Arsenal V Atletico Madrid- Thursday 26 April 2018

[Mac76]

Özil, Wilshere, Kolasinac & Cech back in full Arsenal training. Available against Atletico Madrid tomorrow

i'd rather Wilshere was on the bench at most, same for Cack

but we did miss Ozil and i think Kolasinac is a very good player and I'd like to see more of him tbh - i think he has the right attitude for a game like this

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Even if we had the players to do it, Atletico won't be as dumb as to play a high line against us at the Emirates like Roma did at Anfield. They'll sit back and attempt to soak up the pressure .... it's what they specialise in.

Mark my words, this will be a low scoring affair. Settled by a goal or two.

I can't remember which of the one million podcasts I listen that I heard it from....but it was suggested that Atletico would actually really go for us tomorrow. I tend to think they will simply manage the game in stages. I think in the first 10/15 minutes they will probably try to catch us cold and come at us (as their homework on us will encourage them to do) and then if they get an away goal (the importance of which we know well), we will of course need to come out and recover, by which point they will sit back a bit.

I would rather we really go for them for the most part. Our home record is decent and we will need to score a few, as I don't think we can actually tailor our strategy to rely upon not allowing them to get an away goal.

A little like Liverpool last night, I'm happy for us to weather the initial storm early on (if they really come at us) before going for the jugular.

[Marc Overmars]

They have enough clever and technically brilliant players to be able to run rings around our porous midfield regardless of how we set up. We will need to make the most of the little bursts of play we always manage to find, can't afford any inefficiency in front of goal here. Getting the ball into Laca early to stop him wandering deep and out wide to collect it would be a good start.

[Niall_Quinn]

I can't remember which of the one million podcasts I listen that I heard it from....but it was suggested that Atletico would actually really go for us tomorrow. I tend to think they will simply manage the game in stages. I think in the first 10/15 minutes they will probably try to catch us cold and come at us (as their homework on us will encourage them to do) and then if they get an away goal (the importance of which we know well), we will of course need to come out and recover, by which point they will sit back a bit.

I would rather we really go for them for the most part. Our home record is decent and we will need to score a few, as I don't think we can actually tailor our strategy to rely upon not allowing them to get an away goal.

A little like Liverpool last night, I'm happy for us to weather the initial storm early on (if they really come at us) before going for the jugular.

They won't have to "catch us" cold. We'll be lying there at the start, freezing, ready to be walked over. We'll probably need to go a goal or two down before we start playing. If things go to typical script. Would be lovely if we came charging out of the gate but we do that maybe once a season.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

They have enough clever and technically brilliant players to be able to run rings around our porous midfield regardless of how we set up. We will need to make the most of the little bursts of play we always manage to find, can't afford any inefficiency in front of goal here. Getting the ball into Laca early to stop him wandering deep and out wide to collect it would be a good start.

I think if they go 442, they will probably just bypass our midfield all together and will rely on isolating individuals in our back line, rather than running rings around us in midfield.

[Mac76]

gosh this is depressing - the West Ham game, and Wenger's comments since, have knocked any potential wind out of our sails for this - the players showed no real sign of playing for him on Sunday really and without Auba even on the bench we really have no plan B whatsoever - or much of a plan A really...

[Xhaka Can’t]

I was just thinking the same. Wenger never seems to miss an opportunity to take the wind out of our sails.

All that good will and optimism. Killed stone dead in less than a week.

[Marc Overmars]

If we stink the place out in this then his send off may not exactly be the most heartfelt.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Apparently the cheers for him in the last home game wasn't as vocal as expected, but I wasn't there myself......

[Goonermerree]

They won't have to "catch us" cold. We'll be lying there at the start, freezing, ready to be walked over. We'll probably need to go a goal or two down before we start playing. If things go to typical script. Would be lovely if we came charging out of the gate but we do that maybe once a season.

We sometimes come out of the gate charging for 10 or 15 mins and think we've won on points so slacken right off to tippy tappy. The rest, as they say, is history.