Archive for the ‘Champions League’ Category

There has been much debate about the fans response to Eboue's performance and tomorrow the Ivorian will have a chance to win back the fans with an outstanding display and a few goals (not own goals) against a Porto side looking to finish top of the group.

Injuries news has been pouring in today. We're of course, without Rosicky, Eduardo, Walcott and Nasri. Four attacking players who'd add so much to our team, but four attacking players who seem to be in the wars a lot.

In addition, Gael Clichy has pulled a hamstring and Cesc Fabregas has got a bit of knee trouble - nothing that a squeeze of WD40 couldn't cure. Kolo Toure has had a recurrence of his calf injury that kept him out of the side for a while, whilst Robin Van Persie has got a thigh strain. Adebayor needs rest as he's not yet recovered from the International travel for his recent country match.

As a result, it's a reprieve for some of the Carling Cup regulars as well as a re-introduction to the squad for William Gallas and injury-prone French midfielder, Abou Diaby.

The squad has recently been announced and some of the following players will be chosen to play tomorrow:

1. Manuel Almunia
21. Lukasz Fabianski
10. William Gallas
18. Mikael Silvestre
40. Kieran Gibbs
41. Gavin Hoyte
27. Emmanuel Eboue
20. Johan Djourou
17. Alex Song
15. Denilson
16. Aaron Ramsey
47. Mark Randall
2. Abou Diaby
43. Fran Merida
19. Jack Wilshere
26. Nicklas Bendtner
12. Carlos Vela
50. Jay Simpson

This team includes Randall, Ramsey, Merida, Wilshere, Simpson and Gibbs, so it’s going to be a tough one.

So out of these players, who do we think will start against Porto. Well, here goes…

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Tomorrow we take on Fenerbahce in the "Sukru Saracoglu Stadium" stadium and will expect a tough reception from the home side as the Turkish supporters are known for their passionate support, especially when a big team come to town.

The squad for tomorrow's game has been released and here it is:

Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie, Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner, Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby, Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas, Denilson, Samir Nasri, Kieran Gibbs, Gael Clichy, Mikael Silvestre, Alex Song, Emmanuel Eboue, Johan Djourou

From this squad, it’s clear to see that we will be without 3 of our first choice defence in Sagna, Toure and Gallas, but a timely return for Johan Djourou increases our options in that department.

Arsene has often adopted a 4-5-1 in European away games, and I reluctantly expect him to do the same thing tomorrow. It’s a hard one to know who will play, as both Nasri, Walcott, Van Persie and Ade are our first choice wingers and strikers, not all of them can play if we go for a 4-5-1 unless Nasri plays more centrally along side Cesc and Denilson fills in the holding midfield role. With Song available and Nasri having a little niggle, we may see the following line up:

Subs: Fabianksi, Hoyte, Gibbs, Walcott, Bendtner, Nasri and Vela.

In this line up, I think Arsene may give Diaby a full run out in midfield as well as resting Walcott and Nasri. I would be tempted to throw in Bendtner instead of Ade, but maybe too many changes aren’t good…

Arsene has been speaking ahead of the game and has focused on the “UEFA is watching you” stance warning Fenerbache not to do anything untoward and stating that the fans will not affect the players. The boss said:

“They have the most passionate fans in Europe. Especially in Istanbul where you have Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.

“It is a unique place and for me it is a special city. But it is very, very tough.

“However it will not affect the players. It could have done 20 years ago but one of the good things done by Uefa is that they protect the players and the competitions so much they know if [the teams] do too much they will be kicked out.

“Every simple thing is filmed. That was not the case 20 or 30 years ago. You had a little more freedom to express your aggressiveness then. But that has gone.”

It’s a game that I can’t wait for, it should be a good game, and will be good to see Diaby and Djourou back in the squad and first XI…

Don’t forget to participate in the World of Arsenal’s first poll, which asks Should Bendtner replace Adebayor in the first XI? At the time of writing, 65% of readers agreed that it was time for a change up top…

Til tomorrow…]]>

Hull Hell”.

Anyway, let’s look forward to the game, and hope that we’ll be on the top of our game.

Arsenal v FC Porto
UEFA Champions League, Emirates Stadium
Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 19:45

Team News sees the welcomed return of Samir Nasri. Of course Diaby, Eduardo and Rosicky are all out injured. Song has yet to return so it looks like we’ll have to field the only two fit central midfielders who’ve got any experience, of course, Cesc and Denilson. Even though Arsene said there would be changes, I think this is masked in the fact that Nasri is coming back, so inevitably would return to the starting XI.

As much as I’d like Ade dropped and Bendtner and Vela start, I don’t Arsene will do this. If anything, he’ll drop Van Persie and play Bendtner. I’d be in favour of this as Van Persie was very much ineffective on Saturday.

Apart from those two changes, can you really see Arsene changing much else? He should drop Gallas and play Djourou, but will he really? I sincerely doubt it.

Subs: Fabianksi, Silvestre, Djourou, Eboue, Ramsey, Vela, Van Persie.

We really do need to make amends for Saturday’s abysmal performance. Toure seems ready to make things right.

“We can’t just think about Hull. It’s true we lost and didn’t play well. But we didn’t play very well against Fulham and then we came back well in the next game when we beat Twente in the Champions League (qualifiers). For a team like Arsenal it’s always good to have a good reaction. Any team can fall down but it’s about how they react to defeat that matters. Tomorrow is a really good test and we will see if we can show another face. We are lucky we can play a match so soon after that and change everything in the minds of our fans. We want to show everyone we are still a good side. The manager, like everyone at the club, was very upset after Hull. If you want to be champions you need to win every game, especially when you play at home. We didn’t perform well. We’re professional and we know that when we play for Arsenal we can’t afford to lose like that. The manager didn’t have to say anything to us but he still had a few words. Every player was very sad and disappointed.”

Damn right. You play for Arsenal. You cannot afford to lose like that.

Jesualdo Ferreira, the Porto coach says he doesn’t need to worry about a backlash from us and also isn’t going to change his tactics.

“In the Champions League teams always play differently. Arsenal use different tactics to the ones they use in the Premier League. Arsenal losing at the weekend will not have an effect on Tuesday night. If Arsenal conceded a goal from the set-piece against Hull it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t suddenly become something we look at.”

On reflecting on the game between the two sides 2 years ago, Ferreira said:

“There have been many changes since then. Arsenal have big players still but only Thierry Henry is missing who was there.  Most of their players are bigger, older, better and more experienced. Porto weren’t able to keep up with Arsenal in that game but we were able to qualify from the group. Now we have different players, some left and some have come. At the moment the only thing we can say is that Arsenal have more experience and that could affect the outcome.”

And in the other game, Fenerbahce take on Dynamo Kiev and a draw would probably be the best result.

I’ll be at the game tonight, and despite the result on Saturday, I am still very excited and really can’t wait…

Til tomorrow…]]>

Afternoon all, and it’s a slightly warmer Wednesday than Tuesday albeit freezing overnight… surely it will be a little colder in Kiev today?

Okay, well how cold? Let’s take a look…

So, 10 degrees, a little colder than average, but should be okay… not in the minus degrees. And who is scared of the weather anyway? Arsene Wenger isn’t scared of the weather, he’s not scared of the stadium, he’s not scared of their mascot or what’s in store.

In fact, what is Arsene scared of…

“We are happy to play football – we are afraid of nobody in the world. But we respect Dynamo Kiev because I feel mainly their strength is that they are very efficient as a team. They are a very hard working team with good discipline, and they can score goals. In that kind of game you want to defend well. But as well we are an attacking team so we are only happy when we score goals. I believe we have learnt that any place in the world is difficult and I believe mentally we can cope with that better now.”

And of course, with Nasri confirmed as not in the squad, Arsene will unleash the young England pretender, Theo Walcott on the Ukrainians. The squad has been confirmed…

1 Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
3 Bacary SAGNA
4 Cesc FABREGAS
5 Kolo TOURE
10 William GALLAS (c)
11 Robin VAN PERSIE
12 Carlos VELA
14 Theo WALCOTT
15 DENILSON
16 Aaron RAMSEY
17 Alex SONG
19 Jack WILSHERE
20 Johan DJOUROU
21 Lukasz FABIANSKI (GK)
22 Gael CLICHY
25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
26 Nicklas BENDTNER
27 Emmanuel EBOUE

Which means the probable line up should be:

As I said yesterday, I’d expect Van Persie to be rested as well as Denilson, with Bendtner and Song coming in. The bench should comprise of Fabianksi, Silvestre, Djourou, Denilson, Ramsey, Vela and Van Persie.

It should be a cracker of a game tonight and Ade believe the team has real desire to win this competition…

“We have every chance to win the Champions League with Arsenal. I had the chance to be in the final with Monaco, but I was on the bench and I could see all these special things going on. Then with Arsenal, I could not play because I was cup-tied and in my head it was difficult – but now I have a chance to play so there is an argument for me to be more hungry than most of my team-mates. However, I am not the only one. Cesc [Fabregas] and Kolo [Toure] lost in the [2006] final as well and so all these players would like to win it in their career. These are the things that we are going to pin together as brothers and help each other on the pitch and off the pitch and try to achieve something this season.”

Read an interview with Adebayor on the official Arsenal site… it’s quite interesting.

Well, good luck boys, let’s put on a display and get three points on the board tonight!

‘Til tomorrow…]]>

Talking about this season, tomorrow night is the first game in the group stage of the Champions League as we take on Dynamo Kyiv (not Kiev, that's chicken) in the Valeri Lobanovski Stadium. Yes, try saying that ten times.

FC Dynamo Kyiv v Arsenal
UEFA Champions League, Valeri Lobanovski Stadium
Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 19:45

The game will be shown live on SKY Sports and coverage will start at 7pm.

After the 4-0 demolition of Blackburn on the weekend, I’m quite exciting about taking on Kyiv now. It’s going to be a real test. It’s kind of a free test where people will not really over-react if we lose, but if we win, it will put us in good stead to qualify with three home games to come…

Arsene Wenger of course is being he usual cautious self and partly to re-focus and bring our players back to earth after a few good wins on the trot, he spoke to Arsenal TV and said:

“It is a tough place for us to go. It is maybe a little bit better for us to play earlier but I am convinced it will still be a massive challenge. We’ll go there and try to win the game but even if we take a point then for me it will be a good start.

“Dynamo Kyiv knocked out Spartak Moscow 4-1, 4-1 [in each leg of their qualifying game]. When you know Spartak Moscow and how strong the Russian League is at the moment that means it is a tough draw. I saw the first game at Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv were really impressive.

“Our group has four teams who are all used to playing in the Champions League – Fenerbache, Porto, Dynamo and us. Anyone can take points off anyone that’s why for me it’s very important we start well in this game.”

And I think he’s got a point. Dynamo are not a “bad” team. If both teams play to their maximum, yes, we are better, much better, but we must not be complacent, otherwise, like last season’s game against Sevilla, away from home, it can be harder than we think.

First team coach at Kyiv, Yuri Semin, was highly talkative about Adebayor:

“We knew very well prior to this the capabilities of the Arsenal forward. But we will not be putting a man-marker on him. Adebayor plays all over the pitch, and in every zone there will be one of our players to meet him.”

It’s clear to see that Ade has a growing reputational in Europe, and his hattrick against Blackburn would surely have caused some fear in the defenders.

Onto team news and the doubts for the game are Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue and Samir Nasri. I think all three will be fit and Arsene may try and use all three as he attempts to rest Theo Walcott. Arsene has talked about resting his midfield, so here’s my expected line up:

As you can see, I’d also expect Van Persie to be rested as well as Denilson, with Bendtner and Song coming in. I may be wrong, but with a game every three days including the internationals, we have to adjust here and there. On the bench, I’d expect Fabianksi, Djourou, Denilson, Walcott, Ramsey, Vela and Van Persie. With Djourou the only defender on the bench, Ramsey may not be included with Silvestre appearing on the bench after injury.

There will probably be more official news tomorrow… we should have landed in Kyiv by now and be on the training ground…

More tomorrow…]]>

So tomorrow sees our first "proper" game of the season and  we take on FC Twente of Holland, managed by England's very own Steve McClaren. The Twente side is a decent side with some good players, but we really should be able to beat this side over two legs.

Steve McClaren has said it's fate that he drew an English team. I say it's irony! With Engelaar, their best player, transferred to Schalke, I can see no real strength in this team, with McBrolly's only signing that of Chelsea teenager Slobodan Rajkovic. The former England boss has been diplomatic about his chances against a hungry Arsenal side:

“I think of all the teams we could have had, that is the toughest – or one of the toughest. Obviously we looked at Arsenal, Liverpool, Juventus, Schalke and we got one of the most difficult. In one respect it’s a tough draw for us; on the other it’s now an opponent we know very well, not just myself, everyone in Holland knows the Premier League well so Arsenal will be no strangers to us. This is a reward for a great achievement last season in reaching this stage, to get one of the big teams. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that doesn’t come along that often. I’m sure the fans will be delighted.”

Van Persie, our Dutch maestro has been busy in the press, reminding us of the importance of the game.

“Arsenal always wants to play Champions League and I think Arsenal needs to play Champions League. If you have players like this, good players, big stadium, then I think you need to play in the highest league in Europe. But this is football – if you don’t win two games then you don’t qualify and we play Uefa Cup.”

Van Persie, who played for Feyenoord until his transfer in 2004 know all about the Dutch side.

“I know them quite well as I have Dutch satellite. It was quite, though, a big shock because in Holland everyone expected Ajax to win and in the end Twente played better and these things happen in football.

“They had a great year last year, but they lost two of their best playmakers – Karim El Ahmadi and Orlando Engelaar. However, they got Theo Janssen from Vitesse, so they are still in good shape with a good team.”

And whilst VP it at it, he managed to take a quick dig at Sp*rs. You got to love the boy!

“It is unthinkable for us not to be in the Champions League. Twente’s equivalent in England? Tottenham!”

I’d say we were definitely favourites. The only real concern with our XI tomorrow will be the defensive midfield position. We may be able to get away with Denilson partnering Cesc in this game, but we are a little exposed in this area. Our injury list so far is:

Nasri – thigh strain
Diaby – thigh injury
Rosicky – everything
Bischoff – unfit
Song – Olympics

That’s not a huge amount of people to be missing, so it’s obvious the we will sign a defensive midfielder by the 31st August. We have to, it would be insane if we didn’t!

Okay, here’s a first XI preview:

I’d expect to see Eboue and Walcott deployed on the wings as Rosicky and Nasri are injured.

On the bench, we may well see: Fabianksi, Senderos, Djourou, Traore, Wilshere, Vela and Bendtner. And if any one of the above doesn’t make it, Ramsey would be next in line.

Here’s to a great victory tomorrow…

Just before I go, I expect Joe Cole to say something nasty about us later today. I dunno. Just a hunch…

Have a great day… ’til tomorrow.]]>

Good-day to you, wherever you are in the world of Arsenal. Dev has asked me to blog in his absence and as always it is my pleasure to do so. Unfortunately there is a good chance I will be without internet access this weekend so here’s hoping Dev can take a ‘break’ from the beach to give you an update.

The weekend before last I was fortunate enough to have a chat with the legendary Bob Wilson and it was interesting and exciting to hear some of the things he had to say. Of Theo Walcott he said he has been in the gym all summer to build some muscle. This is great because you have to feel that at times Theo was nudged off the ball too often. His pace normally compensated for this but with some upper-body strength I am optimistic he will become a more ‘complete’ package.

This week everybody has been talking about the young Jack Wilshere. At just 16 years of age it is far too early to place ANY expectations on him. However, Bob Wilson was very excited about what the future holds. He said he is going to be a big player for Arsenal, to which I responded ‘big like Pennant or Bentley were predicted to be?’. He said no, Jack Wilshere is going to be an Arsenal and England superstar. Promising stuff, but as I said, let’s give him the time he needs.

The draw for the Champions League third qualifying round was made today, and we will face FC Twente of the Netherlands. What makes this draw interesting is that Steve McLaren is their manager. I hope he gets the abuse he deserves when they come to the Emirates! Seriously though, we should be fine even if they did beat Ajax for the qualifying spot. Thank goodness we avoided teams like Atletico Madrid and Galatasastab.

In other news David Bentley has been talking about Arsenal (not for the first time). He is looking forward to playing against us for Sp*rs. And we are looking forward to watching you lose against Arsenal, David. Having joined Sp*rs he has confirmed what we already knew about him. I will let you come up with the appropriate terms to describe him.

Arsene has said he is looking to find one more player for central midfield, and Gokhan Inler has been linked with us this morning. The 24 year old Switzerland international is a highly regarding midfielder, currently playing for Udinese. However, all of the quotes all come from the player’s agent. In agents we cannot trust. We’ll have to wait and see who this new signing will be. Anyone have any ideas?

Have a good weekend.

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Liverpool vs Arsenal

Yes, it’s another Liverpool preview, but this time, it’s more of an add on to what we were talking about yesterday.

Good news is that Mr Robin Van Persie has joined the squad of 18 and should feature at some point of the game. It will be interesting to see who Arsene chooses to play today.

Yesterday we discusseed the possibility of Eboue and Diaby on either side of Hleb, Cesc and the Flamster, but it would also be an option to have Walcott and Van Persie on the wings. Whether Van Persie will be fit enough is a big question and whether Walcott will start is debatable considering his recent 90 minutes at the weeekend.

I’ll be back a bit later today before the game to report on the official team news and a bit more about the game. It should be a cracker!

Arsenal & Ajax Link Up

Some good news in regards to our future. Arsene had revealed that he had been talking to Van Basten recently in regard to both Arsenal and Ajax teaming up to provide players to each other. I think it’s a great idea as both teams play the same way and it’ll be better loaning players to Ajax than Birmingham or Salamanca, as Ajax always challenge for the Dutch title… Arsene spoke in his programme notes against Liverpool…

“Van Basten visited us at the training ground this week. We spoke a bit about the European Championship and about Ajax, because he is taking over there in the summer. We spoke about how he wants to see the future of the club and how he wants to work there, and any similarities with our policy at Arsenal, and about whether they can take players on loan, for example.”

It’ll be an exciting link up…

The Emirates Cup

The success of the Emirates Cup will see the return of the competition in summer. The club believe it will be an annual event and I hope so too, it was loads of fun last year, some spectacular football and an unbelievable goal from Van Persie.

The competition is back in August and this year, we’ll see Real Madrid and Juventus and Hamburg grace the Grove… three teams we have played (and beaten) recently in the Champions League.

It should be a good pre season and tickets will go on sale after the season ends.

Here’s the line up:

Saturday 2nd August 2008
Real Madrid C.F v HSV Hamburg (2pm kick off)
Arsenal v Juventus FC (4.15pm kick off)

Sunday 3rd August 2008
Juventus FC v HSV Hamburg (2pm kick off)
Arsenal v Real Madrid C.F (4.15pm kick off)

But unfortunately, I have just realised that I won’t be there! I’ll be in sunny Fiji for a wedding… but I’m sure I’ll be able to watch it…!

Anyway, guys and girls… it’s a big game today… more later]]>

With United drawing with Middlesborough, there is still a feint chance we could win the title, but 3 points on Saturday would have given us a real hope... let's see what's in store in the title twist later, but for the moment, it looks increasingly likely that all our eggs are in one basket, and that basket is the Champions League.

Of course, the 1-1 draw at the Emirates means we have to score at Anfield to progress. If we don't score, whatever the result, we won't go through. If we do, we need a win or a score draw of 2-2 or more to progress. It's pretty much the same as any one off tie, for example, where we'd need to score to win.

Toure and Bendtner are both looking forward to the game and have high hopes for our performance at Anfield. Bendtner especially believes he needs to make up for his mistake last Wednesday. To this day he protests that he tried to get his foot out of the way, but if you watch the replay, it was clear that he was trying to score. I like Bendtner, I think he is a good player, but he is vastly inexperienced at this level.

“We went to Anfield before this season and everyone was telling me before that game how great a place it can be to play in. I came on and it was very nice. The atmosphere was fantastic. I expect the same on Tuesday but we have to deal with it and win the game. As a player, you always want to produce and in a big game even more so. It certainly should be a good one to watch.”

I don’t believe Bendtner will start but may be involved in some part if we need to change the dynamic of the team.

Arsene believes we can qualify and rues the 3 players we seem to have lost at the same time. He says that the team has come on a lot and that the progress this year has been good. It’s a strange one too, as he says that he couldn’t have for seen that Eduardo, Rosicky and VP would all be out at the same time. But Rosicky and VP do have a history of injuries, so maybe it would be wiser to think maybe one or both may be injured. If we can one or two more extra players, or a bit of luck, maybe it would have been different… Anyway, Arsene said:

“I think we have enough resources to qualify on Tuesday night. We go until the end of the season and then see what it is like. But it was difficult to predict that Eduardo, Van Persie and Rosicky would be out together and for such a long time.”

With Vela joining us in summer, maybe we won’t sign a new striker, but a replacement for Jens and Gilberto and a winger (or two) wouldn’t go amiss.

VP may be back for tomorrow’s game, but at the moment, he’s not. According to the Arsenal website, we may hear more on this during the afternoon, so I’ll keep you posted on any news I hear.

In the meantime, considering VP as out of the starting line up, I think we’re looking at:

With Lehmann, Hoyte, Traore, Song, Gilberto, Walcott, Bendtner on the bench.

I originally though Walcott would start, but with his start on Saturday, it looks unlikely that he will. His role as an impact substitute is well documented. But Arsene, if you’re reading this, please drop Eboue and play Walcott from the start, he will win us the game.

So predictions? Well, Liverpool at Anfield in the Champions League will always be a difficult game, but we will will score and so will they. 2-1 to the Arsenal?

More later…

Update: Van Persie is in the squad….

18 man Arsenal squad to face Liverpool tomorrow:

1 Jens LEHMANN, 2 Abou DIABY, 4 Cesc FABREGAS, 5 Kolo TOURE, 6 Philippe SENDEROS, 10 William GALLAS, 11 Robin VAN PERSIE, 13 Alexander HLEB, 16 Mathieu FLAMINI, 17 Alex SONG, 19 GILBERTO, 22 Gael CLICHY, 24 Manuel ALMUNIA, 25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR, 26 Nicklas BENDTNER, 27 Emmanuel EBOUE, 31 Justin HOYTE and 32 Theo WALCOTT]]>

I commentated as I watched the game, that’s why you ended up with a random passage of nonsense… but none the less from the heart…!

The Performance

Arsene spoke after the match and was obviously disappointed. We were the better side, we created more, but Liverpool defended deep and defended in numbers. We had a good performance and controlled the game.

“Well yes, I feel we were not well paid for what we produced tonight. To finish a game like that 1-1 is, of course, disappointing. But we produced a performance we wanted, overall we had the chances to win the game and Liverpool created very little tonight.” 

Loss Of Concentration 

It was a strange goal that we conceded with a real loss of concentration after our goal. We gave Gerrard too much space and were punished for it. But the Hleb penalty (more on that later) and the Bendtner save off the line were moments that really should have seen us go 2-1 or 3-1 up.

“It’s difficult because Liverpool defend well. I think Kuyt played second right-back in the second half and on the other side as well they defended very deep, so it was very difficult to find some space. We tried to play through, you could see the teams have given a lot recently, I cannot fault at all our display. We tried very hard to create chances and in a game like that you do not create twenty chances, you create four or five. We had four – five, and we were punished on the one they had, and unfortunately we could not take all our chances.”

That’s true, even the Liverpool fans who I watched the game with, said that the second half the formation was 6-4-0… But at this stage, it’s about the result, and it’s clear that Liverpool came and did a job on us.

The Second Leg

It’s a strange one, but at this point, it’s all about winning over two legs and if that means overtly hanging for their lives and then playing for 0-0 up at Anfield, so be it, but we’ll have to make the second leg count.

Talking about the second leg…

“We have the desire to do it, then I think before that we have a Premier League game. That might not take less out than this game from us, and its a little bit a survival battle, you know? The one who is still good after three games is the one who is the better team.”

Of course, in the league, we’ll want to win and go back to 3 points behing United. Interesting weekend for us. Will the boys take the pedal off the gas, will they have the second leg in their mind?

It’s kind of weird, because, it’s time to match preview Saturday’s game, but it’s pretty much the same preview as Wednesday’s…!

Theo’s Raring To Go

Young Theo had an awesome cameo yesterday and he doesn’t fear the travel to Anfield. I feel he may play a big part us winning up there.

“People can say that Liverpool are favourites. That is a good thing really. We can just concentrate on ourselves and they can have all the pressure. There is plenty of belief, the lads have been buzzing in training. We’ll turn to Saturday now and then back to the Champions League. We will take the positives out of this game, look at Liverpool’s negatives and see where it takes us. I think we will go there, play our football and get a goal.”

VP’s Injury Nightmare

Van Persie just seems to get injured… all the time. He was substituted at half time, albeit precautionary. Is it time that Arsene brought another experienced player to the Grove as the absence of VP and Eduardo have really left us light up front…

It’s going to be another exciting Saturday following by a really exciting Tuesday… more later…]]>

Arsenal vs Liverpool
Champions League First Leg, The Emirates

It amazing how much excitement a build up to a game can be. This is it. The big one.

Both sides started very cagey, and Eboue starting badly (again), lacking ideas, lacking any bother to want to play. I won’t gone on about Eboue, but let’s just say we’ll all be happy to see the back of him.

The first 15 minutes was all about midfield play, we had possession but seemed nervous and cagey.

On the 20th minute, an amazing floated ball with pace (and a bit of back spin) saw Van Persie through, we all saw it happen, but Van Persie’s volley went high. Moments later, a good move from Eboue saw Cescy through who squared to Van Persie and a skidding effort saw Reina save and we won a corner. A short corner saw Van Persie whip it in. Ade jumped, pretty much unmarked and we were 1-0 up.

Arsenal 1 – 0 Liverpool

But the question is, when are you most vulnerable? The answer is when you score. Literally two minutes after the goal, silly play from Toure, Eboue and Flamini combined to let Gerrard in, who squared it for Kuyt, suddenly the clean sheet had gone.

Arsenal 1 - 1 Liverpool

The Emirates couldn’t believe it, the away goal had been conceded. We lost our cocentration. For the next ten minutes we looked a shadow of the team that just went 1-0 up. Eboue looked uninterested and Flamini started giving away fouls.

Liverpool seemed in control and when Flamini fouled Torres just outside the box, a big gulp – Gerrard crossed, Torres was free, Hypia was free… what on earth has happened. We need to sort this out.

But maybe if we weren’t going to sort it out, it would be Liverpool’s turn to start messing around. A few missed placed passes saw Hleb and Ade interchange and Ade (onside, even though he didn’t think he was) react late but the team started to gain it’s confidence back.

But before we knew it, the half time whistle blew. So cagey

Half time, Arsenal 1 – 1 Liverpool

Hold on wait a minute, half time news, Robin Van Persie’s injury nightmare continues. A l?eft thigh injury. He is subbed, Theo Walcott his replacement and playing on the left. Hleb is tucked behind Ade, 4-1-4-1.

First chance of the half fell to Liverpool. A foul on Torres by Senderos saw Gerrard whip in a free kick and Kuyt strike, with Almunia saving well and keeping hold of the ball.

We had a bit of interplay but weren’t passing well.

Commentators curse, but as soon as I said that we went onto a 10 minute spell of domination… quickly ended by a free kick on Walcott. Benayoun warming up.

A good break saw Walcott with an awesome shot… we were ready to score the second. It’s like we woke up. Good play on the right by Toure, good play on the left by Walcott. But Liverpool defended like dogs.

On the 65th, Walcott sent through by Ade, squared to Eboue, but no end result.

Then a mazy run by Hleb, past five players saw him through on goal. Pull downed in the area.

Blatant penalty. Not given. Definite penalty – Kuyt pulled him down.

Eboue off for Bendtner, thank God. 4-1-3-2.

Crazy football next, Bendtner to Ade, Ade to Bendtner, Cesc shoots, it’s going in – but Bendtner clears it off the line – you’ve got watch it… and then Bendtner got a flag for offside, with a player on the line. Damn these officials.

Come on Arsenal! Liverpool have done nothing but defend this half – but we need to score.

Possession, play, but we can’t find the second. Free kick after free kick. So dominant, but just can’t find the breakthrough.

We have really pressed this second half, with Cesc threading the balls through and Walcott showing promise.

Ten minutes to go… still 1-1.

Five minutes to go… still 1- 1…

Come on. Find that chance.

90 minutes… still 1 – 1…  3 minutes stoppage time.

A chance. Ade, in the air, Cesc header… save by Reina.

Can we squeeze out a winner – we look so tired.

Full time 1 -1.

Advantage Scouse.]]>