Arsenal v Man U CL 2nd Leg May 05, 2009, 19:45

[Rohit]

Key will be to get an early goal. We need to look to score not wait for the goal to come. With Rio out anything can happen. I am still wary of playing 4-4-2, simply because we do not function defensively as a unit. United's movement is good and they will easily manage to pull Song and Fabregas out of position and have midfielders make runs into the box.

We will need to be audacious this time though in the true sense of the word.

 

[GaelForce22]

-----------Almunia

Sagna---Toure---Silvestre---Gibbs

Walcott--Fabregas--Song--Nasri

------Van Persie---Adebayor

3-1 Arsenal, see you in the final Chelsea.

 

[progman07]

It will be like 2 years ago against PSV. They won it 1-0 in the first leg, and then we were fighting to score 2, but after 1-0 they leveled it, and at 1-1 we had to score another two.

1-0 to Man Utd is possibly the worst first leg we could have had, as the home game will be quite even and they'll surely score, I can't imagine us scoring 3.

 

[Proof]

--------------- Almunia -------------
--- Sagna ---- Toure --- Djourou --- Clichy ----
--- Walcott ---- Fabregas ---- Song --- Nasri ----
--------- Adebayor ------ Van Persie/Eduardo ----

We didn't conceded at the Emirates in CL, this season.
2-0 to us. Come on you Gunners!

 

[progman07]

I hope Wenger realizes how decisive this game could be in his Arsenal career. Hopefully he steps up and gets his decisions correct. No more experimenting, no more cowardly defensive tactics. Go and play what we can, 4-4-2 with the best available midfield.

 

[Proof]

It's funny Progman, because when I said that I hate the defensive cowardly tactics on the Barcelona thread, you quoted me and said that those tactics and formations are smart not cowardly.

 

[Lord Dula]

Smart if you have the personnel available to carry out such a tactic. We don't.

 

[albakos]

Remember all the past games in CL, when we sucked on the first tie but came back kicking ass on return leg at Emirates. I have a huge feeling that this will happen again and we will be firing on all cylinders.

They said that Rvp and Clichy should be back for Tuesday, so the lineup should definitely be the obvious one.

Almunia

Sagna Toure Djorou Clichy (Gibbs)

Walcott Fabregas Song Nasri

Van Persie (Eduardo)
Adebayor


We need to score our first goal in the first 20 minutes and make Manure feel the pressure.

Let's hope they lost Rio and although it may sound as "dirty tactic" we need to make sure to piss Rooney off because he is oen yellow away from missing the next game. This can be in our advantage.

I am sure Wenger will calculate all of details.

All in all I feel very positive and we should be through.

2:0 for us.
Ade and Song

 

[progman07]

It's funny Progman, because when I said that I hate the defensive cowardly tactics on the Barcelona thread, you quoted me and said that those tactics and formations are smart not cowardly.

You do have a point, but when you start to compare Chelsea's defense and ours, you will start to realize that they can defend, and we can't. Wenger tells us we will attack but he is sacred to put an attacking lineup together. Chelsea were just smart enough to DEFEND. We are stupid enough to 'defend'. With small capitals. They close the opponents down, never let any player free, while our defensive tactics mean we won't attack effectively.

Were we defending as well as Chelsea, I'd be praising Wenger, but obviously we are far from that.

 

[Don Pacifico]

We have to play with two strikers, two proper forwards who stay up front rather than flitting between midfield and up top. Given injuries, the team picks itself.

Almunia

Gibbs
Silvestre
Toure
Sagna

Nasri
Cesc
Song
Walcott

Adebayor
Eduardo


I didn't expect us to win this tie but I know that there's no reason why we can't.

 

[Gurgen]

How the hell does Adebayor get to start after his performance last night?

 

[Don Pacifico]

If we went by that logic, we'd be playing with only five players from the first leg.

Ade isn't a lone striker and his performance was Wenger's fault for playing him in that role. He's never played well by himself and last night wasn't going to be the game that changed.

 

[Gurgen]

He's played extremely well by himself, most notably at Old Trafford.

 

[Biggus]

Ade wasn't that bad he was fed on scraps, Cesc was too far forward and couldn't pull the strings, f**k all was created- but you know when Monsieur Wenger has an idea in his head he will give it half a season just to be sure it won't work.

 

[Don Pacifico]

Well, I'd contest that. I've never been convinced by his lone ranger performances.

Anyway, he hardly got the service last night to put in a reasonable performance, there was barely any forward supportive movement.

 

[Gurgen]

That doesn't excuse his shocking play when he did get the ball. Bendtner got no support at all at Anfield and still had a good game.

I'd start RvP and Eduardo for this.

 

[Don Pacifico]

That doesn't excuse his shocking play when he did get the ball. Bendtner got no support at all at Anfield and still had a good game.

I'd start RvP and Eduardo for this.

Isn't VP injured for that game? If not, I'd actually agree with you if only to refresh the team.

 

[sabret00the]

That doesn't excuse his shocking play when he did get the ball. Bendtner got no support at all at Anfield and still had a good game.

I'd start RvP and Eduardo for this.

Seconded.

 

[Biggus]

Must have been watching a different game to me, my jaw dropped when I saw Bendtner appear instead of Eduardo.....At 70 f**king minutes mind you.

 

[A_Gooner_Matata]

Must have been watching a different game to me, my jaw dropped when I saw Bendtner appear instead of Eduardo.....At 70 f**king minutes mind you.

How's about we leave this **** to the first leg match thread?

So, we need to play the game of our lives. Everyone needs to be flawless (i.e. there's no room for Diaby), but we can do this...