Our cause wasn’t helped by having to play at Watford on Monday night in the Premier League, but playing on Sunday wouldn’t have been much better as we had played our first leg against Napoli last Thursday night. It’s that time of the season where teams challenging for trophies have to try to get the best they have from the players available twice a week. After playing Napoli we have to play at home to Palace on Sunday and away to Wolves on Wednesday night.
Unai Emery has to judge which players are up to starting against Napoli and which ones need a rest to prevent possible injuries. At the same time he also needs to pick a strong enough team to insure qualification for the last four while keeping the games against Palace and Wolves in mind too. Our chances of a top four finish are probably a little better than our chances of winning the Europa League, but I have no doubt the manager would like both and who can blame him if that is the case.
We have to hope Laurent Koscielny will be fit to play after taking a knock at Watford on Monday night while Sokratis Papastathopoulos is bound to start as he’s suspended from domestic games. With both Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles starting on the bench against Watford you would imagine they will both play, but a lot will depend on the formation. If he’s up to it hopefully Lucas Torreira can start too with one of Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka partnering him in midfield. The midfield axis will need to offer support to our defence quite often even if we play three central defenders.
Alexandre Lacazette sat out that win at Watford on Monday night which could well see him lead the line tonight. With Mesut Ozil starting that game on the bench he might be in line for a call up tonight even if he did play the second half on Monday night. It’s going to be a tough night for us and Ozil’s ability to hold on to the ball and make chances for others could be crucial. With Napoli having to push for goals I would have thought Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s pace on the break would be crucial tonight so we might see him play up front or out wide as well as Lacazette.
That win at Watford was far from impressive considering they had 10 men for almost 80 minutes of the game, but it was a hugely important three points. They moved us into the top four and our chances of staying there are increasing with each game at the moment. I’d be surprised if we catch Spurs considering their run in, but we can stay ahead of both United and Chelsea as they both have to play each other and have some other tricky games too. I think we will finish ahead of Chelsea if we win three of our last five games while we might need a point more to see off the challenge of United.
Back to tonight and our chances of making the Europa League semi finals for the second season in a row. The events at the Etihad last night showed how unpredictable football can be, but they also made our need to make the semi finals even more important in my opinion. Spurs might just make it to the Champions League Final before bottling it and it would be simply magnificent if we could win a European trophy when they fail to do so regardless of which trophy it is.
I can’t imagine we will try to defend too deep tonight because it really isn’t our strong point and I think we might have to score in order to progress. I wasn’t impressed with Napoli defensively last week and I think we will make the last four if we can take just one of the chances which come our way. We certainly go into the game in a very strong position and I am optimistic about our chances despite the evidence of our away form in the majority of our games this season.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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