Arsenal v/s AC Milan, Tuesday, 6th March 2012, 19:45 GMT

Rohit

Can we actually do it?

We are absolutely decimated by injuries at the moment.

I personally can't see us scoring 4 and shutting out Milan won't be easy either.

I don't think going out of the CL will do much harm mentally, if it had to the 4-0 would have been enough.

We have nothing to lose really, my only worry is the players giving so much in this game physically that we run the risk of a few more injuries. Watching the team today, i was thinking if they have half an eye on Milan.

Wenger doesn't have much of a choice in the kind of team he can pick but we also can't afford too many injuries. We have Spurs in our sights and winning this tie is highly improbable if not impossible.

Patters

We don't have many options. Arteta, Diaby, Benayoun, Ramsey, Gibbs all out. This is the best team we can name:

....................................Szczesny....................................

Sagna...........Vermaelen..........Koscielny............Jenkinson

Walcott................Rosicky.........Song...................Oxlade

.....................Van Persie.........Gervinho.........................

YounGunner

Go 3-5-2. Milan offer little width anyway and we need to go for it.

----------------------Gervinho----------Van Persie

-----Chamberlin-------------Rosicky------------------Walcott

------------------Arteta------------------Song-----

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

------------------------Szez---------

squallkid

If we manage to go through from this tie then our name is on the European Cup. That won't happen though as I don't think anyone has ever overturned a 4 goal deficit in champions league history.

We would need milan to get a few players sent off while simultaneously putting in the best performance of wenger's reign.

With that said I think we'll win 2-1, milan won't really exert themselves here as the tie is already won.

Ricky1985

I think we'll win, but not quite do enough.

Timbob

Going for a 2-2.

Xcdude24

I honestly think we should rest as many first teamers as we can. It's a bit defeatist, but all our energy should go to the league at this point, and we sure as hell can't afford any more injuries.

Claudius

Agree with the X-rated dude.
Could care less about this tie. We should field enough players to avoid a mishap, and give some promising people a run out.
Certainly, van Persie at a minimum should rest if he's okay with it. If he eagerly wants to play in Europe, let him.

y va marquer

Enough players to avoid a mishap?
They thrashed us with most of our first team available in Milan.
We need to win this, we have to have some pride.
Can't accept that we get beaten twice by them, which we would be if we drop key players.
All first teamers who are 100% fit must start.

Mirth

Play the best 11 but no unnecessary risks, it is slightly humiliating to rest players in the second leg even though we logically should give up. Those players fucked up and they ought to go out there and make amends because we've got to instil the right mentality in the players which we've lost over the years.

y va marquer

General Mirth wrote:
Play the best 11 but no unnecessary risks, it is slightly humiliating to rest players in the second leg even though we logically should give up. Those players fucked up and they ought to go out there and make amends because we've got to instil the right mentality in the players which we've lost over the years.

Exactly.
It would be a complete disgrace to raise the white flag and begin with an unnecessarily weakened starting XI.

Ricky1985

Best team, big effort, restore some pride. Sounds good.

Claudius

It would also allow us to rest people going into the business end of the season. Our squad is decimated by injuries (thank god we loaned out Arshavin when we did without replacing him) and we are in a precarious position for 4th. This game is meaningless. At 3-0, I'd still think it worth a fight. If we win 5-1, we're still knocked out. Rather than teach the guys a lesson by making them run around with mean mugs on Tuesday, just tell them they owe you a Top 4 position and focus their energies on that positive endeavor.

squallkid

We can't go out there with a weakened team and get mauled in front of our own supporters, that would kill all the momentum and destroy all the belief we got from the wins against the scum from tottenham and the merseyside scum.

We go out there with our strongest team and if we lose by the odd goal that's the way it goes but wenger is not going to embarass the club and the supporters who will pay money to go to the game by playing the reserves.

The fans know it's virtually impossible to go through but if they leave the comfort of their homes to go the stadium to watch us then they should be greeted by the first team because it's their fault that we're 4-0 down in the first place, we were poor from top to bottom in milan and the first teamers need to give something back to the fans.

Ray

We have nothing to lose but pride, i think we will score but also concede so i think maybe 2-1 to us ,or maybe to torture us we might score 3 then concede 2

YounGunner

6-1 to us, you heard it here first.

tazmania

Here's the deal, everyone sacrifice something the night before and we'll win it 5-0. It's pretty simple really.

Mirth

Claudius wrote:
It would also allow us to rest people going into the business end of the season. Our squad is decimated by injuries (thank god we loaned out Arshavin when we did without replacing him) and we are in a precarious position for 4th. This game is meaningless. At 3-0, I'd still think it worth a fight. If we win 5-1, we're still knocked out. Rather than teach the guys a lesson by making them run around with mean mugs on Tuesday, just tell them they owe you a Top 4 position and focus their energies on that positive endeavor.

Yes, but if you made that decision as a manager you would get murdered by the press, by the players, by the fans and by UEFA.

y va marquer

Murdered. And rightly so.
What's point in the desperate pursuit of fourth place if we wimp out of the CL because we're saving our players because we're scared we won't qualify for next years CL?
It would be farcical.

Nela

So true Y va.

I'd like to see OX and Gervinho start. We need players who can carry the ball and dribble past opposition players. AC Milan will sit so Theo's pace won't be of much use.