Double Impact (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Double Impact was probably one of my favorite movies when I was growing up. Who doesn’t like a double dose of Van Damme? It’s like a regular Van Damme movie only you get twice the ass kicking in every scene! That is hopefully what we have on tap over the next week as Arsenal takes on Norwich this Saturday and then turns around and plays Everton on Tuesday (and then off to Fulham 4 days later!). The next two matches are at home and both require us to inject a little Van Damme into our play.

First up, Norwich. We owe these guys. We already endured a loss to them earlier this season and with these tweetie birds coming to OUR stadium playing against OUR home crowd we should handle them the way Van Damme handles all his enemies: with a swift flying split kick to the face! Actually, can you imagine how awesome that would be to see Van Damme round house a canary across the room?  Really though, this game is extremely important and we HAVE to win to carry momentum into the quick turn around with Everton. Our “soft” exposure this season shows how quickly our confidence (and form) can swing and last thing we need is a loss coupled with an Everton team ready to jump us in the table. And this is why I don’t want to see either Theo or Jack in the starting lineup on Saturday. We need Arsenal (as the lineup looked the last two weeks) to dominate, pull ahead, put the game away and then give those two a few minutes to get re-aquianted to the pace of play so we can inject them straight away into the match with Everton (if needed?). With our team playing as they are right now (what is that feeling? confidence?) there is even the argument that if they dominate Norwich do you even risk changing the lineup against Everton? My answer is yes, yes you do…

Everton. We are going to be tired (emotionally, physically, mentally) from our win (oh God please let this be) against Norwich and the need for pace and the likes of Wilshere’s possession game could be exactly what we need against a team like Everton. They are the blue collar workers of the EPL. They don’t mind getting dirty, they do what they can to win, and they will definitely punch you in the face if you bad mouth their mother (notice I didn’t say wife). That is why we have to inject pace, possession and the likes of a fully fit Theo (who maybe needed a bit of a mental break and less pressure) and Jack (who just physically probably needed the break after the shit hits that guy seems to take-c’mon ref!) in order to keep Everton where they belong; solidified and stable in the mid table.

Look, this is a tough call heading into the weekend. Right now Arsenal are playing well enough to win without the likes of Jack/Theo. The current lineup seems to have a solid understanding of their game right now adding in some growing confidence and they can smell the Champions League qualification (oh it would be SO great to slip in again this year while gut punching Sp*rs out!). If you are Arsene, do you risk messing with that chemistry? Do you tinker just because you have arguably (I’ll give ya Wilshere but Theo has been a bit off lately) better options coming back? In baseball, when we would get on a winning streak you didn’t mess with it until you lost. However, here, I think the added likes of Jack, more than Theo, is where we can tinker without messing with the chemistry. The guy is a proven worker and ego is not a part of his game. Theo, however, could be the right amount of pace if, and God help me that I am about to say this, he would interject a little more of Gervinho’s attacking style into his play (and couple it with Theo’s own foot which is a much more spot on shot on goal).

This is where the “in Arsene we trust” really comes into play. Love him or hate him, the lineups we roll out over these next two games will determine an enormous outcry heard ‘cross the world for Arsenal fans if we don’t win them both. Truth is, at this point I don’t care what lineup is strung out there so long as by Tuesday night we have 6 points to claim from the two matches.

On another note, there is an interesting bit on the possibility of Arshavin retiring on ESPN (who the hell knows how true it is). I wasn’t a huge follower at the time he played a lot but in the few minutes he played this year there were some moments where he definitely still showed that he belonged on the EPL pitch. Very sad to see that he didn’t get regular playing time and I feel like he might have done well to be pulling minutes on one of the lower tabled clubs. Anyways, if he wants to move on then good luck to him and I hope he discovers the joy of the game soon again.