The Next hurdle. Champions league group B game. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
Next hurdle. Champions league group B game.
Montpellier at Home.
By Cameron Wolfe
So we’re slowly but surely climbing the EPL table (up one more place to 6th). With some results above us going our way at the weekend. Especially after Manure being beat by Norwich.
Seem to remember we took lots of stick for being beaten by Norwich even from our own fans. Bashing the Spuds obviously gives the team and the fans something to smile about. Bragging rights are ours again for a while.
Next up is a home game today against Montpellier in the CL, following defeats for all British clubs last night.
At the weekend Montpellier were held to a 1-1 draw away to Valenciennes. Montpellier took and early lead but had Saihi sent off early in the second half. That took their unbeaten run to four ahead of their trip to the Emirates. Both teams had their chances to win it and by all accounts a draw seemed a fair result.
As a side note PSG (Currently 3rd) lost 1-2 to Rennes and Lyon (Managed by Remi Garde, as Tony always likes to tell us) won 3-0 to stay top by one point.
Shalke 04 lost away to Bayer Leverkusen. According to the review it was a very disappointing display by Shalke. Leverkusen missed several good chances to bury Shalke including a missed penalty. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was seemingly anonymous for most of the match and only managed seven touches in the whole of the first half.
Currently they are second behind Bayer Munich by eight points. Hopefully they’ll play just as badly tonight against Olympicos but I’m sure being at Home they’ll lift their game accordingly. You just never know though what can happen in football (as they say). If Shalke do lose on Wednesday it would allow us to leap frog them and grab top spot by two points. If we beat Montpellier at the Ems.
Olympiacos won over the weekend beating Kerkyra 2-0 at Home. They currently sit top of the league. No surprise there really. I can see their game against Shalke being a draw but I’m sure they’ll go there looking for the win. After all their only one point behind us and in theory they could still qualify if other results go their way. Shalke on the other hand will be trying to make up for the weekends defeat.
If Arsenal and Shalke win, then we’ll both definitely qualify. Arsenal win and Shalke lose. We’ll be top of the group on ten points. Leaving Shalke on eight points and Olympiacos in second on nine points. We could then go to Greece knowing that getting a win and we’d qualify in first place. So it could all get pretty tight at the top after this Wednesday.
Most important result on Wednesday for us is beating Montpellier and let the others worry about their own position. I honestly can’t see Montpellier coming to the Ems. and dominating the game. Realistically they’re already out and have nothing left to play for in this seasons CL. They’ve had their taste of being in the CL and I’m sure they’ll have gained valuable Eurpoean experience.
Being at home should give us a huge advantage and after our thumping of the Spuds at the weekend.Morale should be sky high. It would cap of a great week if we can beat Montpellier before looking forward to the late kick off Villa game away this Saturday. Beating them could move us up to 4th depending on other results this weekend..
I’m lucky I get to have an extended break when the CL games are on. My Boss is a Gooner too. So I get to watch the Montpellier game live over Lunch. Local kick off time for me12.45pm.
Oh to be a Gooner Oh to be a gooner!
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