Hello, another Arsenal fan here. I read the first 15-or-so pages and a sprinkling of others after that; reading the whole thing would take all night! I hope the other Arsenal visitors have been well-behaved.
I find it quite interesting to see the varying views from Juve fans on here, the similarity to the Arsenal forums I frequent is striking. Football fans, largely the same whereever you go!
I'm so excited about this game; I'm optimistic too but I think that's part and parcel of football when your team is on a good run, you don't care who the opponent is! I don't have a ticket for the first leg; oh how I wish I did. I'd do anything to be in that atmosphere for the return of our captain. It's going to be very special.
Despite Patrick's return, I wasn't exactly delighted to get Juve in the draw as I would have preferred a team that was more offensively minded, not as defensively compact and powerful in midfield. As has been pointed out, Arsenal have regularly struggled with physical sides in the league and Vieira & Emerson is the most physical midfield combination left in the CL. Better to get a big team than a small team though, and Juve are the biggest team left in the competition.
Am I right in thinking that Juve will start with Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Thuram, Zebina, Mutu, Emerson, Vieira, Camoranesi, Del Piero and Trez?
I haven't seen much Italian football recently so I'm not very au fait with the strengths and weaknesses of Juve - I've seen Zebina get quite a bit of criticisism though. Juve's right-back will need to have a good game as Henry likes to drift into the RB area.
I will be very, very surprised if Wenger doesn't play 4-5-1 again at Highbury. Van Persie doesn't look match sharp so unless he bangs them against Portsmouth on Saturday I can't see him starting, and there is no other real alternative strike partner for Titi. Also, Vieira & Emerson is an incredibly powerful midfield pairing, and I think we will need an extra man in there to compete. Fabregas cannot compete with Vieira physically (obviously), but I believe he is already better than Pat in terms of being able to move the ball around and keep the opponent away from it. Of course Paddy doesn't need to do that, he can just keep the ball in between his legs and watch the opponent bounce off him
Cole looks like missing out, Campbell may be back, while Ljungberg and Reyes should be available, so I expect Arsenal to line up like this:
................. Lehmann
Eboue - Campbell - Toure - Flamini
................. Gilberto
..................Fabregas
..... Hleb - Ljungberg - Reyes
....................Henry
The dangerman in that team IMO is Freddie Ljungberg. He has been returning to his normal self lately, despite not scoring. Henry is the obvious threat so Capello will no doubt be prepared for him, and Thuram will know Henry's style well (Henry usually struggles against his French compatriots who track him - Gallas, Silvestre, Boumsong. Though they are probably a lot quicker than Thuram now), but Ljungberg's runs from deep, feeding off Hleb and Reyes, could be a threat to Juve if Emerson doesn't track him. (Freddie accelerates extremely quickly which is why he is so dangerous at arriving late in the box).
Hleb and Reyes are creators who will try to stretch Juve with pace and dribbling before releasing the ball to their teammates, Reyes plays a lot of very accurate, long diagonal passes for Henry too.
Fabregas and Gilberto will be on defensive duties. Someone mentioned Fabregas a dangerman, I don't think so. Against teams that play openly and high up the pitch he is, because he can cut them apart with his incisive passing. I don't think that will be the case against Juve though, and he will stay back to help Gilberto battle Vieira & Emerson (I really hate looking at those two names together, it's very intimidating!). If Ljungberg plays deep and makes it 3v2 in the centre of the park, I think we can out-play them though. Small passing triangles with Fabregas at the hub would make it very difficult for P&E to get near the ball.
I don't think Juve should try and 'play ugly' - they have too much quality for that. Obviously their midfield has plenty of steel, but the situation in the CL is different to the PL. The referees won't allow it, and Arsenal will probably play 4-5-1 so they'll be better equiped to handle it. A 0-0 result at Highbury would be good for Arsenal anyway IMO, as one away goal would then put Juve under enormous pressure.
Awww, I can't wait for this game!
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