Bayern (H), Everton (H), Sheffield Wednesday (A), Swansea (A), Bayern (A) and Spurs (H). That's like 6 games inside almost 3 weeks (starting from this Tuesday). Our squad depth will really be tested. Obviously was a great win today against Watford but hoping we get through this period with no injuries. Ideally, i would rest players for the two Bayern games and Sheffield Wednesday game.
You'd think so but no. If we could withdraw from Europe and just emphasize the PL it would be worth considering. But really we can't. Dinamo and Olympiakos are still horrible, we'll likely pick up six points against them and finish at least third. And the Europa League is the worst outcome for us. We'll be playing on Thursday, and probably have a bunch of fixtures since 2nd tier Bulgarian opposition or whoever is really bad. We're better off beating Bayern and going thru to the last sixteen of the CL w 8, 9, or 10 points. When the next Interlull comes, though, we should make everybody relevant (ie, Sanchez) withdraw, since I think those games are all friendlies.
That would be fantastic. And so damn sensible. But the national team magnets are so strong, that the most likely way that could happen would be with some trumped up injuries that the players are in cahoots with. But those magnets may just be too strong for our players to resist. So our coaches and fans will just have another nail-biting week.
I'm with you on the league cup, but not on Bayern. As dark as it looks at the moment, we can still get out of the group, win it even. But the larger point here is this: the opportunity to play high-profile games against European super-clubs (Real, Barca, Bayern, PSG) is a big part of what attracts players to Arsenal. Matches like the next two we have against Bayern is a major reason why Alexis and Ozil are here. It sends the wrong message to our players, staff and fans to concede the CL at this point. More importantly, it would send the wrong message to players we hope to sign in the future. If you want to convince people that you're an ambitious club you have to be, well, ambitious...
I think there's at least a decent shot it could happen. For established internationals like Sanchez, the NT coaches already know enough about them so they shouldn't cause a stink, and we definitely need to give some players a rest.
The thing I am worried about that is we need to travel to Bayern Munich just 5 days before to face Spurs. What if our players put in 100% effort and still end up losing and are very tired in the Spurs game? Remember in 2013 where we faced Dortmund away and actually beat them. Days later we lost to Man Utd and the players just looked out of it (not making excuses as why we lost that game but tiredness was definitely a factor and 3 players were reported ill after the Dortmund game). Tomorrow's game, if we don't win, we are likely to finish 3rd than 2nd IMO. Lets say we draw tomorrow's game and win the other two matches vs Zagreb and Olympiakos. Is 7 points enough to qualify? I really do not want to finish 3rd that's why I'd rather play it safe and make league our top priority. i understand no self-respecting club will ever play their 2nd side in the UCL but if we do end up playing our full squad for the two Bayern games, I can't see our league form not suffering unfortunately.
Especially with spurs playing on the Thursday. They actually have a pretty rough week later in November where they are playing away in Azerbaijan and then in under 72 hours, host Chelsea in the league.
Spurs normally rest their players in the Europa League. Doubt they'll play their best team in Azerbaijan.
it doesn't typically work like that. most of the eastern European 'minnows' get eliminated in the group stages. by the time you get to the next round, what with the CL 3rd place finishers dropping in, the Europa provides some fairly tasty ties. two of our last three second round ties have been v Fiorentina and Olympic Lyonnais. and while the other (Dnipro) was admittedly an unglamorous Eastern club, our subsequent rounds have been v Benfica, Inter, and Basel. The Europa League provides some shit journeys to nowhere nice, to be sure. but they almost always come in the Fall.
Good post and i'm with you on this. Except for the part about winning the group. Now that's unbridled dreaming!
Okay so Wenger played his full team vs Bayern and it paid off, no criticisms as we beat them 2-0 (********ing impressive considering Bayern are currently the best team in the world right now). Assuming if we lose to Bayern away, Olympiakos beat Zagreb again and Bayern beat Olympiakos and we also beat both Olympiakos and Zagreb, we should go through on head to head rule. If i'm not mistaken. Anyway not thinking about losing to Bayern in the return fixture because we are capable of getting a result there. My only worry out of tonight was Ramsey coming off injured.
Only solution here is the next game rest Alexis, start Ox ,Walcott,Giroud. Hopefully we can get that win. We really need Welbeck,Wilshere back.
I agree with Sentence #1, but sadly I doubt Sanchez will get his deserved rest. Wenger won't have the intent or the guts to dictated this, and Alexis won't have the smarts to allow it. Hope I'm wrong! Sentence #2 I'm mixed on. I still have hopes for Danny and he deserves a rapid reintroduction if he's in form. But Jack? I have big big doubts. He wasn't developing well enough before his injury. And what reason is there to believe that he would come back from a major injury and be a much better player than he was before it?
Don't mean to turn this into the Everton pre-match thread, but the Ramsey injury creates problems. I don't feel good about Ox right now. The other issue we have is Alexis obviously needs a break. I know the Boss doesn't want to do it, but our best option at RW is probably Theo. Giroud up top and you can start Alexis on the left, but take him out by the 60th minute. Alternatively we could put Santi back on the left, shift Alexis to the right and play Arteta with Coq. I don't think he'll do that either given his comments earlier in the season about Santi no longer being a winger. So that leaves us with Ox or Campbell. I'd be more worried if Leighton Baines was fit, but he's not and Galloway isn't much of a threat going forward. So maybe Ox's defensive deficiencies won't be exposed.
I'm pretty sure that is not correct. If those are the results the table would be: Bayern 15 Arsenal 9 Olympiacos 9 Zagreb 3 As to the tiebreakers it would seem we actually have a rather large issue here. Olympiacos scored 3 goals at the Emirates so we would either need to beat them by 2 goals to advance based on the second tiebreaker or score 3 or more goals in Greece to get by the 4th tiebreaker. If things play out as you suggest -- it will be tough to advance still. Tiebreakers: higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question; if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 apply; superior goal difference in all group matches; higher number of goals scored in all group matches; higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; higher number of wins in all group matches; higher number of away wins in all group matches;
Oh god, reading those tiebreaker situations just gives confuses me even more lol. But in short, away goals do count in Europe when it comes to the group stages considering we need to score 2 or maybe 3 goals to win.
We need a point in Munich. We've never scored more than a goal @ Olympiacos, much less win -- they always play tough against us -- home or away.
We either need a point in Munich or Olympiacos to drop points at home against Zagreb. Both seem like longshots. Then again, so did beating Bayern at the Emirates. If that doesn't happen we will likely have to beat Olympiacos by 2 in Greece on the last matchday.
That could be, but the main point for me at least is that if Arsenal goes to the Europa League, they will 1. pile up a bunch of additional fixtures and 2. play on Thursday, which combine to hurt results in the League by quite a bit as the experience of Spurs and Liverpool has made clear. Whoever they play (Benfica, Lech Poznan, whoever), Arsenal should win until they get to say, the semifinals. Whereas if they make it to the CL knockouts, either they get beat and therefore regain a bunch of midweek open dates, or they make significant progress toward a prestigous trophy. With the EL, most likely we get neither.
Ok so three more fixtures left. Seriously worried that we may lose more players just before the Derby match which is very crucial as usual. Ramsey got injured last week against Bayern and now Oxlade and Theo both got injured in 15 minutes! Only at Arsenal you'll see a player getting injured in the first 5-10 mins and then replaced by another player who gets injured in the same half. Two important players as well. Really hope they're both fit for the derby
Well everything I feared for has come true. Since the Bayern game (at emirates), we have suffered FIVE key injuries. Ramsey, Theo and Oxlade are definitely ruled out for the derby. Bellerin and Koscielny are major doubts and Wenger said they have a small chance of playing. With Debuchy playing at RB and Koscielny potentially missing, I fear we might not get a result against Spurs. Campbell works hard and does defensive work but does he have the attacking quality that Oxlade and Theo have? or even Ramsey to a certain extent.
Yet again we in an injury cluster ******** -that's 10 on the shelf--with a substantial number of these muscle injuries. That is once again unacceptable. And yet it happens every goddamn year . Wenger is getting an early start in running the squad into the ground. That usually happens around March. Remind me of the many outfield players we bought this year ? Because you know, many Great teams dream about having the caliber of the likes of Campbell, Flamini, Arteta, et al on the bench. I guess the Silverlining may be that half these might be back after the next game and won't participate in the international break -Ramsey-Ox-Ospina Kos-HB-Arteta. That leaves Theo-Welbeck -Rosicky and JFW by January. In which they will of course be seen as "new signings " Maybe this year can be different and we are able to somehow manage our significant injury crisis before it kills our season. The league schedule is kind until December 21, if we can somehow beat spurs in the next game. We need to somehow, someway get three points from the next game in the worst possible situation . If Ozil and or Sanchez go down, that will kill our season. Forget about the champions league knock out qualification. We have to keep up with city in the League