Schalke vs Arsenal [Champions League]

Schalke Vs Arsenal
Tuesday 19:45 BST
Veltins-Arena — Gelsenkirchen
Referee:‬ N. Rizzoli‎

Points table

Schalke 7 points
Arsenal 6 points
Olympiakos 3 points
Montpellier 1 point

A Chance to redeem

As good as Schalke are, I think it's fair to say that the defeat at the emirates 2 weeks ago came as a big shock. However personal pride and record aside, that defeat meant Schalke overtook Arsenal and claimed the 1st spot in the table pushing arsenal down to 2nd. Now, the situation can be reversed tomorrow, Arsenal just have to win the game and we will be back on top. But it's easier said than done specially considering the current Arsenal form and performances which have been pretty woeful to say the least. The Performance against Manchester United was just more or less the same as it was against Norwich, Chelsea, Schalke home or QPR even. That's the biggest concern we all should have right now and find a way to get back to at least where we played good enough to not get battered. Tomorrow is a chance to get back to the top of the Champions League Table and we need to take it and redeem ourselves.

Schalke

Our German counterpart are having a good season, better than us anyways. They sit 2nd in the bundesliga table and are top of the CL group. But the good thing is that they are not unbeatable, Montpellier got a draw from them and like Arsenal, they lost their last League game as well. It just depends on how we face them, and if we go with the right tactics and attitude, we can certainly get 3 points from there. The first thing we need to do is to sort out the defence, Vermaelen is in a poor form and Santos playing or not playing doesn't really make much of a difference. I don't think it's going to happen but i would like to see Koscielny starting in the middle with Vermaelen as the Left Back. Then i would like to see Arshavin starting at LW with Podolski Uptop and walcott right. It's different and it gives us both width and creativity on the wings. But then i don't see it happening. Finally we need to forget about our league form and go with the right mentality, to prove a point. We need the 3 points and we should do our best to get them.

Team News

For Arsenal, The bad news is that Ramsey is out for tomorrow due to groin strain. Gibbs and Szczesny are not yet back either. So it's a depleted Squad. Wilshere was involved in the training so we might see him again since he is suspended for the game against Fulham.

For Schalke, Kyrgiakos Papadopoulos is a doubt after suffering a cut above his eyebrow on Saturday. Rest of them are all fit and fine.

My Arsenal team

-------------------------------------------------Mannone----------------------------------------

Sagna----------------------Mertesacker------------------------Koscielny------------------Vermaelen

----------------------------------Wilshere-------------------Arteta-------------------------------

Walcott--------------------------------------Cazorla---------------------------------Arshavin-------

---------------------------------------Podolski--------------------------------------------------------


Probable Schalke team

-------------------------------------------Unnerstall-------------------------------------------------

Fuchs---------------------Papadopoulos----------------Howedes------------------------Uchida

----------------------Jones----------------------------------Neustadter------------------------------

---Farfan--------------------------------Holtby--------------------------------------Afellay-------

-----------------------------------Huntelaar----------------------------------------------------------


Match Facts (uefa )

• Schalke are making their fifth UEFA Champions League appearance and when they were last involved, in 2010/11, they recovered from a opening defeat at Olympique Lyonnais to win seven of their next nine fixtures, including all five at home. The German club have lost only two of their last 12 home fixtures in the competition, qualifying included.

• Arsenal are in the group stage for the 15th campaign in a row. In 2011/12 Wenger's side departed in the round of 16 for the second season running. It was the 12th successive time they had made it through the group and only the second campaign since 2006/07 that they had failed to reach the quarter-finals or better.

• The matchday one win at Montpellier was only Arsenal's third in 13 away matches in the competition proper, a run that includes eight defeats.

• Per Mertesacker played for Hannover 96 (2003-2006) and SV Werder Bremen (2006-2011). He made 12 appearances against Schalke, putting through his own net in Hannover's 2-2 draw on 20 March 2004. Lukas Podolski faced Schalke ten times with 1. FC Köln and FC Bayern München, scoring four goals.

• Schalke have lost their last two home contests with English sides and not scored in three. They went down 2-0 to both Manchester United in the 2010/11 semi-final first leg and Manchester City FC in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage. Their home record against English teams reads W3 D1 L2.

• Arsenal drew 1-1 at Borussia Dortmund in last season's group stage. Their record in Germany is W3 D3 L5.

• Tranquillo Barnetta and Johan Djourou play together for Switzerland. Carl Jenkinson and Pukki played together in Finland's Under-21 team.

Final Words

I don't know what to expect from the Arsenal team anymore. The mood is at its all time low atm so a win would be really great here.

Arsenal squad:
Vito Mannone
James Shea
Bacary Sagna
Thomas Vermaelen
Mikel Arteta
Johan Djourou
Per Mertesacker
Laurent Koscielny
Jack Wilshere
Olivier Giroud
Santi Cazorla
Andre Santos
Lukas Podolski
Theo Walcott
Andrey Arshavin
Carl Jenkinson
Francis Coquelin
Marouane Chamakh

Bring Jack, Lukas and if necessary Chamakh later on. That's our best available team IMO, hope Wenger goes with this one.

Giroud fed by Walcott+Cazorla+Arshavin = Goals.

Great Preview RG.

I am not really looking forward this game, wish there was a long winter break so we can have a healthy team back.

I know Santos will start and he will get raped again. Wenger will play with only 10 players he is still refusing to give Ramsey's place up. What happens if he starts Walcott or Arshivan and they perform well? The fans and the media wins and Wenger loses, so no way we will see a different line up..

I would play anything to see this line up.
---------------------Mannone---------------------
-Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Vermaelen-
-----------------Arteta---Wilshwre----------------
-Arshavin---------Cazorla--------Podolski----
----------------------Walcott-----------------------

I'm really not feeling confident about this game.

I'm fairly sure that if Santos is played at left back again and if whoever is in front of him doesn't do a good job tracking back, we're going to have a torrid time. We saw what problems Farfan and Uchida caused us at the Emirates and they will attack that side again because it's a well known weakness.

I actually think we should go there and play a counter attacking game. Organise the team into a good, solid defensive shape and hit them on the break with Cazorla, Walcott and Podolski. Three points is vital here and we need to get them any way we can.

Wenger has said Wilshere will play, so I expect to see this:


What I would like to see:

You guys think Wenger is refusing to start Walcott until he signs a contract?

I hope if Walcott starts we can see him link up with Giroud, past 10 games Gioud has been almost useless.

Just a quick bit of nitpicking at the otherwise great and informative OP:

- Höwedes will most likely play CB, Fuchs is the FB
- Barnetta is more of a winger and will probably come off the bench for either of Farfan or Afellay, as might Draxler, he won't start as DM, though Holtby might

I'd reckon it might be
------------ Unnerstall
Fuchs - Höwedes - Papa - Uchida
--------- Jones --- Neustadter
Farfan ---- Holtby ----------- Afellay
------------ Huntelaar

Doesn't change much tactics-wise, but those of you that watch little to no Bundesliga will have an easier time following the who-is-who of Schalke players

I copied the lineup from Goal.com tbf Thanks though!

Reports suggested Santos could be dropped from tomorrow's Champions League tie at Schalke as a result but, while angry with the left-back, Wenger was keen to downplay the incident.

"I spoke about that but I don't want to make too much of a big story of that," the Arsenal boss said.

"I believe that was not the right thing to do at all, but that is not an explanation for our bad performance on Saturday."

Meanwhile Theo Walcott will be assessed tomorrow to see if he is well enough to feature in Arsenal's Champions League clash against Schalke in Germany.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/andre-santos-shirt-swapping-was-wrong-1418245

Good work RG

to guard against their threat we should either counter it by putting some real threat against them so Uchida thinks twice before moving forward
which we dont have any player to pose that threat and force them back

Neither we have options to go with RDM-esque conservative tactics
by for example playing Gibbs as defensive winger in front of Jenks to give us solidity

so i hope with this short options available we can turn up and do the collective work

not sure Starting Arsha on Left can make things better

it gets annoying that i mention this many times but this is exactly when we needed some Benayoun-like player to add creativity from flanks and do the defensive work greatly

it has been 2-3 games now that days before the match it think this is it
we finally going to end this crap run and turn up and play to up to our abilities

so at least i hope it can be one of those games which we grind out result
you need a bit of luck to start a successful run anyways

--------------------Mannone---------------------
-Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Vermaelen-
-----------------Arteta---Wilshwre----------------
Cazorla---------Eisfeld------------Arshivan
-------------------Podolski--------------[/b]

If Walcott is out, we should go with this line up.

If you want to beat the Germans, send more Germans to fight them.

Wenger says Walcott been sick overnight but will travel.
What he really ment, he will not start Walcott unless he signs the contract.
Have a feeling Ramsey got him sick.

So Wenger is putting the contract situation ahead of the team's sake with Walcott situation? Poor management, considering we're awful every game without Walcott.

Samuelj29060 wrote:So Wenger is putting the contract situation ahead of the team's sake with Walcott situation? Poor management, considering we're awful every game without Walcott.

Dont take my word for it, I am just guessing.

It strikes me as a bit odd that with Ramsey out injured and Walcott being a doubt, Thomas Eisfeld hasn't been included in the squad and is instead playing U21 football tonight. What's the point of taking four centre backs?

Our bench will probably be:

Shea, Koscielny, Djourou, Jenkinson, Coquelin, Arshavin and Chamakh.

That just looks short of options to me. Throw on Eisfeld and/or Gnabry and it looks better. Even if they are only young and unproven at this level, at least they can provide a spark.

Unless he took Djourou as a DM lol. But i said the same thing, Gnabry or Esifeld should have gone

RealGunner wrote:Unless he took Djourou as a DM lol. But i said the same thing, Gnabry or Esifeld should have gone

LOl, I was joking about this earlier and it might happen.

We cant fall any lower can we?
------------------
Team news: Ramsey, Walcott and Wilshere
on any changes...
Ramsey (groin) is left at home and Djourou replaces him in the squad.

on Theo Walcott...
He has been sick overnight [and] didn’t practice today so we have to see how he is on Tuesday morning.

on Jack Wilshere…
I think I will play him. Then we have a block of three games and maybe the fact that he gets a period of recovering will be just right for him. He gets better in every game.

Why is Arsene playing Wilshere, who is not completely fit, play in two big matches in a row? There's Coquelin who can do Arteta's job and Arteta, Wilshere's job. It's much better than Arteta - (Unfit) Wilshere duo. Jack is not getting better every game as Arsene is saying. We're losing points every week because of unfit/out of position players.

I think he is referring to jacks fitness level getting better every game. Anyway lol he was voted arsenals motm just one week ago

He was awful against Manchester United, but I don't blame him as he shouldn't even start so early after coming back. It's ridiculous.

He wasnt awful at all

urbaNRoots wrote:He was awful against Manchester United, but I don't blame him as he shouldn't even start so early after coming back. It's ridiculous.

I agree, Jack should be playing small amount of minutes. What if he gets injured again?

This what happens when a manager runs out of ideas. It has been month now we have been playing really bad and still no changes. What is he waiting for? RVP to come and save us again?

If is not working change it up, so many players playing out of position and it gives other players more work to do.

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:He wasnt awful at all

Really? It's not only my opinion, most of the people who watched the match thought so, anyway.

But I still think Jack should be a sub till he comes back properly. I think we can agree that he's nowhere near his best, yet and a fit Coquelin > unfit Wilshere.

I dont know know about most people, i rewatched the game on arsenal tv and the commentors agreed with me he was our best player.

I agree he is not near his best, but still better than coquelin.

Our best player? How about Mannone and Sagna?

Wilshere was easily flop of the match after Vermaelen, didn't win anything defensively and offered nothing offensively other than his short passing success which was still not convincing plus got a red card.

I love Wilshere as a footballer, but you have to admit he was one of our worst performers that match. And saying he was the best the player......