It’s far to say that Arsenal fans are extremely pessimistic heading into match day five of the Champions League, despite the fact that a victory tomorrow evening would secure the Gunners passage to the next round of the competition. Another defeat at the weekend, against Manchester United, once again highlighted the vulnerabilities of the back-line.
Although the general play of Arsenal improved and was decent to watch for the majority of the game, the end product was extremely lacking and it’s concerning that despite controlling the game for large chunks of the game, David De Gea was never called into too much troubling action. To beat Borussia Dortmund, this much change.
Arsenal will likely enjoy long spells of possession on the ball but we must put this to actual use, as statistics don’t win anything. We want to win the group and the only way to keep chances of that happening are to win tomorrow evening, so expect Arsenal to throw forward and threaten. That’s all well and good- but the concern is what happens when Arsenal don’t have the ball.
Borussia Dortmund may be struggling in the Bundesliga but they’re flying high in the Champions League and they possess a wealth of talent. They will try to exploit the defence on the break and will be encouraged by the recent showings from the Premier League giants. It’s highly unlikely that Arsenal will keep a clean-sheet in this one.
One thing Arsenal don’t have to worry about though is dealing with Marco Reus, as the German superstar is sidelined until January after a third ankle injury in five months. Nevertheless, Dortmund still have players capable of breaking through the Gunners weak defence- specifically the pace of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, which caused all sorts of problems during the first encounter between the two sides earlier this season.
A vital player for Arsenal will undoubtably be Alexis Sanchez, as he is the one player in our squad that seemingly has the drive to go forward and create chances, causing havoc for the opposition. The problem is Dortmund will know this and will try to keep Sanchez quiet and, whilst that’s nigh-impossible, Arsenal must have a back-up plan.
Unfortunately, this has been the case for the majority of the season and it doesn’t seem like Arsenal, or Arsene Wenger, have a back-up plan in motion. This is concerning and a poor result in this game could cause huge consequences, as it means Arsenal will have to travel to Turkey next month needing a result- which won’t be easy at all.
I don’t expect too much from Arsenal in this game but fortunately for us Dortmund have already qualified, so are likely to be happy with a point, which would be a decent result for both sides.