The Arsenal vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Champions League Round of 16 First Leg, 11 March 2026

Tonerl · Mar 9, 2026

Kickoff from the Ulrich-Haberland Stadion takes place at 5:45pm GMT/1:45pm EDT/7:45am HST. Paramount+ on the telly stateside.

Things are getting serious. Do we have any fit players? Who knows. Just win.

Up the Arsenal.

AmericanGunner · Mar 9, 2026

I can understand starting Rice but sub him out when we are up a goal. We need him for the league games. Everton on the weekend.
Noni on the right to give Saka further breather. Team stays the same other than that, Gyokeres needs goals.

mebeSajid · Mar 9, 2026

Leverkusen are actually good. They won at the Etihad and drew against Newcastle.

ArsenalJake · Mar 9, 2026

mebeSajid said: ↑

Leverkusen are actually good. They won at the Etihad and drew against Newcastle.
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I was actually thinking the opposite.

Leverkusen are 6th in their league, losing 7 of 25 league games.

City heavily rotated and paid the price in their CL to game vs. Leverkusen.

We should not do the same.

CarlosKaiser · Mar 10, 2026

Odegaard and White didn't train and are assumed to be out. Arteta rotated the side against Mansfield to play a strong squad against Leverkusen. Get a comfortable win in Germany and it is possible he can rotate a bit for the home leg.

AEAAFC96 · Mar 10, 2026

They see us rollin', they hatin'...

Just really funny to see people getting annoyed because Arsenal has "figured out" how to beat the low block.

leppercut · Mar 10, 2026

CarlosKaiser said: ↑

Odegaard and White didn't train and are assumed to be out. Arteta rotated the side against Mansfield to play a strong squad against Leverkusen. Get a comfortable win in Germany and it is possible he can rotate a bit for the home leg.
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White made the trip

Ben White has travelled with the Arsenal squad to Leverkusen.

He wasn't involved in the part of today's session that was open to the media at London Colney, but he did leave with the squad on the plane.
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) March 10, 2026

NorthBank · Mar 10, 2026

CarlosKaiser said: ↑

Odegaard and White didn't train and are assumed to be out. Arteta rotated the side against Mansfield to play a strong squad against Leverkusen. Get a comfortable win in Germany and it is possible he can rotate a bit for the home leg.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Though it's hard to imagine Mikel playing an intentionally rotated/diminished team in either leg.

Odegaard still in rehab troubles me. White, I've just about written off, but...

leppercut said: ↑

White made the trip

Ben White has travelled with the Arsenal squad to Leverkusen.

He wasn't involved in the part of today's session that was open to the media at London Colney, but he did leave with the squad on the plane.
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) March 10, 2026

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Maybe we can be a little more optimistic? Still, I don't see how/why you'd risk him tomorrow, unless we suddenly lose Hincapie and Myles. Shudder the thought!

NorthBank · Mar 10, 2026

AEAAFC96 said: ↑

They see us rollin', they hatin'...

Just really funny to see people getting annoyed because Arsenal has "figured out" how to beat the low block.
Click to expand...

Articles like this (and worse) are not worth any of our time or brain cycles.

NorthBank · Mar 10, 2026

Listened to Totally Europe pod and Seb Stafford-Bloos(?) weighed in on Leverkusen. A few things I recall him saying were:

Grimaldo is supremely good at taking FK's, the knuckleball kind (we should be forewarned)

However they are pretty crap at defending FK's themselves, and also crosses

Another left-sided MF player called Maza(?) he said was quite dangerous and we should also be wary of

But in general he struggled to see them beating us

ArsenalJake · Mar 10, 2026

I have a meeting at 2pm I wish I could cancel altogether but I also know it should last less than 5 minutes if I do my part correctly.

Any questions? No? Cool, here's some time back. Also, I may just decide to send an email and cancel.

Voting is open

AmericanGunner · Mar 10, 2026

Interesting to see if Leverkusen come out attacking. I imagine they would but I sometimes forget we have a huge reputation this season.

The season they won the Bundesliga, I followed them fairly closely. One loss all season in all competitions and it had to be the Europa final vs Atalanta. They just ran out of gas at the end.

I wonder how Arteta will negotiate this with a a must win game vs Everton on the weekend. Lets get that win and kill off this tie.

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

From Mikel’s presser yesterday…

OUT: Ode

IN: Rice, Zubi, Gabriel, Saliba

MAYBE: Leo, Cala

mebeSajid · Mar 11, 2026

NorthBank said: ↑

From Mikel’s presser yesterday…

OUT: Ode

IN: Rice, Zubi, Gabriel, Saliba

MAYBE: Leo, Cala
Click to expand...

What's happened to Odegaard? He's been out for quite a while now.

Serengeti_Boy · Mar 11, 2026

mebeSajid said: ↑

What's happened to Odegaard? He's been out for quite a while now.
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I think the club is hiding something but looking to sell him from the summer. It's like ESR and his injuries. Stopped missing him when I saw how unavailable he is. Willock as well prior.

chjoak · Mar 11, 2026

Serengeti_Boy said: ↑

I think the club is hiding something but looking to sell him from the summer. It's like ESR and his injuries. Stopped missing him when I saw how unavailable he is. Willock as well prior.
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Could also explain the rumors that MO is looking abroad

leppercut · Mar 11, 2026

I don't buy that. We are looing to get 4 trophies and we need Martin to help us.

cooper7d7 · Mar 11, 2026

No MØ8 or Trossard

Kai, Cala, and White make the bench.

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

No big surprises. LET’S GO!

casoccerdad47 · Mar 11, 2026

cooper7d7 said: ↑

View attachment 326618

No MØ8 or Trossard

Kai, Cala, and White make the bench.
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Based on their on field reactions during the Mansfield game it looked like Calariori’s injury was more serious than Trossard’s, but now it looks like the opposite was true.

BTW, who is Ranson?

mebeSajid · Mar 11, 2026

casoccerdad47 said: ↑

BTW, who is Ranson?
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Looks like academy goalkeeper: Khari Ranson is his name.

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

Martinelli is SO one-footed. Sheesh.

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

Scary moment there w/ Gabriel making a bit of a hash of that defensive moment. Luckily Rice raced in to save the day. Early in the match so I guess Declan still has full gas?

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

I wonder if Viktor could work on getting Andrich sent off? He was inches away from seeing a 2nd yellow 5-10 minutes ago.

NorthBank · Mar 11, 2026

DAMN! Marinelli hits the bar. Really coulda/shoulda kept that down. Really.

Edit: He really did everything right on the touches leading to that shot, except for a smidgen more composure on the final shot. I was sure it was a goal. But damn!