Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Dortmund are at least on a level equal to any of the top 4 sides in the PL (last season). Therefore this game should give us a better indication of how we're to do against Pool, United, Chelsea, etc in the coming months.
Absolutey, In fact I would say Dortmund are a stronger team than any we will face in England this year. But they DO like to play high line and attack from the back which can play into our hands.
Dortmund are by a country mile better than any English side. This will test your mettle like Bayern did for us.
And if they lose, it's probably a 3 way neck and neck position, assuming Marseille become the group's whipping boys.
I think we will lose at least one game in the next few weeks. 7 games in 24 days is a lot and even if we play our best game in all of them, there is enough of a luck element in football to mean that any team can lose to anyone, let alone the teams we are about to face. I am sure that will result in a whole lot of negativity about our chances and how good we really are. I don't think that it matters much as long as our form and concentration does not dip, due to any negativity within the team or the fans. If we keep playing at the level we are at, we may lose the odd game, but we should win something this season. I think what we can all be happy about, is that the team are looking like Arsenal again, and playing how we want to see them playing.
I'm interesting in seeing how the team will respond when we do eventually lose. Says a lot about the character of the side, but you can also say that we've lost already this season (although sometimes it doesn't feel like it!) and we bounced back well from that one so I think we'll be fine if/when we have a downer result again at some point.
I think the way we responded after the Villa game says it all. A lot of people were extremely negative after that result - Remember the 'Don't buy pies and Pints' bloke ? But fortunately the players are focused and don't get sucked into the negativity like some fans do
A loss will come eventually, not because it's Sod's law it's because we are still very leaky at the back. WBA and Norwich have shown that. Better teams will punish us if we continue to make such errors. There would be no shame in losing to BvB as I personally feel they are the best team in Europe this season. With a full squad, I'd take them over Bayern. Thankfully they have a few players out injured plus we are at home so I think we stand a good chance.
http://www.itv.com/sport/football/a...ague-key-battles-arsenal-v-borussia-dortmund/ How the **** is Ozil v Błaszczykowski a key battle? One is an AM and the other a right sided player, who might not even feature tomorrow. Confused by that ones
I think we make too many individual errors still. 3 of the goals we've conceded this season have been penalties. The goal on Saturday was a hashed clearance. That's 50% of the goals already this season caused by individual errors. We need to tighten up at the back. Still a problem for me.
reading the article, it appears the journalist thinks Blaszczykowski is a holding midfielder. i really don't understand how people with this little footballing knowledge get into the competitive area of sports journalism
No Flamini tonight. That's a big blow. You got to love his commitment, but I wish he hadn't of gone for that ball on Saturday in the manner he did, it wasn't a must win ball and he's ended up with concussion and missing the game later as a result. I think we'll probably play Arteta and Ramsey in the middle, but they will both need to be really alert to their defensive duties as Dortmund have the ability to tear us to shreds if we don't contain them.
I think Arteta and Ramsey will cope just fine. Ramsey is going through a purple patch so any position he plays at the moment will be a huge bonus for us. He is reading the game so well at the moment that BD will be wary of his presence. But by the sounds of it, BD have the more worrying injuries and we're pretty much strong through out with little weakeness in our first 11. The only big miss we have is Walcott, as we won't have his pace to scare them with.
---------------------------Weidenfeller----------------------- Grosskreutz-------Subotic-------Hummels----Schmelzer(Durm) --------------------Bender--------Sahin-------------------------- Aubameyang(Kuba)-----------Mkhitaryan------------? ---------------------------Lewandwoski----------- Expect the Dortmund side to line up something like this. I put the "?" because I don't know who will start on left midfield for them if Reus doesn't play.
Not really. As I said, the reason why it doesn't seem that bad is because we have yet to have our defence tested against a prolific clinical team. If Arsenal do a good job defensively tonight, I'll happily eat my own words but I've seen too many individual errors where we were extremely luçky not to concede.
Well Napoli are apparently "****" since we beat them, so if we beat Dortmund you can expect them to be declared an "average" side as well.
Could go either way. Had anyone told me I'd be saying that after the groups were drawn I would have laughed. Arsenal are looking a far more complete package (Even if some would say they have only faced Tottenham and Napoli of any quality, they won both) than I would have thought. I don't think it's down to just Ozil though. Ramsey finding the form of his career helps as he has been woeful at times throughout the last two seasons, and with his (and Ozil/Flamini) resurgence, it paints a pretty good image of how Arsenal might just sneak in and win a major trophy this year. Also, slightly OT, I think while Wilshire has been good, he has been the worst of your midfield quartet this season. Flamini, Ramsey and Ozil are the three main men at the moment (In midfield) while Wilshire is last in terms of influence on your games (So far).
