Barcelona Preview - It's Our Time

     Alright.
     I'm so excited. But that excitement is mixed with nerves. I'm fearful of the fact that we're playing against the mighty Barcelona, and that Leo Messi is the best in the world. Their side is the best in the world, and their current record scares me. But we have to look at the positives- last year at the Camp Nou we nearly got a result. And that was without a plethora of our starters.
     This year we've got nearly everyone, so things should turn out better.

     Johann Djourou has a positive out look to playing Messi and Barcelona:

You do not get scared [of facing Messi]. If I was scared, I wouldn’t be playing tomorrow. You have to be excited not scared. It is true Messi is good one versus one but, as cover, we can be hard to beat.

We know they are a great team going forward and we will have to defend well and be focused for 90 minutes. But do not forget we have great players as well. It will be interesting.

     Regarding injuries it looks like Nasri will be fit to play tonight, and will start over Arshavin. It's a shame because Arshavin has been playing well as of late, but Nasri will provide more defensive cover for Clichy. Just pray that Nasri won't injure himself again, and he can stay fit for the rest of the season.

     Also, I have to apologize- on my previous post I said that Sagna would play. A woeful mistake on my part. Eboue has to play in place of Sagna.
     Not happy about it, to be honest. Eboue is going to have to sit back more than he's used to, and not go on his marauding runs as often as he does. Keeping David Villa quiet is no easy task.

     Wenger said yesterday that van Persie could be the 'X factor' that Arsenal needs to defeat Barcelona.
He also said that he will not set the Arsenal team to play more defensively. It will be the usual attacking Arsenal side we see every weekend. As if anyone expected anything different.

     Le Grove is trying to get everyone at the Emirates to chant 'Get your hands of Fabregas'
I myself don't really see the point in it. It isn't the transfer market, and I think we all know Cesc will eventually go so I see no productivity with the song.

     All in all, I think we really can defeat Barca tonight. My predicted scoreline is 3-2 to the Arsenal. 2 for van Persie, 1 for Walcott, 1 for Messi and 1 for Pedro.

     That's it for today. Got to go prepare for later. Off to grab some diapers for when I shit my pants.
Cheers.

Arsenal Can Beat Barca - Tactical Analysis

     Well then.
     A great win against Wolves, we all know. But it's now time we brush away the emotional high and confidence from that win.
     Sounds strange, doesn't it? But if our squad has the same confidence as they had when going out to play Wolves, we're screwed.
     As you, me, and the players know, Barcelona is a slightly better side than Wolves.
     I'm not saying that we can't have confidence going into this match, god no. I'm simply saying that we need a different type of confidence.
     Instead of thinking, "We need the three points today, let's show Wolves that we're the Arsenal" we must think "This is Barcelona, but let's show them that we're not a side that can be taken down easily. Let's really stick it to them and get a result".

Break his ankles Cesc

     I think the key to beating Barcelona is through Arshavin and Walcott. We need to have a lot of width.
     With the absence of Puyol, I suspect Abidal will move into the center with Pique and Milito will be stationed on the left. Barcelona play with a system where their two full backs (Dani Alves and Milito) are very high up the pitch, and as a result Busquets/Mascherano drops back to the center backs to almost make a three man back line. Henceforth, with the pace of Walcott and Arshavin, if Cesc can organize a proper counter attack using the width of the pitch, we really should be able to score.Arshavin's pace is no match for Pique, and Walcott, well... let's not even mention that.

Simple diagram on how we should hit Barca on the counter attack.

     However, I'm not saying that we should simply sit back and wait to get Barca on the counter, I'm simply saying that when we are in our own third, then use the counter attack to our advantage.
     Now, because of Arsenal and Barcelona's similar styles of play, this match should be fantastic. But Arsenal must keep the ball better than they did last year. We need to play the possession game, and try and find the ball to penetrate their defense. Because, quite frankly, we cannot go to the Nou Camp looking for a 2-0 or 3-1 win. We've got to win the first leg if their are any hopes of killing off the Catalan club.
     When in their final third, we still will have to use width. It will be very congested in the middle with Xavi, Iniesta, Mascherano and our lads. Hence, get it to Theo and the little Russian, to play low balls into the middle for the on form RvP.

     Defensively, we have to replicate what Barca does. As soon as they lose the ball, we have to work our asses off to get the ball back. When Messi loses the ball, he scrambles back and wins it back. He doesn't have to do that, he's the fucking greatest player in the world! He could stay up top all day if he wanted to. But he doesn't. Why? Because he wants to win, so badly. Arshavin needs that drive.

     We are playing the best club in the world on Wednesday night, there is no debating it. And to beat them, 110% isn't good enough. 150% is par.

     Also, in case you didn't already know, Barca has a deadly front three. Villa - Messi - Pedro.
We cannot man mark Messi. He floats around the pitch and that would distort our shape. That's another thing- we cannot lose our shape. We need to be organized.
     Villa will be stationed on the left hand side, so Sagna will have to deal with him, which I think he will. Sagna has been on great form this season, and I trust him to get the job done.
     Pedro is also a threat. He cannot be underestimated. Clichy can use his pace to deal with Pedro, but Clichy will have to defend better in one v one situations.
     Then there's Dani Alves. If Arshavin plays, he MUST track back and defend. Dani Alves is more of an attacker than a defender, and we don't want Clichy to be flooded on the left hand side.

    However, there is a chance Arshavin may not play, and Nasri could come on. Wenger has been quoted saying he will not take a huge gamble. Nasri will have his fitness tests today an tomorrow.
     I hope Wenger plays Arshavin. Arshavin has been playing well and when he gets tired, Nasri can come on. Quite the super sub.
     And Nasri is a very important player to our title campaign. It's more important to have him for the rest of the season than one match.

     Well that's that on my tactical breakdown of the first leg of the Barca tie.

     In other news, Robin van Persie will be fit for the match, if anyone was worrying about the ice pack on his leg at the end of the Wolves match.
     While on the topic of RvP, he has made Premier League history this month, scoring the highest amount of goals in the first two months of the new year. He's now our most in-form player; let's hope it stays that way for the Barca matches.

     That's that for today. Back tomorrow for updates on the big match Wednesday night.

Have a good one.

Arsenal 2 Wolves 1 - Psychological Pain is Erased, Arsene Has Loads To Say

     Alright then.

     The Arsenal hosted Wolves to a crowd of 60,050 on Saturday, and those 60,050 got a great match.

     We started with a full strength starting XI, Szczesny, Clichy, Koscielny, Djourou, Sagna, Song, Wilshere, Fabregas, Arshavin, RvP, and Walcott.

     And we dominated the first period. We created many chances, and found the breakthrough in the 16th minute. Cesc turned onto the 18 from the right hand side, played a left footed ball in to RvP near the center of the 18, and his one-time volley found the bottom right hand corner of the net, despite Hennessy getting a hand to it. A fantastic goal from Van Persie's "chocolate leg".

     After that Arsenal continued to go forward. We made so many chances. When I say so many, I mean a lot. But the ball just wouldn't find the back of the net. Why? Walcott didn't have his shooting boots on today, Cesc was unlucky, and Wilshere simply did not shoot.

     I was afraid that the match would turn out to be anothe typical Arsenal match, as we all know- lots of chances, poor finishing, and a late goal from the opposition to spoil our hopes.

     In the second half we started right where we left off. Tons of chances, and again poor finishing. Walcott had an open net after brilliant work from Wilshere, and he slotted his shot wide.

     But finally, the long awaited second goal came in the 56th. Fabregas raked a world class one touch, ball down the right flank for Theo on the counter, who squared it to RvP, and the Dutchman wouldn't miss. Van Persie has been on fantastic form as of late, scoring 9 goals in his last 5 premier league matches. Unstoppable. After that goal, stress was relieved from the Arsenal.

     Chamack came on for Robin, Bendtner came on for Arshavin, and Denilson came on for Wilshere - subs clearly made in thought of the Barcelona tie on Wednesday. But I was surprised to see Wilshere go off instead of Song. With Song coming back from injury, minor or not, I didn't think Arsene would have wanted to take any risks. Welp, I was wrong, wasn't I?

     After that, Arsenal played the possession game. The match was truly over for Wolves. They threw on Steven Fletcher though, and with Denilson on the pitch doing his usual defensive work (absolute shite) our back line was forced to defend. None the less,Wolves never fashioned any real chances and the match ended 2-0 to the Arseanal.

     Yes, Arsenal won comfortably, however our finishing was very, very poor. We won't be able to conjure up as many chances against Barcelona as we did against Wolves, so when we do create chances on Wednesday night, we MUST take them. To take down a side like the Catalan club, you have to be firing on all cylinders.

     Well then, my thoughts-

• Szczesny- Hahaha. He didn't play bad or good. Wolves didn't have a shot on goal, so he had the day off. I guess you could say his distribution was good?.......

• Sagna- For me, he didn't have the greatest match. His crosses weren't the best, and he simply wasn't very effective going forward. Defensively, he was decent.

• Djourou- He had a brilliant game. Watching this Wolves match and then watching the second half of the Newcastle match really puts you in hindsight of how important he is to our title challenges.

• Koscielny- Also had a very good game. Not as brilliant as Djourou, but still very solid at the back. He and Djourou didn't put Szczesny in any danger.

• Clichy- Like Sagna, he didn't have a very good match. Forgot he was on the pitch at times.

• Song- He had a very good match considering the fact he's coming back from a minor injury. Defended very well- our defense was untroubled, and made some very important tackles to turn defense into attack.

• Wilshere- Had a brilliant game. Made fantastic passes, was full of energy, and played better defensively than I'm used to seeing him do. One complaint - SHOOT THE DAMN BALL JACK!

• Fabregas- Heh, he's Fabregas. Assisted RvP's first, and created the second after an AMAZING one time ball to Walcott. Our captain kept everyone organized and determined out there. Great preformance.

• Walcott- Despite his assist, had a fairly poor game in my opinion. He simply wasn't decisive in the final third, mistiming runs and wasn't very clinical with his finishing. Not the Theo we're used to.

• Van Persie- What is their to say? Scored two goals, and his finishing was spot on, unlike the rest of the team. 9 goals in 5 matches. I just can't get over that statistic.

• Arshavin- Once again, he shows us he's coming back to form. He was a good outlet on the left hand side, turning on to his right. I suspect he'll be a real threat against Barca.

• Bendtner- Pretty poor. Touch was off, passing was off, shot was off. Unlucky day for the Dane.

• Chamack- Didn't really see him much after he came on. It seemed as if he was too eager to get involved, perhaps dropping a tad too deep, therefore not giving us a point up top to play the ball off of.

• Denilson- Put on to give Jack a rest and keep possession. When he came on, Wolves had their best stint of possession. Not a coincidence. I think it's time he moves on to another club, I'm afraid.

• Arsene Wenger- Played all his cards right. Erased Newcastle from the minds of the lad sand set them out determined and eager to win. Finishing could have been better, but three points is three points.

 

     After the match, Mick McCarthy had very kind words to say. In fact, they were oddly generous:

"There was a murder going on out there and we were the recipients of it unfortunately,

We've come and tried everyhting but they were better than us from one to 11.

They were better than us and have slapped us.

They were better than us and turned us over and I have not one complaint at all.

The TV are trying to make a story out of the second goal and the fact it might have been offside but I could have been sat here on the end of a 6-0 defeat.

For my team to get better, we have to acknowledge that performance by Arsenal and we have to aspire to it."

     Strange, isn't it? Most managers in this league are stubborn and sore losers, but Micky seems to look at matches with a logical, almost unbiased view. Love it. Thats what we need more of- for managers to swallow their pride at times.

    Also, I admire how he openly admits, and proves, that our second goal was not offside. I'm not even going to get into that though, because it's such a stupid argument. The goal was good and legal, everyone shut the hell up.

     After the match Van Persie talked to BBC and said that he isn't on top of his game yet, and that there is more to come. Whaaaaaaat??? But I can see where he's coming from, being a player myself. On paper you're brilliant, but everything else isn't quite clicking yet. Can't wait to see him hit top gear.

     You can see his interview here, where he also says he wants to give more to the team. Brilliant. Gotta love RvP, even though he's given up the number 11. I like RvP11 more than RvP10. Crushed my heart.  

     There's also a glimmer of hope for Nasri to return for the Barcelona match. When asked in his post match press conference, Arsene said:

"I wouldn't say 'no chance'. There is a chance."

     Quite the lengthy quote, eh?

     On friday Wenger again spoke of Nasri and Vermaelen's progress:

"[Samir Nasri] is continuing his progress, difficult to make an assessment at the moment. I would say he should be fit in one week. No, [not to start training], he is training already, [it's] to be competitive, to play.

When [Thomas Vermaelen] is fit certainly we’ll play him in the Reserve team. [But] not before two or three weeks. You never know until he is completely fit to play again but we are hopeful [he is progressing well].

He feels he is over the problem but he played his last game in September and we are in February so it will take some time to come back to match fitness."

     It would be a real bonus to have Nasri back for the Barcelona ties. For the first one however, I suspect he'll make the bench. Actually, not suspect. I know. Arshavin is returning back to his usuall form, and it is a lot to ask Nasri to play against Barcelona his first match back.

     I'm giddy with excitement thinking about Vermaelen coming back. I really feel that the Vermaelen - Djourou combo will be a brick wall, just like Koscielny - Squillaci, right? HA.

     Arsene then spoke about the Newcastle Match, and how Arsenal has to take the positives of what they achieved in the second half. He also talked about Andrei Arshavin's current form, and how Arshavin is a very intelligent player:

"There’s a lot to say about the [Newcastle game]. I will just say one thing; people spoke only about the second part of the game, forgetting the first part. I believe that as long as we were eleven against eleven this team has showed outstanding game and that never came out because of the disappointment at the end of the result.

But personally, that strengthens my belief that we can win this league, to certainly strengthen the belief of the team [but] having said that, you don’t want to win four nil and go home with four-four.

I believe that there are some aspects of the game that we cannot master, that it’s down to decisions but the part of the game we can master is our attitude, our behaviour, our focus and that’s what we want to learn from that game, that no matter what happens, you have to master your response, your emotions and be only guided by one thing: to win the game.

[Andrey Arshavin] is an intelligent player, that’s, I believe, his main quality. He’s as well a team player [because] a selfish player has never good record in his assists and that tells you a lot about him."

     I completely agree with Arsene. If it wasn't for poor refereeing, Arsenal would have been level with Newcastle regarding men on the pitch (10 v 10) and Newcastles second penalty would not have been awarded. As a result, that match would be remembered for our fantastic attacking display.

     Regarding Arshavin, he's right. And because Arshavin is an intelligent player, he uses his technical ability to create chances, henceforth returning back to form.

     Before our match took place, the Manchester Derby went to United. Not the result we would've hoped for, but no need to dwell on the matter. City is now, as I believe, out of the title race. It's just us and United now. And kudos to Shreck for that goal. He'll probably bed a hooker tonight as celebration. Double kudos to Shreck! Good work lad.

     And our other opposition, Barcelona. They were only able to scrap a draw to Sporting Heehawn. According to my knowledge, I thinks thats the first time Barca has dropped points away from home this season. Maybe it's asking a lot, but I hopefully their heads will be down after dropping points, and make our run in with them this Wednesday night a little bit easier.

Cheers.