Cesc and Arshavin should be up for this one

You'll all have heard about the Champions League draw by now. It's perhaps not what any of us would ideally have chosen, but it has the potential to be the most exciting tie of the tournament.

For me, this draws parallels with our drawing Juventus in our run to the final in 2006. It might seem strange to think now, but at the time Juve were definitely in the top two or three teams in Europe, allbeit with the help of a little match-fixing.

Still, like this year, we had the supposed disadvantage of playing at home first, and like this year, we were welcoming back an Arsenal legend. Fabregas showed Vieira who was boss that night, but that's perhaps where the similarities end; Henry is not a key player for Barca this season and might not even start either game.

I wrote yesterday that we're up against Rooney in the league. Now we're up against Messi in Europe. As usual, we will simply have to outscore our opponents, but these opponents tend to score goals for fun.

Who can outshine Messi? I hope that Arshavin will be really up for this one, as he tends to be in big games, particularly in Europe. Fabregas, too, should be determined to prove a point to his former side, and that despite his Barcelona 'DNA', he is Arsenal's captain.

And of course, the biggest point of all is that this is the first time we've played the Catalan giants since they broke our hearts in that final of '06. Are we a better team now? It's hard to say. The team that reached the final that year was more experienced and more solid defensively, despite poor domestic form. The current side, however, seem more likely to scrape the Premier League by beating the relatively easy opponents they have left, than to compete with Europe's best. As we've seen against United and Chelsea this season, we're made to look distinctly second best in the big games.

Who knows? We're hardly favourites, but you can't write this Arsenal side off, that's for sure. It certainly wouldn't be embarrassing to go out to the best team in the world.

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea