Tonight will be a telling night in Arsenal’s European Cup campaign, lose and we’re almost certainly out, win and … well we still might go out but we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance.
The problem is that it’s not just any old team coming to town, it’s Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich.
Bayern boast and unbeaten record in all competitions so far this season and are in rampant form. They’ve also got some mighty fine players who will be difficult to stop.
Our only saving grace is that Bayern will want to play football, and sometimes that can be to our advantage with some swift counter attacking.
One thing is for sure, it’s going to be an interesting night.
Vital Quotes:
Pep Guardiola – In this situation they have an advantage because for them they have to win. When that happens with these kind of players, in this sort of club, with this sort of history, they are going to make the best performance possible so I cannot expect a team that does not fight 90 minutes, fight for each other and in this situation they are in an advantage. We cannot compete with that situation and you have to look for another way to compete with this enthusiasm. We have to be so intelligent to control our game. Two years ago we came here and in the first minutes Mesut Ozil missed a penalty. It was so difficult for us. I know we cannot control many minutes here in London against Arsenal so we have to be ready to defend like a team and try. If they want the ball, we want the ball.’
Arsene Wenger – “What we want is to win the game. We want to defend well, attack well and score the first goal – that is massively important in the big games.
“You can never promise you will score three goals in 20 minutes [like against Manchester United] because that would be absolutely crazy. What we can do is start in a strong way and that is what we will try to do.
“We know we play against a top side. We prepared well against Zagreb, we prepared well against Olympiacos but [that was] between two Premier League games where we had to give a lot.’
Arsenal Team News:
Arsenal come into the this vital match with no new injuries though Arsene Wenger suggested he might rest Sanchez and Ozil though if he really wants to win the game I don’t see how he can.
It remains to be seen whether Wenger will reinstate Petr Cech to the starting line up.
Player to watch: Laurent Koscielny
We need to score tonight and we need to win, however this current Arsenal side has goals all over the field so the important thing is we don’t concede and leave Bayern something to defend.
Koscielny needs to be on top form to keep their big players at bay and marshal his defence to the best of his ability.
Bayern Munich Team News:
Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben are both missing for Bayern whilst Mario Gotze, Holger Badstuber and Medhi Benatia are unavilable too.
It’s extra hope for the Gunners that Bayern are without such dangerous players.
Player to watch: Robert Lewandowski
There is no doubt that Lewandowski is Bayern’s danger man. His five goals in 9 minutes against Wolfsburg underlines just how lethal this man is.
Match Facts & Stats
Lewandowski has scored 16 goals in 12 games so far this season.
Bayern have played 13 and won 12 so far this season.
They have also scored at least 3 goals in each of their last three CL matches
Match Prediction:
I have to be bold here because any other result doesn’t bare thinking about, so I’ll say 1-0 to Arsenal with Theo Walcott grabbing the goal.
Next Fixtures:
Sat 24th Oct 17.30 Everton (h)