Barca Home Tuesday 19.45

[MrT]

Messi, Neymar and Suarez against Bellerin and Mertesacker

4-0 to them.

Since when was Bellerin a liability and not the best right back in the league?

WTF are you talking about?

Do you pay attention when watching a game? Bellerin has been shit for months. Opposition teams know he is the weak link and often target him because he is predictable in his actions. I guarantee Luis Enrique will have told his players to press Bellerin more than the others.

@best right back in the league. A few good runs make him the best? Priceless.

[Sean]

It seems to me that Bellerin often goes AWOL from the right-back position, either playing up the pitch as a winger (which was the position he was converted from ) or playing too far inside, like a centre-back, leaving space on the right of the box.

Yes, he has pace. Big fucking wow. I'd like to see him actually defend and cut out crosses.

[BFG4]

It seems to me that Bellerin often goes AWOL from the right-back position, either playing up the pitch as a winger (which was the position he was converted from ) or playing too far inside, like a centre-back, leaving space on the right of the box.

Yes, he has pace. Big fucking wow. I'd like to see him actually defend and cut out crosses.

For someone with so much pace, he gets destroyed by players running straight at him. The best right back claim is utter nonsense, in-fact id argue that up to the point that he got injured, Debuchy was a better defender.

[Blade]

Do you pay attention when watching a game? Bellerin has been shit for months. Opposition teams know he is the weak link and often target him because he is predictable in his actions. I guarantee Luis Enrique will have told his players to press Bellerin more than the others.

Correct.

And Ox usually loses the ball when Bellerin is forward of him and leads to BFG getting caught out in no mans land.

This is a common recurrence.

[Rosie_titters]

Barca are bound to score at the Emirates, so that straight away fucks us up with away goals. i think they will run out 6-2 winners on aggregate.

I can see us getting a 2-2 at home, and then people will believe we can go to the Nou Camp and get a result

[xisstential]

Hopefuly we get such a thumping at home that even Wenger will see all hope is lost. Then he can send a B team to the Nou camp instead of to Hull. We can win the FA cup, we CANNOT win the CL A weakened team to Hull & we go out. Hell I'm not sure a full strength team will beat them.

[SteveO 35]

Hopefuly we get such a thumping at home that even Wenger will see all hope is lost. Then he can send a B team to the Nou camp instead of to Hull. We can win the FA cup, we CANNOT win the CL A weakened team to Hull & we go out. Hell I'm not sure a full strength team will beat them.

I'm glad that more and more people are coming round to this way of thinking.....but I wouldn't hold your breath. If we lose 1-3 at home as I expect then it will be Barca toying with us in the second leg, while we go hell for leather seeking the impossible dream. He's got form for it - as I recall we fucked it against Blackburn so that we could live in hope that our first XI could stick one on Bayern. I only hope that we don't claim some sort of moral victory in the second leg which then persuades him 10 years almost to the day that we're competing with Europe's elite

[casgooner]

Hopefuly we get such a thumping at home that even Wenger will see all hope is lost. Then he can send a B team to the Nou camp instead of to Hull. We can win the FA cup, we CANNOT win the CL A weakened team to Hull & we go out. Hell I'm not sure a full strength team will beat them.

I agree with you. Not that I ever want Arsenal to lose, but I just can't see us getting past Barca. No way. I just want us to do the very best we can in the League and the FA cup. Lose fighting for it, not just giving up on it.

[GranadaJoe]

It seems to me that Bellerin often goes AWOL from the right-back position, either playing up the pitch as a winger (which was the position he was converted from ) or playing too far inside, like a centre-back, leaving space on the right of the box.

Yes, he has pace. Big fucking wow. I'd like to see him actually defend and cut out crosses.

I agree that he looks a bit lost when players are running at him, but he has made a lot of tackles covering for Kos, BFG and Gabriel that have saved certain goals.

If the Orcs hadn't crippled Debuchy off the pitch, we'd have two good RBs and Bellerin would have somebody to learn off. Young players like him shouldn't be starting every big match. After 30 years you think TOF would've learned that.

[Kvltman]

We could lose 10-0 on agg and it wouldn't be Wenger's fault.

Currently got the big game buzz and looking forward to it but I am sure that would have changed 10 minutes into the game

[northbank123]

Personally don't feel a lot of buzz about CL games any more - certain not against Barca or Bayern who have both regularly played us off the park several times in the last few years. Would get a bit more excited about playing Real Madrid given that we haven't played them since that magical tie a decade ago and would at least have half a chance of landing one on them in an end-to-end hammer and tongs affair. But still we've got no chance of winning the cup so it's difficult to get too enthused.

Looking forward much much more to going to United next Sunday - despite our best efforts since mid-December we are still right in this title race and the way they're playing it's a great chance to go up there and give them another dose of long-awaited payback up there after last years cup game.

[Sean]

For someone with so much pace, he gets destroyed by players running straight at him. The best right back claim is utter nonsense, in-fact id argue that up to the point that he got injured, Debuchy was a better defender.

I agree that he looks a bit lost when players are running at him, but he has made a lot of tackles covering for Kos, BFG and Gabriel that have saved certain goals.

If the Orcs hadn't crippled Debuchy off the pitch, we'd have two good RBs and Bellerin would have somebody to learn off. Young players like him shouldn't be starting every big match. After 30 years you think TOF would've learned that.

It is a shame that Stoke cunnt fucked Debuchy over and effectively ended his Arsenal career. Any excuse for TOF to play a (cherry-picked) youngster (and give him fuck-all advice or positional discipline, as usual).

Personally don't feel a lot of buzz about CL games any more - certain not against Barca or Bayern who have both regularly played us off the park several times in the last few years. Would get a bit more excited about playing Real Madrid given that we haven't played them since that magical tie a decade ago and would at least have half a chance of landing one on them in an end-to-end hammer and tongs affair. But still we've got no chance of winning the cup so it's difficult to get too enthused.

Looking forward much much more to going to United next Sunday - despite our best efforts since mid-December we are still right in this title race and the way they're playing it's a great chance to go up there and give them another dose of long-awaited payback up there after last years cup game.

Agreed. The Be All and End All has become meaningless under TOF. Reaching just one final in eighteen seasons is fucking pathetic. Unfortunately, the Specialist in Failure's obsession with this impossible dream is a massive hindrance and has cost us good shouts at several domestic cups since we moved to Cashburton, as has been mentioned

Hopefuly we get such a thumping at home that even Wenger will see all hope is lost. Then he can send a B team to the Nou camp instead of to Hull. We can win the FA cup, we CANNOT win the CL A weakened team to Hull & we go out. Hell I'm not sure a full strength team will beat them.

We should be winning the double this season, but I cannot trust TOF or his team of castrated leaderless mutes not to fuck it up, as only we can for this past decade

[rodders999]

Currently 4/1 for an Arsenal win, surely the longest price we've ever been for a home win? Still with swashbuckling barca coming to town against our bunch of limp dicked, goal shy surrender monkeys I wouldn't touch it at 44/1.

The sooner we are out of this drab shit fest that we show zero ambition to compete in the fucking better.

[SE12red]

Going to the game fully expecting us to lose by 2 or 3 goals. The pre match atmosphere will get the crowd up for it but I fear it will be pretty quiet when they are 2 up after 20 minutes and we can't get the ball off them.
Reckon Wenger will set the team up the same as Bayern with 2 lines across the pitch and trying to restrict space between them and play on the break. Boring and it won't work - they are too good and we're dire atm.
About time Coq got a red card. Not unusual for us to go down to 10 in a game like this. All a bit depressing really.

[Mistical92]

I don't want us to get bummed, but I don't see the point in putting the squad's collective heart and soul into the tie when the double is a distinct possibility in the coming months. Even if we got through (unlikely but we got close last time) and even then if we drew Zenit, Benfica, PSV or Wolfsburg and won that I still wouldn't see the point. We'd just be delaying the battering for a few weeks.

I always want to see us win, but I won't be gutted if we lose 3-0 in the first leg and then we can concentrate on the Cup and the League.