Napoli v Arsenal Preview

I fancy our chance here, Napoli defense has been abysmal recently, they rely heavily on outscoring opponents atm. An Udinese w/o Di Natale scored 3 and dominated at San Paolo, could have won if all the calls were correct so yeah definitely we have a shot.

The first goal will be so vital in this game. If Napoli get it, they'll have all the momentum and it'll be a very difficult night for us. If we get it, we'll silence the crowd and be in a good position to soak up the pressure and hit them on the counter as they get increasingly more desperate.

I think they'll start quickly and look to score early, so we need to be switched on from the start. When we're in possession, we need to be patient, keep it for extended periods and frustrate them. As Twoism says, their defence isn't the best, so there should be chances for us.

I want us to rotate a couple of players, but also want us to win the game because I feel it'll give us a good boost going into the City game. Although we'll still go through if we lose by less than three goals, I would still be very disappointed with the result.

Would like to see this team:

One crucial thing, Jenkinson & Gibbs really need extra protection here. W/o Hamsik, Armero and Maggio whipping crosses into penalty area for Hugain is Napoli main attack threat.

I'd like to see this team tomorrow, Koscielny I hope will be rested after a physical battle with Lukaku and no rest this season so far and if Wilshere is ready to start then I hope to see him start. The others are pretty obvious.

Knowing Wenger he'll play a stronger team than expected:

Imagine if we had Poldi/Ox against Maggio and Walcott against Armero... would've been too easy tbh. Thankfully Hamsik isn't available!

who do we end up facing should we finish the 1st and who would we face if we finish 2nd?

Great job Sam as always.

I would also love to see some rotation, hope to see Theo and Flamini starting.
Hopefully Sagna comes back for Man shity game.

If we finish first:

Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus/Galatasaray, Olympiakos, Basel/Schalke, AC Milan/Ajax/Barcelona, Zenit/Porto

If we finish second:

Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern Munich, Basel/Schalke, Barcelona/AC Milan, Atletico Madrid

Best win the group, I think.

We must win the group, I think only Juventus will be hard and hope we avoid them. Cant see Barcelona losing at home.

Olympiakos would be my pick if we finish first.

Great work Sam
would take the most boring goalless draw ever
just rest key players for City game and dont make it Chelsea all over again (as draw would do in this case,we lost to chavs with quite strong team)

obviously should start it strongly as Jay said
the more it goes on it the more frustrated they will get

its so much fun when in big game you are not stressed about your team in need to open scoring and i trust our defence to keep them at bay esp without Hamsik
although we had learnt how to nullify him anyway

lets hope we will have fresh team vs City

If we get complacent, Napoli could make it interesting, but I don't see us losing. Let's get a win and take some momentum into the game against City. COYG 

Great work Sam.

We don't need to think about avoiding a 3-0 defeat. That's poverty mentality. Why lose 2-0 and come 2nd to only face Bayern or Barca?

We go there and win. Give everything like always. They will attack us, which is nice since we can counter with Walcott.

We need to keep a highline since Higuain is playing and he needs to be outside the box as much as possible. No Hamsik for Napoli so their creativity is 50% down.

If you want an example on how we SHOULDN'T play tonight, just watch how Juve approached their game against Galatasaray. Jay summed it up when he said we must score first and as early as possible, that way momentum will be in our side, we can relax, defend and counter attack when Napoli throw bodies at us.

No Reina

RealGunner wrote:No Reina

Things just keep going more and more in our favour tonight. No excuses if we don't get a result.

Nah, Reina is a good GK but not a huge loss. The substitute Rafael is extremely talented. Reina was brought in to ease him in.

I really starting to regret out bet now.

Go easy on me RG.

When is Podolski getting back? I thought he was supposed to be back for the Everton game but I didnt see him on the lineups. Is he back for this one?

Back in training but not played in like 3 months so easing him in. Might be on the bench against chelsea next week

Higuain is going to score isn't he?

Arsenal: Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky, Cazorla, Ozil, Giroud

Subs: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Bendtner