I am not trying to say that Arsenal have got the tie we wanted for the next stage of the Champions League. In fact I put a post on Just Arsenal last week that was along the lines of anyone but Barca, but there are reasons for Arsenal fans to believe that we have a decent chance and not to be too downhearted.
There are more reasons to be positive but I think that two of them could prove to be the key factors in the double legged tie next year. One of them is Alexis Sanchez. Not only will the Chilean have the added incentive of getting one over on his former club and proving to them that he deserved more when he was at the Nou Camp, but his current injury has given our star striker the opportunity to put his feet up and have a proper rest after a very heavy two years of football.
So we can reasonably expect Alexis to be at his brilliant best when we face Barcelona. The second big reason is along similar lines and comes from the way that this season has been organised to cope with the Euro 2016 tournament next summer.
Spain´s La Liga has therefore had it’s usual winter break significantly reduce to just 10 days. Even better is that Barca will be playing catch up in the new year as they are heading off to Japan for the Club World Cup. So while Alexis will have had a nice rest, the Barca players will have played more games and had less rest than usual.
Do you think these two factors might just sway the tie in our favour?