Morning all,
Well today is probably the biggest day of the season so far. Hopefully the boys are up to it.
Starting off with some team news.
Arsenal:
Squad: Fabianski, Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Walcott, Denilson, Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie, Adebayor, Eboue, Song, Diaby, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela, Szczesny.
Almunia, Djourou, Clichy, Gallas, and Rosicky are out.
Arshavin is ineligible.
Villareal:
Squad: Lopez, Lopez, Godin, Rodriguez, Capdevila, Cani, Soriano, Eguren, Ibagaza, Llorente, Rossi, Pires, Gonzalo, Nihat, Fernandez, Franco, Venta, Fuentes.
Marcos Senna and Santi Carzola are out. Mati Fernandez and Cani are in the squad, but still doubts to start.
Formation:
Sagna played at LB for his former club, and played there earlier in the year in an emergency situation and looked comfortable. In this Champions League match we will need as much expierience as possible and I think Eboue and Sagna at the full back positions gives us that. Toure is the lock, and I know Silvestre would give us expierience, but he was useless on Saturday and Song can play at CB. Song plays at CB for his national side, and he has been making tackles and clearing the ball with his head more than he ever has in an Arsenal shirt in these last few weeks, so I would partner him up with Kolo.
It really is anyone’s guess what defensive line we will put out there. Here are a few.
Sagna, Toure, Song, Silvestre
Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs
Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Sagna
Tons of combinations that might be put out, from Sagna, Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Song, and Gibbs. Take your pick really. If I had to guess what Wenger will do I would guess Sagna-Toure-Silvestre-Gibbs.
Diaby has been our best player in the Champions League this year, so I would partner him with Cesc. Walcott and Nasri on the wings and Adebayor and van Persie up front. Our defense will be shaky whoever we put out there, so we will need to use our far superior attacking options to control the game.
Prediction:
It’s a hard prediction to make. 0-0 draw sees us go through the next round, but in order to win the match we will need to use our attacking options to control the ball. So two strategies going against eachother.
With Fabregas, Walcott, Nasri, RvP, and Adebayor we really have options to superior anything Villareal has. With their best two players in Senna and Carzola out, the difference in talent will be obvious.
I see us controlling the match, but Villareal snagging a goal on the counter. I’m thinking a 2-1 or 3-1 victory with Adebayor and Nasri grabbing goals.
As usual hit up www.myp2p.eu for linkage to the game. I’m pretty sure its on Setanta.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with a review of the match. Make sure to keep an eye on the Manchester United/Porto match, Porto have the upper hand with 2 away goals and are rarely beaten at home, no english side has ever done it. We play the winner of the match in the semi-final.
Poll of the day:
[polldaddy poll=1537913]
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
i well agree diaby has been quality for us in champo league. played really wel agenst roma in first leg. the game changed when he came off