Its Champions League Matchday. Arsenal has reached their destination Monte Carlo and now are raring to go to pull off, as they say, a miracle to make progress into quarterfinals for the first time after five years of heartbreaks.
Elimination of Gunners from this season's competition is almost certain unless they engineer a result which overturns their 2 goal deficit with a win consisting of at least 3 away goals. Though it won't be easy to breach Europe's on of the most meanest defence in form of Monaco but its not impossible as Bordeaux defeated them 4-1 in 2nd Matchday of Ligue 1 but it didn't came at Stade Louis II. A so called miracle is therefore not completely unthinkable.
 |
| Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey will be the key players tonight |
The key man for Wenger to execute the devised master plan is going to be Olivier Giroud. The French striker endured a tough night when the team last met at Emirates stadium. He missed half a dozen of chances which has been swankily putting in throughout this season. But since then, he has scored a goal every time he has started. He is mentally in a better position now and his MOTM performance against WHU in last game will only add to his brimming confidence. He is creating and finishing chances which is not a trait of every top striker in this continent.
The other player who will be equally important is Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman is back in his fine form which win him player of the season by the gooners. The box to box midfielder provides the balance to the team with his tireless work-rate. Plus his contribution in attack and frequent combination with HFB is very very vital to Arsenal's style of play. His quality of creating chances and finishing moves is not what you find in every central midfielder. His finishing is more dominating in his style than creating chances but that's not a worry.
Arsenal has inexhaustible source to do that with likes of Santi and Özil in the team. Sanchez also plays part in that with his direct dribbling skills but has faded a bit since his fast forward start in this season. Nonetheless he still deserves to be in the team given his dynamism.
Monaco don't need to do too much to progress as they already have healthy lead of 2 goals. So they are likely to sit back and pass the ball around in order to tire out the gunners. Arsenal, hence, will need to patient and efficient when ever they get the ball.
To do that, Wenger is likely to start with the similar team that started against the Hammers. Likely changes are Santi coming for Walcott and Bellerin may feature replacing Chambers. Rest all will be same.
Final word. Arsenal will have enough chances in the game to score required amount of goals provided they are clinical in finishing. Don't know if they'll win or not, but a part of me refuses to believe that they'll be eliminated. Hoping that I don't meet with disappointment at the final whistle. Fingers crossed.
No comments:
Post a Comment