I have faith in Arsenal’s secret weapon to down Barcelona!

Is there a way to stand firm on Tuesday? by Blaz

Dear fellow Gooners, It’s been a while since my last post here, but this seems an oportune moment. Tomorrow we will play Barcelona at home and if this forum and comments are anything to go by, we will lose with at least 5 goals of a difference.

Personally, on the other hand, I have quite a lot of faith for Tuesdays game. Even though he has not been his usual self, Alexis Sanchez will want to prove himself against his former team. I really want him to strike the ball as many times as he can. From outside or inside the box. Not just to get his scoring boots on, but especially so we would get corners. I want us to have as many corners as possible.

We all know Barcelona is lousy when it comes attacking the corners and they are very much vulnerable defending them. And in the past couple of years Arsenal have became much more potent when it comes to attacking corners. Giroud, Koscielny and Mertesacker can pose a great threat from Özil’s balls. I have a sneaky feeling, they will be practicing corner executions in training.

We have goals in us, several of them even, if we attack all the airballs (and Giroud can cushion them down nicely), but the defence is another story entirely (for someone else to write!)

Blaž from Ljubljana

Tags Barcelona Sanchez

15 Comments

  1. Nerves and anticipation,
    Yep!… I’m ? ing myself already! ?
    I hope that Petr Cech is more successful at keeping a cleansheet, than I was!! ???

  2. Barcelona have conceded the least amount of goals from corners in La Liga……

    I wonder if wenger is gonna go Giroud or walcott up top

    1. Welbeck always scores in big games, remember he saved United from disappointment when they faced Madrid at home

  3. All I know by tomorrow night the first phase will be over and we will be able to assess our chance. Till then – hope.

  4. Henry is a traitor. What was he suppose to mean by posing with Barcelona trio and making it public? To demoralize our players? Except for young Messi, they were not team mates. He hasn’t even met with our players. Henry out of my mind. Past is past. Am talking about the present.

    1. Even Russia and US Presidents do have a handshake and pictures sometimes.
      Remember this is not Kosovo war.

  5. Busquets, Busquests, Busquests! That’s the man who needs to be starved off the ball. Force them to distribute wide from the back. He is the conductor of the Barca symphony. It may seem radical but against this team I would play Ramsey as a No 10 to stick with Busquets and also create attacking moves.

    The press needs to be applied in our attacking 3rd and keeping the space between our lines tight. No easy ball out and kill the space through the spine. We take a 2-4-4 when they have the ball in their defensive 3rd and press..if they get to the middle we drop to a 4-5-1 with the FBs dropping back. But no matter what we keep the space between our lines tight and compact.

    Ozil to the left and Sanchez to the right. Coquelin and El Neny are the double pivot with El Neny doing the box to box role.
    Definitely play Giround up front to win the knock downs for Ozil and Sanchez, and provide the aerial presence for the set pieces. He will have a height advantage over Mascherano and needs to stick with him.

    Ozil and Sanches should play a little narrower in attack (wider in transition to defense) and allow Hector and Monreal to provide the width when needed. El Neny covers behind Hector when he bombs forward and similarly Coquelin for Monreal.

    Tactically teams have focused too much on trying to keep MSN quiet…well the way to do that is choke off supply to them. Too often No 10’s don’t do enough defensive work on Busquests allowing him the time and space to create from the back…and you need wear him like a glove. Ramsey is the only one with the defensive ability to cover him and yet provide the attacking outlet.

    The gamble of course is playing El Neny in this big game – but quite frankly his instructions would be quite simple. Tackle, intercept and recycle with the low risk outlet pass.

    Barca have quality all over the park Rakitic, Ineista, etc…Alves is better going forward but suspect defensively…moving Ozil to the left, let’s see how disciplined he is in marking Ozil. Alba vs Sanchez…I don’t think Alba will be very comfortable with that and with Hector on the right…Jordi is going to need all his speed and then some.

    Our key to goal will be down the right isolating Alves with Ozil and then isolating Mascherano with Giroud. If Pique man-marks Giroud, all the better, OG12 just sticks with Macherano and create the gap.

    Mascherano isn’t quite a CB. This Barca will leak goals – their defense isn’t that solid.
    An early yellow card for Busquests or either CB and watch them start getting real shaky.

    No need to sh!t ourselves…we have every chance of coming away with a good result. This ain’t going to be no walk in the park for Barca.

    Just some thoughts

  6. TJ,
    You’ve got the fearless spirit in me going on! Let this spirit catch on to the 1st Eleven,they have nothing to fear but fear itself! I got carried away by your analysis of the tactics,you must be some budding talent of a coach if not one already mate! Like you said we can make their night a very long and cold walk in the park indeed if we choose to dig into our powers!
    Ya! Gunners Ya!
    Enough Said..

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