When the season began, I was positive and happy that we were competing for 4 trophies – FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Premier League and Champions League. I was hoping we would pick at least one of the them and put an end to our trophy drought. But things have not panned out as we expected.
Things started going wrong from January. We were ousted by Manchester United in FA Cup third round on penalty. City is most likely going to win this now.
Next was our Carabao Cup run coming to an end in semi finals, where Newcastle beat us twice – both home and away – with 2 to nil.
West Ham (loss) and Forest (draw) have killed our Premier League title chase. Yes, it’s still mathematically possible but we are 13 points behind Liverpool with a game in hand. Even if we win ours, that would be 10 points difference with only 10 games to go. I doubt Liverpool are going to drop that many points and I doubt we are going to take advantage of that situation.
That leaves us with the Champions League.
We are visiting the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the last-16 today for the first leg. Champions League are usually very unpredictable and you can’t take lightly any of the games. We have seen City only somehow managing to get into the knockout games of group stage, and we have seen some big teams losing out to qualify.
And the fact that we have a non-existent attack further complicates it for Mikel and team. We are going into the game without our StarBoy Bukayo Saka, our left winger Martinelli and without a CF (even a make shift Havertz). Defence looks okay, Ben White is back from his injury and MLS is back from his suspension. Saliba and Gabriel will hold the fort for us.
It’s not tough to guess who would be starting today, Trossard, Nwaneri and Sterling and it’s not a good sight for the Arsenal fans. We should try scoring first and hold on to the lead because we often complicate it for ourselves and I don’t want to see us leave everything for the 2nd leg.
The players must have been demoralised with the recent run of games and when asked about it, this is what Mikel had to say :
on how to instill belief into the players:
Well, try to explain how we’re going to do it and why we do things, and they try to deliver that in the best possible way. In the last two results it’s been very different, in terms of performance as well, not getting the right result that we want, but we’ve certainly been better, especially in the last game with the opposition. And the fact we still have gears, even with the players that we have, some of them have gears to take us to a different level. When it comes to that stage, it’s about lifting the level and the standards, every individual has to be at their best. When we do that, with the team that we have and the connection we have between us, we are a really strong team.source : Arsenal.com
If we manage to get past the PSV in round of 16, we would face one of the Real Madrid or Atletico in quarters.
Right, so with whatever is available for today, I would personally love a back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and MLS. Cala has been making some mistakes lately so MLS sounds a better option to me. Timber has been doing well but if White is fit, he has got better runs in overlaps and I would try him. Keep Timber on bench in case we need him later in the game.
A midfield of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Merino will start but I would never be happy with both Rice and Partey starting in a game. Pick Jorginho ahead of Declan and stick Merino on the left.
Front 3 has been a conundrum but the only option we have is, Trossard in the middle, Sterling and Nwaneri on either side of the pitch. Lets not put Merino up top and lets not expect him to score 2 goals every game.
Right, that’s all for today. The game’s a bit late for me, but I will be up and will see you during the game.
Cheers!
KP
Let’s hope they don’t contact bird flu. Your avian analogy made Junior and me laugh.
Looking Radcliffe’s monstrosity for Manures new stadium I’m expecting Hugh Jackman to sing the greatest show before each game. The Mancs are not happy it seems.
Long may that continue. The Mancs and Ratcliffe deserve each other along with the Glaziers.
Liverpool ran out of steam , used up too much energy in the opening 25 minutes and paid for it from the hour mark onwards when psg’s quality made the difference.
Have to say I was very impressed with their diminutive DM Vitinha , who controlled the tempo of the game once Liverpool tired. Apparently he was at wolves prior to signing for PSG.
The fact that we beat PSG comfortably earlier on in the season seems to have been conveniently overlooked , they have looked impressive over the 2 legs with Liverpool.
Tony , I agree that Rice would be better used as a no.6, however I would just point out that one doesn’t normally expect a no.6 to make late runs into the box, that is usually what no.8 is there for.
The no.6 role is all about discipline and reading of the game so you would rarely if ever see a genuine no.6 get ahead of the play or in fact make runs into the opposition box during open play, but yes I do do agree that Rice has a better influence on the game in a deeper role , I suppose the good form of Partey in the 6 role has given Arteta a decision to make regarding Rice’s position but shoehorning a player into a different position rarely works although Rice has been decent not brilliant.
It wouldn’t surprise me that tonight we will see what a dangerous side PSV are going forward, I think they will throw the kitchen sink at it in the the hope they can grab a couple of early goals.
PSV are a side that could easily overturn a 2 or 3 goal deficit but 5 will be too much as they will leave themselves open to the counter in their endeavour to reduce the deficit, Martinelli with his pace may be the player who will benefit from the gaps in the PSV defence,maybe play him up top to utilise the space.
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