DEFINING, DO-OR-DIE WEEK FOR MANCHESTER UNITED AND ARSENAL, AS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RACE ENTERS BREATHLESS, DIFFICULT STRETCH
By your veteran Sports Commentator , Kabs Kanu ( The Last Man standing from the 1960s and 1970s generation )
This is the week that will define it all, a week when many things will become manifest.
Soccer fans , breathlessly awaiting the action, will know this week whether Manchester United and Arsenal still have soccer pugnacity , might and enormous footballing greatness left in them ,as they face a week when their millions of fanatics all over the world will know whether they will play Champions League football next season.
After seemingly losing the powerful punch that once made them the only roosters crowing in the world, both United and Arsenal will be involved in big clashes away from home midweek before going against each other in a Kill-or-be-killed monster encounter on Saturday at the Emirates. So, though they are known as fallen giants, United and Arsenal still have everything to play for ,even though the championship cup is out of their reach. Can they live up to expectation or is this the week that determines that they are lost causes ?
Today, Manchester United take the pitch against their fiercest rivals, Liverpool , who are not only the strongest team now in the world but a ferocious side gunning for glory that no other side has achieved—THE QUADRUPLE. Already Carabo Cup winners, Liverpool are poised to add the English Championship, F.A. Cup and European Champions League trophy to it. The last time they clashed at Old Trafford , United suffered an ignominious and pathetic 5-0 defeat at home. Tomorrow, Arsenal will clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge , having been thrashed 2-0 by the Blues in the first round at home at the Emirates.
Because both teams have messed up in recent matches and given away crucial points, they now face a situation where they have to win all their remaining matches. Whoever fails to win maximum points this week will certainly go out of the race, with Tottenham Hotspur in fourth place, with 57 points from 32 matches and 7 to go , leading both of them by 3 points, though Arsenal have one game at hand. Yet Spurs, who meet Brentford this weekend, hold a huge goals aggregate advantage over them.
Thus, there is no room for any margin of error. Not even a draw in both matches will benefit either of them. The matches are must-wins. This is even so when you look at the remaining fixtures and realize that none of them has easier opponents left to play. United must beat Liverpool today and Arsenal on Saturday. Arsenal must defeat Chelsea tomorrow and United on Saturday.
United and Arsenal have not been playing well and their fans are disappointed. But when the going gets tough, the tough are expected to get going. Do these two teams still have any spine and spunk left in them ? What a week to know.
United and Arsenal are already handicapped. United’s only talisman, Christiano Ronaldo, might not play tonight because he lost his baby on Sunday. With Verane, Fred and Cavani also out through injures, it will be a makeshift United. For Arsenal, Thomas Party, their midfield dynamo, Kieran Tierney, their star defender and Alexandre Lacazette, their goal machine , will be out, injured or sick. They will have to make do with what they have. Both will certainly dig deeper to field players who will rather die first than yield vital ground to their rivals.
Who claims the ascendancy this week ? MANCHESTER UNITED OR ARSENAL ?
