Firstly will you be watching or following on the live streams? Who stands the better chance of winning? For me Arsenal are playing very well in the CL and should beat Dortmund tonight but I'm not so sure about Chelsea. They might lose tonight but may have done enough in the earlier matches to qualify. Rumour is Terry wants out.
I want Arsenal to stay in the CL for as long as possible, because it will not only distract them from the EPL, but will also knacker-out their best players
Hoddle,you are a cad sir to think of such a devious means to a victory over our bitter rivals but all's fair in love and war. They have been doing very well since their bad start and although Borussia are my second team I can't see them beating Arsenal tonight. I hope they do though. The next two matches will tell us a lot about Chelsea's future prospects in the CL and EL. It's a difficult one to predict a score tonight.
+1 I want them all in as long as possible playing very hard matches each time out. I think i'd prefer it if none of them won it though.
spurfectionist,I'm not talking about winning the CL,only the matches tonight and then possibly the groups.
Yeah i know. What i meant is i want them to stay in as long as poss without actually winning the darn thing
So is that the same with us and the Europa? If we stay in it as long as possible then it distracts us from the EPl. Because I have a fancy that harry will start to play the top players the further in it we go.
I think Harry will persevere with the kiddies, whilst we are riding high in the EPL, and will only look to play seasoned pros if we get to the semi final. That suits us fine, because not only does it give our kiddies and reserve team players some good game-play, but it also is a great window for those players we want to off-load.
IF we progressed in Europa, we'd still be able to field a strong team that had no first teamers providing others get back from injury. ----------------Carlo Corluka---Gallas-------Dawson---Rose/ Bassong, -------Sandro, Huddlestone, Livermore--- Gio------------------------------------Niko ----------------Defoe That's a team that could go pretty far even if it is a bit defensive in the middle of the park, it could always be strengthened/ adjusted if we were down after the 1st leg too.
GDS, certainly. Possibly Bassong and Corluka, and any of our kiddies that we might be looking to put out on loan to good sides.
I think we should keep with the reserves/kids in the Europa League, it's not fair on them to make them do all the dirty work in the likes of Kazan and then not give them a chance to play against some of the more glamorous teams later in the competition. They should be given their chance to prove themselves.
Spurs or sex,Hoddle fair play to you because you answered the question. WY,that is a very contentious point you've broached there and in the main I think you're right. I brought it up on another site a while ago and most thought that Harry would be ruthless enough to drop the kids for the big boys towards the end of the competition. I think i'd play the kids then the big boys in the semis which I'm sure we will reach. But as for this evening it's Arsenal to win and Chelsea to lose I think.
I wouldn't say all of them, although... Carroll Corluka Cudicini Dawson Defoe Kranjcar Livermore Sandro Townsend ...certainly deserve to keep their places, even if it's essentially because we don't want to risk injuring/burning out some of the first-choice players.
Couldn't care less about Londons 2nd and 3rd teams tonight! ...I'm more interested in watching Milan v Barca.
notsosmartspur,I think your attitude indicates just how much we have improved if you're taking no notice of teams who once considered themselves much better than us including their supporters. Good attitude. At first it stunned me and it took 5 minutes of thinking time to produce an answer but I'm more interested in seeing Arsenal and Chelsea fail. Croydon,of all those you mention it's Niko for whom I feel sorriest. He's good enough to be in the first team but is being kept out by Modric. I would like to see more strikes from Defoe though. AVB is on a similar contract to Mancini inasmuch as he must qualify for the last 16 and his job tonight could be under pressure if they lose. The matches kick off in 20 minutes and I'm disappearing until half time and then full time. Thanks for all your comments lads.
Chelsea are pretty dire. The ref seems happy enough to penalise and book Leverkusen at every opportunity though.
Yep Schteffen,why was Ballack booked? They are also very ineffective in front of goal but Bayer aren't much better are they? Valencia 4-0,if Chelsea lose tonight the pressure versus Valencia will be enormous.
I'm not sure why Kiessling was booked either. He didn't seem to be complaining that much and he was right anyway! And the booking for the handball looked harsh too.