Scouting the Other Side: FC Thun

For the first time in who knows how many years Arsenal have cruised through the group stages of the Champions League without the sight of a scare. It's quite a surreal feeling, but the comfortable 3-0 drubbing of Czech champions Sparta Prague saw us straight into the knockout stage along with Olympique Lyonnais. Two late strikes by Robin van Persie and an earlier one by captain Thierry Henry easily accounted for the group seller dwellers for us to qualify.

It sure is a welcome change to most years when the Arsenal scrape their way through at the death knell in the most dramatic fashion, such as in 2003/04 with a certain game in Milan that nobody will ever forget. Who could forget it? Or last year, on the same matchday, when in Eindhoven we had Vieira and Lauren both sent-off in rather dubious means. Usually the second last round of the group stages for the Arsenal has been one of high drama under must-win situations. Not this week, not this year. We are a different team in Europe this year for some reason – and I like it.

I know absolutely nothing about our opponents on Tuesday; the Champions League debutants from Switzerland. I did not even get to see the match on Matchday 1, since it was not on TV here. From the very little reading about them that I have done you get the impression that they really don't belong in Europe, playing on the same stage as Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and, of course, Arsenal. Thun and Arsenal are literally worlds apart.

They were founded quite a long time ago. In 1898 the club was created in the sleepy, quiet and most likely recently unheard of town in the Swiss region of Berner Oberland (the German speaking part of Switzerland) of Thun, home to just 42,000 people. Until the 2002 Swiss season Thun had only ever made one appearance in top-flight Swiss football – it was the same year that Chelsea won their first, and so far, only untainted championship. They also reached the Swiss Cup final, and lost to La-Chaux-de-Fonds.

And that's about it. There really is not much to write about FC Thun and their rather blank history – especially since there is next to nothing available about them. I don't speak German. FC Thun are worlds apart from anything we are used to, as I said, it'd be like Swansea or something suddenly going from League 1 to the Champions League in a matter of years.

I do know of one player on the Swiss team: Ljubo Millecevic. He plays for the Australian national team. But, like much of their history, that's about it. The Thun team is a mix of Africans and Brazilians and cast-aways from the Bundesliga and the Austrian league of the same name, most likely signed cheaply since Thun operate on a budget of about €2m a year.

With qualification already assured I expect a weakened team to take the pitch tomorrow night. I hope the likes of Henry are rested. While I'm expecting a weakened lineup against Thun I still want us to win – but I think it will be a draw. Thun are more than capable of scoring as we saw at Highbury, but they are also more than capable of conceding, having conceded eight times, four of those coming three weeks ago at home to Ajax.

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