Predictions for Arsenal........

lad12

yeah i said i wasnt sur if it was roma(Arsenal still got played off the park)ya dope...

Edu/Gilberto vs. Scholes/Kleberson/Richardson/Butt vs. Noone(real Madrid don't really play two midfield)


you had all ready stated 3 midfielders from the 3 teams...how many players do you think actually play....yet another dope on this board

and You have forgotten to the finalists from last season..

The Muppet

Originally posted by lad12
yeah i said i wasnt sur if it was roma(Arsenal still got played off the park)ya dope...

Edu/Gilberto vs. Scholes/Kleberson/Richardson/Butt vs. Noone(real Madrid don't really play two midfield)


you had all ready stated 3 midfielders from the 3 teams...how many players do you think actually play....yet another dope on this board

and You have forgotten to the finalists from last season..

Give it up will ta like a good chap.

jank

yet another dope on this board

may i suggest investing in a thesaurus sometime soon

phb was only trying to analyise something which was quite good in my opinion, if you are not going to say something constructive than your better off not saying it at all

mr_angry

To be honest, I'm an Arsenal fan, I don't think we have it in us to win the Champions League, and our form in the competition only re-enforces that judgement. Quite simply, we're not good enough when we don't have the ball. Against average English opposition, and even the better teams like Man Utd, Chelsea, and Newcastle, we prove to be exceptionally talented. However, none of those teams are actually good at keeping the ball, and so the Arsenal weakness never comes to the fore.

Man Utd also suffered from it against Porto, although in fairness Porto were exceptionally good at keeping the ball on the night. The fact remains however - when you play in Europe, you see far less of the ball than in the domestic English game, and Arsenal just can't seem to cope with that. While I think we'll dispose of Celta Vigo without too much trouble, I don't look forward to playing teams like Porto, Milan, or Madrid. While I think Utd. can handle it better, I think their leaky defence will be their undoing this season. Lets face it - Porto don't have a world-class strike force (Benny McCarthy?), and they comfortably got 2 goals. Add a deadly strike force to a team with Porto's passing ability (Milan, Bayern Munich, Madrid) and I think they'll only concede more.

I watch Sky's coverage of La Liga week-in / week-out, and I see teams with passing ability comparable to Arsenal who are struggling in mid-table (Real Sociadad, Celta Vigo, Real Betis, Athletic Bilbao... even Barcelona at times!). While none of these have the strike force to beat the top teams, I can see them causing problems for, and even beating, any English opposition in a given game. I think the teams most likely to succeed in Europe are those who are good without the ball aswell as with it (Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Valencia). Madrid are the exception, simply because they are so good at keeping the ball, they never lose it!

If I was gonna tip a team to win the CL, I'd say Bayern Munich or Real Madrid (whoever wins the tie). Maybe even Deportivo, but I doubt it. Man Utd? I don't see them getting beyond the quarter finals, if even that far. Arsenal? I don't see them getting any further this year either, or for the forseeable future. They might dominate domestically this year, but not in Europe.

PHB

lad12, you see the thing is, Man United and Arsenal, and most english teams in general play a solid 4-4-2 formation and sometimes play a 4-4-1-1 formation.

European teams however are much broader and can play anything from 3 -> 5 in midfield, as real Madrid play 3 normally.

I wasn't actually comparing AC Milan as my knowledge of Seria A is quite limited(oh I miss channel 4)

jesusjones

All I will say is and I am an Arsenal fan is that I am keeping my mouth well and truly shut after what happened last year.We do have a chance of winning the treble but I am just taking every game as it comes.Beating Utd. twice in a week would be good though!

doozerjack

quote:

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Beating Utd. twice in a week would be good though!

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Arse havent beaten Utd in the last 2 years, so twice in a week might be a bit much to hope for.
It is possible, and would be their biggest achievement this season so far. No result will surprise though.

To re-hash two recurring themes on these threads - Arse consistently fail to shine in crunch games under Wenger (and Henry in particular has consistently looked lost against Utd in the last two seasons), and Utd's confidence and defence is a shambles at this moment.

There could be the biggest margin in the results of these games since Utd humiliated Arse 6-1 (only) 3 years ago, and it could swing either way, depending on who's fit /available / hits top form / flops on the day.

As a matter of interest, how do people think Arsenal would cope with conceding the first goal?

TwoShedsJackson

Originally posted by doozerjack


Arse havent beaten Utd in the last 2 years, so twice in a week might be a bit much to hope for.

We're always hearing about how past glories or results shouldn't be applied to the present, mainly when talking about Liverpool

It doesn't matter that Arsenal haven't beaten United in nearly two years, given the relative form and morale of the two teams they have every chance of beating them twice in the upcoming games.

The Muppet

Originally posted by TwoShedsJackson
We're always hearing about how past glories or results shouldn't be applied to the present, mainly when talking about Liverpool

If only Newcastle had a glorious past then we could include them as well.;)

Originally posted by TwoShedsJackson
It doesn't matter that Arsenal haven't beaten United in nearly two years, given the relative form and morale of the two teams they have every chance of beating them twice in the upcoming games.

THeres very little between the two teams when both are at full strength so depending on availibility of players and league position at the time i would not be surprised to see each team win one match.

GuanYin

Arsenal equalled the UK record of 5 straight champions league wins.

There league form is the best seen in the english top flight in many many years.

They play incredible football.

I remember all the treble talk when Utd, were up for it and not many people were suggesting reasons like the gulf in PL and CL class as to why they couldn't do it.

I think Arsenal have probably the best English football team (as in the 11 players they have on the pitch play the best football) seen since the premiership began, just about shading the better Utd sides in terms of quality football.

There is no reason why they can't win the treble. Of course, any team in the CL can win the competition, so whether they will or not remains to be seen.