Arsenal need audacity to go through
Lately it seems like every time I open my news reader, some new Arsenal injury makes the headlines and ruins my day. Yesterday was no exception with news coming that Sol might not be fit, Rosicky might not be fit, and the biggest blow is that Alex Song is definitely not fit with a swollen knee keeping him out for an indefinite time.
Add to the three above Fabregas, Gallas, Arshavin, van Persie, Gibbs and Djourou and the list of walking wounded at Arsenal is almost long enough to make one of those silly “here to the moon” metaphors. Something like “if you lined up all the Arsenal supporters who are sick of hearing the news about injured Arsenal players, the line would stretch from the Earth to the Moon.”
Sol and Tomas have been included in the 18 man squad named yesterday and are match day decisions so there’s still the possibility that they might be included. Though I will say that I’m not putting my hopes for a victory on the back of a 35 year old and a player who has spent the last two years recovering from a muscle tear. No matter how brilliant they have been lately.
No, I think it’s much like Pete says over at the Beautiful Groan; Arsenal need our more erratic players to step up. We need a great night from Diaby. We need a World Cup performance from Walcott. We need the Denilson of last week to step in and keep possession. We need Bendtner to prove that he is a big game player. And we need players like Silvestre and Eduardo to simply have the best games of their lives.
Pete also points out that perhaps the lack of expectations on the team will free them to just play and he’s right, Arsenal have nothing to lose. The book makers have Barcelona as heavy favorites and moreover heavy favorites to win big; a 3-0 Barcelona win is just 9/1 and a 3-0 Arsenal win is 150/1.
Tactically speaking I thought before the game that Arsene might try to play a 4-5-1 in order to clog their midfield and help deny them space. But I wonder if Wenger won’t look at a 4-5-1 and think “what’s the point?” After all, if the young players who are going to start today put it all on the line, deny space, and hound Barcelona to win the ball back, like we did early in the season with great effect then the 4-3-3 is actually the best option. We can’t play for a 0-0 or even a 1-1 and go through to the next level. We could play for a 1-0 win to Arsenal but do you really see us keeping a clean sheet against what is arguably the best team in the world? At their patch?
Nope. Arsenal need to score and that means we can’t play a 4-5-1, we need to be the aggressors and do what they did when they came to see us at the Emirates. In short, we need to be audacious. Here, I’ll lead the charge…
My regular readers know that I never make score line predictions but I’m going to today. Today, if I lived in England (or near a legal sports book) I would put money on a crazy 3-3 draw at 66/1.
Messi will probably have a great game, but why can’t Bendtner also have a good game? He’s bigger than their entire back line and he talks an even bigger game. So, why can’t he get a goal or two? Theo will be tasked with pegging Dani Alves back in his half and if he just goes for it, he could easily make a mockery of their back four. Why not a goal from Theo? After all he’s scored in a ton of big games, Chelsea in the Carling Cup final, Croatia for England, and Barcelona last week. And what about Eduardo? Who better to come on, down 3-2, and get the tying goal which sees us through to the next round on a magical night?
Audacious prediction, yes, but if Arsenal are going to advance they will need to be that audacious. They are going to need to attack, hustle, play their game, and simply be what we all hope they could be.
They’ve been written off before and come back, is one more time in the cards?
Comments
Sneaky thought here, Tim…
If, and it’s a BIG if, Rosicky gets the nod, I fancy him to pip one on a shot from distance. He’s deadly with those and Barca won’t be expecting us to fire from outside too much with Bendtner in the box. But both Rosicky & Denilson seem to have the knack to score from outside and I think we could surprise with one from there or on a follow up like at Birmingham.
I’ve been reading most of the sites today, and the more I read about the thought of starting Sagna centrally to partner Verm, the more sense it makes. Put Eboue at RB so he can partner Theo going forward whenever Theo gets on the pitch. With Bojan getting the nod in place of Ibra, we need more speed at the back I think, and I’m just not sure Sol is up for that as much as I’d love to see him on the pitch.
Ooops. My bad. It was the Hull match that Bendtner scored on the follow up, not Birmingham. How embarrassing!
Tim, Theo will probably be matched up with Abidal not Alves. To that point, it would probably be better if he comes off the bench once again as Abidal is very solid defensively but not 100% match fit. I would have Eboue make runs at him all day and then bring on Theo once he’s tired. A 3-3 scoreline is a very bold prediction. It would be an awesome match if that does happen. However, I am predicting Arsenal to nick this one 2-1! C’MON YOU GOONERS!!!
I have placed my (absolutely legal) bet on Arsenal losing at half time and winning the whole game. Nice 51/1 odds and somehow I know it is possible with this Arsenal team
We’ll win ‘coz we’re Arsenal!
PS. Geez, I really can’t wait for the kick off.
I had a dream last night.
Arsenal went down two goals early, but stormed back to win 3-2.
It was the best dream I have had in a long, long, long time.
Come on you gooners.
@Matt, I wonder how many of is will still be alive to witness the victory!
I think most fans were similarly gung-ho ahead of the first leg of this tie, after which most emerged thanking whatever deity they follow that it wasn’t an absolute tonking. 2-2 was a result that enabled us to come out of that game with our pride bruised but largely intact. This game will not be any different, in my opinion. I can see Barca having plenty of the ball, especially Messi this time, and creating loads of chances. To be honest, I reckon we might have to go all English on their arses and play for multiple set pieces and try to get Nick, Sol and Tommy on the end of them. I can’t see us outplaying them…absolutely no chance. If we couldn’t do it with Cesc, Arshavin and Song in the side, what chance doing it without them?
That’s why I would start with Eboue – there’s nobody better at winning dangerous free kicks than him. That’s my tactic: give it Eboue, have him run at Maxwell/Abidal, drop the shoulder, cheeky knock the ball past the defender, followed by the overly dramatic “falling free kick appeal” that he’s so well versed in. That’s our only hope for a goal.
My heart says 2-1 to The Arsenal with a couple of set piece headers from Nick and Sol, but my head says 4-0 Barca, with the tie as good as over by half time.
Still, what is football if not a sport based on hope and blind optimism?
“Adversity Reveals Genius”
Lets get it done today you Gooners!
Sol has t play. As much as I love SOng he is not a CB and was exposed for both goals last week. This team has come back so many times this year I know they can do it. They were written off in the league twice and yet we are still there. We were written off at 2 nil and we are still there. We need spirit and performances but we are capable. Tonight could be the night when the boys become men and true elite level players
I believe amd cant wait for what is going to be a very emotional game.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
Back from the future: The Almanac says Arsenal wins 2-1
@Marty McFly, nice
Too nervous to make predictions! I’d take a 1-0 with a handball at 95minutes, LOL. No, I wouldnt. I’ll just try to enjoy the match, hoping for the best, preparing for… well, yot know.
Lol…I replicated our b-team line up against a full strength Barca team on FIFA last night…Bendtner hat trick- we won 3-1..I never beat Barca like that on Fifa. Thank me later
Don’t stand a chance.
With Gallas, Song, Cesc, ramsey, Arshavin and Van Persie it would be tough… without them, it’s impossible.
this could be a match we talk about over whiskey ten years from now… or, one that we will be very happy to forget. remember, they are missing some key ingredients as well. puyol is a very, very steady player. the defense relies on him and his calm, yet aggressive style. everything starts in the back, usually with puyol hammering someone, stripping the ball and playing it off. they will be missing him.
raising my glass already this morning
Things only change if enough momentum is generated.
Tim, I cannot remember which post it was, but I blatantly plagiarised it (copied and pasted it) with tweaks and SENT it to the FA. I did not email it, Twatter it (that is meant to be Twat) or any other quick ‘n’ easy method of dispensing ones duty. I printed it, wrote on an envelope, put my stamp on it and walked to the post box to post it. I received a very polite response which, as with all things official, is meant to bat the inquisitor away. I know you have to be persistent and as I said, I’ve only done it once. Your post from 05/04/10 will be receiving the same treatment. I urge other 7am readers to do the same, where ever in the world you are. Perhaps Tim, from time to time, you could do a ‘letter post’ for us to download (so you can keep a track of participants – numbers, not names and DNA profiles!!) that we could all print off and post. On your other bugbear, the only reason I can think that the press in the UK behave like this is because the UK press sticks vehemently to the adage that controversy, not quality, sells. And lets face it, circulation numbers of traditional papers in the UK are in free fall.
FIFA
FIFA-Strasse 20,
PO Box 8044
Zurich
Switzerland
The Football Association
Wembley Stadium
PO Box 1966
London
SW1P 9EQ
The Premier League
30 Gloucester Place
London
W1U 8PL
Here we come…
white jerseys, do we win in white?
YYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
nooooooooo
come.. we need the 3-3!
2 goals! come on!
Missing half our team we gave it our best shot and were beaten by a superior talent in Messi.
Andy Gray it may not be a ‘disgace’ to be beaten by Barcelona but it still sucks.
Well, it was a long shot anyway. Never again a white kit please. Also, Sylvestre vs. Messi… oh dear…
Can I just preempt the ‘we need to buy’ hindsighters?
Before you think if only we had a world-class DM or CB to stop Messi, realize that we had our 6th best CB in there against possibly the best player ever.
No shame in this loss. Chalk it down to experience.
Rest up for Spurs.
We were doomed to lose by virtue of our lineup and I do question Arsene’s team selection. Having 3 left footed defenders in Clichy, Vermaelen and geriatric Silvestre, defending against a left footed Messi is just plain ignorant.
Although we were short handed, we would have stood a better chance with Sagna at CB and Eboue at RB, especially since Ibra was out and all their forwards are small.
Under the circumstances we did the best we could, which unfortunately, was not good enough. At full strength we probably could have given them a good run for their money, but alas, fate plays cruel tricks.
I am proud of this team in that they have shown maturity and a fighting spirit but they do need a little help, including a real GK and a backup for Song who can also play CB.
Oh well, I guess there is always next year.
@Caribkid69, do you really believe that Arsene Wenger is ignorant? Are you applying for the job?
@Patrick, Frankly, I don’t think even a world class DM or CB would have been able to stop Messi tonight, he was… well, from another planet. It helps that the way Barca plays seems to give them so much time on the ball, where we always looked harried and hassled in possession.
Also, how good were they getting out of trouble in close quarters? Frightening.
@Patrick, “…6th ‘best’ CB”. Really? Didn’t see that one coming did we? I predicted to gareth26GOONER yesterday that I pessimistically thought Sylvestre would start. I take no pleasure in being right.
we dont need to buy. we need to learn how to press and get the ball. andy gray was saying its a good lesson to learn on how to press and get the ball back. we dont know how to do that cause we normally always have the ball. so its a good lesson to learn.
we need to buy a new medical team.
@munawwar, We also need to learn how to make that final ball and be more ruthless. We could have leveled up had Diaby chosen a better pass and Rosicky taken a bit more time to finish properly rather than snatching at the shot. I was surprised to see how overwhelmed he seemed to be by the occasion.
When pressed, our players are too far away from each other to be of help. We may do well in the EPL, because the English teams, though physical, do not press that close together; so there is time to choose the angle to pass the ball. But in the case of Barca, they press you tight, we have to release the ball early–that is what they do–and other players must run into space to offer an alternative and outlet…
@munawwar, Best observation of the night.
The odds were against us today and we saw why. The most frustrating part was that they seemed to be giving us some chances that second half and we couldn’t take advantage. Clichy, why did you not pass it left in lieu of shooting it from outside the box? Total headscratcher.
Proud of the lads this season. There’ll be another time. Save the transfer talk for May; start focusing on Spurs (and root for Bayern).
@ArseChicago, To true, I’m proud of what the team have done this season. Bendtner’s goal return isn’t too shabby considering he missed 3 months.
Gents,
Can’t say I’m surprised at the result but that doesn’t mean I’m not gutted. I believed right up to the 4th messi goal. I stay proud of the team to get this far against all odds. I hope this brings them into the title run with renewed vigour (look what it did for chavski). Let’s just concentrate on beating the spuds now!
Man of the Match: Clichy.
Bendtner also does well.
I think it is better to play Sagna than Silvestre, because Silvestre is a left footed player, so TV5 is moved to the right, and he makes two mistakes which costs us two goals. I dont blame him though.
With Maxwell staying close to Theo, he has an forgettable game. It shows the limitation of Theo. He still has a long way to go.
Our first goal comes from Diaby, but Denilson is completely outclassed in midfield.
This game shows how far we are from the team we want to be.
sorry, typo, not Maxwell, but Abidal.
WE still have to fight for the EPL. If we let our heads down next Sat, we are done; yet I am worried. When even Rosicky is overwhelmed, what chance do we have?
We can’t really criticize the performance today. You can’t even judge the performance of this team because of our missing players. Still I’d say we’ve seen that Barcelona is a class above and we see that our team has a ways to go to compete at their level.
Back to the mundane world of the EPL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/8604993.stm
I was really hoping that he would appeal. All those tackle that Henry saw that were worse than his and didn’t even get a yellow card-that’s just down to the incompetence of those officials.
@ctpa, Thanks for the link, eh.
Fifa should have a rule that if you have a player by the name of silvestre in your team then you will be allowed to play with 13 players.
@nycgunner, The Premiership can fine us for playing a ‘weakened’ lineup when we play Silvestre.
I can’t help but feel a little empty inside after this. I don’t feel angry or frustrated like I did after the games against United and Chelsea, I just feel a little sad that the draw put us against the best team in the world, and all we could come up with was this. I wouldn’t care if we lost, but I would have enjoyed the thought of seeing Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Song and Gallas in the lineup too, putting a decent fight against Barca, and who knows, maybe even a win. That would be a real match, and one where you could really see how far we’ve come. Silvestre against Messi was like pouring a bucket of red color over a blind fat guy, and then tying his legs together too, just for the fun of it.
And for the life of me, I can’t understand how is it possible that after every single freaking match, we have an injured player? I can’t wait to see who will miss the next game against the Spuds, my bet is on Nasri “picking up a slight knock”. This is really not possible anymore, what is wrong with them?
Fuck our medical team, since I can’t find anyone else to blame.
everyone is already trying to down silvest but i actually thought he fought hard tonight. we just ran out of bullets. i am sad but know that we have a great foundation. in the next couple of years we will surely turn heads. lets just stay positive.
@josh, can we get a “-1″ button to score the comments with?
@Kevin, A “thumbs down” symbol.
Just an observation that might still give some hope for all those that might start thinking that we will never win anything:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Barcelona#Honours
The 1.000.000$ question is, just how many trophy’s has Barca won in the period of 5 years,
between 1998-1999 and 2004-2005?
For all of those not bothering to search through the numbers, the answer is: none.
None whatsoever, not even a League Cup.
And mind you, this is a Barcelona side that had players like Deco at his best, Ronaldihno, Rivaldo, just to name a few, I can’t bother to look them up now.
So we just have to wait a little longer, realistically speaking, we won’t win the PL as well,
but hopefully, Arsenal’s time will come again.
That is, if Fabregas stays:)
@Teampossible, Fabergas isn’t going anywhere.
Good point about the lack of trophies for Barcelona. I’m disappointed but not in the team. There is no shame in losing to Barcelona. Everyone else is going to lose to them as well. Arsenal never gave up and probably deserved a bit more than they got – probably not the win but 4-1 was harsh. Hopefully they keep their heads up and make a race out of the PL. Either way, I’m very proud of their efforts. They will come good. If we can get our strongest team out on a consistent basis, we are going to scare the piss out of everyone.
I can’t see how anyone can lose too much sleep over this, after feeling the initial disappointment of losing for a few hours. With a 4-3-3, we’re missing 2 of our front 3 (Arshavin, RvP), 2 of our middle 2 (Fabregas, Song), and 50% of our best 2 CBs. Additionally, we’re really without a #1 keeper. I was hoping we would’ve gotten reinforcements in January, but no reason to cry about it now. Who here hasn’t been having fun watching this team of late? There have been downs this year, but unquestionably this club is on an upward trajectory. That makes me feel good. All I hope is that guys like Theo, Bendtner, Diaby, Nasri, Vermaelen et al, learn from this, gain some wisdom, some savvy, some smarts, some confidence ultimately. What we saw in this CL tie is something to aspire to.
@ArseChicago, totally agreed! If we had our starters, we would have been better equipped.
Taking stock so far in 2009/10….
Reserve Cup
Our kids lost to City’s first team. Meh.
FA Cup
Fielded a very weak team and basically threw it away to Stoke.
Champions League
Team decimated by injuries lost quarter-final to one of the all-time great teams.
Premier League
To be continued…
Can we have a do-over on the FA Cup?
Missing Fabregas was one thing in this game, but not having Song deal with Messi was the real difference. Sure we had our 5th spot defender out there and TV5 was literally playing as one double CB but Song was the one who kept Messi quite last week.
Please let’s not forget that Bendtner had an off side called wrongly. That would’ve ben 2-1 for us (I think…had he scored it)
i don’t remember a season where we have had so many injuries, and so many untimely injuries. the fact that we had to play silvestre today, against barca…
i will say, clichy is my new favorite gunner. i happened to believe he is one of the most exciting players in the epl right now.
but injuries, i would say playing in the epl, and being a top 4 team year after year, it increases your injury chances. man.u and chelsea have both lost key players as well. i would say this is a valid point, but we lose players when they are playing international friendlies as well. i think it is a combo of playing in the epl, having so may players who play for their national team, and competing in europe every year. and.. none of that is going to change. we just need players who can stay healthy. i think vermalean is the only one who has survived all year.
now, let’s win the epl, and be done with it.
Clichy has recovered the form that made it easier to shed the memory of Cole.
After seeing Barcelona, I want to know can Wenger get this team to play like them. Do our players have the right unselfish mindset to play like that. In training now Wenger has to reduce that number of touches before passing to just one instead of two. We need to revamp our medical staff. we need to revamp our training regimens. We need to revamp our defensive training. We really need to take a non sentimental hard look at players like Eduardo, Rosicky and their future with us. I didn’t mention Silvestre because we should have dropped him off in France on the our way back.