Team news and Preview of Dortmund v Arsenal
Arsenal fans are in a pretty good mood at the moment thanks to our brilliant league form but the same can’t be said for the Champions league. Losing to Dortmund at home has put us in a very tricky situation and personally, I think we’ll need a draw if we are to survive the group.
Dortmund were really effective against Arsenal at the Emirates because they were able to stifle our creativity whilst always being prepared to hit us on the counter attack. I think it won’t be such a problem at the Signal Iduna Park. We’ll have less possession and will look to move the ball quickly when we do to cause Dortmund some problems.
However, I don’t think Wenger will want to play counter-attacking football. We are lacking in pace and can’t really exploit Dortmund. We’ll need to be intelligent on the ball and most importantly, we’ll need to be clinical. The midfield for me are going to score the goals for us while Giroud facilitates their movement. Özil and Cazorla will need to step and move between the lines and cause the defenders problem. If they can get on the same wave length, they will pick each other out all night long and will present us with the best chance of scoring a goal.
Line up:
Szczesny
Sagna – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Gibbs
Arteta – Ramsey
Rosicky – Özil – Cazorla
Giroud
We’ll be playing the exact same line that beat Liverpool on Saturday. We don’t really have the players to rotate at the moment. Thankfully, Gibbs has been deemed fit to play and although Monreal is a great back up to have, Gibbs has that natural pace which could be helpful on the counter. Gnabry could be a decent option from the bench to change things if we need to.
Arteta and Ramsey will be the midfield duo simply because Flamini and Wilshere are not fit for the game. But both of them providing they are fit for the game at Old Trafford could start against Man Utd to give a couple of midfielders a rest.
Giroud will have his work cut out against two really good CBs in Subotic and Hummels. If he can win the battle against them, it could really turn the game in our favour and we could potentially snatch an unlikely win in Germany.
I think we’ll find it very difficult to break Dortmund down but we’ll get a decent result out of them. 1 – 1 for me.
