I’ll start off by saying if you want the club to lose today just to justify your #WengerOut chants, then you’re a disgrace to the club and shouldn’t be supporting. I want my team to always do good no matter what and even if we trump Bayern and go out in the next round, I’ll still support the team, why? I’m an Arsenal fan. Arsenal fan.
As I sat by my desk, watching Arsene Wenger’s press conference that was the topic of much discussion over his supposed ‘meltdown’, I couldn’t help but laugh through most of it. Arsenal’s case despite being a sad repetitive one and Wenger’s handling of the conference made me laugh, it was like watching an episode of Big Bang Theory.
If you must know, it wasn’t a meltdown or a lashing out of any sort, he was asked about rumors of a new deal to which he said was false information and then he was asked about the Blackburn loss to which he stated the conference is a pre Champions league game and as such, questions from the media should be in regards to that. Fair play to him. You can read the full transcript here ~> Arsene Interview
MATCH PREVIEW
Let’s move on to the game at hand now, I won’t bore you with how we’ve met our downfall at the hands of B-named-teams but I’ll remind you that our season always manages to end in the month of February which sees us out of contention for all domestic cups, the league and facing a dangerous team in the UCL.
Our record against German teams since 2000 is OK at best with 7 wins 5 losses and 4 draws but our record against Bayern in particular is a problem, 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses. The last time we met in the knockout stages, we lost in Germany 3-1 and won the reverse fixture 1-0 which ultimately saw us eliminated but we’ll have to be wary of that.
After missing out on the league last year and losing the finals of the UCL too, Bayern are a different beast this season, they’ve brought in reinforcements and are 15 points ahead of the 2nd placed team in Germany, needless to say, they’ve won the league. Not impressed? We’ll also have you know Bayern haven’t conceded a goal in 2013. But as someone once told me, domestic form doesn’t always translate to European nights as you can’t carry form books into them. I’ll agree to disagree on that.
BATTLE ZONES
For us to get anything out of this game, our midfield must be on song for all of it, needless to say, we must replicate the performance that saw us beat Barcelona a few years ago which heralded Wilshere as a future world beater, if not better. The Bayern team is a great team and the quality on their bench is almost unmatched in all of Europe so even if we see ourselves up in the second half, we must remain ontop throughout. They’ve conceded 6 goals in 7 UCL games this year which means we can score and we will, how many can we score is the question.
Another thing is mistakes, we must cut them out, the defense must stand up and be counted and that includes our goalkeeper who’s having a torrid season. It’s hard to tell which wide players will start for Bayern but Ribery and Muller will likely get the nod. While Muller isn’t exactly fast, he’s deceptively smart and a very good footballer, sleep on him and we’ll get punished.
Jack Wilshere and Bastian Schweinsteiger will be the main men for the respective teams and will stand up and be counted, but the main threats will be Santi Cazorla and Toni Kroos, whoever wins that battle will win the game for his side. It’s that simple.
TEAM NEWS
Laurent Koscielny is still struggling for fitness despite playing all of the Blackburn game. That’s our only concern. Podolski, Cazorla, Sagna, Wilshere and Walcott will all return to the starting line up after being benched at the weekend. Nacho Monreal is cup tied and Kieran Gibbs is still absent.
Bayern midfielder-defender in Javi Martinez has recovered from a knock but Pizzaro, Badstuber and Boateng are still missing.
I expect Ramsey to start and Giroud to make way for him. Vermaelen will start at left back, Walcott will start alone upfront as he’ll try to look for spaces in the defense. Ramsey will start on the right to help protect Sagna and curb the very attacking David Alaba. How much we contain Bayern’s wingplay will determine how successful we become on the night.
We’re capable of turning out a great performance regardless of the opposition, but the question is, will we? I certainly hope so and hopefully do it emphatically. It won’t be an easy task but it’s not an impossible one. Hard to predict this one so I’ll go for a 2-1 victory for us, who knows we might even keep a clean sheet.
If you’re going to the game, go in full Arsenal regalia and shout at the top of your voices and support the team, if you’re going to be watching it on your TV sets and laptops, still do the same, let’s quiet the rumblings and get a win. Cheers.
1st paragraph “well said” unfortunately you can’t stop arsehole’s supposedly supporting the team.