For most of the media of course, what Arsenal must do tonight is completely annihilate Dortmund by at least five goals. Then they will point out that in the draw, Dortmund came out of Pot D, that Arsenal should have got ten and will now fear a close fought game when the Germans visit London. ‘Gunners fear London Blitz’ has just got to be used in a tabloid somewhere hasn’t it!
But what would a good result be?
Dortmund did come out of Pot D, supposedly our weakest opponents, but they could actually be the toughest. Let’s not get carried away by Saturday, we are still in deep recovery mode.
Rational analysis says that losing one away game in the group stage is not the end of the world. But where we are now it would damage the fragile confidence we have just found.
A draw is the minimum for Arsenal tonight and it would have to come with positives to hold on to as well.
But what we really need is a win. Can we do it? Yes we can!
Dortmund have a good home record and some decent players. Midfielder Mario Götze is very good indeed and will have to be carefully contained. But I think we have a better team overall and, if we can play with confidence, we can get a win. Like Saturday, any kind of win will do.
But what is the best way to go for it? The absence of Ramsey and, more importantly for this game, Rosicky means that there is no middle path for Wenger tonight. He must either send out a midfield biased to defending with Frimpong, or attacking with Benayoun or Arshavin.
Personally I would prefer attacking with Arshavin alongside Arteta but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I think Wenger will start with Frimpong and then bring on Benayoun later.
Sorry, I mean of course that Pat Rice will decide to bring on Benayoun later. Arsene Wenger will be chewing his tongue off in the stands trying to show UEFA more respect than they deserve for ninety minutes. And wondering if they’ve spotted the eyebrow morse code chain he’s been practicing all day with Pat, Boro, Vic and Colin.
For my sins I’m on a late finish at work tonight, despite having a Gooner for a boss, so I will be frustrated too. I will be on the train for the first half, glaring at that row of bars on my phone and frantically stabbing at the refresh symbol. How hard it can be to build more phone masts or write text commentary more frequently. I will probably have killed the battery by Bethnal Green.
Come on you Gunners!
