The Fact Is Arsenal Need 3 Goals Tonight

PSV Eindhoven will score tonight.

And Arsenal will have to give one of the performances of the season so far to progress to the next round.

PSV are one of those European teams who are efficient, organised and generally under-rated and that was our downfall in the first leg when we conceded the lead in Holland.

Would we have been so sloppy if we were against Real Madrid, Barcelona or AC Milan?

And a big problem is that in Heurelho Gomes they have a goalkeeper who is immense. Arsenal will have to be super-clinical if they are to beat him tonight.

How many times have we seen this before? Arsenal have dominated at home and remain undefeated, but we have a problem (or possibly curse) or conceding at the Emirates.

Matthew Taylor, Rafael van der Vaart, Denny Landzaat and Shabani Nonda are just some of the players who have pulled out spectacular goals when Arsenal have been seemingly in the driving seat.

So Arsenal will have to be careful.

PSV can sit back and they will get chances to steal a goal on the break and even if Arsenal score they still know one goal will settle the tie.

But even though I think PSV will score, I still believe that Arsenal have enough at home to progress – and we have a knack of putting the pressure on late in games at the Emirates, just like against United, Wigan and Spurs in the Carling Cup.

The big news is that Thierry has been considered fit enough to start tonight if Wenger sees fit. Only Wenger knows if Henry can do a job tonight and I’m sure his decision hasn’t been helped by the long-term injury to Van Persie and the lack of finishing from Baptista and Aliadiere against Blackburn last week.

Eboue and Hoyte are out, so it looks like Djourou will fill in at right back. Senderos, Flamini and Rosicky are also out so you would expect Freddie and Hleb to play on the wings tonight and stretch a defensive PSV side. Toure returns from domestic suspension and will play alongside Gallas with Clichy on the left.

Diaby is also in the squad but with Freddie’s clinical finishing you would think the Swede would start tonight despite just coming back from injury recently.

Gilberto is expected to go back into midfield after a couple of games at centre-back and scored a good headed goal against Reading at the weekend and I have a feeling that we’ll need his aerial presence tonight!

Walcott, Baptista and Aliadiere are all in the squad as well but you would expect Thierry’s dancing partner Adebayor to start against Eindhoven. He has so much energy, can create all sorts of problems and hopefully it will be one of those nights where the front two click.

Arsene recognises that we have to be ruthless when we’re presented with chances, and lets hope we’ve been saving our goals for tonight after missing numerous chances against Blackburn, Chelsea and PSV in the first leg.

There is no doubt Arsenal will create enough chances tonight – but will they take them?

 

16 thoughts on “The Fact Is Arsenal Need 3 Goals Tonight

  1. Giberto scored through a well taken penalty against reading and not a header as you posted.
    Just thought to correct that.

     
  2. Gilberto scored a penalty against Reading not a header. Also it’s not a FACT that we need to score 3, we need to score 2 to progress in normal time and 1 to take it to extra time.

     
  3. Dude you got it right on the money….I’m really worked up about the match tonight. Don’t even wanna think about the result…just hope we manage to get through…anyhow!!!!!! If TH14 can get us through this, I will nominate his number to be retired…actually anyone who steps up to the plate will be a legend for Arsenal. Hope we get it right!!! Come on you Arsenal!!!!!!

     
  4. When did gilberto score a headed goal this weekend?? I thought you were Arsenal 4 Life? Surely you would have known it was penalty..did you even watch the game?

     
  5. yes perhaps freddie’s goal threat will see him sneak ahead of Diaby. maybe if we get a couple fo goals up Diaby will come on to sure things up and dominate the midfield.

     
  6. hehehe…leave it guys…tonight’s match…thats whats eating me right now…gilberto scored a pen…a nervous one at that…but we’ll take them anyway…can’t wait for the match to start!!!

     
  7. over the last few years Arsene has preferred to play freddie…even though he’s a little slower now, its easy to notice that he’s perfectly synchronized with henry. As in, the timing of the pass, the runs and all. You could see that the timings were slightly off in the match against Reading, while he was breaking forward with the Beast n a few other newcomers.

     
  8. Ali, did you even read the article?

    I just hope Arsenal don’t concede tonight because we’ll be in big trouble especially against a really negative PSV Eindhoven!

    Tonight is judgement day for Arsenal…

     
  9. It will need a performance like the 4-0 away where Gilberto scored the fastest goal. They’ll need to control then game, and starve PSV of te Ball. Hassle them in the middle of the park so that they seldom reach our penalty box.

    It’s a classic case of having to defend from the front. It’ll have to be finished in the 90 minutes too, because we can’t afford to let it go to Penalties.

    It’s just a shame that Flamini is not fit, because I think he’d have been perfect to slot in to the right back spot, and do a good defensive job.

    What is needed though is support. We need to get behind the team, and give them the belief that they can do it!

     
  10. Whilst its not a fact the Arse need to score three goals, I do believe we need to aim for AT LEAST 3 goals, cos otherwise one late slip and we are out… and we are pretty good at giving away that one goal start to the opposition. Hopefully we will get the goals, we do after all have a mass of firepower, but I feel we are balancing on a knife’s edge with this game.

    GOONERS! GOONERS!

     
  11. I’m not sure we should risk TH14 if he’s not fully fit. Infact i think it will make it easier for the PSV defence to cope with us if he plays because let’s face it we do tend to overplay when he’s in the 11 lately.
    I do hope we get an early goal and that Wenger gets his tactics spot on cos Koeman certainly will. For once i would like the boys to shoot on sight and hope for a rebound cos God knows we could do with a few scrappy goals especially tonight.
    Very nervy night at the Emirates but i see a 4-1 Arsenal
    Come On you Gunners!!!

     
  12. I’d play Diaby instead of Freddie tonight. We need to be creative and I think Diaby has more ability to create chances than Freddie. We can always bring him on if we’re still chasing a goal.

    Also, Thierry has to start. It’s pointless bringing him off the bench because if he gets injured then we’ve lost an option.

    We have to start at a high tempo and really get at them early on, if the game is played at a slow pace it will suit PSV down to the ground.

    Anyway, here’s hoping the boys can pull it off!!!

     
  13. Good point about Diaby because he was impressive against Chelscum and arguably we lost our creativity when he came off. Plus he’d give us some extra weight in midfield alongside Fabregas and Gilberto.

    Ljungberg would be a good option for Arsenal in the second half if they’re still chasing a goal. Diaby would also cover the defense with Gilberto against a team that will want to nick a goal.

    Not sure about Henry though, but I suppose we won’t know until first 45 minutes are over to see whether it was a mistake or not. Does anyone know what his injury problems have been? Was it his ankle or a hamstring?

     

Leave a Reply to goonerbosco Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.