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CL: Arsenal vs Celta Vigo | 10/3/04

gooner

Member
I watched all of yesterday’s match and the football that Arsenal displayed was awesome and was brilliant to watch. The performance had everything, good passing, ruthless finishing, team spirit as well as a great crowd from both sides.

In the first two minutes Reyes was very unlucky when his long screamer came out off the bar. After a bit of Portsmouth pressure we eventually took the lead after a good finish from Henry but Reyes deserves a lot of credit for that goal, as it was his run, which caused the main havoc in the build up to that particular goal. Then our second goal, which was an excellent team goal, came at a crucial point of the game. Edu played a one – two with Vieira and played a super Bergkamp type through ball to Ljungberg who finished brilliantly. Toure scored our third goal just before half time and by then the game was basically over. I thought Arsenal would just relax for the second half but Henry scored a fantastic goal that he has not got enough credit for. Which other player in the premiership would attempt to score a goal like that? Exactly. Reyes played it to Ljungberg and he laid it off for Henry to perfectly slot it into the bottom left hand corner of Shaka Hislop’s goal with great precision and power. It reminded me of Henry’s first goal against Inter Milan at the San Siro when we hammered them 5 – 1 also. Ljungberg got our fifth after good work from Toure via a deflection. Sheringham got his normal goal against Arsenal as always, and I guess Portsmouth deserved that for that great fans who were awesome and supported their team brilliantly.

Below are my personal player ratings for how everyone played yesterday:

Lehmann: 7/10 – Didn’t have much to do but I love the way he calms things down when we are under pressure.

Lauren: 7/10 – Played very well and was coming up a lot.

Campbell: 8/10 – Played brilliant and kept Yakubu very quiet.

Toure: 9/10 – Brilliant performance once again. He scored our third and also got an assist on Ljunberg’s second goal, which is not bad for a central defender.

Cole: 7/10 – Played solid as usual although I think he needs to calm down a bit sometimes as his mouth might get him into trouble.

Gilberto: 7/10 – Played well and worked very hard. Someone was getting on my nerves on TV by screaming “oi, Gilberto”.

Vieira: 8/10 – The captain was brilliant, and worked very hard and showed great hunger.

Edu: 9/10 – This guy is just getting better and better. Played a beautiful pass through for Ljungberg’s first goal and his passing was brilliant throughout. He was unlucky not to score. When our triple substitution was made in the second half it was like a one-man show in the centre of the pitch with Edu taking over from where Vieira left.

Ljungberg: 9/10 – That looked like the old Ljungberg who looked very dangerous and was working very hard. His first goal was brilliant and his second came via a deflection.

Reyes – 9/10 – Played very good and many good runs and really deserved a goal. He caused many problems to their defence. He is quite fast and one other thing I like about him is that he is always smiling no matter what.

Henry – 9.5/10 – Genius, just a pure genius. Scored a good first goal and scored a fantastic second goal. Even though he has been playing well recently he looked sharper yesterday and looked very dangerous and I would have given him 10 out of 10 if he got his hat – trick.

I don’t think it is fair to give the subs a rating as they didn’t have much time to do a lot and the game was practically over.

Man utd also scraped through their match against Fulham yesterday and I would rather meet them in the next round then in the finals. The main reason for that is it would hurt a lot to lose to Man utd but if we lost to them in the semis it wouldn’t hurt as much as the finals. I am not saying we will lose but if we were to wouldn’t you rather lose in a semi final than a final.

Today we have been linked with Trabelsi again, and a back four of Trabelsi, Campbell, Toure and Cole would look very solid. Trabelsi would be a good signing as him and Cole are very similar as they are good at attacking as well as defending and maybe he would bring a bit more of an attacking dimension down the right side for Arsenal. Lauren could be used as cover or even in midfield.

Anyway, we are back to the champion’s league this Wednesday against Celta Vigo side who are in a real relegation battle in their La Liga and have just been hammered 5 – 1 at home by Espanyol who are also in the relegation battle. No doubt I would rather go into the game in the mental condition of winning 5 – 1 away rather than losing 5 – 1 at home. I think this will be a fairly tough match and as we saw from the first leg they are not actually that bad. Their Edu was very dangerous when he played against us and caused Lauren many problems and Milosevic has very fancy footwork and works very hard and Mostovoi had to be watched carefully. Celta Vigo look particularly dangerous from set pieces as we saw in the first leg. I don’t think their defence is all that and if our attack plays the way we played yesterday I can see us winning comfortably. We are at home and we have the away goals advantage and I hope Arsenal remain focused as Celta Vigo beat AC Milan at the San siro earlier on this season although AC Milan were already through. One other good advantage for Arsenal that I forgot to mention is that we will have a fresh Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp back for this crucial match where they will be needed a lot.

Below is a list of who I think are Celta Vigo’s main men:

Edu – Key Man 1
Mostovoi – Key Man 1
Milosovic – Key Man 3
Lopez + Jesuli – Key Men 4
Silviniho – Key Man 5

We haven’t been in the quarter finals of the champion’s league for a very long time and if we beat Celta Vigo we will be in the quarter finals. I know it is very early to say, but if we get through Celta on Wednesday and that is a big “If” I reckon we will get either Chelsea, Manchester Utd or Real Madrid in that particular order.

I want to wish the gunners the best of luck for Wednesday. Come on you gunners!!!
 

Mark

Established Member
Great preview. We are in a good position to go through now and I can't see us slipping up at home with Pires and Bergy back in action, it was good for them to get a little rest. I'd be tempted to save Bergkamp for the game against Blackburn though. I would go with this lineup for the Celta game.

Lehmann

Lauren Toure Campbell Cole

Ljungberg Vieira Gilberto Pires

Henry Reyes

Bench: 1. Taylor 2. Bergkamp 3. Kanu 4. Edu 5. Clichy 6. Cygan 7. Keown

Since this we will not be in such a big hurry to go forward in this game, I'd choose Gilberto over Edu has a more defensive option and I think Edu deserves a bit of a rest after his recent great performances and save him for the Blackburn game. Same with Bergkamp, he has a good record against Blackburn so I think it would be another good oppurtunity to start Reyes and bring on Bergy later.

My prediction, 2-1 to the gooners. Henry and Reyes for us, Silvinho for them on his return to Highbury.
 

Webdesignlab

Established Member
This will be a great match, I hope we continue as we have been, not just winning, but winning looking good.

I cannot wait for Wed, I have a ticket with my mate in the clock end ... bloody hell yes. I will be singing my head off, hopefully so will everyone else.
 

AFCG7

Established Member
I think the side picks itself except for someone up front to partner Henry.
I'd go for Bergkamp ahead of Reyes.. he will unlock any defense.
I'd put Reyes on if needed.
They will play very tight and hope to nick two goals from set pieces maybe.
If we score first then i think we can cruise the rest of the game.
 

gooner

Member
I forgot to mention which team I would like Arsène to play for this particular match in my preview and it is:

Lehmann

Lauren Campbell Toure Cole

Ljungberg Vieira Edu Pires

Bergkamp Henry
 

wiltord11

Active Member
Mark said:
Great preview. We are in a good position to go through now and I can't see us slipping up at home with Pires and Bergy back in action, it was good for them to get a little rest. I'd be tempted to save Bergkamp for the game against Blackburn though. I would go with this lineup for the Celta game.

Lehmann

Lauren Toure Campbell Cole

Ljungberg Vieira Gilberto Pires

Henry Reyes

Bench: 1. Taylor 2. Bergkamp 3. Kanu 4. Edu 5. Clichy 6. Cygan 7. Keown

Since this we will not be in such a big hurry to go forward in this game, I'd choose Gilberto over Edu has a more defensive option and I think Edu deserves a bit of a rest after his recent great performances and save him for the Blackburn game. Same with Bergkamp, he has a good record against Blackburn so I think it would be another good oppurtunity to start Reyes and bring on Bergy later.

My prediction, 2-1 to the gooners. Henry and Reyes for us, Silvinho for them on his return to Highbury.

i agree i would rest edu for this game but i would play bergkamp in this game and have reyes start upfront against blackburn and with there defence i can see him causing alot of troubles for them also bergkamp has had a week off and he will be ready for this match and i think he will open there defence easily
 

n_henry

Well-Known Member
I want Reyes to score. :D Really loving that kid more and more every day.

I think it'll be tight, but I think we'll shave it with a 2-1 win. Henry and Reyes. :)

Luis Edu to score for them again...

Hope the boys are us up for this game as they seemed to be against Pompey on Saturday. ;)
 

quattro

Well-Known Member
again going to be tricky, but we have to acknowledge that we have a great advantage. if we score first that already means that they will need 3 goals to win and that is never easy, especially not at highbury. if we score first, imo its already half won. i think wenger will start with bergkamp rather than reyes as that is probably the big reason why he rested at pompey.
 

Mark

Established Member
What kind of a reception do you think Silvinho will get? I always liked him and he got some really good goals.
 

Arsenal316

Well-Known Member
Reyes and Edu will start. They will probably make Celta pay for turning the ball over and score a couple of goals. Arsenal will probably sit back for a bit, knowing that Celta need at least 2 goals.

Wenger is in a very powerful position, cause as the game goes on, if Celta still can't score, then Wenger will stack the midfield and finish them off.
 

JazzG

Established Member
Good preview as always gooner.

Think Wenger will start with Bergkamp, he is one of our first choice strikers and has been superb recently. Reyes can come on later on.

Mark said:
What kind of a reception do you think Silvinho will get? I always liked him and he got some really good goals.

He has done nothing wrong so I'm 100% sure he will get a great reception.
 

Taozhe

Well-Known Member
"Man utd also scraped through their match against Fulham yesterday and I would rather meet them in the next round then in the finals. The main reason for that is it would hurt a lot to lose to Man utd but if we lost to them in the semis it wouldn’t hurt as much as the finals. I am not saying we will lose but if we were to wouldn’t you rather lose in a semi final than a final. "

To be honest, its better to meet them now with all those injuries and suspensions hitting them. Heh ;D
 

lewdikris

Established Member
Go for the obvious here:

Lehmann

Lauren Toure Sol Cole

Freddie Paddy Edu Bobby

Bergs Henry


Bring on Silva, Reyes and Clichy for Freddie, Bergs and Bobby with 25 left to shore things up in the centre of the park.

Edu fully deserves his starting berth for this - outstanding form deserves its recognition.
 

Exiled In Newcastle

Established Member
Mark - Jazz is absolutely right about Silvinho.

As for the game I think they'll probably play quite tight and hope for something on the break, but we've got enough to get through them.

And if we can get through their defence fairly early, then we'll give 'em a damn good spanking!
 

skart14

Well-Known Member
They will know that they would need goals to move on...so if they come attacking then we can probably hit them on the counter...we have to defend better on set pieces though..
*last time i said we were gonna win 2-1 we won 5-1 so here i go again*

a good ol' 2-1 to the arsenal....

16_6_1v.gif
 

tox

Active Member
does anyone think reyes will start on wednesday,, im assuming bergs will replace him upfront, and pires will be back in for gilbrto.
 

gunnertilldeath

Established Member
first of all, i want to say that it is obvious that you have worked hard on this piece and i love to see people really work on their posts. it shows how much you respect your forum-mates. i think Arsenal will beat Celta. for our good and theirs. i say this because after wednesday, they will only have their relegation battle to worry about and that is a good thing for them.
 

Aussie

Established Member
I dont think Reyes will start. I can see Dennis playing in most of the home champions league games. I would say 2-1 to the Arsenal.
 

Soler

Established Member
Mad Jens said:
Celta vs. Arsenal lineup:

Cavallero, Velasco, Berizzo, Sergio, Sylvinho, Angel, Luccin, Edu, Ignacio, Mostovoi, Milosevic

Celta vs. Espanyol lineup:

Pinto, Velasco, Berizzo, Sergio, Sylvinho, Angel, Luccin, Mostovoi, Illic, Lopez, Milosevic

They didn't really rest anyone, other than Cavallero and Ignacio. Illic can't play against Arsenal as he is tied with Partizan Belgrade.

There you go. They didn't rest anyone, they're just good when they want to be and crap when they want to be. 3-0 to the Arse.
 
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