Just Arsenal News

March is crunch time for Arsenal by JG

It is strange, but always the case, that there are certain parts of the season that are crucial, not only for the teams at the bottom trying to stay in the premier League, but also for teams trying to win the league.

This year it is also the case for us, trying to get third or fourth place. March is our time when we cannot drop points. We have five games in this month, home to Spurs, away to Everton, who seem to be falling away at last, and the return leg in Germany. We then have two easier games, away to Swansea and home to Reading. In my opinion we must take full points from the league games to achieve Champions League qualification. However in between the two games Swansea and Reading, is international week, and we could have had a much harder fixture than Reading at home after this midweek chaos. .......Read the full article here

I suppose it could have been slightly worse as Alex Ferguson’s Man United have drawn Real Madrid (and Ronaldo!), but Bayern Munich are also one of the hardest ties that Arsenal could have got.

The German teams seem to have improved drastically in the last couple of seasons and historically Bayern Munich have usually been the best of the bunch, highlighted by their unlucky defeat to Chelsea in the Final last May.

Munich are currently far ahead of the chasing pack in the Bundesliga (nine points clear!), and have lost just twice in their last 30 games in all competitions, whereas Arsenal’s recent record is hardly going to scare the Germans ahead of the first tie at the Emirates in early March. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal’s 2-2 all draw with West Brom in March was among the worst overall displays of the season, with so many players failing to live up to any level of expectation. They were lucky to escape with a draw and the confidence-draining result led them to another draw the very next week against Blackburn.

However, despite there only being seven months between then and now, Roy Hodgson’s men will face such a different team. Of course, every contest is different regardless of the time period between the games but in this case, the challenge really is an incomparable prospect. .......Read the full article here