Written by Mean Lean on Wednesday, 15 February 2012 16:23

Arsene has selected his 18 man squad ahead of the trip to Milan. Park and Chamakh are missing from the list which probably gives a good indication as to which players will feature in our FA cup clash at Sunderland over the weekend.

There is something about playing away from home in the Champions League at the big stage, a chance to rub shoulders with some of the best players in world football instead of slugging it out in the mud against a side that doesn't want to come out and play. Milan will be disciplined and organised but they will want to impose their own game on us.

Per Mertesacker's injury over the weekend means that Arsene has to make a change to his back line. He has spoken publicly about a few options, probably to throw his opponent off the scent. Johan Djourou could replace Mertesacker and leave Vermaelen at left back which would probably mean less disruption to the defence but it is more likely that Vermaelen will come back into his best position at center half alongside the impressive Laurent Koscielny and either Francis Coquelin or Kieran Gibbs will replace Vermaelen at left full back.

Even though Gibbs is very short of competitive football since his injury I think I would prefer to have him in the side to give the team a better shape than playing a midfielder out of position on such a big stage.

Arsene's other selection poser will be to choose between Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky in the creative midfield position. I think Rosicky's game suits the Champions League better than Ramsey and his experience would benefit the team but having just played back to back games as well as the fresh Ramsey scoring the equaliser against Sunderland, I suspect that the Welshman might get the nod.

I am hoping for a very interesting duel between Thomas Vermaelen and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, if the ego rich Swede manages to escape the clutches of Vermaelen then he may just find himself struck by the Kobra that is Koscielny. I hope he has a frustrating evening failing to get away from his markers.

With so much pace in our back line it will be interesting to see how high up the pitch we push Milan, if we are brave enough to force our game on them and play on the front foot just as we did back in 2008.

Arsene will want the players free from fear, to play with a focused freedom. We will have to have some big performances all over the pitch and not just from Robin van Persie who according to Robinho will be tactically nullified. If the rest of the team play well then van Persie will automatically do well such is the speed and interchangeability of our football when we are at our best.

We need big games from Sagna, Vermaelen, Arteta, Song and van Persie, if those players do well in their duels then we have a good chance of getting a favourable result in Italy tonight.

It will be a big chance for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who I imagine is more than likely to continue his starting spot in the team. With a vastly experienced team trying to stop him, I guess it could go either way for the 18 year old. Either he will run ragged older legs or he will be contained by wiser opponents. As usual, the wide attackers will be important to us.

While I would like a similar type of game as the one we produced in 2008, I guess that it may well be little more cagey this time round. I hope we play at our Premier League tempo, move the ball quickly and hopefully create chances. If we do that then we are capable of grabbing that all important away goal.

Fingers crossed and come on you glorious Gunners.

Mean Lean's Predicted Line Up:

• Add New
• RSS

Comments (29)

• 15-Feb-2012 17:10 | | eL-Tito  - Rosicky VS Ramsey
  

  I would have to Go WiTH Rosicky7 on this one....

• 15-Feb-2012 17:29 | | Nabil  - Gunners
  

  Good lineup it would be more impressive if arsenal most ever jinx player arshavin do not play

• 15-Feb-2012 17:44 | | Anders_Limpar
  

  I think he'll go with Ramsey. Rosicky will keep the ball better but Ramsey is more penetrative with his passing and with Milan coming on to us i think he'll go with the Welshman to spring us onto a quick counter attack, especially as we have Arteta in midfield to keep things ticking over.

• 15-Feb-2012 18:41 | | Breck  - go gunners
  

  ramsey can have a great impact if he come from a bench. Rosisky7 a good man to start because he always look forward. please Goooooo with R7

• 15-Feb-2012 18:54 | | Zangi
  

  ML, short writeup, but apt. Agree with ur lineup fully. With Rosicky coming on to make things tidy, TH12 to scare them, and Arshavin to do a Sunderland ..... what do you say ML?

• 15-Feb-2012 18:59 | | tame  - coquelin
  

  I think it would be better if coquelin played at left back

• 15-Feb-2012 19:03 | | MeanLean
  

  The team is out. Rosicky replaces Chamberlain which is a defensive move from Arsene. The rest of the team is as expected.
  
  If anyone does a Sunderland tonight then I will be more than happy with that ;-)

• 15-Feb-2012 20:37 | | Colesy  - Half time thoughts
  

  2-0 is pretty good given the numerous chances Milan have created. Our defence has been pulled apart too easily. V5 has had a poor 1st half and now Djourou on means we even more likely to concede goals. Lets hope for a clean sheet in the second half to give us a chance in the 2nd leg. The busiest their keeper has been so far was hanging up his towel at the beginning of the match! Poor performance from the Arsenal so far.

• 15-Feb-2012 20:42 | | Colesy  - half time thoughts - part 2
  

  “It makes me confident [this time] because I feel the team has the mental strength and a fantastic attitude on a daily basis. And from what we have learned from last year.”
  
  A quick reminder of the grand master Wenger said on Saturday.
  
  Lets hope for some "mental strength" in the second half.

• 15-Feb-2012 20:47 | | MeanLean
  

  Wow, so many half time thoughts Colesy. I suppose we are rarely behind at half time so go on, knock yourself out. The floor is yours.

• 15-Feb-2012 20:53 | | Danish Gooner  - Arsenal.
  

  Shambolic performance yet again.This Arsenal side is so so sub standard it makes Wenger look like a total numpty when he talks about mental strength,a disease ridden whore with terminal cancer have more mental strength then this hapless abject loser team..Dare you print this MeanLean of course you dont because you hate me and my opinion but i think i have been proved right once again.

• 15-Feb-2012 20:53 | | Colesy
  

  Sorry ML, isn't this a platform to discuss all things Arsenal???
  

• 15-Feb-2012 20:54 | | Colesy
  

  Oh sorry, perhaps I am stealing your full match write up comments???

• 15-Feb-2012 21:03 | | MeanLean
  

  Danish Gooner, it is nothing to do with your point of view. It is about showing respect to others without name calling. Which you have done regularly for some strange reason.
  
  And Colesy, you're right. We have been demolished so far. Second best all over the pitch.

• 15-Feb-2012 21:16 | | Danish Gooner  - Arsenal.
  

  I want my Arsenal back,it is as simple as that !!! No this shambolic hapless,gutless shadow side.What is Rosicky doing ?? What is Song doing,what is any of the defenders doing,it is hopeless and so predictable.

• 15-Feb-2012 21:21 | | Colesy
  

  Could this be a carbon copy of last season with us being dumped out of two competitions around the end of winter? If that happens, it wlll be interesting to see how our league form fairs. let's wait and see though, it's all about mental strength.

• 15-Feb-2012 21:30 | | Colesy  - 4-0 down and still playing
  

  ML - you said it (time check 21.03).
  
  Poor, poor performance tonight.
  
  Now question is, just as you and the other AKB's claimed that Wenger got it oh so right on the weekend, did he get it oh so wrong tonight?

• 15-Feb-2012 21:37 | | Vuja De
  

  Wow. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. And we've lost Koscielny with an injury too.

• 16-Feb-2012 00:17 | | Gino92  - Speechless!!!
  

  WTF was that? It was a collective shitty, dismal performance by Arsenal apart from Van Persie. The whole team was unrecognizable from start to finish, and to make things worse, we lost our best defender Koscielny to injury. Our passing wasn't crisp, Van Persie had no support upfront until Henry came in, we lost countless of balls and tackles in midfield, and our defending was shambolic if not pathetic to say the least. Djourou came in and made things a whole lot worse. This was supposed to be a highlight game of the round of sixteen but it turned into a one way traffic, especially in the first half. The scoreline could have been a lot worse. I was hoping we would move Song alongside Vermaelen and bring Coquelin in midfield instead of playing Djourou especially since we were trailing 2 - nil at the time. Granted, the pitch was absolutely shitty and shameful but that cannot be an excuse. We were simply poor tonight. I don't know how we can possibly turn this thing around at the Emirates. 2 - nil defeat, maybe, but 4 - nil? Well, I guess anything is possible in football. This is going to be quite a tall and arduous mountain to climb, but if we can get it together quickly enough and come out firing on all cylinders with the Emirates faithfuls behind their team, we can make it happen. Do we believe in miracles?
  
  I am not even angry at the team, I am just still in shock. By the time I get out of it, we will ready to play Sunderland in the FA Cup. I guess we'd better about this result very quickly. Terrible way to end a loan spell at the Vlub you love if you were Thierry Henry. Thank you anyway and best of luck to you and the Red Bulls in the upcoming MLS season, TH12.
  
  Am I the only one who thought that Milan wasn't even that good at all? Losing like this to Barcelona or Real Madrid, I can understand, but to an average Milan side? Thst's a tough one to digest. This result just seems so misleading. We simply gifted them this result. On any other day, it should have been 4-nil to the Arsenal, such was the average nature of AC Milan in my opinion. If we had played like we did against Chelsea or Blackburn, there is no way Milan would still be in this tie. We had a bad day at the
  Office, it happens sometimes. No need to read too much into it, time to roll up our sleeves and move on with the fight in the FA Cup. Let's go and take our disappointment and frustration out on Sunderland.
  
  
  Go Gunners!

• 16-Feb-2012 00:41 | | Razor
  

  Let's do some Ratings - Sczesny 5 , Sagna 5 , Kos 5 , Verm 4 , Gibbs , 5 Song 5 , Arteta 4 , Ramsey 4 , Rosicky 5 , Walcott 3 , RVP 7. Subs Djourou 4 , Henry 6 , Ox Ch 7.
  
  What a shocking and awful night for us. Bar one or two, the whole team didn't show up. - It was painful to watch. Questions have to asked as to why, in a game of this magnitude, the team were not only unable to put in a performance that was anything close to respectable, but that, and I hate to say it, a performance that seemed to lack passion, heart, urgency, fight, and the will 2 succeed.
  
  It's hard for me 2 come back with positives right now.

• 16-Feb-2012 02:35 | | Gino92
  

  I actually to mention the back passes. We have been doing that a whole lot lately and it has been driving totally insane!!! We would be in the opponent's half and then pass the ball all the way back to the keeper. I am sick of it. And Sczeszny had better practice kicking the ball in training because he sucks at it. I am having a hard time picturing a keeper who cannot kick the ball past the halfway line...

• 16-Feb-2012 06:33 | | mo974
  

  i feel ashamed, very poor performance indeed , among the worst for decades for the team in europe.Arsene thanks for all but i do believe he is not the right coach for the type of players we have. they need hard talk hard on them no compromises type of managers. players mindset have changed arsene! wtf it's a disgrace to keep players like rosicky arteta sagna gibbs djourou ramsey ; they are good but against modest clubs from the pl.we are talking CL here , world class players against us (ibra, kpb, robinho , mexes, thiago silva van bommel seedorf) come on ! we need to be realistic we are just good enough for europa league level. i hate to admit it but its' been a long time coming ( 4 seasons at least) something seems to be going wrong with the signings . when is the last time we have signed a crack a top world class player ?

• 16-Feb-2012 08:05 | | colesy
  

  last night was a sad consequence of Wenger's failed project. We were soundly beaten in all areas of the pitch by a team a lot older than ours and containing "cast offs" from other clubs. I fear the fallout will be a repeat of last season. All the AKB's have suddenly disappeared for some reason. Perhaps this season some will finally wake up to the fact that their beloved leader is an old man who best days are firmly in the past- so much so that you will find that video players were still popular at the time.
  
  As the manager said so himself, last night was a disaster.
  
  My final point is this. Over the course of the season the likes of ML and Richie (where is Richie these days?) and Golum have tried to argue that 4th place is realistically the best Arsenal can hope to achieve. This being not the fault if Wenger, oh no, it's the fault of the money men and Man City, Chelsea etc. If the argument is that we cannot perform in the league because of the money these clubs have (yet this doesn't explain defeats against Blackburn or Swansea or draws against Bolton or Wolves), it doesn't deal with a thumping loss to an ageing AC Milan team full of cast offs.

• 16-Feb-2012 09:20 | | Zangi
  

  ML... am in a daze ... hope the players are nowhere near such a state! Sunderland coming up, and their pitch worse than San Siro.... AAARGH!!!!!

• 16-Feb-2012 10:33 | | 'desi'gner gooner....  - not a time for extreme reactions.....
  

  The pendulum swings one way or the other with gooners these days.....One day everybody will be behind the squad and the manager and one bad result and everybody who was behind the manager and the squad turns against them. That is not the way to react especially in difficult times.
  
  I am a die-hard gooner myself and am yet to recover from the shock that was last night. Yes that was by far the worst I have seen us play in a long long time. But that does not mean the team is that bad. No they aren't. In fact against much better sides like Dortmund and Marseille we were far far better. And we are not talking of ages ago but just a couple of months back. So let us not measure the abilities of the squad by one performance alone.
  
  Ofcourse it doesn't help that we are the only club in the whole world perhaps which has a group of fans which is waiting for us to have a bad result - so that they can puke venom against the very man who has made us used to the dizzy heights of champagne football!!!!
  
  This kind of attitude has to stop. Yes his project failed. But it was not that the project was bad or awful. We almost won a champions league with it and were awfully close to a couple of league titles and a cup win as well. His project was not based on the knowledge that some oil mafias would come and completely change the economics of the game forever. His project was not based on the knowledge that a 'holier than thou' club would come and poach our most creative player with sentimental pressure. His project was based on footballing reasons and that we played with some class as long as the project was on.
  
  He has been forced into re-building again and even after such shocks in the summer - fishy happening with the board - an awful start to the season - we still find ourselves fourth in the table. So this is the time to back the team and the man who has perhaps embarked on a rebuilding - the benefits of which will be reaped by his successors for many years to come.
  
  The team played badly yesterday but we see them every week and we all know they are far far better than that.....Yes this is not the strongest of our teams but they have fought well on more occassions and perhaps will have to give more than a 100% up till the end of the season but they can only do that when they know that the fans are right behind them.
  
  And finally - we scored 3 goals in 8 minutes not so long ago......We still have 90 to score 4!!!! Thats the way to go about it.........COME ON YOU GOONERS....

• 16-Feb-2012 11:28 | | MeanLean
  

  Team full of cast offs??
  
  Are you talking about the Serie A Champions? The team that are currently top of their domestic league? Is that your angle used to try and beat Arsenal further?
  
  Colesy, why are you always trying to create a 'you against me'? Why this constant use of AKBs? By AKB are you talking about people who just simply support and enjoy the club regardless?
  
  I find that behaviour really strange. Do you feel a sense of superiority when we lose because you feel justified for your repeated knocking of the players and management?
  
  Is the ultimate aim to get all Arsenal supporters to hate everything to do with the club, team and management? If so then why? If not then why the constant need to be proved right. And that would explain why you post far more when we lose than when we win. That is your right but I just do not understand the disguised high fives between you, Danish Gooner, Man United Killer etc.
  
  It would be much more enjoyable if Arsenal fans felt low together and enjoyed the highs together. Discussing what went wrong or what was fantastic together.
  
  Look at someone like Gino92. Win, lose or draw he expresses his feelings about the team. You can feel the emotion in what he writes. When we lose he is devastated when we win he is as happy as Larry. Never a divide in his responses. Never a 'haha look at your AKBs, what do you feel about your leader now' and all that utter bull.
  
  So why the need to rub faces in defeat? I am already hurting after watching my team get out fought, out played and out thought all over the pitch without having to read 'haha told you so' from fellow 'supporters'

• 16-Feb-2012 13:04 | | Colesy
  

  Desi'gner - thanks. For someone who supports Wenger as well as the team, I appreciate your honesty and admission that the project has failed.
  
  ML- I don't go out to "create" anything. You have your firm opinions and I have mine- they happen to be firmly opposed. I try to be active regardless of results so to avoid being accused of 'hiding'. By the way, where's Pika?
  
  Cast offs- Mexes (contract not renewed after knee injury), Van Bommel (journeyman), Boateng (ex Scum and Man City), Ibrahimovic (left Barca after falling out with the manager), Robinho (ex Man City reject). Point made?
  
  My use of the term "AKB" is no different to the regular use of the term "Doomers" which others insist on using. I don't see you having a go at them. Anyway, I cannot see how the term "AKB" is considered offensive as it acknowledges that person's believe that the manager "knows best" and therefore backs up their stance.
  
  If you read my contributions last night and this morning again I would challenge you to find anything written to suggest that I take pleasure in defeat. No, it saddens me to be witnessing the demise of our club. You are trying to twist my opinion to bring about the existence of a "them and us" position which is wrong

• 16-Feb-2012 14:23 | | MeanLean
  

  @'desi'gner gooner,
  
  Fantastic post mate.

• 16-Feb-2012 17:14 | | MeanLean
  

  Colesy,
  
  Are you saying that the fact that AC MIlan have signed players from other clubs means that they have a team full of cast offs?
  
  I don't really understand your argument. I think you are trying to suggest that AC Milan are old and have a team full of players that nobody wants but my point is that they are top of the league and have just won the league, those are facts rather than opinion.
  
  Anyway, regardless of how bad you think they are to prove your point, it is clear that we were very poor and way below the required standard to win games like these.
  
  Are you really suggesting that you do not respond in a way that you are different to the likes of myself?
  
  "All the AKB's have suddenly disappeared for some reason. Perhaps this season some will finally wake up to the fact that their beloved leader"
  
  This so called beloved leader is the Arsenal manager. If you are an Arsenal supporter then he is the manager of your club also.
  
  As for the whole AKB label. What does that mean to you? Arsene knows best? Who does he know better than? Is it wrong to assume that the manager of a football club knows better than fans well at least a vast majority of fans. If Alan Pardrew was the Arsenal manager would he no longer be PKB or could I claim to know better than him?
  
  Is it restricted only to Arsene because you don't want him in charge of the club. Please explain this a little further.
  
  I find the term a little strange and it is always used by people who do not want the manager at the club rather than people (like myself) who admire and respect all the work he has done and is doing for this club.

Write comment

Your Details:

Name:

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Powered by Compojoom comment 4.1.7 stable