Compare our Arsenal players with …… Barcelona (combined team)

Comparing Arsenal’s squad with the elite in Europe ‏ by Briantole

Many people, including fans and pundits, deem our squad to be a million miles away from the elite forces of Europe.
There are three current clubs given the title of Europe’s best, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid. So how far away or how close are we until we can be deemed capable to be equal to these top sides? This is the third and last comparison and is against our rivals in the next round of the Champions League, Barcelona.

Barcelona Starting XI
Bravo
Alves Pique Mascherano Alba
Busquets Iniesta
Rakitic
Messi Suarez Neymar

Cech v Bravo – Aagain Cech wins this battle with more experience and quality.
Bellerin v Alves – Bellerin is much faster and better skilled than his counterpart. But Alves is the more creative of the two. But Bellerin retains his title as the best for me.
Mascherano and Pique v Koscielny and Mertesacker – This is more interesting. Koscielny is the better one in terms of reading the game and scores more goals. Mascherano is more aggressive and averages more defensive actions than the rest. Verdict. Koscielny and Mascherano.
Monreal v Alba – Alba does his part and likes to overlap wingers, but Monreal does his job well. He is more cautious, better defensively, and more productive going forward.so he edges his Spanish counterpart in this position.
Coquelin v Busquets – For the past 12 months Coquelin has been extremely impressive. He is statistically the best DM in Europe, but Busquets is a world class player and is the best in the world in this position and has been for years. So Busquets gets the nod here.
Iniesta v Cazorla – Both these players like to dominate play and contribute to offensive and defensive work. But our two footed magician might be slightly better his international teammate here.He is the better passer and handler of the ball and more skilled, but Iniesta is best when it comes to trickery and shooting the ball.
Ozil v Rakitic – Rakitic is a very good player but Ozil is the best in the world so he nails down the number 10 spot.
The forward line – well there is no need for comparison here. The MSN strike force is the best in the world and edges our forward line by a mile…..

Combined starting XI
Cech
Bellerin Mascherano Koscielny Monreal
Busquets Cazorla
Ozil
Messi Suarez Neymar

So looking at this, we have the best defence against the best attack. If we can keep that amazing strike force at bay (and Cech has a blinder) there is no reason why we can’t cause them problems in February….

Tags Barcelona Cech

12 Comments

  1. 6 arsenal players against 5 barcelona players.
    You might aswell have problems with most people here
    especially the cazorla iniesta debate
    there will also be arguments as to whether bellerin is better than alves
    koscienly is better than pique
    monreal better than alba.

    But thats a fair analysis mate

  2. “But Alves is the more creative of the two. But Bellerin retains his title as the best for me.”

    You say Alves is more creative but still go on to select Bellerin? LoL. Does Alves’ greater experience and better goal threat not count? This selection looks very suspect!

  3. Iniesta should be in that combine team. I don’t know how but He has to be there. Alba vs Monreal is another one but Monreal has been outstanding this season so He takes the nod for mi.

  4. I love arsenal and I’m admittedly biased towards arsenal but this article is pretty poor and the analysis of the players is not really accurate

    1. yeah call it biased or whatever but
      1 we beat bayern with a clean sheat
      2 we still managed to pull out on of the greatest escapes in history baring injuries
      3 second in the league without sanchez cazorla and coquelin an unbeaten pre season without sanchez

      This article seems very accurate to me.
      LOL

      1. 1. We did beat Bayern, and although the result is obviously the most important thing, it was a poor performance from us. The first goal was huge, and we got it by pure luck. Second was class though. But I mention the poor performance because there were so many warning signs for the next game against Bayern. Wenger didn’t heed them, and we ended getting thrashed, with yet another poor performance in Europe.

        2. It was a great escape in the end, but it was a disgrace we were in a position that we had to win one of our two games against Bayern, pray Olympiakos didn’t get at least a point against Bayern, and finally have to win by a certain score line in Greece. Even with the injuries they was still a massive gulf in quality between ourselves and Zagreb and Olympiakos.

        3. We are doing well in the league and there has definitely been a slight improvement, but then again it shouldn’t be exactly hard to improve on last season when we awful and miles off the top. But I think it’s fair to say, we’re only in second two points off the top because every one is beating everyone else, it’s such an open league. If it stays like this I really think we’ve got a great chance of winning the league, but if a team takes control like Chelsea last season, then I’m not so sure we’ll keep up with them. Especially with the injuries.

        Barcelona won the treble last season, and in style! Whilst Arsenal were awful in the league, finishing a whopping 12 points off Chelsea, and we pretty much hit rock bottom in Europe, also with our terrible European form continuing into this season. So I find it absolutely remarkable the writer has more Arsenal players in this combined team!

        Maybe he’s inadvertently saying, our players are good enough…but is our manager?

      2. Come on you guys! Right now, Barca is slightly better than Arsenal. That’s true. But that doesn’t mean we can’t beat them. Not like the past, this Barca has a crack in the back since Carles Puyol retirement. They push the veteran Mascherano from the middle to back because Marc Bartra is not ready yet. They even tried to sign Koscielny once. They’re trying Vermaelen, but you all know the result.
        Apart from head to head stuff, the big key to deal with Barca is to keep our ball pressure at highest level, specially when off ball. That’s what Atletico have been doing. Don’t let Barca dancing with the ball too long! It will hypnotized you.

  5. 6 out of 11 Arsenal players? Wow lol

    Still 5/11 is more than enough when you have Messi, Neymar and Suarez. Our defenders will have a busy two evenings, that’s for sure lol

  6. you don`t even get point, is it only arsenal that beat bayern, porto even beats them 3-1last season in quarter final first league or is this the first time we will be in second position in 9 trophyless years

  7. The thing is, right now, only Ozil, Kos and Cech could start at Barcelona. This tells a lot about the diff between us.

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