Come and keep your comrade warm, I'm back in the U.S.S.R! The Arsenal v CSKA Moscow Gameday thread!

Kudos to @And_ROOS for one of the most quickly started MD threads of all time.

I'm stupidly a bit confident about this tie. But I agree, if we don't take 1-0 or 3-1 into the away leg, we may have a mountain to climb.

One good thing for that 2nd leg is that CSKA has a grass pitch... let's just hope the weather cooperates.

But first, let's hope for a full house, and full support this Thursday at N5. And a little more urgency and incision that we saw in the first half today, please!! And the coaches need to work a lot more on how we cope with the high press.

 

I'd be telling a lie if I said I know anything about CSKA. But my experience watching the teams from "Russia" tells me they will be coming for blood. This is their time on the world stage. They will start and finish the game with great intensity. We better be ready for it and not come out and take 40 minutes to wake up. This is it. Our season. Yes we are home and the second leg away will be even more intense. Therefore....I expect to see 90 minutes of balls to the wall football from Arsenal Thursday. Anything less, even 5 minutes with our foot off the petal is not acceptable. Go to Siberia (or wherever the ******** they play-Moscow-(same difference) with a 2-3 goal lead. Otherwise anything can and will happen. Make it happen Arsene!

 

I guess geography isn't your best subject? Siberia is like 2000 miles from Moscow. Kinda like saying NYC and Montana are "same difference".

In any case, I agree that the players need to be prepped really well for this game. If I were CSKA I'd be looking at tape of the first half today, how effective Stoke's press was against us, and consider replicating that. If I were Arsenal I'd be working on ways of getting around that that if they do.

 

Clean sheet and at least three goals would be nice. Could be an ugly 2-1 win or a 1-2 loss.

 

FWIW, Sasha Goryunov the Russian pundit on English media says he thinks Arsenal should prevail. But he warns about this Swedish thug of a DM cum Striker called Pontus Wernbloom who could wreak havoc in our central defense.

 

Clearly I know the difference between Moscow and Siberia. In Moscow you drink rotgut Vodka in a glass with ice. In Siberia, you don't need the ice!
NorthBank, are you located in the Catskills?

 

No but I go there frequently.

 

After a very quick scan, the good news is that we have a fully fit squad for tonight... except Santi of course.

And perhaps the biggest decision is Ospina vs Cech. I'm guessing the former, but I'm OK with either.

Tonight we once again ask of our manager and our players to be up for the match, to be fully committed, with a sense of urgency.

And I would say that we ask of ourselves the same, us here in this tiny slice of the Internet, and those who actually make it to The Grove tonight.

Full support, even if we face some adversity.

COYG!!!!

 

Cech starts.

Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette

Subs: Macey, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Elneny, Welbeck, Iwobi

 

Bold call to bring Cech in, especially since it's arguably Ospina's (cup) competition. But I'm still OK with it, as long as Petr is on his best form.
Edit: Wenger said "Ospina injured his ankle in training yesterday". Ya think? Also, he said he doubts Laca will last 90 minutes.

Otherwise, that's our best XI, except for Auba who's ineligible.

Let's go!!

 

No Auba? Not even on the bench? Or are we resting him for the second leg?

 

Still large swaths of empty seats although not as bad as last week. Wonder which holiday Wenger will blame this on?

We should, key word is should, win this with relative ease. However, this is Arsenal and Wenger we’re talking about so who knows...

 

Come on mate, you need to follow this stuff more closely!

 

That was level.

 

Yikes marginal offsides for both teams in the last few mins. Ours led to a BEAUTY of a disallowed goal. Keep it up boys!

 

******** your offside. 1-0.

 

TAKE 2 by Aaron Ramsey. The legit goal was just as pretty as the disallowed one.

To the Arsenal 1-0!

 

Defending so bad, it's like Russia is apologizing for the last time Russians were in the news in London.

 

Let's follow Liverpool's example last night in scoring around the 10th, 20th & 30th minutes.

 

Nice free kick.

 

Cech was yelling and yelling at the wall. But I'm not sure the wall had anything to do with that strike.

1-1. Back to reality!

And worse that that... the all-powerful away goal. We need to tighten that shit up!!!

 

so ********ing quiet in the stadium before the free kick
geez

mustafi - what in the world is he doing?

 

That was a good free kick.

 

I genuinely thought the ref wasn't going to call that penalty. Relieved.