If Arsene Wenger was a little bit caught between sending Arsenal out with the intention of recording another famous away win at Borussia Dortmund or making sure the Gunners were solid, compact and hard to beat, the injury news for both sides should have helped to make his mind up.
While Arsenal have lost the more defensive left back Nacho Monreal and will replace him with the more attack minded Kieran Gibbs, Dortmund will have to do without their best centre back, Mats Hummels. Jurgen Klopp was hoping that World Cup winning defender would recover in time but Hummels has declared, as reported by The Mirror, that this clash with Arsenal has come too soon for him.
Without their defensive midfielders Gundogan or Bender as well, surely Arsenal will see Dortmund as a weakened animal and go for the throat, especially with all the pace and power we now have in the forward areas.
This picture from training yesterday could well show the front three and playmaker that Wenger will give the job of taking the game to Dortmund and exposing their defensive frailties, especially as we are not exactly set ip to defend ourselves. So hang on to your hats, Arsenal fans, this could be exciting.
OT: I trust new Welbeck and Sanchez to score goals even against Chelsea and RM than our defense keeping a clean sheet against Burnley. Let’s hope our back line stay on feet tonight
Hummels or not….WE HAVE TO GO FOR IT!!
This is Champions League…no place for the ones that sit back!
GO THE GUNNERS!
Anyone know if diaby is in the squad for dortmund game?
I have not seen him in the photos on arsenal.com. However, I have seen Campbell, Rozza and Coquelin in the training.
No Hummels.. Yess COYG
I’m quietly confident about tonight. Going to be a hard game but a think we’ve got enough fire power to get a result.
Anyone tell me if Reus is still injured?
yes he is still injured
Good chance to assess the
progress the Arsenal is making.
Game could go any which way.
Should be a high scoring cracking match.
Arsenal should be ready to beat any team without relying on the opponents injuries!Otherwise we have no reason to be considered a top team.
Today’s match is more of a “injury-crippled-teams league” than Champions league 😀 😀
Lets just hope the referee will not get a hamstring during the match then the medic twist his ankle while coming to attend to him 🙁 🙁
All in all, it will be a fair game. I hope to finish my math homework in time so I can watch it. And I hope my Chelsea supporting girlfriend who also hates mathematics wont want us to have one of her unending chats
Chelsea is really good this season, we should beat them when we meet, for three main reasons:-
One, it will kill the talk and chances of them going unbeaten and becoming the 2nd invincibles(I would soooo hate if that happens 🙁 🙁 )
Two, it would be sweet for Wenger to finaly beat MOU and with MOU’s strongest teams ever. I would sooooo love that 😀 😀 😀 😀
Three, we need the three points!!!
So if Hummels wasn’t injured we WOULDN’T go for it. I’ve never seen Arsene Wenger put out a team to draw.
arsenal v napoli – second leg
Come on gunners! Lets go for victory in dortmund! Coyg!
We can’t rest on our morals. Yes, it is good news for us that BVB have injuries (so do we, but not as bad), but if the players go into this game thinking its going to be a breeze, we will lose this game!
With that said, if we go into this game expecting a battle and rock up fully focused, I see us dominating possession and coming away with a 2-1 win… I would normally have said a 1-0 to Gunners, but with the weakened defence, I see goals.
Hopefully by beating Dortmund some of them will be convinced to joining Arsenal next summer like Reus, Hummels, Bender and most importantly Jurgen Klopp.
COYG
Hope Ivan is around tonight to convince Klopp and Reus to join us next season.
Totally agree Mr Lean….2 years internship in Arsenal accounts department and ready to takeover from Mr Wenger upon expiry of his contract!
I would like to see Arsene Wenger get some game time tonight as punishment for not getting us a defender.
We have enough fire power up front to score tonight but the test will be yet again how we defend,keep a clean sheet and it’s a win for us.can see Ozil being our motm tonight and Sanchez and Welbeck scoring so my prediction is a hard fought 2-1 win.coyg
Hhmmmm, can we beat Dortmund.
Gonna be a good game, can’t wait
@Mr lean
Sorry for the thumbs up, was meant for myself
Nvm, corrected it with a thumbs down
I’m not saying Dortmund won’t be tough to beat, but with a depleted team (no Reus, Hummels, Bender, Gundagan) Dortmund will be weaker defensively and slightly offensively and we should be able to score.
We MUST take advantage of such situations
We have decent defence with Chambers and Gibbs probably playing.
Offensively, we have plenty of firepower and options (Welbeck, Ozil, Sanchez, Podolski, Campbell, Cazorla, Ox).
Winning is a good possiblity IF we put out the right players in their best positions.
COYG
Wenger said that Diaby was “impressive” with the 21 squad…lol !!!
I hope he will grace us with the honour of his presence soon since he has been the constant and ultimate excuse for Wenger not recruiting a DM (it seems!!)…!
Chambers, Monreal and Debuchy are out.
Here comes Bellerin and Hayden !!!
Oh yes, Flamini can be deputise too…!!
I wish one of those “incompetent” and “useless” so called sports journalists would ask him why he did not bring a CB (level of unprofessionalism is shocking… It might be the age getting to him and his brain works in mimic) and what are the objectives of the club (since they are never stated until we get distanced and then the “top four” talisman comes back to the picture).
We need to qualify for the second round in order to get a nice chunk of the CL money (which is the main objective in that case… As far as winning it? Not a chance in “hell”).
As for the league, top four IS THE MAIN FOCUS, because we just do not have the manager/coach (tactically dumb) to achieve anything else (notice I said “manager”… Because I truly believe someone like Diego Simeone would do a fantastic job with the squad).
Trophy?
Hopefully another FA Cup or the lesser one…
Where are Campbell and Rosicky?
bellerin and gibbs would make for a real attacking spectacle and give us a sense of just how good the new forweard line actually is…shouldnt forget that villa is actually a big game on saturday