When Arsenal take on Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League, Arsene Wenger and the players will know what to expect and we will have to be ready to do a whole lot of defensive work, both in the first leg at the Emirates stadium and the trip to the Nou Camp in Spain a couple of weeks later.
So it will obviously be a big boost for us to have our best players fit and ready to face the current Champions League holders and that certainly includes the French defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin. It was always going to be touch and go whether Le Coq was going to be back in time for the Champions League games, especially the first leg but at least the draw has done Arsenal a favour in that sense.
Having been handed the toughest possible opponents, but the way the fixtures have fallen is that Arsenal v Barcelona is not one of the four ties to be played in the first week. Instead the Spanish champions come to London on February 23rd.
With the sports injury website physioroom.com having February down as Coquelin’s return date, that extra week could be crucial to our hopes of pulling off a shock and knocking the holders out.
Looks like chelshipstarted their game against leicester with a catalan bench (fabregas….pedro)
@SA
Didn’t help them even when they came on…
It’s like Wenger was right about the duo. I personally did not want Cesc back after funding his transfer to Barca but hated seeing him in Chelsea’s shirt and when he said the dude there was better than Wenger who developed him. Let him rot there. Relegation battle up for them.
If you had a choice, which player would you rather have at Arsenal?
Mahrez – Thumbs up
Vardy – Thumbs down
breaks my heart to see chelsea in 16th position, !!! say what you want about wenger, he never put us even close to that position in his about 20 seasons!
Even at the then difficult times.
Another positive statistic for those disheartened Gooners,
Cech hasn’t been defeated in his last seven games against Barcelona.
I have put articles up and mentioned Mahrez as a Jan target and now do you still not believe he would be perfect for Arsenal along with Wanyama? Both could play v Barca plus Coq back hopefully for that massive game at the Emirates on the 23rd! Both settled in English football and would near complete our squad with 2big signings in the summer (CB/ST) and youngsters stepping up our squad would be close to finished for a crack at it all for Arsenes last season in charge! Up to wenger now the moneys there
koss: wenger’s not as ambitious as you. he’s happy with the level we’re at now. no purchases are necessary.
he just wants us to muddle through with whoever we have now.
Say what u want mourinho but the curse of eva has your number dude!
We could have 10 Coquelin on the pitch & Messi n co would still dance around them. Reality is we are going to get hammered no 2 ways about it, priority is prem & f a cup 2 most realistic and we must go all out to win them. Mahrez would be dream signing I can honestly say he’s better the ox,walcott,campbell put together, sanchez one side him the other Wow never gna happen though. Oh well let’s see
What reason does Mahrez have to leave lmao
His team is in 1st place LOL
We will play well and are well capable of beating barca with campble and sanchez ozil ramsy and co Arsenal are strong enough to beat barca we have a good team the uncertainties are in the injuries
City is on next Monday night Come on Arsenal
Seriously …. The line between fan and fantasy is a thin one … The only players who match their equivalents are Czech kos and ozil … So we need (at least) 8 of their players to be injured or off form … pray for a Catalonian flu epidemic in mid February … More likely than wenger strengthening squad in january
Your comment is dumb. In their league, they have dropped points already this season, does that mean their players are not as good as those of the teams they dropped points against? Though it wont be an easy task, but I assure you barca is very beatable.
We need to make an early impact in the game and make Barcelona question weather they can beat us instead us wondering if we can beat them.
If AW gets a few players in Jan who knows. A DM a must and a CF but I would go all out for stones with chambers as part X and get Carl back in the summer to play in and out with BFG as his time is coming to an end. Barcelona Will target him big time because he is just to slow. I say Nick the game at home and park the bus in the return game.