I can only speak for myself, but against every team other than the top 6 and Stoke away I am of the opinion that Arsenal should beat them. That they choose not too do that is a whole other discussion.
I just assume Arsenall will also use a different approach in these games and have a different mindset because the games are two-legged in stead of it being just another League game.
Except for Dortmund, Zenit, Napoli and Atletico we are talking about teams who aren’t exactly top bracket in their respective Leagues. Sure Arsenal isn’t either, but it’s still Arsenal, and our floor on a bad day is very low but we should be confident against the likes of Bilbao, CSKA, Sociedad, Sporting CP etc.
Off the top of my head we finished 3rd in a CL group that contained Barcelona, Fiorentina & AIK Stockholm. Went into the UEFA Cup Round of 32 and beat Nantes, Deportivo La Courna, Werder Bremen, RC Lens on the way to the final before the shootout heartbreak vs Galatasaray.
I agree that we are one of the better teams (on paper) left in the competition. I just don’t get the arrogance – it’s as if people have forgotten what we’re like and/or don’t know much about the other teams in it. There are several who could run us close in a two legged tie.
It’s just a bit naive, at this stage - with 32 teams left - to suggest that it’s easy and we can beat anyone when we’ve shown time and time again that that isn’t the case.
Arrogant? Nah I’m just not stressing over teams that were too shit for CL. We’d qualify from Atletico and Napoli’s group. Dortmund had a tough group but still didn’t win a game v APOEL
This was over a while ago. Once all hope of Wenger getting this team playing solid football passed we’re as good as done for the season. If it’s just the manager there’s an end in sight but tbh we should be worried about the board too.
We’re not that far behind, but we just don’t have the quality. Our away form is laughable. If it wasn’t for our more stable home form we’d be in a shocking position.
We’re comfortably 6th best of the so-called top 6, I think it’s becoming fairly evident we’ll be closer to the 7th placed team than the 4th placed team
We’ve been left behind. In years gone by I would have been quietly confident in this kind of position, because we’re shit but always have a spell where we do well, and clubs like Liverpool, Spurs, Everton, Villa are always so shit and have a spell where it falls apart so we might blag it.
Right now we’re in a crap position because we’re banking on not just one but two of those clubs throwing it away when in the past it’s normally been just the one, and I don’t think any two of the top 5 are bad enough for that, and I certainly don’t think we’re good enough to do what we need to do either.
I think we will close the gap though, and be closer to 5th than 7th
