When Sami met Theo

By Boris Mellor
April 6 2010

It took four days for Lazarus to be raised from the dead, Arsene Wenger resurrected an Arsenal pronounced dead and buried by Alan Green after 60 minutes. Easter is a time of resurrection and Wenger is looking forward to more miracles at the Nou Camp.

 Whatever happened in the first 60 minutes of the first leg had little to do with strategy, unless Wenger told his team to stand off and give Barca all the space they needed. The fact that Cesc, Gallas, and Arshavin were all walking wounded did not help, but the main reason for the display was that the team froze. That was not in the script.

It has to be hoped that the team doesn't freeze this time around, miracles rarely happen twice and they will have to push up and press harder if they are to achieve anything in the second leg, 1-0 would do it, 2-2 will produce extra time.

Shuffle

Wenger has been described as lucky, perhaps he has been lucky, but you need a little luck to win something. However the long list of injuries the club is now suffering can hardly be described as lucky. He has wrapped Rosicky in cotton wool since his return but Wolves managed to injure him. Rosicky is now 50-50 which raises the question how big is the pack Wenger has to shuffle?

Most Callow Bench In Europe

He will have to cope without a spine of Gallas, Song, Cesc, Arshavin and RvP, assuming he starts with the best replacements he has available, including Nasri, he will have a bench that includes Eduardo, Merida, Silvestre, Traore and Eastmond. A sort of Dad's army for the CL, indeed if Eboue doesn't start it will be complete with its own Private Pike.

Walcott or Eboue?

The only position where there is real competition is on the right wing where Arsene will have to choose between Eboue and Walcott.  Ironically in the first leg he chose neither of them. I say ironically because both of them were probably Arsenal's best players in that game, along with Nik who provided two assists. What they both demonstrated is that Barcelona can be undone by pace. If Walcott can do 100 metres in 10.3 secs I wonder how long Eboue takes?

On Saturday Walcott started very well but faded towards the end. Some fans argued he had a poor game. It might be funny to make jokes about his imaginary friend in the box, but shouldn't the issue be the absent friends? Very few players got into the box for his crosses, and those that did were profligate.

Nasri can do a big job

Wenger has a headache over who should replace Gallas, but Cesc's replacement should be easier to decide on. Nasri has now hit a rich vein of form, and against Porto revelled in the role of midfield general, and like Cesc is now scoring on a regular basis.

The absence of Song might be a blessing in disguise; at least he won't be able to reprise his awful role alongside Vermaelen. Campbell and Silvestre are a concern, but surely they can't be worse against Barca than the Cameroonian? Don't answer that.

Arsenal have been written off before

Outside of Arsenal fans, very few give the Gunners any chance in this match, but then no one did before the Inter, AC, Real or Juve games. One thing is certain this will be a long 90 minutes, or even longer if the score reaches 2-2.

Possible eleven

Almunia, Clichy, Vermaelen, Campbell, Sagna, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri, Rosicky, Bendtner, Walcott