It all comes down to tonight, doesn’t it? Who would have thought that we’d be so nervous about a Champions League qualifier? Who would have thought that Arsenal may not participate in the Champions League group stage?
We used to stroll our way through over the past few years when we had to play a qualifying game. I don’t remember one single time when we really had any problems. Every time we were approaching them as “difficult games”, but we knew we were going to win before they even started. Tonight is a little different. Udinese have shown last week that they are a decent side and they are ready to exploit any weakness in our team. We played very well defensively that night and we’ll need an equally good performance at the back tonight.
We’ve not been playing our best football recently and, considering the players out, I doubt we’ll see it in Italy this evening. We still hold the upper hand though, and we must try to protect and extend our advantage, as Arsene Wenger said during his press conference yesterday:
“So overall we need a good solid defensive performance but we have experience in the Champions League and it is a good chance for us to use it tomorrow.
We have won the first game without conceding a goal, that is quite a good result, and we will go there to score as we always do.”
Let’s not forget that last week our squad was considerably weakened. Robin van Persie is back for tonight, as are Tomas Rosicky, Johan Djourou, Alex Song and Gervinho. Here are the 18 men that have travelled to Italy:
Wojciech Szczesny
Lukasz Fabianski
Carl Jenkinson
Bacary Sagna
Thomas Vermaelen
Johan Djourou
Armand Traore
Ignasi Miquel
Andrey Arshavin
Emmanuel Frimpong
Gervinho
Aaron Ramsey
Alex Song
Theo Walcott
Tomas Rosicky
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Marouane Chamakh
Robin van Persie
I think we’ll line up like this:
Szczesny – Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Traore – Song, Ramsey, Rosicky – Walcott, Gervinho, Van Persie.
This is a team capable of beating Udinese. Yes, we lost Nasri and Cesc, yes we haven’t really strengthened so far, yes we still miss a few players but this is a strong Arsenal side. I hope we finally start to show bits of our flowing football and quick passing game and if we do I really think we can tear them apart tonight. They need goals and we have quick players in our side who can punish them on the counter. We have to score. We know how costly away goals are and if we go 1-0 up they’ll need 3 to go through, which is nearly impossible.
In other news, Arsenal have finally agreed terms with Man City over the transfer of Samir Nasri. I’m glad it’s over, to be honest. The sooner it ended the better and now we have another 24m in the bank. I’m going to miss Samir. He’s a tremendous player and I’m not happy to see him leave. But life goes on, Arsenal goes on and we need to focus on ourselves now. Arsene needs to spend now and he needs to do it very, very quickly. I suspect if we qualify for the Champions League the deals won’t be that hard to make and there is exactly one week left of the window. Let’s hope we make the most of it.
Arsene Wenger’ ban is temporarily lifted, which means he’ll be on the bench tonight. Oh. That doesn’t sound right, does it? Well, we are short of players… Yeah, whatever.
It’s a massive game today. The Arseblogger summed it up perfectly:
“It’s massive for the football club, for our standing, our reputation, our confidence, for our ability to bring in players before the transfer window closes, and for the manager himself. The damage done if we don’t qualify for the Champions League would be enormous. Like the Liverpool game the only conclusion you could make is that our ineffective summer will have been the overriding factor and the consequences of that … well, I shudder to think.”
I don’t think there’s anything more to be added. We can do it and I’m confident we’ll get through. More from me tomorrow.
COME ON ARSENAL!!!
