CL| Napoli v Arsenal, 11/12, 7.45pm, SS1

[GOONER1991]

vs

Crunch tie in this final Champions League Group Stage match day. It's pretty unknown for a team to have 12 points at this stage and still having not qualified.

Napoli will throw everything they have at us. Hopefully Hamsik is unavailable for this, but Higuain is a danger (as I'm sure we all know). They are a quality team and can hurt us, but their defence has been more than suspicious recently, so we need to make the most of that.

--------------Szczesny

Sagna - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs

------------Flamini - Arteta

Walcott --------Rosicky----------Cazorla

----------------Giroud


I fear Wenger will go with the team we had today.

Remember:

Arsenal Win = Top Spot
Draw = Top Spot
Lose 2-0 or less = Qualify Second Place (if Dortmund win in Marseille).
Lose by 3 clear goals = Third Place (if Dortmund win in Marseille).

We've done awesome to get in this position, it's unbelievable that we haven't qualified. Qualifying top (or at all) will be testament to our strength, as this really was a group of death. We need to qualify top. Even though some great teams are in second place, if we're lucky, we may get a reasonable draw. Qualify second and we will be pretty much guaranteed a difficult draw.

If we lose by 3, it would be disastrous, as our performance will have been a train-wreck, and we will likely be sentenced to Thursday nights on ITV4/Channel 5.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Its just unlucky we haven't been qualified even with 12 points. The important thing about this game is not conceding an early goal i'm confident our defense will be solid the positive news for us is HAMSIK could miss our game. Napoli defense is very awful we should have no problems to score goals give Ramsey and Özil some rest at this one and start Walcott and Cazorla as attacking midfield.

i will go with

Scezcney

Jenkinson Kosh Mertesacker Monreal

Arteta Flamini

Walcott Cazorla Rosicky/Wilshere

Giroud

 

[Vinci]

That line-up would be good enough to get at least a draw. Except for Flamini it's the same team that put together our unbeaten run the end of last season.

Think it will be a 1-1.

 

[Johnny_Blaze]

Wenger's not resting any of the big guns for this match. He probably sees this game as important as the ones against City and the chavs. We might not lose by three goals without Özil, Ramsey and Giroud, but losing even by a small margin would be disastrous.

 

[jones]

Note: No team has ever finished the Group Stage in the Champions League with 0 points

Villarreal two seasons ago, and Levski Sofia in 06/07. There are probably more.

Hope to see a base of Arteta and Flamini, with Rosicky, Santi and Theo in front of them. Özil needs to be on 100% vs City, and Ramsey is clearly tired, understandably so. We definitely need to rotate, but I think this match is even more important than the game at the Etihad. Lose the latter and we're still top of the league, lose the match at the San Paolo and we're ****ed.

 

[jones]

Double post

 

[Dokaka]

Jones, did you just post, quote the post, and post it again?

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Wenger's not resting any of the big guns for this match. He probably sees this game as important as the ones against City and the chavs. We might not lose by three goals without Özil, Ramsey and Giroud, but losing even by a small margin would be disastrous.

Losing would be not nice but don't think it could destroy our players morale. Napoli defense is awful specially on set pieces they conceded 8 goals in last 3 games and kept just 3 clean sheet in 17 games they will miss Hamsik also i'm not even worried but you never know.

 

[GOONER1991]

Note: No team has ever finished the Group Stage in the Champions League with 0 points

Villarreal two seasons ago, and Levski Sofia in 06/07. There are probably more.

I'd go with yousif's lineup, Rosicky getting the nod ahead of Wilshere. Özil needs to be on 100% vs City, and Ramsey is clearly tired, understandably so. We definitely need to rotate, but I think this match is even more important than the game at the Etihad. Lose the latter and we're still top of the league, lose the match at the San Paolo and we're ******.

Took that from something that was said on Sky during our game against Marseille, must have misheard.

 

[fabo]

Topping the group is huge but I'd still make a few changes in midfield for this one - I'd go with Rosicky, Flamini deep.....Santi AM, Jack wide left floating inside to help the central players, Theo wide right, Giroud central.

You just know we'd draw one of Barca, Bayern, Real if we came second. Joke.

 

[GOONER1991]

Topping the group is huge but I'd still make a few changes in midfield for this one - I'd go with Rosicky, Flamini deep.....Santi AM, Jack wide left floating inside to help the central players, Theo wide right, Giroud central.

You just know we'd draw one of Barca, Bayern, Real if we came second. Joke.

If we come first, we will inevitably get Juventus. It's just the way things are in Europe for us.

 

[jones]

Jones, did you just post, quote the post, and post it again?

Seeing how I'm the only sensible poster here I thought I'd just talk to myself

Wanted to edit the post and ****ed that up badly.

 

[GunnerBP]

I wouldn't be surprised if we fielded a lineup similar to the Hull City match. Six or seven changes to todays lineup should still be able to get the result.

Szczesny

Jenkinson - Merts/Kos - Vermaelen - Monreal
Flamini - Wilshere
Walcott - Cazorla - Rosicky
Bendtner

Bench: Fabianski, Merts/Kos, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Özil, Giroud

That lineup is good enough to beat Napoli and it is crazy to consider how many of those players are considered "bench" or "squad" players. And for those who will panic at the thought of Bendtner starting I think we need to consider how off the pace Giroud looked today and has looked for the last week or so.

Also, I hate breaking up the Merts & Kos partnership, but Vermaelen needs a game and this is the one.

 

[coopsollini]

I would go for Bendtner in this up front, we need Giroud to be at his best over the next couple of weeks. Giroud looked a little flat today, so giving him a 6 day break as opposed to 2 days going into the game at City is preferable. Bendtner can do a job for us here, if we can get him fired up for it.

 

[Vela]

--------------------Szczęsny
Jenkinson---Mertesacker--Koscielny---Monreal
---------------Flamini-------Wilshere
Walcott-------------Rosicky----------Cazorla
---------------------Giroud

Bench - Fabiański, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Özil, Ramsey, Bendtner.

 

[musicmonkey]

I'm with Vela, Napoli will want to get goals, might just be the sort of game for Walcott. Rosicky, Wilshere and Flamini will offer plenty of pressing to cut out their midfielders which is what killed them last time.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

I predict Napoli starting line up going to be:

Riena

Maggio Albiol Cannavaro/Fernandez Armero

Inler Dzemaili

Callejon Pandev Insigne

Higgy

the weakest link in this napoli team going to be Armero he is not a full bacl he is left midfielder he can't defend well so Walcott could have good times with him.

 

[CurryFlavoured]

Szczesny

Jenkinson - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Monreal

Flamini - Arteta

Walcott - Santi - Rosicky

Giroud

I wasn't impressed with Gibbs today so I think Monreal deserves another game. Ramsey definitely needs a rest, I'd potentially play Wilshere ahead of Arteta but with the draw in mind Arteta could be the better option.

There is a lot to be learned from this game - If Monreal can really impress in a tough fixture like this I'd definitely consider him at the weekend, the same goes for a midfield of Flamini and Arteta. Theo and Özil should be towards the front for contenders to start against City, the other position should be between Rosicky and Wilshere unless Santi does something exceptiona midweek. Funnily enough I'm favouring Rosicky right now, Jack's improving but still not there yet, with Tomas you know what you're going to get.

 

[mo50]

Özil, Giroud and Ramsey will all start. Rightly or wrongly, Wenger won't **** about with CL qualification. It's a damn shame we didn't get a draw against Dortmund at home because we could've been resting the entire team on Tuesday.

 

[clockwork orange]

---------------Szczesny

Jenkinson - Merts/Kos - Vermaelen - Monreal
----------Flamini - Wilshere
-----Gnabry - Cazorla - Rosicky
-------------------Walcott