Krayola2:

Arsenal is going to drill multiple holes into these guys. i feel sorry for them

allboyz:

hehehe

9 goals to 1 in favor of L'arse

FBS:

you dey predict again?

biina:

When SL beat Arsenal now, dem go dey ask make uefa ban defour and milan
Arsenal FC: sh*t in pampers daipers!

~Sauron~:

Liege 1-1 Arsenal.

~Gooner~:

The big news of the morning is the fact that either Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczesny will make their Champions’ League debut against Standard Liege tonight. In all honesty, it looks like Mannone will get the nod but with what I’ve seen of both keepers, I’d prefer to start Wojciech in goal. The manager had some words to say about the young Italian keeper.

“At least he’s played one, and he did quite well. It will be quite a heated atmosphere. It is a big challenge for a young boy to come into a Champions League game with such pressure. But I am confident. If you look at the number of shots we have conceded recently, it is not that many.”

Apparently, Manuel Almunia seems to have picked up a chest infection while Robin Van Persie and Denilson picked up knocks against Citeh at the weekend. One surprise though was the inclusion of young striker Sanchez Watt. I’ve written about him several times on the blog and I’d be interested to see feature at some stage of the match. He’s an exciting young talent and I’m pleased the boss is confident enough to include him in the European squad.

I must confess that I know very little about Standard Liege. Historically our joint record win in Europe was a 7-0 bashing against them in 1993. However last season, I watched both legs of their Champions’ League qualifying tie against Liverpool and must say that they really can play football. As Belgian Champions for the last two years, they will be looking to impress in the group stages. Nick Teal of Arsenal.com caught up with Het Laatste Nieuws reporter Kristof Terreur for the lowdown on Standard Liege and he had this to say;

“Standard play football technically well, their game has lots of passion. They have a defence with tall, strong guys, a midfield with technical players and two complete attackers who are fast and strong. 
Standard fans create a South American atmosphere at the stadium.”
“Everybody will be singing all the time, like they used to in England some years ago. Last year in Liverpool, there was more atmosphere from the 5,000 Standard fans than from the 40,000 home fans at Anfield, and the Liverpool fans were very impressed with them.”

They will however be without influential captain Stephen Defour who suffered a broken leg at the weekend and has been ruled out for three months. One man however, we will be keen to avoid is Axel Witsel who was recently suspended for 8 domestic games for a vicious tackle that smashed his opponents leg into two, he is however short of match practice though! That’s one man  Eduardo will definitely be avoiding!

Arsene Wenger has also claimed a bias from referees towards Arsenal has been created as a result of the Eduardo incident. He said;

“What I feel about it is we didn’t get the penalty at Manchester United with [Andrey] Arshavin and it was a direct consequence of what happened with Eduardo. We didn’t get the penalty at Manchester City with Gareth Barry either, and it was a direct consequence of that. Eduardo didn’t get a penalty when he played for Croatia against England and that was a direct consequence of that as well. It’s the referee’s problem. What you expect from the referee is to make the right decision in any circumstances and I don’t believe they will have to consider that case. That case has been judged. I believe in life you live with your own conscience and if Eduardo is convinced himself that he’s been touched that is the most important thing. We had the forensic expert who proved he had been touched.”

Talking tactics, I don’t expect us to line up differently from our new 4-3-3 formation. Barring any last minute knocks, I expect to see Diaby slot into the middle with Fabregas and Song with Rosicky taking up an attacking role on the left flanked by Bendtner and Eduardo down the middle. I think Eduardo is better suited to the lone striker role than RVP and it will be interesting to see how the attacking trio combine against Liege who are undefeated at home in 2009.

Possible Line up: Mannone, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Diaby, Fabregas, Song, Bendtner, Eduardo, Rosicky

Prediction: Arsenal 2 Standard Liege 1

You can follow me all day long on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thegreengooner as well as on the Arsenal vs Standard Liege Matchday Thread of Nairaland.com The game is live at 19:45 on Hi Sports 2 in Nigeria.

With Thomas Vermaelen calling it all a circus, I leave you with Wenger’s comments about Emmanuel Adebayor’s behaviour over the weekend.

“You ask 100 people, 99 will say it’s very bad and the hundredth will be Mark Hughes. Was I shocked? Yes, I think it was a very bad challenge, surprisingly bad. I didn’t expect him to do that. Why do you think the FA charged him?“

“I do not rule anything good or bad out for human beings. He deserved to be charged. I was surprised there was so much animosity in his attitude. ”In a few years he will realise Arsenal has been good for him.”I played football and I know exactly, in a fraction of a second, when you master your body, when you leave in or you move out.
“You know exactly at that fraction, I can injure somebody or I can not injure somebody and you ease off or you leave in.

“In England, you have many cases where the players leave in, less now than 10 years ago. “I have seen some challenges from 10 years ago where if you do that in the street, you would go to jail.”

Till tomorrow…Victoria Concordia Crescit

BinghiNya:

Arsenal should beware of a certain Dieumerci Mbokani. he is very skillful. I see a draw in this match or a slim SL win.

soccerprof:

i hope arsenal should be able to win this match even without eduardo

slimshay:

them don come again because u escaped getting raped yesterday by portos lack of precision in the box, u wan come here they spit like slowpoke.

ARSENAL all the way, haterz!!!

allboyz:

Broda. . . . is there any rule that states that i can predict only ONCE?

~Borat~:

Thank you very much, but there's no chance i'll watch any arsenal group stage match!
Yuck!

allboyz:

@FBS - Broda - Remember say - won ki n ba olomo ka omo e ooo

FBS:

How does that change the fact that you predicted 50 times and failed?

PS: You be my paddy. O ye ko ti ye e now.