Without wishing to tempt fate, it’s difficult to see any scenario in which Arsenal don’t qualify for the next round of the Champions League tonight.
Nothing can or should ever be ruled out and nobody wants to appear arrogant but the deficit facing our Dutch visitors is so great that it would require the sort of capitulation that simply doesn’t happen at this level.
You might rightly point to what transpired in the Netherlands as evidence that it can be done but in back-to-back matches? with the chasing team away from home? with a defence as good as Arsenal’s? It doesn’t seem realistic.
Despite all that, however, the Gunners must look to find some fresh motivation to ensure the unthinkable doesn’t happen. Not only that, they need to find a way to fire themselves up for the remainder of this competition, the only realistic chance they now have of claiming some silverware in this campaign.
Bigger tests await and lord knows the Gunners need to keep the fires burning to ensure a damp squib of a league campaign doesn’t fizzle out entirely and then bleed into our European campaign. That means full focus on tonight.
With relatively few games on the horizon, I suspect the manager might avoid too much change to the side that came up short against Manchester United. There are some options for rotation in the midfield and defensive thirds and, if he’s going to rotate anywhere, my guess is it will probably be there.
Perhaps there is scope for Declan Rice to drop to the bench for Jorginho, while Ben White, Jakub Kiwior, Kieran Tierney and Oleksandr Zinchenko could all feature across different areas of the back line too. Further forward, however, I wouldn’t bank on too much change.
Gabriel Martinelli’s return to the squad is welcome and timely but it would seem foolish to rush him back into the starting line-up with more important games to come. Raheem Sterling, meanwhile, seems to be no more than a name on the squad list at this point. I understand to an extent but I also struggle to believe that he is so bad the manager’s only option is to experiment with various left backs in advanced positions. He has to be better than that or why on earth did we bring him into the club?
In any event, if the team really is struggling to find its feet after a disappointing month, they need look no further than Liverpool’s exit at the hands of PSG for fresh impetus. There are huge tests still to come, that’s even if we make it beyond PSV, but the opportunity presented by Liverpool’s defeat should not be overlooked. We’ve already shown this season that we are good enough to beat the French champions and I would rather two legs against them than Liverpool on any day of the week. I think the manager might just agree with that too.
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