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?