To continue the last post… is Lady Luck flirting with Arsenal this season?
Yes.
She is.
It’s a heavy petting incident on the tube and everyone is literally so embarrassed to watch it unfold.
To put it like your favorite LinkedIn influencer who uses ChatGPT… this wasn’t just a good draw, it was an invitation to win the whole damn thing.
We landed on the side of the draw that is so favorable, I nearly tweeted RIGGED until I realised it was Arsenal.
Leverkusen have managed a draw against Newcastle this season, and they also walloped Man City (shameful xG). So, we cannot count our chickens, but my word, Arsenal are the fox in this game, and we should exit that chicken coup having wiped out the whole big egg creation enterprise.
It doesn’t get better in the Champions League after a qualifying round. I’ve seen rival fans kicking off about it - someone should remind them, the reward for having a psychopathic manager who demands you win every match in the qualifiers should be a friendlier path in the knock-out rounds.
Crazy thing is we could have drawn Man City, which would have been no reward at all.
Sporting or FK Bodø/Glimt in the next round is also a gift of sorts. Despite the sensational chatter, Bodo were smacked up by Inter, they put 33 shots on them… but, like an Italian team in the 2000s against Arsenal, all that matters is the result. ‘Naive Inter’ the Norwegian media wrote (prolly). You’d fancy Arsenal against them. Same with Sporting Lisbon, they just don’t live in our world, unless we’re channelling some of those ‘Giroud missing an open goal against Monaco’ nightmares from the past.
The quarters get a little bit spicy, but come on, Atleti, Spurs, Newcastle, or Barca… it’s not bad, is it? I genuinely think the team I fear the most from that lot is Newcastle, who are 11th in the Premier League, having lost 4 of their last 5. Is it mad to want to play Barca the most of the 4? Not really.
Semi finals are always going to be tough…
But this bracket has a lot of great teams killing each other early. Chelsea could easily do Paris. Then it’s a Liverpool vs Chelsea quarter… HORRIBLE.
Even Liverpool might have a rough night against Gala who have some decent players… including the MIGHTY Lucas Torreira. Remember when we were crying for him to start in the Premier League for Arsenal because we thought he’d add grit to our midfield with Matteo Guendouzi? You never feel your football poverty until you’re clear of it…
Madrid, without doubt, will get MURDERED by Man City. Then it’s Man City vs Bayern in the round of 16. HORRIBLE.
Remember, this is a Man City team that has been fading badly in the second half of games… and they’ve had a fairly nice run of late. These mega games will be draining, especially when their players have to watch Pep laundering his rep every other week in the media.
Let’s be clear… we want City to go far in the Champions League. Arteta needs them to be occupied with MONSTER games during the weeks we are also monstered by the same issue.
This is where squad depth will come in handy. Pep Guardiola is better at managing player fitness than Arteta, but it’s pretty clear he’s gone, and he’s looking more and more rattled in the pressers.
Arsenal might end the season with nothing, but we’ve been gifted the best chance to progress in all the comps we want to win. Our start to the season was disgusting, but our cup draws have been really good, and we can’t deny slightly easier games won’t be advantageous for Arsenal.
I’ll talk more on the Chelsea game tomorrow, needless to say, it is imperative we don’t let them take anything off us at home. It’s greedy and unrealistic to want 10 wins. But it’s important we show signs of attacking life after that Spurs team against an actually decent team. Spurs are dreadful, but we needed them as a palate-cleansing lemon sorbet. Chelsea is an overfunded monster of a team that presses well, fights hard, and actually needs to win this game to keep themselves in contention for the Champions League.
Beat Chelsea, with any sort of performance, and I suspect the belief we’ll have could power us to a Premier League win. Anything less, at home, against LinkedIn Liam, could be devastating…
More on them tomorrow. Check out the latest Therapy Session, which is actually a members’ pod for this week. x
I can't lie, "Linkedin Liam" Rosenior is a quality slander name... well done!
If this is the benefit of topping the table of the league phase of the UCL, then expect to see more competitive games going forward next season.