Yes, you did read the title right. Come Wednesday night, there will be a lot of pressure on Iniesta, Xavi and Messi to deliver, which they no doubt will, but it will be the unsung heroes who will be the difference.
I doubt that Busi or Abidal will score against Arsenal, but sometimes football is about more than that.
As you are no doubt aware, Arsenal’s midfield is second only to the Blaugrana. Fabregas, Song and Wilshere are all good players, players that like to go forward, and Busquets is going to have to combat this.
Hopefully, he won’t take my words literally and ‘De Jong’ the Arsenal midfielders, but instead out-think them, out-run them and generally out-class them.
In the World Cup final, Busquets nullified the threat of someone called Wesley Sn
eijder. Apparently, he’s quite good, was one of the best at the World Cup in fact, but Busquets obviously didn’t care, as he shut him out the game completely.
So, in a roundabout way, you could say that Busquets won Spain the World Cup!
In fact, the story goes that the normally humble Busquets had maybe had a little too much to drink at a club meal once. This loosened his tongue and he made a toast:
"To Pep and to me! Without us, you wouldn’t have won anything!"
Back to the article and Busquets’ presence in midfield is sure to be vital tomorrow night. If he stops Cesc and co. from threatening, the job will be much easier for the rest of the team.
Surely it’s not a coincidence that Busquets has won his last 22 La Liga games, and Barca struggled without him against Gijon?
In the title, I also proclaimed that Abidal would be key. Firstly, in the event of a Puyol no-show (which will be the case), our defence goes a bit…mental.
Pique is not as composed, Alves gets caught out more, and God knows what happens to Milito.
So that leaves Abidal as the only sane one. He can cover for Alves, keep up with attackers, win headers, in fact, if you asked him nicely he’d probably run the marathon if it’s for the cause.
He is the calm in the fury of the storm and because this match is gonna be like a Category 5 hurricane, we will need him.
I would quote Xavi’s interview, but don’t want to get into trouble…so search his comments on Carragher and Terry being a necessity.
Whatever the case, Wednesday will be one hell of a game, so make sure you follow it on hell of a blog, Barca Blaugranes and our live game thread!
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