Arsenal v Bayern Munich Preview (Sort Of)

I've supported Arsenal for a very long time and I've seen an awful lot of players and managers come and go in that time. Some of those players were a pleasure to watch and a few just weren't good enough to play at the level Arsenal should be playing at and maybe something similar could be said about some of the managers too. Arsene Wenger most certainly fits into the category of the very best of those managers, but the opinions of many fans on that subject are rapidly changing.

There have been some bad times since I started supporting Arsenal in 1970 and there have been some bad times under Wenger too. I can't remember a time under him where it has been worse than at the moment though. At other times there were dreadful injury problems to deal with and lack of funds too, but we don't have those problems now and still we are playing like a team devoid of confidence, coaching and ideas.

We might not have being playing too well earlier in the season and we developed a nasty habit of only playing for one half of far too many matches. The home defeat against Watford seems to have triggered the real rot though and even the two wins we have had since then were scarcely deserved. I was at the Hull game when Lady Luck gave us three points and the less said about the FA Cup win over non league Sutton United the better.

The defeats against Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Liverpool showed a lack of fight among the players that is just unacceptable. It wasn't just down to the players though with the manager seemingly unable to send them into the games with a game plan they could actually act on and an inability on his part to change things when they were so obviously going wrong. Players weren't even doing the basics properly and yet there seems to be no repercussions when it comes to team selection.

Leaving Alexis Sanchez out against Liverpool was a joke and if it really was for tactical reasons as the manager said then he has completely lost the plot. He could have played wide instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain if the manager was so keen on partnering Olivier Giroud with Danny Welbeck. Of course there are few people who think he was left out for tactical reasons and the far more likely scenario is the rumoured "bust up" and his attitude.

You can't go into a game against a team with Liverpool's record against the rest of the top six and leave your most potent (and maybe only) weapon on the bench and expect to get something from the game. Alexis has averaged more than a goal or assist per game this season and has been the only Arsenal player to have come out of the last few weeks without looking like he's not good enough at this level. If they are going to finish in the top four and progress in the FA Cup then he has to play every minute of every game despite how the manager might feel about him.

I think it's blatantly obvious that we won't see him in an Arsenal shirt next season and we won't get his full market value either with only a year left on his contract. Whether we should have agreed to his wages demands or not is a tough question, but I wonder if even that would have convinced him to stay with a club who cannot win the Champions League and continually falter when the pressure is on in the league. At his stage in his career I would say he wants to be part of a team who can win trophies and who will pay him a shed load of money too.

As for tonight in the second leg against Bayern I hold little hope of anything except another pasting. It's hard to see where the players will get the confidence they clearly lack and it could be a long hard night for us fans. I don't think wholesale changes will make too much difference when the malaise seems to have spread to almost every single player.

To be honest I don't imagine the manager refusing to commit either way on the contract on offer to him is helping matters either. He should clearly state he is staying or going and deal with whatever his decision brings. I think he should go myself and if he commits to do so he might just get the room he needs to at least finish the season strongly and make the top four as well try for the FA Cup. It's hard to see him making a go of either of them with the current atmosphere surrounding the club and all the uncertainty he has caused.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal's Champions League Trip To Basel Previewed

Arsenal face a trip to Basel tomorrow night in their final Champions League group game. Despite being unbeaten and level on 11 points with PSG their chances of winning the group are somewhere very far south of slim. After the 2-2 draw at the Emirates a couple of weeks away they fell behind PSG on their head to head record as they had drawn 1-1 in Paris back in September.

The way the head to head rules work away goals come into play and PSG are ahead on that count. The only way they can finish ahead of PSG is if the French champions fail to win at home to Ludogorets and it's something that I just cannot see happening. Arsenal put six goals past them at the Emirates and I cannot see PSG slipping up with the prize of first place in the group so close at hand.

It means Arsenal will probably finish second in the group yet again and with second place comes a last 16 game against a group winner. At the moment the choices for them are Napoli, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Monaco, Borrusia Dortmund and Juventus, but not all of the groups are decided yet and a few of those teams might not win their groups. It would be a brave person to bet against Arsenal drawing Barcelona and I will not be at all surprised to see them come out of the hat together.

As for the game against Basel it seems Arsene Wenger is taking a full strength squad for the game and it looks like he will possibly play the strongest team he has available. The 5-1 win at West Ham on Saturday was a great result and it moved Arsenal up to second in the table behind Chelsea. There's a lot to be said for keeping a winning or unbeaten run going, but I suppose you could also say that run ended when Southampton put us out of the EFL Cup last week.

I wasn't too upset with that exit as it's a competition we're not going to win using just the reserves and fringe players. The value of resting players for that game was shown in the win at West Ham while our conquerors were beaten 3-0 at Palace after playing a strong team against us. Maybe a second string side would be the way to go against Basel with a Stoke team on a good run coming to the Emirates on Saturday.

I think the boss will go for a bit of a mixture and maybe rest one or two players who might just need a bit of recovery time before Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised to see Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi play and of course David Ospina will play in goal as he has done in every other Champions League game this season. I doubt if Hector Bellerin will be risked even if he is fit to return as we need him back in tip top shape for the Christmas games.

Basel are no pushover on their own ground and they need to get at least a point from this game to have a chance of finishing third and qualifying for the last 32 of the Europa League. At the moment they're behind Ludogorets on their head to head records and can only beat them by taking more points off us than Ludogorets take off PSG. They have done very well against English teams over the last few years and will hope for more of the same in this game.

They've not as good as they were in previous season's though and we should be able to beat them even with a few changes to the team. Ideally I would like to see Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil rested, but we are pretty blunt in attack without them and I wouldn't be surprised to see them play. I hold no hope of PSG dropping points so our result won't really matter too much, but it would still be good to finish the group unbeaten with 14 points in the bag. As I said before the Southampton game last week though, it's more important to see all the players come through the game unscathed and ready to go over the festive period.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v PSG Preview

Arsenal play at home to PSG tomorrow night in a game which will probably decide the outcome of their Champions League group. As it stands both teams have already qualified for the last 16 and it's just a matter of which team wins the group and which one comes second. If either team wins the game the group is theirs and the permutations become a little more complicated after that.

A scoreless draw would give Arsenal the advantage as they drew 1-1 away to PSG, but any draw higher than 1-1 gives that advantage to PSG. It gets really complicated if it finishes 1-1 because then their head to head results will be even and their results against the rest of the group will come into play. The easy way for Arsenal to win the group is to beat PSG and not have to worry about anything else after that.

Of course it's fairly seldom that Arsenal do things the easy way and I wouldn't be surprised to see them get a draw and then fail to win away to Basel in their last game. The importance of winning the group can be seen by looking at the teams winning the other groups and the desire to avoid all of them in the last 16. Of course most of the groups are not settled yet and it could be that a runners up slot is almost better than winning the group. At the moment Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus are all second in their groups and we would certainly want to avoid any of them in the last 16 if possible.

I don't think Arsenal are strong enough yet to win the Champions League, but maybe they could go as far as a semi final with the right draw and some good performances. They always get past the group stage, but it's been far too long since they made it into the quarter finals. It's become a real burden for the team and just maybe this season they can rid themselves of that burden.

Arsenal drew their first group game 1-1 away to PSG, but they were more than a little lucky on the night. If Edinson Cavani had his shooting boots on that night he could easily have scored four or five goals from the chances he had. He missed most of them though and Arsenal very nearly snuck a late win to boot. Since then Cavini has scored plenty of goals and I don't think he will pass up so many gilt edged chances if they come his way this time.

Arsenal haven't played at all well in their last two games when they drew with Spurs and United and they will have to do a lot better to get a result against PSG. The formation against United was all wrong for me with the combination of Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny not offering enough creativity in midfield and Aaron Ramsey most certainly not suited to playing in a wide left role. I would like to see Ramsey play with Granit Xhaka in midfield as long as Santi Cazorla continues to miss out through injury.

Arsene Wenger has some big decisions to make with his team selection and the midfield choices could be crucial as they will set the tempo for the rest of the team. Xhaka has not cemented a slot in the team yet since his big money move in the summer, but surely the time has come to give him a chance. I think the boss is a little worried about his discipline and the prospect of him picking up a yellow or red card any time a player goes past him.

The defence more or less picks itself with Carl Jenkinson continuing to fill in for the injured Hector Bellerin and David Ospina getting the nod in goal as he has done in the previous group games. I'm still worried about Jenkinson, but it was Nacho Monreal who struggled on the left of the defence in Paris. Ospina proved his worth that night with a fantastic display and he was the main reason behind Arsenal managing to get a draw that night.

The attacking trio gives the boss a few headaches too with a couple of tough decisions to make. If Alexis Sanchez is fit he has to play, but the question is whether he will play wide or centrally. If he doesn't play centrally it would surely mean a return to the starting line up for Olivier Giroud. He has to have a good chance of starting, but his lack of pace is what has kept him out of the team so far.

I can't imagine Ramsey will play a wide role again which will mean we will see one or both of Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi in the team. I would be fairly sure Walcott will start regardless and Iwobi could be the best option on the other side if Alexis is central.

I like Iwobi and he has the ability to make things happen, but he needs to improve his finishing. He doesn't look confident in front of goal and I can only hope he's putting in lots of extra work to remedy the situation. He's certainly put himself in the manager's plans ahead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain despite his tender age, but who knows the boss could surprise us all and throw Chamberlain in from the start.

Even with Bellerin, Cazorla, Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck injured there are still plenty of options for the boss to mull over. If we're going to get the better of PSG he will have to find a combination of those available players to inject some tempo into the team and bring a bit more desire than we have seen recently. The players to do so are certainly there, but finding that right blend is the trick Arsenal are missing out on at the moment. They haven't found their mojo for too long now, but maybe we might just see one of those occasional scintillating European performances which we get treated to every so often.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal's Trip To PSG Previewed

Arsenal just about managed to beat Southampton on Saturday, but I'm still not quite sure how they did it. It was a far from impressive display and they got out of jail right at the death with a somewhat lucky penalty. They won though and took three very important points to move them up to seventh in the Premier League table.

It was a pretty strong Arsenal team too, but there were a few noteable absentees. With the trip to PSG in mind Arsene Wenger left Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud on the bench while Alexis Sanchez didn't start as he was back quite late from international duty in South America. I expect all three of them to start against PSG as Arsene Wenger looks to play his strongest team possible.

There is a suggestion that David Ospina will get the nod ahead of Petr Cech as he did in some of the group games last season. It's a risky move which backfired badly at home to Olympiacis, but to be fair to Ospina he is a good keeper and Cech has made his fair share of mistakes since joining Arsenal too. None of those mistakes have been as obvious as the one Ospina made in that game, but there is a suggestion he is struggling with long range efforts.

There could be other changes too with the possibility of Mohamed Elneny coming in for Santi Cazorla to add some more strength in front of the defence alongside Xhaka. Santi has played very well so far and has probably been our best attacking player to this point, but a player who can offer more defensively might be a better option for this game. I'd like to see how Xhaka and Elneny perform together and we might just get a chance to see that combination in this game.

I suppose there's a possibility of Theo Walcott missing out too as he hasn't exactly been overly impressive so far this season. If Giroud plays centrally then Alexis will come in on the left or right and we could see Lucas Perez retain his place, but shift to a wide role. I think Walcott will get the nod ahead of both of them though while Alex Iwobi is unlikely to play from the start too.

There are plenty of other options available with the possibility of Mesut Ozil or Cazorla moving to the wide role and the other one of those two playing behind the striker to accomodate both players. I think Ozil will play his usual role though and Cazorla will be the man to miss out. It's good that we have so many options and hopefully the players can find more understanding than they did on Saturday as the season progresses.

PSG have the French league tied up at almost a stroll and the real challenge for them is in the Champions League. It's the trophy their mega rich owners desire more than any other, but it's not easy to win as Arsenal are well aware. They might not be on top of their domestic league right now, but I have no doubt they will be before too long and until the season ends too.

On the face of it Arsenal's group is none too difficult and it should be a fight between them and PSG for first place. While Basel and Ludogorets cannot be written off, Arsenal should be able to finish ahead of both of them as long as they don't treat them as lightly as they did the so called also rans in their group last season. They managed to get out of that group last season despite themselves and hopefully they will do things a lot better this season.

It's been far too long since Arsenal made it past the last 16 of the Champions League and the best way to do that is to win their group. If they can stay on top of their games against Basel and Ludogorets then the group should come down to the results home and away against PSG. A win away to them would be the ideal way to get off the mark in the group, but I'd happily take a point from this game.

The team still haven't put in a 90 minute performance in their four games to date, but now is the time for them to do just that. This will be their toughest game so far and a good result could be just what the team needs to get them going.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.