Maybe Arsenal will find it easier than we think against Atletico Madrid?

It would seem that most Arsenal fans think that the Gunners have absolutely no chance when we come up against Atletico Madrid in the semi-final of the Europa League, but perhaps our pessimism could be misplaced?

The fact is that Atletico are on their way to qualifying for the Champions League through their position of second place in La Liga, but with Valencia and Real Madrid just 3 and 4 points behind them they still have a lot of work to do domestically, and they will surely have to keep playing their best to stay there.

But they are also suffering with many many injuries, and Guillem Balague thinks that the Gunners could be facing them at just the right time. He said: ”It’s a shame Arsenal and Atletico are meeting now, it would have been nice to see them in the final,” Balague said.

“Arsenal are going to face one of the best teams in knock-out competitions in the world. With what they have, they tend to do very well in knock-out competitions.

“But They have weaknesses as well. In the past going a goal up would have been guarantee of victory, but they have dropped points after going ahead, they are less impressive from set-pieces in both boxes, and showed against Sporting that now the squad has become smaller, players are becoming affected by injuries and tiredness.

“They go to Levante this weekend with only 13 players from the first-team at a crucial part of the season where you have to be sharp with players in front of goal

“They may struggle with it. There are angles Arsenal can be positive about.”

So this information may give us all a little bit more optimism for when Atletico come to the Emirates in just 12 days time. Should we stop being so pessimistic for the next couple of weeks?

Sam P

17 Comments

  1. Atletico Madrid have to divide their focus on the La Liga as well, but they have many dangerous players. Namely Diego Costa, Griezmann, Torres, Saul Niguez and Gameiro

    Arsenal’s advantage is they have many athletic players, such as Welbeck, Maitland-Niles, Bellerin and Nelson. If they can use these young people’s energy to penetrate Atletico’s defense like what they did against Milan, they could have a bigger chance to score the first goal

    1. The problem is that they have avery tactically adept manager while we have a clueless tactical dinosaur.

      simeone tactics are somehow similar to mourinho’s.
      and we all know how many times wenger has beaten mourinho.

  2. Good time to play AM. Costa is out, they dont have many first team players since they sold two to China in Jan. So they cant really rotate, plus unlike us they are actually playing for something in the league, so overall as good a time to play Atletico as possible. Having said that, I still think they are the better team. And to be perfectly honest, is if winning the EL means that Wenger will stay, I would rather have Atletico humiliate us and Wenger leave at the end of the season. If Wenger is going either way then Go Gunners!

    1. If Wenger win the Europa League, I think he would not let the big chance to leave in glory slip away

      Therefore we all must support Arsenal while there is still chance to get a major trophy. We all could go back to our condemning mode if Wenger blows it off again

    2. But they don’t have our garbage defence do they?
      Or our ageing manager who applies the same poor tactics to every opponent.
      Its like we give the opposition a head start every game..

  3. Lost faith in Wenger
    He’s built a team that always fail when needed
    The specialist in failure will fail again and the Board will extend his contract for another five years

  4. Atletico Doesn’t Play Well Than Us But They Are Better Defensively And Counter Attacks So What We Need Is To Play Our Game To Hold Them Perfectly Like What Real Madrid Uses To Do.we went in The Last 16 As Underdogs Against Milan But What Happened At The End Of The Day? 5-1!! So Lets Play Atletico With Confidence Then We Can Make It Happen! Arsenal Win The Europa Or Failed To Win Wenger Should Leave.

  5. Madrid is a very good team. Don’t forget they were in Champions League. We were not. They have more players of a high standard then we do. It will be very tough. I wish we had played them in the final and we had Strasburg or Marselle in semis. We would have had a much better chance in a 1 match situation

    However, We can do it. Its not impossible
    We will def need our big men ie Lacazette, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Koscielny, Wilshere, Monreal/Kolsanic. Others will need to step up. Everyone will need to step up.
    Wenger will need to get the starting lineups spot on.

  6. We can’t win a trophy without beating some good teams. To me it’s better meeting AM now than final. As was the case and pessimism with AC Milan who didn’t concede a goal in 10 games so is it now with AM. We are taking them down. My believe.
    Am not saying we are not having problems especially at the back but we have 2 or 3 though at best should be squad players that usually show up in a game like this.
    Support the players. They are the ones we have for now. Chelsea fans thought yesterday that we sold them a gem in Giroud better than the one the spent over 75m. Ox will be a key player in a CL semi team. But all were scraps here. Any thing to think about?

    1. Even Debuchy has a headline that reads ‘Best in Europe’ just in months after leaving Arsenal…

  7. I’m not particularly bothered about the Europa League.
    If we win it and he remains in charge it will just be the previous god knows how many seasons repeated once again – I’m not sure its worth it.
    The problem is the manager.
    If he stays the same mistakes will be made as he is incapable of adapting or learning.
    I couldn’t care less about the Europa League…

  8. To beat Atletico Madrid We need to
    1) Reassemble our Defense – I would draft Monreal and Elneny into the CB. I would banish Koscienly and Mustafi from ever playing for the team this season
    2) Midfield – Ramsey to play Box to Box; Xhaka (he has been improving lately) to play Defensive Midfield; Ozil to play Attacking Midfield; Add Iwobi to play Free role from midfield to attacking – That means you have Four in defense and four in midfield. 3 with clear functions at their best power roles and the fourth, Iwobi to provide the extra load where needed. It a role Mkhitaryan, if he is fit, can do very well and also Reiss Nelson can substitute for too.
    3) Play Welbeck and Lacazette partnership upfront. People will sing Welbeck to rescue but forget that the threat that Lacazette provides gives the defenders of the other side (CSKA) headaches that they forget to fully cover other players – Like Welbeck.
    4) Summary-No Konsiencly, No Mustafi No Wilshere…4.4.2 works best with the squad we have right now. Dynamic pattern with three playing clear roles and mandate and one extra player doing the overload role…

  9. At the end of the day, our defence is absolutely terrible. We will lose because our defence is shocking. How many chances did we give Stoke and Soton? We become more exposed given better teams who have better players who can finish.

  10. I think Wenger and his players knows the team they want to meet and that they knew the problems of their team,semi final is 12 days away, there is still time to improve and correct their deficiency, let’s stop being pessimistic, Wenger love his job,he can do anything to win Europa league, he knows how to motivate his player to give him result whenever he was under pressure.

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