When Arsenal had just pulled ourselves back from the brink of an early exit from the Champions League and the unwanted distraction of Thursday night Europa League games, Arsene Wenger was clearly delighted. So in his post match interview, flushed from the success and performance against Olympiacos, the Frenchman suggested that it might be Arsenal’s lucky year in Europe.
Well it still might, but our luck is going to have to change a hell of a lot if that is to be the case. Bayern Munich in the group stages left us little hope of topping the group and that meant we were hoping for a kind draw for the knockout stage. As I´m sure you know by now, that did not happen. In fact we got the worst possible draw against Barcelona.
But that does not mean we are out, it just means that we will have to be at our very best to beat them and we will probably need a bit of luck as well. We are due some to be honest because it is not just the draw that has gone against us so far.
The two harsh yellow cards that saw Giroud sent off set the tome on the first group game and the same can be said of many of our UCL campaigns. Remember Szczesny´s red card against Bayern when Robben was clearly going away from goal? So maybe this will be our lucky year.
One thing is certain, Arsenal will be in no danger of taking our opponents lightly and as they say, you have to face the best clubs at some point so we might as well get it out of the way now eh Gooners?