Can Arsenal find glory?
After the departure of their hot-shot goal-scorer, Robin Van Persie, Arsenal have had a poor season: Behind Tottenham on the table, knocked out of Capital One cup and no chance to win the league.
Can Arsenal get glory with the current crop of players? Right now, they have only two competitions they can win:
The Champions League
I’m an Arsenal fan, but to be very honest, they aren’t really contenders for the European trophy. Injures to the captain and – more importantly – a key center-back Thomas Vermaelen, and left-back Gibbs are big blows for the Gunners. But according to reports, Vermaelen might be fit for the first leg and Koscielny recovering well. So they might be able to put up a good defense against Bayern, with Sagna at right-back and Vermaelen at left-back. With Lukas Podolski to track back when needed, Arsenal may hold them at home or even scrap a narrow win.
Arsenal need to be determined to win such matches, rather than to focus on quality or things like that – like that time when they beat Barcelona a couple of seasons ago. No one had expected Wilshere to boss the midfield or for Szczesny to make the saves he did. But their determination made them do so and was backed by the crowd’s tremendous support. A repeat of that might help us clinch the first leg.
This is the line up I expect:
Hopefully, Wilshere’s injury is not serious and he will be available for this match. With Vermaelen and Podolski on the left, and Walcott and Sagna on the right, Arsenal could put up a strong battle on the wings against the likes of Shaqiri, Robben and Ribery. The bench would have few decent options as well in Ramsey, Chamberlain, Gervinho and Coquelin.
It will take something special for the Gunners to get past the German giants at the Emirates. With Arteta being the backbone of the midfield and Wilshere moving the game forward along with the Podolski-Giroud-Walcott combination, it will be a very interesting match since Bayern have the best defense in Europe at present.
Rosicky can also be an option from the bench and Wenger could shift Cazorla to the wings to bring him on.
In any case, this will be Arsenal’s first test on the road to the finals. If we don’t have too many injuries in the further rounds and if things work in our favour, we could put up a good challenge on this distant dream.
The FA Cup
To be realistic, we have more chances to win the FA Cup than to win the Champions league. If we make it top priority, this will end our trophy drought. The squad can beat the likes of City, Chelsea and Manchester United. If the defense gets consistent and if we don’t leak goals in the FA cup rounds, we can be top contenders to win it.