Champions League night. At Home. 1-0 deficit, so need to win at least with 2 goals. Haven’t qualified for Quarter final since 2009-10. Eliminated 9 out of 10 times in knockout stages when we had lost the first leg. Worrisome past in Champions League. And a mountain hill to climb.
But…
Mikel was positive in the press conference and I’m sure the team is, too. Likes of Bukayo Saka, Martinelli (injured unfortunately), Rice, Gabriel, Saliba have proven their worth in England, I’m sure they are eager to do that in Europe as well. Today’s the day.
Arteta has stuck to the ‘new’ usual playing XI. Raya starts in goal to support the back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and Kiwior. Jorginho keeps his place in the midfield, so we would see Rice again in a more advance role. Odegaard starts.
Kai Havertz leads the front 3 with Saka and Trossard on either side. LT has better eyes for goal and we might see him rotating at top with Kai. I would say we are playing with the best team we have.
I would have preferred Thomas Partey in place of Jorginho, but he has come back from injury and has hardly played. And Martinelli is out injured for 2-3 weeks so Trossard is 2nd best option at LW.
I don’t have much to say about today, except that we need the team winning today with at least 2-0. In return, they need our support and voice and enthusiasm. Lets keep the love and hate aside for the players and the manager and enjoy a beautiful night of football.
A very short one today, games starting in 30 odd minutes.
#COYG
I turn into an irrational 14 year old kid when a major draw (or even the FAC r3) is in the offing.
Notwithstanding the sensible points emerging from yesterday’s discussion about potential opponents, nor the fact that I know the square root of fuck-all about euro footie, I’m putting the teams in order that I’d like us to face (we can’t play MC til the semis at 5he earliest right?). Tell me (as kindly as possible because I’m a sensitive, delicate flower) if you think I’m talking utter shite!
Dortmund (not a major force in Germany right now – they have the underwhelming Sancho in their team – close-ish location for the away leg – will want to attack)
Barcelona (chance to avenge previous humiliations and the injustice of 06 – a club of abject self aggrandising wankers – weaker now than at any time in the last 30 years)
Athletico (Porto mark 2 in terms of shit-housing and general nastiness for which we now have experience – good preparation before possibly facing their equally cunty cross town rivals)
PSG – An ageing squad that never quite gets there in the final stages – nullify Mbappe – easier said than done? – and we’ll have enough
Bayern – More avenging of past failure – getting one over on lisping ‘Arry (as opposed to twitching Arry Redknapp)
RM – Big boys that I’d rather play in a one-off game – bastards nonetheless.
All views welcome
KP – this is the year to play RM. They have underperformed a few times this season and next year they will have Mbappe who will be rejuvenated. In fact this season we are probably in a better state than the majority of the remaining rivals. Game management will be the crucial factor – Can El B provide the solution?
Tony-great post, not sure how I didn’t see it before I submitted my last post about the Inter/Athletico match before crashing…it must have been stuck in limbo mode because I checked to see if you had posted anything before shutting shit down…regardless, all the best today with your tests…take care
KP & Norg—we need an opponent of some significance in order to both see where we stand in Europe and for Striker recruitment purposes, so I hope we draw either Bayern or Real…neither are unbeatable and to take one of them out at this stage would be a real statement…not sure if we’re ready to play the role of spoiler but I’d rather go out against one of the big boys than lose against a side that we should be able to beat, in light of our massive investments the past two seasons
TRVL
I can picture the scene now – Arsenal vs Bayern. Arsenal win and HK comes over to El B and hands him his job application form.
Arsenal win and HK comes over to El B and hands him his job application form.
😊😊😊
And Arteta throws a pissy fit and insults Sir Harold of Kane’s family! Do you reckon there’s and mileage in Conceicao’s claim?
Sergio is certainly upset and he hasn’t stopped sounding off – or is it the press filling up pages.
He claimed something quite similar about Pep in 2020, so I’m not totally convinced that he was speaking the truth or he simply misinterpreted what was being said…certainly not a big deal, but interesting nonetheless
Bayern, I’ll take that. At least they’ll come to play. And we make sure Kane ends another season potless.
The only ones I wanted to avoid were city and athletico. City would be too intense and potential to affect the run in. Atleti would be another Porto style shitfest.
At this stage, we want proper games v proper teams. Hope it’s Madrid in the semis.
Cheers Aitcho
It’s all about sentiment so I welcome your guarded confidence about facing BM. I know little about them, but I guess like playing Spurs when HK was there, if we nullify him, then it should augur well. They’re clearly a bit diminished thus season.
I need to do sone homework on them. They might be over confident given their past CL games with us but they took place years ago
Hopefully El B will not do a Wenger and walk out with a book down his trousers. Kane will be fired up but Willy can take good care of him.
Couldn’t ask for a better draw…Bayern have never been more vulnerable, as the inmates are running that asylum, considering their lame duck manager (it will be interesting to see if MA can outmanage Muller & Neuer)…their decade+ long dominance in the Bundesliga is coming to an end and although that might put their focus squarely on the CL, they certainly haven’t played like a team destined to win anything…
there’s no doubt that we can’t allow Kane to dominate the proceedings, but unlike the vast majority of his opponents this year, we’re very familiar with what’s required to limit his chances…he clearly has an outstanding record, from a productivity standpoint, against us, but we’ve never had a more structured and settled backline, which should include a deeper-lying Rice…furthermore, a large percentage of his tallies have come from the spot (no player has scored more from the spot against a single side in Premier League history), so if we don’t give up any unnecessary freebies, we should be able to push for what some have described as a considerable “upset”
on a side note, the fact that City drew Real should be even more of a motivating force, as one of the top 2 seeds will be heading home prior to the semis…of course, Bayern will be thinking likewise
I must add that I would much rather have played them at home in the return fixture, but at least their fans won’t be allowed at the first leg in London, due to a fireworks violation during their Lazio match
we had better show some balls at home because we ain’t coming home from Bayern with a ticket to the semis unless we can find a way to both score a couple goals at home and stymie their offence, which Lazio did in the round of 16
Vieira
a fireworks violation during their Lazio match
They weren’t roman candles by any chance? 🎇🎆🎇
Should mean more seats for gooners no?
or Muller (well & truly) Riced.
just heard from a contact in Spain who will be testing my products for use in a Pyrolysis process.
He is based in Madrid and is a big Real supporter. Should they reach the semi’s and we do to he has just sent through an invite. Pleasure with a bit of business on the side.
KP-you would assume so, but knowing our club as we do, they will likely end up on the secondary market and go to the highest bidders, regardless of their respective allegiances
seems like Ben White rejected an England call-up…so either MA’s been in his ear, due to our dearth of depth in that position, or he simply didn’t want to give up his “break” for a sport he could care less about lol
TRVL
Apparently White had a falling out with Southgate’s assistant. Southgate is playing it down but it was a major incident as White was sent home. White is used to El B’s intense instructions so listening to Southgate & Co would probably have been tame.
Southgate is as banal a manager as he was a player. Doesn’t really make an impression, talks in clichés, humourless and too cautious. And the suits and waistcoats always make me think of the fast show – ‘oooh, suits you sir!’ I’m not an England fan though so he doesn’t bother me. If I was, however, all those near-ish misses in major tournaments and a failure to get a tune out of some very decent players would bother me.
Oval ball today. Ireland, England and Italy to win would be my guess. Oh, and the rather important matter of the south Wales derby where the Bluebirds have the chance to double Swansea for the first time ever (which seems bonkers considering how many times we’ve doubled the spuds over the years).