Wenger – We’re stronger now and will attack Barcelona
Arsene Wenger is feeling much more confident this season than when Arsenal faced Barcelona in last year’s Champions League Quarter-Finals. The Gunners only managed to come back to earn a draw at the Emirates last time, but Wenger is confident that he has a substantially stronger side this time around.
“I personally believe we go into the Barcelona game in better shape than last year.” Wenger said. “We had so many uncertainties last season – Robin [van Persie] was injured, William Gallas went off in the first game, Andrey Arshavin went off after 27 minutes, we had no Alex Song or Fábregas in the second game … The team, for me, had less confidence and we have matured since then. We can certainly compete technically better with them. It will be interesting to see whether we play with belief.”
Wenger also made it clear that whatever happens in the return leg, Arsenal will be playing their usual attacking game at the Emirates.
He continued: “You can wonder whether we need to change the way we play at the Nou Camp but, at home, we will try to play to our strengths. We will try to attack the other team. If we just play in the final third defensively, that would not be our natural game and we would not be happy – we’d come out of the match thinking we hadn’t played. But if we can escape their pressure, then we can be dangerous. We will create chances if we can put them under pressure. We have to think about how we do that.”
There is no doubt that the injury situation is much better this year, as well as the team being another year older and stronger. And if Nasri is also in the starting line-up…….
BARCA UNDERESTIMATE US!! i dnt knw but i have a feeling well come out as 3 1 winners
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Can’t wait for the game on Wednesday!! We can definitely beat them! The fans have to create an intimidating atmosphere against Barcelona! It is time for payback!
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i really, really hope we don’t take any unnecessary risks with Nasri. We rushed Cesc back twice this season only to pick up more injuries, we absolutely cannot afford that to happen with Samir. We need him for the EPL and we need him more for the CL return leg than the home leg.
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I tend to disagree with a lot comments flying such as “best team in the world”. In my own opinion i think Barcelona is one of the best teams in the world and not the best team in the world. If we are talking of the best team in the world, then we should be talking of the current champions league and the club world cup winner.
We should not give Barcelona all these respects. We did that last season and it cost us. We just need to see them as any other team that we can beat on any good day such as Man.City or Chelsea.
We are going to beat Barcelona on Wednesday irrespective of what they think they are that is not negotaible.
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so are barca attakingly they have david villa and iniesta bu puyol looks to be injured so thts grd news
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I think with a bit of luck, we may catch them when they are not at the top of their game. They will still be very difficult to beat and we will be underdogs, but they were very unimpressive last weekend. Remember, there is hardly ant rotation in their team. Pep Guardiola generally plays his strongest team week in week out. They just looked flat on the weekend. Let’s hope they don’t bring their A-Grade to the Emirates.
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Whether Barca like it or not We are beating them in Emirate. U want bet
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I just want to see a competitive game we should not give up. If RVP and CESC in their day. GOOD LUCK BARCHA YOU WILL NEEDED.
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arsenal will qualify to the quater final
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both teams will win there home games, its who deffends better over the two legs will progress . nasri shouldnt be risked plus who would you drop ? walcott, no chance and arsharvins startin to look tasty again . dnt upset a winning team and dnt risk nasri, not yet anyways!
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in many ways barcelona are the best opponents for us as they play similar football. Weve all been shocked at how lesser teams can upset us when they go direct. But barca wont do that, so it will be a battle of super skills. i take arsenal to win this match…we have a point to prove and we could even bang in 3 or 4. How many they score is anyone’s guess!!!(3-2 arsenal)
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Ben and Toby,i agree with you guys.Nasri should not be risked.Remember last season,we risked Gallas and it back fired.Arshavin is gradually returning to form and should be used while Nasri completes his rehabilitation and join up naturally.
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ARSENAL Nuh fraid a nobody ! neva scared ! Bring it on !! I CANT WAIT
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Rosicky shoud start ahead of Arshavin and Arsene needs wait for the right moment to get Arshavin on the pitch ?
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Are you mad?!? Tomas Rosicky is abseloutley dreadfull!!
I think in this sort of game, with two similar teams, in terms of how they play, Walcott is more useful than anyone one their team, including Messi, if you look back to last year, in the home leg, Messi was nothing, abseloutely nothing, a shoe would have been more useful. But then Walcott came on and changed the game on its head. Because of the injury to Puyol, it will probably be Abidal and Pique Centre half, and Maxwell Left back, Walcott will piss on Maxwell from such a high distance, if we can keep Messi quiet again, we will win hands down, 3 – 1, Fabregas, Walcott, Robin van Persie will all get on the score sheet, (hopefully) Vermaelen will be back with Nasri for the Nou Camp, and we can keep it to a draw or even nic a result, every one is under-estimating the Gunners, and over-estimating Barcha, they got beaten 2 – 0 at home to Hercules, a newly promoted club, i would not say they were faviroutes, however, i wouldn’t say we were either, we just need to play our game and stop them playing theirs and we will win!
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barca..just another walk in the park,i would have not chosen another team to play in he last sixteen.
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hey charlie if you look at the return leg,it was all Messi..wasn’t it?cant control my excitement any longer
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Haha, don’t mind Samuel. He is just anti-russian and constantly attacks Arshavin.
He would rather put a worthless player like Rosicky and throw the whole team under the bus than to put a Russian player on the field. Maybe he is from Chechnya – they have issues with Russia.
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Rosicky is injured. Arshavin needs to play to back into form. Play arshavin
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I dont think thats a very good idea, we all know what happened last year. I mean Barcelona like to play against attacking teams because they get a lot more space to use.
It would be suicide in my opinion, instead we should counter-attack with Fabregas passing ability, Walcotts speed ability and Van Persies finish ability. I might be wrong but that is just my opinion.
Remember how we got in CL-final in 2006? By a strong defence and deadly counter-attacks
Do you want a beautiful victory or a effective one instead?
Football is all about tactics and if Wenger use the right tactics then we have a good chance to win
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Yeah.hope we will beat them.up gunners
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yes, the second leg was all Messi, and quite frankly, he single-handedly disected us!, But, we had serious injuries at the back and if you remember we resulted to starting Mikael Silvestre, all i’m saying is that we are capable of keeping Messi quiet
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Charlie I admire you confidence and agree with you completley.
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results against city and chelsea this season have shown that when the professor gets it right we score plenty of goals regardless of who we are playing.
so let barca come over all smug after last time and we will simply go about our game and suprise them, i cant see us giving up possession for the 1st half like last year and that will be a massive difference.
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We cant keep a clean sheet against decent sides and will suffer as a result. The only chance we have is if we play like we did against Chelsea recently. Boss the play, dont let up for 90 mins and take our chances.
Messi until his 25 min Nou Camp masterclass was woeful against us. Almunia made him look better at the near post and nuts. (he is class though
) I reckon we need to go into the 2nd leg with a 2-0 win to stand a chance. If we have conceded we will struggle massively.
Please no Rosicky, Denilson, Diaby, Chamakh
COYG!!!
I would play (if all avail)
Chesney
Sagna Djourou Kosielny Clichy
Song Fab Wilshere Gibbs
RVP Walcott
Sub, Shaving, Bendtner, Almunia
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we are lion with no teeth.
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Cant wait for the game and great post. We defo have a better chance of winning – then last season but are we stronger enough?
In my opinion, we still have not fully resolved our goal keeping & defensive problems and ok Van persie has scored 4 goals recently – but he is no David Villa.
Personally, AW has not strengthened this side and people are forgetting that almost most of the Spain world cup wining squad is in Barcelona.
I just hoping its going to be a good game not like last year it was embarrassing
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