For this season we have the luxury of going right into the group stages, however with that said, there are some tough possible fixtures for us in the group stage. Arsenal are going to be placed in pot 1. Pot 2 are made of the following teams: Valencia Benfica Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St. Petersburg Schalke 04 Manchester City The likes of Valencia, Benfica, and Shalke will be no easy draw, and knowing Arsenal's luck, I have a feeling we will get one of these 3. Then you have pot 3 which has Juventus, and possibly PSG, as well as Dortmund, it still hasn't been decided which pots PSG will be placed in, 3 or 4. So we could possible draw Juventus, or PSG, or maybe even BOTH of them. Then in pot 4 you have the French champions Montpellier! Group stages have often been looked as a formality over the past seasons, but we could potentially find ourselves in a very tough group stage, facing very strong teams, teams strong enough, worthy enough, and capable of being teams in the last 16 and last 8.
We can beat Schalke/ Zenit, if we get them. The rest may be tough though. Also bear in mind the travelling. We don't really want to go to Ukraine or Russia.
Travelling hasn't been a problem for us before though has it? We often get some "Dinamo" or "Spartak".
Yes, beat teams that are regarded as the best in their respective leagues, then when we inevitably crash out against Barcelona in the quarter finals, you won't have many people claiming that Arsenal did poorly in Europe.
So you'd rather risk us losing and going out in the group stages? We can beat Barcelona on our day, WHEN THE TEAM HAS GELLED TOGETHER.
Probably every team bring in new players through the summer that go into the starting XI. You can't use that excuse. We won't go out, because we are better than most of those teams, and that's what matters, if we can beat them in the early stages then it can only be a good thing. And, in all honesty, if we lose, then we're not good enough.
What you have to realize is that there are people on a whole lot of other forums going, "With our luck we are going to get Arsenal!"
I think oxocube is right, it's better to get through the group, and then lose to Barca, at least we get the additional money for making it out of the group. If we draw insanely tough teams, get hammered and limp out of the CL, no prize money, and our reputation suffers in the eyes of potential signings. Instead of thinking, "oh, those were the guys who took the fight to barca and nearly beat them, i think i want to play for a top side like that", they'll think "oh, those were the clowns who got beaten in every game, i think i'll look elsewhere".
I think it would be far better to avoid the big teams in the group stages. It's going to be a time when our new players are settling in and the last thing they need is a battering away from home in the CL. Plus as Kyle mentions, the further we get, the better our revenue. If we get through the group stage, then we could well go on to make the final.
Your whole approach is just to disagree with what people think on here and try to argue with them. If people were saying we wanted a hard draw you would say the opposite just to argue.
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