• Fo

  I think it will be a close game – think it will be either 1-0 to us or 2-1. Definitely confident we will win.

• jeffvip

  4-0. This is very optimistic Dev. I think Celtic might get 1. 4-1 to the Arsenal.

• Pete

  Should be a cracker tonight! Looking forward to seeing Arshavins debut for us in the Champions League Got a feeling he’ll want to get off to a flying start after being ineligible for us last year. Don’t think it’ll be as physical as the Everton game, but Celtic will be no push over and will see this game as their chance to qualify. Our players are mature enough to deal with an away atmosphere, we’ve played tougher teams much further away before, so as long as we’re switched on then is should be an Arsenal win.

  Like the look for Vermaelen, very composed and early indications are that he and Gallas are pretty solid together.

  Good luck lads

• devday

  Well, I predicted 4-0 for the opening day of the season against Everton, so will carry on the same prediction for Celtic!!

• Pete

  Almost forgot. As for starting line up, I reckon the same that faced Everton, apart from Diaby starting for Denilson. Would love Eduardo to start though.

  Almunia

  Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

  Diaby Song

  Bentdner Cesc Arshavin

  RvP

  It’s important to field our strongest team tonight, as we could probably afford to rest one or two for the Portsmouth game this weekend.

• gerry

  i think arsenal will underestimate celtic, and celtic will score first then go on to win the game

• Fabrez

  Spot on Pete. I think that 11 is what we’ll go with…could see Eboue instead at RB tho. I say 3-1 to the Gunners with Arsh scoring. I expect a beautiful game of football but once we show up our technical superiority will show. C’mon Arsenal!!

• Marc Callan

  I see a 2-1 win for Arsenal but sorry can’t see it being more…I’m irish so in one way it’s a competitive game by both but I genuinely think Arsenal will take lumps out of them…

  Gooners Til I Die

• devday

  News: Denilson is most probably out with a groin injury. Cesc should be fit to start. Sagna may be rested.

• Fabrez

  Hmm…that means we cud c the starting 11 i chose! Nice! lol Enjoy the game for me lads n ladies as i’ll not b in a position to c it!

• Yemi

  Lets paint eltic park REEEEEEDDDDDDDDD!!!! Come on the demolishing Gunners!!!
  Got to leave work early so as to watch the match from kickoff

• devday

  For some crazy reason I am really excited about this game… maybe after Saturday, I just can’t wait to see the team in action… now that the ego has gone (Adebayor) and the worry (Toure), there is a sense of calm and cohesion.

• Vazy

  It’s going to be tough but I have cautious optimism, going to the pub asap for a good seat, my feel it’s going to be either 1-1 if our injuries have a big effect or 2-1 to the arsenal

• VJ

  guys just saw nike arsenal pledge on youtube arshavin targets 5 goals one game….

• VJ

  also tem news released on sky sports arsenal line up is

  Almunia, Clichy, Vermaelen, Gallas, Sagna, Denilson, Song, Fabregas, Arshavin, Bendtner, Van Persie.

  same as saturday

  celtic line up is

  Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Fox, Donati, N’Guemo, McGeady, Brown, Maloney, Samaras.

• devday

  @VJ – Exciting stuff, playing the same XI and the same formation as the weekend…! Diaby makes the bench!

• devday

  Arsene pre-game interview he expects Celtic to be a bit rough – he also says playing Cesc & Denilson are risks but needed.

• Marc Callan

  Come on the Gooners

• devday

  Arshavin scores, but it’s offside – we’re starting to grind up the gears and start dominating…!

• Marc Callan

  Good ball by NB

• Marc Callan

  You won’t see Toure making that distance like Verminator just did, best replacement in a long while

• devday

  Eduardo was injured before the game, so Jack Wilshere is on the bench and Van Persie may need to be subbed… could Jack get an appearance tonight?

• devday

  @Marc Callan – Vermaelen was absolutely immense in his tracking back!

• Marc Callan

  Lads

  this is my 1st full game watching them and have to say Song is a different person, he really is working his socks off…unlucky Fab with the pass to Van Persie, very close

• devday

  They are getting quite physical now Celtic are…!

• devday

  1-0 to the Arsenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think Gallas meant that somehow!!

• Marc Callan

  Lads,

  two goals in 4 days for Arsenal…mister William is looking a decent buy for fantasy football

• francis

  arsenal on the march again….big up to Gallas

• sam

  Damn, this feels good!

• Marc Callan

  Denilson has put one or two stray passes there, little frustrating

• devday

  Think we’ve dropped a level – we don’t look that great at the moment. Bench doesn’t look to strong in an attacking sense either

• Marc Callan

  I think the defensive pairing of Gallas and Ver is very good, Gallas doesn’t have the pace but Ver compliments that…good interception Gallas, I’m wrong he does have pace

• devday

  Own goal, Gary Caldwell – Diaby’s influence…!

• kenneth

  Arsenal need a striker no matter what AW thinks.

  RVP cannot be a better front man, he better supporting.

• Kuka

  ….excellent game. That is what is meant by winning dirty. It’s been the missing puzzle of our game. Varmelleen is absolute class. You have to love this guy. Him and Gallas seem to be having so much fun together….

• jeffvip

  Agreed with Kenneth, RVP did looks lose today. He dunno what to do… Kudos to Gallas and Vermealen for today’s excellent defense.

• Gooner Get Ya

  Song was my MOTM he was brilliant again. The rest of the mid wasn’t too hot on their passing, even Cesc was struggling to find an arsenal shirt in the second half. Good result for us in the end though. Does any one know how bad Edu is as I am going to the grove on Saturday and was hoping see him play.

• Debs

  Vermaelen is my new favourite player!

• VJ

  yeaah guys good game just shows that we dint need to score brilliant goals to win. fabregas absolute class. vanpersie worked hard as well. didnt see much from arshavina and bentner.denilson and song were solid. the defence were absolute class. cant see arsene buying anyone now. i think he was waiting to see if we needed anyone. hell wait till the last day. vermaelen and gallas soo good working really well together. fabregas again man of match for me. hope we dont have any injuries for saturday think some players might have picked up some knocks.this means we can rest some players for the second leg

• Pete

  Very good result, especially away from home. Who’d have thought Diaby would have such an impact? lol That makes it 3-0 to us on away goal aggregate, so it’s looking promising for the Gunners.

  I agree Kuka. I hope Wenger does actually buy Chamakh now rather than leave it til later on as we had no extra strikers on our bench tonight.

  Vermaelen continues to impress. That run he made to put a block in was 100% commitment. Gallas seems to have a new lease of life in him too. And don’t get me started on Cesc! Good to see our captain taking so many shots at goal again, he’s more than capable of scoring. He looks a bit quicker than last season too.

  What I liked most is how the entire team worked hard for one another, it didn’t just come down to a few individuals. Whenever mistakes were made, someone else stepped in to help cover. Thats what a team is all about

  Well done lads. Have to say, even though I’m pleased for Arsenal, I am gutted for Celtic.

• Marc Callan

  I totally agree that Song was man of the match…think fabregas played very well for a guy that was injured, ran the most on the pitch (11km +) so I think it’s fair to say he did very well…

  Van persie is more a Lampard playing, in the attacking mid role than a lone striker…Bendtner had another shocker, dont think out on the right is where he should be played…

• Kuka

  ……it was pleasant watching the boys play. Solid team performance. Awesome stuff. Game number two, 8 goals…….am off to celebrate then sleep.

• Fabrez

  Ah… The World is immense dev… Makes keeping in touch on the WOA so much easier, esp on a mobile! Was so happy to see us take a 2-0 win back to The Grove. I’m concerned about injuries! Can’t w8 to see Vermaelen in the highlights. Top buy Arsene!

• daveg23

  vermaelan is another steal by wenger. he was a rock tonight and he is bringing out the better player in gallas. what i did like was bendtner chasing down the ball and blocking defenders passes…..adebawho?

• Vazy

  Who got man of the match? Result and a half! Will take those goals!

• Fabrez

  Saw the Vermaelen block… No way!! Haha… Gotta love him. He put everything into that! Reminds me of something John Terry wud do. That boy has got legs and quality n clearly that’s THE new CB pairing for us!

• Vazy

  Very much in agreement with fabrez, awsome signing! Mental tackles, love it!

• Debs

  Yeah! Who needs Cana when you’ve got Vermaelen, eh? I absolutely love him!

• Al

  Song was superp today hope he keeps
  it up. verm was outstanding wot a player
  jus wot we needed at CB. Gallas was class
  n van persie gave 100%. hope we can recover
  for portsmouth, looks like we gave a lot tonite
  early days but i do c a new arsenal

• VJ

  guys bit harsh on bentner this is a big deason for him and he is really the only tall striker we have that can win headers we need to get behind him and support him i dont think he has had any shockers, he played well against everton and was indifferent at celtic but arshavin had the same problem as well. celtic defended extremely well. i think once he stops worrying bout the critics and concentrates on the game he will be very good. unless injuries force otherwise same team gains portsmouth for me

• jien

  i m new 2 this website, just wana share the joy of arsenal’s victory with u guys..Vermaelen 2 me is outstanding, he is strong , quick and spirited, kind of reminds me of Martin Keown in his playing days with us..

  Good job gunneers, keep it up!!

• http://worldofarsenal.co.uk Josiah

  good win for us last night!

• zohaib

  Howdy folks !!!! wow it feels really really great. I just want to share the two victories with everybody here. Congrats !
  And it feels great to be back online with some fellow gooners. I was moving so that’s done now.

  Boy does this new 4 – 3 – 3 look good ! (I’ll take this opportunity to say ‘I told you so ! ‘) Song and Denilson are working well together, with Cesc. Bendtner’s playing out of his position and still contributing well.

  I don’t mean to sound negative but there are some concerns I want to draw our attention to. I’ve noticed that Arshavin and Bendtner aren’t completely comfortable with their roles out wide. They don’t play like supporting strikers as you’d expect from a 4 – 3 – 3, like Barcelona do. But they play more like defensive strikers ! Lol @ the irony. I have noticed that they do contribute defensively but for example Bendtner hasn’t looked very effective going forward. I was wondering why Bendtner wasn’t playing the main striker role with VanPersie playing on the right side where he does for his national team. And I can’t quite figure it out. It should seem better on paper and on the pitch, but maybe Wenger knows something I don’t.

  Also, if we have Rosicky and Nasri available, maybe Nasri would have been playing where Bendtner is or where Denilson is, because I believe he can play pretty much anywhere across the midfield or as a support striker. And so can Rosicky, and although he can play on the right side, it’s not his most comfortable position and I wouldn’t think of playing him there.

  I was also wondering whether Wenger would consider playing 4 – 3 – 3 with the a strike force of VanPersie up front with Vela on the right side and Arshavin on the left. It should work shouldn’t it ? Song, Denilson and Fabregas should be enough to provide defensive cover, shouldn’t they ? And it’d give us more of an attacking threat from the right, as compared to when we field Bendtner.

  My ideal line-up (and I’m starting to sound like a broken record) would be a 4 – 3 – 3 with :

  —————Almunia—————–
  Sagna—–Gallas—-Vermaelen—-Clichy
  ———-Nasri——Fabregas———-
  VanPersie——-Rosicky——–Arshavin
  ————–Eduardo——————

  Now this may look a bit short defensively in the central midfield area but Nasri and Fabregas and Rosicky would make sure they don’t leave space for the opponents. I personally believe it would work fine. But if we need more defensive cover then I’d put in Song there as a specialist DM and maybe move Nasri out wide on the right in place of VanPersie and VanPersie up front in place of Eduardo or vice versa. And then we’ve got Diaby, Vela, Walcott, Wilshere, Ramsey, Merida, Gibbs, Djourou, Eboue and Bendtner all on the bench … !!!

• zohaib

  And btw there’s a really cool game called Premier League Challenge on Facebook.

  The reason I mention this is because it’s really fun to play, specially against friends. And it’d be fantastic if some of you would play so that we could compare our squads and have some fun together. So hurry up and join !

• kuka

  @ Zohaib:

  Your line-up is ideal and men, I can see many goals through it. The problem off course would be the porous nature of the mid-field. None of those guys in your mid-field are natural defensive players…..Fab is indeed working on his defensive instincts, but as we know, he is more offensive and a schemer, so is Rosicky and Arshavin…………I would probably throw in Song and then let Eduardo come on from the Bench for now……

  If all our offensive mid-fielders upped their game defensively in terms of closing down teams when we loose the ball, or tracking back to defending collectively, then we have something special……..We saw a little bit of that yesterday…

• Berth

  zohaib good to have you back. Your formation is cool but lacks defense cover.I see u still dont trust Song. And Dev , am worried about vp.

• hello

  .
  D.I.A.B…Y… cos i gotta!!

• Fo

  Zohaib – good to have you back!

• VJ

  zohaib i see ur point bout arshavin and bentner not working well. its funny weve scored 8 goals and none of them from the front 3. maybe wenger will do some reorganising. though i still think we need bentner for that height factor. it really helped us gainst everton an was pretty key i think. the only changes i can see in the midfield (denilson song fabregas) is swapping denilson for nasri or rosicky. probs rosicky since hell be back first. song has been really important defensivly. though i think wenger will again play the team on saturday unless injuries force otherwise. hopefully it was just time for our front three men to get used to there new positions

• Gooner Get Ya

  What is the news on Eduardo injury?

• zohaib

  Berth, it’s not that I don’t trust Song. In fact I’m hugely impressed by what I’ve seen in the first two matches of this season. It’s just I’m someone who wants all out attack. Just non-stop attacking threat. To not let the opponents have a chance to have a shot on goal. Of course you need some balance, but my thinking was Nasri is someone who can play anywhere in the midfield. I do believe he can play as a DM. He said so himself. And Fabregas isn’t really quick like Rosicky. So think of my formation as more of a 4 – 2 – 3 – 1. It should look balanced that way.

• zohaib

  With Fabregas and Nasri sitting back or one of them sitting back like Song does, when the other is providing help for the attack. Just rotation b/w the midfield 3. More dynamic play. Which is what’s best. Adjusting in real time, as the situation requires.

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