draw and the replay that must follow, we now have a number of important fixtures coming up over the next couple of weeks. There's Everton this Wednesday before another weekend Premiership match, and replay, and even a Champions League date with Roma in the not-too-distant future. It's going to get difficult, and this is the time of the season when we have, over the past few seasons, crumbled.

But I think that maybe our usual crumble came back in October/November. We were losing 3-0 to Man City back then and we're still digging ourselves out of the hole we created at that time. I'm really hoping, and I think it's true, that our struggles are behind us. Now we've turned over a new leaf, and with all of our injured players returning over the next little bit, I think we'll finish out the year strongly. We can still win silverware this season, and if our bad form is behind us and luck comes our way, I think we just might finally do it.

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