22-03-2004
The games of destiny
Four games, two opponents and 13 days which could decide Arsenal's season. There is no doubt what is at stake as Arsene Wenger gathered his players around him at London Colney today for the build-up to one of the most pressurised sequences in any of their distinguished careers.
Two clashes with Chelsea in their Champions League quarter-final will dictate whether Arsenal can progress beyond the last eight for the first time. Sandwiched between those capital encounters come two games with Manchester United - in the Premiership at Highbury and in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park six days later.
If Arsenal survive, the Treble dream lives on. And while Robert Pires reflects the determination among the players to take nothing for granted after the experiences of a year ago when an eight-point lead was squandered, he is certain of one thing: his team-mates can handle the heat.
"We like matches with pressure," said the 30-year-old French midfielder. "It means you are involved in the chase for trophies if you are involved in such matches at this stage of the season. Everybody wants to beat us. So the higher the pressure, the better Arsenal are."
30对的法国中场队员说：“我们喜欢打有压力的比赛。一个赛季中能踢这样级别的赛事，说明球队有实力夺冠。其他队伍都想击败我们。所以压力越大，阿森纳踢得越好。”
On Wednesday they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their European quarter-final. On the face of it, statistics suggest Arsenal can already start checking out facilities for the semi-final in either Monaco or Madrid. After all, the teams have met three times this season and the Gunners have won the lot. Three-nil to the Arsenal. Pires, though, shrugs off that record as irrelevant.
Again, the lessons of 12 months ago have clearly been taken on board. "The problem a year ago was we anticipated victories in the league. Everybody else was saying it and we thought the same. It taught us a lot."
"Okay, so we have beaten Chelsea three times this season but that will not mean anything in the Champions League games. We are careful about that record. We don't think about those victories, not at all. Chelsea have big players like Adrian Mutu, Hernan Crespo, Marcel Desailly, William Gallas, Claude Makelele . . . so many of them. They will love the big games. All they need at the moment is time. They have a new president (Roman Abramovich) and new players. They have to find a balance."
“我们在联赛中曾三次战胜切尔西，但这也不能保证在冠军杯中我们就一定能取胜。我们不应该过多在意之前的交战史。现在我们根本不会去想以前的那些胜利。切尔西拥有穆图、克雷斯波、德塞利、加拉斯和马克莱莱这样的优秀队员。切尔西总是买进大牌球星。而他们所需要的只是时间，在新主席（阿布）及新队员来到后寻求平衡。”
"This is the main difference between Arsenal and Chelsea. We have played together, basically the same players, for three or four years. It has created links between the players. That is important for the atmosphere on and off the pitch."
“这正是阿森纳与切尔西的最大不同之处。我们这批队员在一起踢球已经有三、四年了，配合都非常默契。这在球场上比赛中，以及场下的生活里都非常重要。”
" Chelsea do not have that balance just yet but they will want to win something this season. I believe there is still a possibility that they can win the Premiership but it will be a big achievement for them if they were able to beat Arsenal in the Champions League. They will be very motivated, we know that."
“切尔西现在还没能达到这一点，不过他们的确希望本赛季能有所收获。我想他们仍然有机会夺得英超冠军，当然能在欧洲冠军杯中战胜阿森纳也不错。因此他们应该是斗志满满。”
Planning a strategy against Chelsea is difficult because Claudio Ranieri changes his line-up so much. "All I know, is that it will be a formidable team against us," said Pires, who scored another cracker in in Saturday's 2-1 win over Bolton.
拉涅利总是变换阵容，所以想要制定出克制切尔西的战略有些困难。在周六与博尔顿比赛中打入一球的皮雷认为：“切尔西肯定是支不容易对付的球队。”
And he has equal respect for Manchester United whose decline has been rapid as suspensions and injuries have slashed the options for Sir Alex Ferguson at a critical stage of the season. "They are going through what we went through last season at this time," said Pires. "Look at the game at Blackburn recently. We won 2-0 where last season we lost 2-0 and we had basically the same players. The difference is we are going through a good period and United are not."
曼联由于伤病及停赛等原因使主教练弗格森在排兵布阵上捉襟见肘，因为曼联的战绩一路下滑，但皮雷对于曼练仍是非常尊重。“他们现在的处境和上赛季此时我们的情况相似。比如对布莱克本那场。本赛季我们以2-0战胜对手，而在上赛季，基本也是同一批队员，但我们却输了0-2。我们现在势头正佳，而曼联则不那么走运。”
"But they will want to protect their Treble. They won three trophies in 1999 and that was a marvellous achievement, a formidable thing. They still have great players - I especially like Paul Scholes, he is tremendous - and they will be like a wounded animal at the moment. And wounded animals are the most dangerous. They will want to beat us to prevent us achieving what they achieved. It will be tough - in the league game and the FA Cup match."
“未来曼联会继续为三冠王而战。在1999年曼联取得了三冠王，这是难以超越的伟绩。曼联有优秀的队员，我特别欣赏斯克尔斯，他极为出色。现在的曼联就像是受伤的动物。而困兽往往是最有威胁性的。曼联会尽全力打败我们，阻止我们也取得三冠王。所以在联赛和足总杯比赛中还有一拼。”
Pires, however, is convinced that Arsenal are equipped for the massive challenges ahead. He epitomises the transformation of a year ago and is now willing to give as good as he gets on the field. Witness the scene when Aston Villa came to Highbury back in August. Villa's Swedish defender Olof Mellberg waved an imaginary card that he felt should have been shown to Pires after what he regarded as an exaggerated response to a challenge.
Rather than forget it, Pires confronted Mellberg and the argument, reinforced by several members of the Villa bench, continued in the players' tunnel at half-time. "There was a lot of shouting," he recalled. "Then it all went quiet. I looked around and Patrick was there." The "Patrick" in question was Vieira, always so fiercely protective of his team-mates.
"He is now the best in the world in that midfield role," said Pires. "He used to be just defensive but now he does everything. Defending and attacking. He is also a natural leader. He organises dinners for the rest of the players and that makes the bond between us strong off the field as well as on it."
And while Pires has changed, so have the team. Arsenal will now settle for the pragmatic when necessary. "It is good for us when we win playing spectacular football," he said. "But we didn't produce that at Blackburn. It was efficient. Sometimes you have to win using your head. It is not very important that we win playing super football. We just need to win."
Source: This is London
[此贴子已经被作者于2004-3-24 12:28:26编辑过]
