Last summer the ex-Chelsea striker Demba Ba was on the verge of joining Arsenal on loan before Jose Mourinho put a block on the deal, but now he has moved to the Turkish side Besiktas who just happen to be playing the Gunners for the first time ever in Europe.
Obviously Ba has played against us many times in his career with West Ham United (2011), Newcastle United (2011-13) and Chelsea (2013-14), and is no stranger to our style of play. Ba made his debut for Besiktas in the Qualifying round against Feyenoord and he must certainly be in a confident mood as he scored all three goals in the 3-1 defeat of the Dutch giants to put them through to this stage. Even more impressive is the fact that he only played the last 40 minutes of the game after coming on as a sub for Turkey international midfielder Oğuzhan Özyakup, who you may remember came through the ranks at Arsenal.
Apparently since the draw was made Ba has been quoted as saying: “Let everyone be relaxed,”
“Arsenal, of course, is a big team. However, its greatness should not be over-exaggerated. If we play sensibly and put on a good fight, there is no reason why we cannot progress. And we have the ability to make this happen.”
That remains to be seen, but the Turkish side definitely performed well by beating Feyenoord in both Qualifying games. Their coach Slaven Bilic is also well respected in England after his exploits with Croatia, and he too thinks that they have a chance to go through.
Besiktas recently beat Chelsea 1-0 in a friendly and Bilic is feeling quietly confident. He said: “This is without a doubt a match where Arsenal is the favorite. We have great respect for Arsenal. We have hope and a plan. We will try to implement this plan,”
“We will be brave and we will do our best to eliminate them,” he continued. “The football we played against Chelsea gave a signal to us about this match. If we can deal with Chelsea, we can cope with Arsenal.”
Again that remains to be seen, but Arsenal fans should be aware that this game is hardly to be considered a pushover, especially as most of our players are not yet fully match fit…..
We need to play our best. They are a decent side. If we do work hard and play our best we will be fine
COYG
If Koscielny and Gibbs are out injured, we don’t really have many defensive options. We’ll have to bring Mertesacker back in early or play someone from our youth team.. Not a brilliant position to be in. Hopefully we won’t be doing too much defending, but away from home in quite a hostile ground theres every chance we’ll come under real pressure at some point in the game.
Ever seen Flamini play CB? It could happen.
I guess, but Flamini is a little reckless, not sure I want him making challenges in the box.
No but I have seen debuchy and monreal play cb and I have seen coquelin and flamini play full back.
Even if kos and gibbs don’t make it, in bellerin, chambers debuchy monreal mertesacker miquel hayden coquelin and flamini we can muster a defence capable of looking after besiktas.
Monreal to CB for Kos, as in the CS game, and, Flamini to LB, or Miquel to come in.
Unless Chambers can switch over to the LCB position of course.
Ofcus he should believe, the same way we believe… So its actually down to performance… Not just believe… Buh in all I’m happy evn ba made it clear that we don’t hav a striker dat scores goals
Besiktas are going to get crushed. Nothing Ba can do about it.
Besiktas is a real threat to us specially this early in the season with many players not quite fit, it is important that we don’t let Besiktas score even if it means 0-0 score line in Turkey, i am sure once we get them in Emirates we will do well.
The Turkish League hasn,t started yet, so, they will not be match fit either.
As long as we play to our ability it will be fine. Score first, that is the crucial ingredient.
yes but Besiktas have played competitive game to reach this stage in the CL so they could be more ready then us???
We’ll if Demba Ba believes then it must be gospel, right? Who gives a flying f$%k what he thinks??
Many pundits more qualified than him predicted Arsenal to get 5th place behind Everton and to lose out in the FA Cup.
Why do they publish articles with stupidity as the premise?
Well your comments
are published and they
all have stupidity
as their premise.
But demba ba knows all there is to know about the shrimping business
Is it just me or is anyone else kinda interested in seeing the kind of player Oğuzhan Özyakup has developed into? touted as a big talent in our academy back in the day
We need to put in a professional performance and handle them,a 2-0 result for us will suffice!!!
Sanchez will thrash them
dont worry 🙂
#COYG
Good test for the team.
Remember fenerbahce last season??? People said we wil be crushed by bruno alvez, meireles, and Emenike buh at the end we comfortably went through… Expect the same today…
I’m confident. We have enough to easily beat them if we play our game and stay focused. For the second leg we should also have the Germans back to add even more quality. Can’t see us not going through.
Leicester on the 31st of August will be our 5th game in the space of 15 days. We need to rotate our squad for these games, though the Germans will provide extra depth when they get fit again. I’d rather see Campbell play on the left, he has experience in the CL and will be fresh. I also think Chamberlain should play on the right, he’ll also be fresher and needs game time. I’d rather have Alexis be 100% against Everton at the weekend than for him to play on Tuesday.
Resting key players in this game will mean they’ll be ok to play in the home tie at the Emirates in the unlikely event that we have to chase the result. Playing them in the first leg as well as at Everton would leave them knackered by the time we play the home leg, not to mention the Leicester game on that weekend.
We don’t have that luxury because we cant afford to loose this game but we can afford to loose at Everton. Actually this is the time for players to get used to each other!
We seriousely need a CF n’ DM not just 4this game alone but the rest of the season.
Beshit-curse is finshed.
Is it true manures manager’s real name is ; Loose van-girl?
Ba! You will be sorry.
The only possible scenario where they get a result is if our defense is decimated by injuries. Oh look, Kos and Gubbs injured, hahahaha……..
Ba was obviously asked about it, and what is the guy supposed to say?
Demba Ba: “Arsenal won the F.A cup last season, made some terrific signings including Alexis Sanchez and the season before Mezut Ozil and went onto to completely annihilate league winners Man City to clench the Charity Shield. They have a stronger squad than last season and at the moment are full of confidence.
Where as my club Besiktas is comprised predominantly of no names in a completely inferior league to the BPL. Also 17 of our 24 man squad are all Turkish! Turkey has only qualified for the World Cup three times, in 1950. 1954 and 2002. So in other words, most of my squad are pants. I am only here for the nice weather and loose women. Actually, scratch that last comment out, who am I trying to kid, this country might as well all be dudes. Oh and Arsenal will give us a hiding on Tuesday.”
Well the Turkish women are all fit and the Turkish men are all fat, so Demba Ba, being an athlete, may be on to something. lol
does anyone think the reports of us getting psg’s youngster rabiot are true and if yes is he what we need atm i guessing as he is a big lad he’s probably diaby long term replacement i have seen a picture of him and he doesn’t look like a very strong build but i am sure a year in the gym will sort that out he would add much needed height to our midfield and he doesn’t seem to be a injury prone as diaby he has a good general skill set am sure wenger can convince him with plenty of game time any young french player knows wengers rep with youngsters he should jump at the chance to work with wenger NOW with a bit of strength work he could be a handy d/m also if wenger could mould him to play there,
also great start to the campaign am hoping this is a great sign of things to come in the matter that we ground out the win and snatched the win RAMSEY + GOALS = MVP HE WILL BE OUR LAMPARD(WILL BE BETTER MIND YOU) WITH MANY IMPORTANT GOALS THIS SEASON COYG
He is only 19 (like Chambers) so he won’t count towards 25 man squad so I don’t see how this can be bad. And with a Diaby not really coming back this can only help. I am afraid Arteta will have to man the midfield for another season. Unless Chambers goes ahead of him in a team having Mert and Kos at the back.
Really worried about our defensive cover even if we get a cb we still look weak Espec if kos is ruled out for a while mert is not match fit and chambers will need a rest at some stage please don’t mention miquel this guy is nowhere near good enough and while Hayden looks promising he is not ready for 1st team football yet!
Why are all people not even mentioning Isaac Hayden when discussing this whole defensive cover issues! That guy is solid!