UCL – Arsenal vs AC Milan – 7:45pm – 06/03/12 - SS2

[fabo]

Would honestly rest RVP. Sounds wrong and I think unlikely, but league games are too important now.

Newcastle is 6 days after(I think), so I'm guessing it will be full steam ahead for this one.

 

[Airknight]

7-0 Arsenal.

Diaby was back to inspire the team for this game.

 

[NIPOLOPO]

Would honestly rest RVP. Sounds wrong and I think unlikely, but league games are too important now.

Newcastle is 6 days after(I think), so I'm guessing it will be full steam ahead for this one.

Hear, hear.

 

[David Smith]

I can see us scoring four against that awful Milan defence at home

Their defence is not awful though, is it?

There is sufficient claim to Thiago Silva being a world class defender, and we all know how experienced Mexes is. It showed in the San Siro.

Like Van Persie said however, impossible is nothing.

 

[kenkbc2]

Will we be up for this? You bet we will.

Can we overturn the tie? Realistically, no.

Have stranger things happen in football? Yes

There you have it. The match in a nutshell. We need something beyond the realms of the norm to progress, if any of you are believers of such things. Tactical analysis probably gets thrown out of the window for this match. Its attack,attack & attack.

 

[ModelGooner]

A win would be nice for the lads. Robin should play 45 max but who can predict Wenger. 3-1 to the Arsenal.

 

[Jbruin]

I'd go for that, Robin needs a rest, have him on the bench in case we get a couple of early goals and look like we have a realistic chance at going through. I'd even like to see us go 4-4-2 with Theo and Chamakh up top. Gibbs needs a rest but... Who do we rest him for? Maybe put Jenks over there or Sagna at LB and Jenks at RB. Kos looks in need of a rest aswell.

 

[Shue]

We have more chance of winning this 4-0 than we did of winning 0-2 at Anfield in '89.

 

[redanddread]

This forum has been an absolute shambles recently.

Anyway, I hope we can get this game out of the way, whatever the result, and just focus on Newcastle.

Yeah, 1st game in a while I'm feeling this way. A good performance and a win but TBH I don't care if we don't go through. At present our team isn't good enough to do anything in the CL IMO. I would rather consolidate 4th aim for 3rd and rebuild over the summer. In reality we stand almost no chance of winning this tie but I'm sure the team will want to bow out in style and defend our very good record against European opposition at home over the last 10 years.

Any win would be good for team morale and remove some of the sour taste of a very poor 1st leg performance.

 

[redanddread]

Will we be up for this? You bet we will.

Can we overturn the tie? Realistically, no.

Have stranger things happen in football? Yes

There you have it. The match in a nutshell. We need something beyond the realms of the norm to progress, if any of you are believers of such things. Tactical analysis probably gets thrown out of the window for this match. Its attack,attack & attack.

Hmmm, just the type of game we like!!

 

[redanddread]

Clearly we aren't turning this around (has any team ever overcome such a deficit in any two-legged tie?) and I really hope Wenger is cautious with anyone who has the slightest injury concern, within reason of course.

Not a 4 goal difference but Deportiva De La Coruna did come back from a 4-1 loss at the San Siro in the 1st leg and beat Milan 4-0 in their return leg to go through on aggregate (2004).

 

[kopzilla]

If only had we kept the loss at a minimum in the 1st leg, we could have had a decent opportunity to go through.

Hopefully we'll play better than last time since there is no pressure on us.

You never know...if we manage to put Milan under pressure and nick a few quick goals, we may turn it around but when was the last time we kept a clean sheet...against Leeds Utd in the FA cup?

Today's game might have taken out a lot out of the players and we have several more injured as well.

 

[Anzac]

I still DON'T give a toss about this return leg OR the fixture as a whole.

Top4 & 3 points v NUFC on the weekend should remain THE target so as to nick 3rd from the 5pud2.

 

[ArsenalDNA]

Szcesny Fabianski
Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Song Coquelin Arteta
Rosicky Benayoun Diaby Oxlade Ramsey
Theo RvP Chamakh Park Gervinho

Play that team and we might be able to scrape through into the quarters.

 

[Proof]

I can't believe that some of you want us to rest some starters. That would be embarassing towards the supporters and the club. We must play our strongest XI who need to give something back to the fans after their atrocious display in Milano.

Resting key players and losing with 4-0. How would that be ? It would destroy our current positive morale and momentum. The players must be fired up for this!

 

[dysphoria]

rather we lost this and won our league game against newcastle, no injuries, give some of those meeelan players a deserved kicking and bruising, hell, we might even score 5 but i don't think we'll keep a clean sheet.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Nah, won't accept any defeat, not against an italian side at home.

 

[Anzac]

Nah, won't accept any defeat, not against an italian side at home.

Fail to see how it could be ANY worse that rolling over in the NLD at Home,
OR our worst league defeat since before we were first promoted to the top flight more than 100 years ago,
OR our worst start to the season in over 50 years,
OR that we've already had our worst EVER defeat in Europe.

Fvck the CL,
whilst we retain our current manager OR approach we are NOT going to win it.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

I want us to keep our face Anzac, another humiliation in the CL is something I wouldn't want for the confidence of our team, especially at home where we've won ten games out of twelve in our last three CL seasons.

The Newcastle game is on Monday and then there's another international break afterwards, it's not as if we're forced to turn up with the reserves.

 

[Glovegun]

We're almost certainly going out. But a 3-0 or 3-1 win would give us a lot of confidence going forward. Personally I dislike how all-consuming the CL has become, but we have to take the attitude that we're in it until we're out.