Higuain gets the number 9 jersey
The dust is finally settled and Chelsea now have a supposed proven striker in Argentine forward, Gonzalo Higuain.
Throughout Chelsea’s sound defeat to Arsenal in the haze of the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, every touch from the blue half of London brought out talks of the incoming striker from the microphones of the veteran, yet retiring ace commentators, Jim Beglin and John Champion; outsiders to the game would have thought the former Real Madrid striker would be standing in goal and scoring upfront at the same time, question is, does Higuain’s loan signing offer any good to the striking problems of the Blues?
Eden Hazard will gladly welcome the development, anything to stop deploying him upfront will come good for the sleek Belgian but where does this leave Olivier Giroud? Alvaro Morata is on his way to Atletico Madrid also on loan, ending what must be another of the odd stories of the strikers Chelsea have hired in recent times; while the strange situations of Diego Costa would haunt the team for long and they’d wish they never sold him, a seemingly unlucky Higuain will blow hot and cold, and with him being handed the same jersey number 9 that Morata dropped after a turbulent season, it’s up to him to live up to the hype or fall off like his predecessors.
How will Chelsea line up with him? They stay on the 4-3-3 with two wide men, where one of them will definitely be Eden Hazard and the other would be between the trio of Willian, Pedro and the talented Hudson-Odoi. Whatever happens, Gonzalo Higuain won’t offer better results than what Chelsea got impatient with, he even has less goals than Morata at this stage and most definitely become fans worst enemy before you pronounce his name in full.
Arsenal in no man’s land…
Arsenal will line up against Manchester United on Friday in the Emirates FA Cup without Hector Bellerin who was announced to be out for the rest of the season following a mishap in Arsenal’s 2:0 success over Chelsea last weekend. The fleet footed right back was stretchered off after 70 minutes and won’t be returning to the pitch until next season; Arsenal are now condemned to fielding either of 35 year old Stephan Lichtsteiner and Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the rest of the season, of course except they opt to do businesses in the soon to be closed transfer window.
Manchester United are playing their best football since Sir Alex Ferguson left, and even at their worst, they always find a way to best Arsenal, so what odds favor the Gunners in this fixture and in games to come? With injuries hitting hard on Unai Emery’s side, one would wonder if Arsene Wenger’s ghosts are still very much around, that said, anyone that saw them being subdued by West Ham a fortnight ago wouldn’t believe it was the same team that took Chelsea to the cleaners at the Emirates on Saturday, such inconsistency is the reason they aren’t on top of their game.
Priorities may rule the day in this, they will want to push further in the Europa League, they really might not need another distraction in the mold of the FA Cup, straight win United?
Relegation calling, Huddersfield answering…
David Wagner left Huddersfield, no point dwelling much on this, they’re getting relegated, there’s no miracle that can keep them up and teams will only pick free points from the Terriers, they will puff and huff, they will appear to give a fight, but you don’t win a game of football if you can’t score a goal, it’s not enough to run all day and chase down every ball while being two steps backwards, more interestingly, they will struggle to stay in the Championship too; did you ask how they got here in the first place? They were the first in history to do so with a negative goal difference, come on…
Cardiff will follow them, harsh on the efforts of the bullish Neil Warnock, but hey, it is what it is and you can’t give what you don’t have; the highest goal scorer in the Cardiff squad is a midfielder with four goals, and quite unfortunate to hear of the fate of their new signing, Sala from Nantes who hadn’t kicked a ball before being declared missing on a plane, slim chances of survival but certainly, most certainly, the hangover will haunt them down to the Championship.
Newcastle won’t get relegated, neither would the Saints go down, every finger points in the directions of the Lilywhites but here, unpopular opinion… Fulham will not get relegated…
…To be continued