Morning all.
The Arsenal are in Germany this evening for a Champions League encounter with Bayer Leverkusen. Not that long ago, the German club went through a season unbeaten in the Bundesliga under Xabi Alonso and with Granit Xhaka in the side. Alonso was widely tipped to go far in management so when Real Madrid came calling the following year, he jumped at the opportunity to manage such a big club. He didn’t last long in the Spanish capital though. Neither did Erik ten Hag, the manager who replaced Alonso at Bayer – two Bundesliga games and three competitive games in total to be precise. Kasper Hjulmand replaced him in September last year.
When Alonso left, Wirtz, Frimpong, Tah, Adil, Hradecky, Boniface and Xhaka left too. As did Hincapie who has fast become a key player for Arsenal.
Bayer sit in sixth place in the league and needed a playoff round to progress from the league stage of this competition after finishing 16 in the table but they still a side not to be underestimated. Yes, PSG thrashed them 7-2 but they defeated Man City 2-0 at The Etihad and drew 2-2 with Newcastle.
Like ourselves, Bayer have a number of players ruled out through injury. TransferMarket show wingers Seghir and Tella, keeper Flekken, defenders Bade, Schick and Arthur and forward Vazquez all ruled out.
The training photos on Arsenal.com bring positive news as Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Trossard and Havertz are all involved in the session so it looks like just Merino and Odegaard will be missing from tonight’s squad.
August 2024 was the last time these two sides met which was in a pre-season friendly. Goals from Zinchenko, Trossard, Jesus and Havertz earned us a 4-1 win. Not that anything can be taken from that game.
This match, along with the home tie next Tuesday means something very different and is of more importance. A place in the quarter-finals is on offer. An opportunity to play one of Sporting CP or Bodo/Glimt in the semis.
Mikel Arteta:
> When you start the second part of the campaign and you know what is at stake. We start to play games where you are in or you are out, there is no margin for manoeuvre, and we’re going to face a very difficult contest tomorrow against a really good team.
> The only thing you can take is game by game and try tomorrow to be better than the opposition and earn the right to win. We always talk about that. Obviously we play so many games in different competitions – in the next three games we’re going to play in three different competitions, against completely different opponents. You have to adapt to that.
Ideally, we would batter Bayer tonight and make the home game next week an easier one but at this stage of the competition it’s about managing the two legged tie as well as the actual game. Something we did well last season. Until we came up against PSG of course.
The big boys will be back tonight and they need to put in a big performance. Be smart, be switched on and be clinical when opportunities to score arise.
Catch up in the comments.