Pre-match conference | Team news | Credits: Arsenal.com
It’s Ludogorets today in Matchday 4 of the Champions League, in a matchup what many would call rather straightforward given that the biggest achievement of Ludogorets in their entire tinpot Champions League history was a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.
It goes without saying that the game is a must win, as every Champions League one is. It should be relatively elementary to do so, given the stature and current form of our club. It will also be the last of what has been a run of easy 6-7 games. We’ve won almost all of them, let’s complete the set tonight and get ourselves well prepared for the games to follow [Tottenham (H), Manchester United (A), PSG (H)].
To say that besting Ludogorets will be any kind of measure of our Champions League credentials is, to put it politely, a huge pair of indisputable bollocks. They’ve easily been one of the worse teams in Europe’s elite, and while parts of our 6-0 thrashing of them was down to our own brilliance, it was also down to the Bulgarian team being a little bit shit.
Defeating them most definitely won’t be any kind of statement of intent, and while we shouldn’t take any game lightly (as we learned as early as last Saturday), failing to win tonight would definitely be some surprise, even if we field Santi Cazorla in goal and a half-injured Per Mertesacker as our lone frontman. We are markedly better than them, and they know it. Regardless of what their manager tells them, they’re going to be aware of their inferiority complex, and that alone might be enough to seal a comfy-ish win.
It is apparent that today offers some scope for rotation, even if international fixtures are fast approaching. We have a much more serious and intense North London Derby to prepare for this weekend, and while not getting anything less than three points tonight is an obvious priority, it would be wiser to enter this game with one mind on Sunday.
It would be typically Arsenal to bamboozle a team 6-0 at home only to lose all concentration and draw 1-1 on the away turf, which is why we need to be on our game whilst rotating several players. Arsene Wenger revealed that Theo Walcott, Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal and Santi Cazorla did not make the trip to Ludogorets, and that’s a fantastic start.
Having said that, I’d really love Alexis Sanchez to have a rest. I know he’s the kind of guy who wants to juggle with the football even if he’s taken off in the middle of the game because he broke his ankles, but there were times at the Stadium of Light where he seemed to have pulled a muscle. He had definitely looked fagged out toward the end of the game, and it doesn’t appear like smart management to play him tonight as well.
I’d like him to have a rest, if not Mesut Ozil. In fact, I’d love rests for Petr Cech, Alex Iwobi and Laurent Koscielny, and for the lineup to read something like Ospina – Jenkinson – Gabriel – Mustafi – Gibbs – Xhaka – Elneny (too soon for Ramsey) – Ozil – Perez – Ox – Giroud.
Despite the drop in quality, they should definitely be better to get the job done. It’s worth noting that most of our substitutes have been doing well of late, and this could be another opportunity for them to get a decent performance under their belts and heap pressure on the starting XI, although I don’t see many of them being dropped anytime soon.
Right, I think that’s that. I don’t find it particularly necessary to waste more than 600 words on a game that, even if we lose, may not be the kind of daunting loss that defines the season. That is, unless, we let a 5-0 lead slip with a hat-trick of own goals.
I’ve jinxed it, haven’t I?
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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