The Blues already have September’s superb 4-2 win over the Gunners under their belts to boost their confidence, but their skipper thinks they will have to raise their game to make into the semi-finals.
City were 4-1 up at one stage in September’s meeting, but Arsenal refused to lie down with Rosicky grabbing one back and van Persie hitting the post late on. Refusing to wallow in the win, Kolo has given a forthright assessment of what City will need to do when they face his old side again, and he said:
“I’m excited about it, but we have to admit that when we played against Arsenal earlier in the season, we played well but it was a game that could have finished 4-4! Yes, we scored some goals but we let them have so many chances. We were lucky that we took our chances and they did not.
“I think we need to analyse that game, we may have won it but we could have been better. We could have controlled it a lot more and defended better. That’s what we are going to have to do again because it’s going to be a really tough game.”
Mark Hughes has consistently picked his strongest possible side in this season’s Carling Cup, while opposite number Arsene Wenger has rung the changes while still guiding Arsenal into the quarter finals.
With a semi-final place up for grabs, City could face a similar side to the one they played in the league, but Kolo is convinced that City will have enough in their locker for whichever Arsenal line-up is selected.
He continued, “It doesn’t matter which team they will play, but it will be hard because of the style they always play with and their team spirit whichever players they pick. There are not too many injuries at Arsenal at the moment either, they have togetherness and that can make a difference. But our team spirit is very good, and if we can get it right against them we’ll show what problems we can cause other teams.
“We have great individuals, but we need to keep working for each other. We need to see strikers defending, and defenders getting goals, things like that can make a big difference.”
September’s win still counts for a lot with the 28-year-old, who still sounded a note of caution when adding:
“Mentally that win is a big thing for us, but we will still need to be careful. We know we can beat them, but we know they are still capable of fantastic football. We’ll have to be focussed, because it won’t be easy, but we just have to win and we have a winning spirit here. With that we could make a big difference.
“It’s a cup tie, it’s all about just one game and we’ll give everything.”
MCFC.co.uk will bring you confirmed date details of the cup quarter final as soon as we have them.
