When we watched with baited breath to see who Arsenal would be playing in the group stages of the Champions League this season, all of the softer looking sides got put into other groups and the Gunners got another tough draw. But I am now starting to think that we may have got a bit of luck after all.
Anderlecht are the Belgian champions and you should not take any team that has made it into the group stages too lightly, but they should be the whipping boys. Galatasaray are the biggest club in Turkey and have done well in Europe recently, but there are signs that they are not so good this year.
For one thing, they did not win the Turkish league last season and only managed a draw with Eskişehirspor yesterday. That’s Eskişehirspor! And the bane of our life that is Didier Drogba is no longer their player.
Realistically though, the top two should be Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund. But as we have learned in recent years, the difference between winning the group and coming second is the difference between staying in the competition and going out.
That makes the game in Germany on Tuesday a critical one, but I have good news for you Gooners, because Dortmund are also on the wane, at least for now. This could be the best time to play them in the last five years. They lost their main striker Robert Lewandowski this summer and are also without Marco Reus through injury.
In fact, their main threat seems to be Shinji Kagawa who has returned from his ill fated spell at Old Trafford. Stop him, I reckon, and the Gunners are then facing a pretty ordinary side. So tell Flamini to stick to the Japanese midfielder like a bad smell and the group is ours for the taking.