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Lukas Podolski says that while Bayern Munich might well be favourites to progress to the next round of the Champions League, Arsenal have the quality to make life difficult for them.
The German international made an unsuccessful move to the Bavarian giants earlier in his career, and although he’s well aware of their strength, he feels his new club have no reason for pessimism.
“”Bayern are favourites, no doubt about that,” he told Die Welt. “In two games we will have our chances to reach the next round. You can be sure, we will not sit and wait to find out what Bayern does. We have the quality to stand our ground against them.
“They are playing a sublime season. They are the clear number one in Germany and also are among the top two, three teams in Europe. It looks like they have decided the Bundesliga but they now face us in Champions League.”
His positive outlook was echoed by Wojciech Szczesny, who believes Arsenal have no reason to fear tonight’s opponents.
I don’t know why they should be favourites, I wouldn’t bet money on this one,” he said.
“I really wanted to avoid Barcelona. I would take any other team because I believe Barca are the best in the world. You want to avoid them because your chances are very small of beating them. Bayern is a very tough draw but it is a very exciting one.”
And the Polish stopper backed the team to give Gunners fans something to shout about later on.
“Arsenal supporters are always fantastic, especially on Champions League nights. It is always a bit more exciting and if we can match the atmosphere with the performance then we will have a good chance of getting a result.”
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Come on Lukas – time to stick it to your former employer, maybe 3 or 4 times.
The team needs to believe in their ability. Media thrives on negativity and criticism.
Yes, there are problems at the club which shouldn’t be swept under the carpet.
But we need to chuck it for a while and get behind the team.
I believe in Arsene Wenger – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUcvPZyDphY
What a montage! How can anyone not love Wenger!
COYG!
Although I genuinely question Wenger’s in-game management, there has been no doubt Wenger is one of the best things that happened to our club in the 21st century. He transformed the club into an international elite that plays beautiful football. The common source of our frustration is the fact Wenger set a new standard for the club and, instead of progressing, we are now regressing–7 years and counting.
It hurts. It hurts badly because this is a manager we have loved and trusted, but to see the same manager not live up to the standard he set, it’s hard, especially for those fans who tasted success of this club only in the early part of the 21st century.
It’s a rather tough time. I can’t help myself but believe now Wenger is putting everything he’s got, at least until 2014 when his contract expires, in laying foundation for the club’s long term success, preparing for the next era of sorts, for the next manager. I am frustrated with what I currently see on the pitch, but I also don’t believe Wenger is messing around or has lost touch entirely.
Big game today against the German giant. COYG
Cmon gooners frimpong those germans!
This is fucking humiliating fuck this
“Our chances are very small of beating them(barca)”?
what kind of attitude is that!? :/
A correct one…
Got a feeling Poldi will be well up for this game, unfinished business and all that.
I for one love Champions League knockout rounds, Bayern or Barca i can’t fucking wait, bring em’ on!
COYG
I like your optimism. To be fair though, we will be destroyed tonight.
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To all the posters who thumbed down my preediction….
Told you so….bwahahahahaha
COYG!
i want to trust wenger and tonight he has to prove his worth
shut up and do the talking on the pitch!!!!!!!!…
Spot on classy,chez does talk a load of old bollox.He is like the bendtner of goalkeepers.
We should play with plod and Theo up front.
I am sure za German will be on fire to prove his worth against his former team.
Let’s hope for him to score a couple for us. Maybe first brace in his arsenal career if I am not mistaking?
Well, Blackburn’s chances of beating Arsenal were supposedly very slim, so the team should take a leaf from Blackburn’s book (ok just one, not too many). Arsenal can do this.
Szcz: “I wouldn’t bet money on this one.”
I’d love to know which games he would bet money on.
The Emirates Cup?
PR stunt fail.praising barca will make bayern play hard to prove their worth. should’ve praised bayern for complacency to creep in them
I doubt most players give a fuck classy. Except ours that is…
What a name for a paper! ‘Die Welt’. I wish Dani Alves could ‘Die Welt’… Tony Pulis too…
what are you talking about? ‘Die Welt’ = The World
One more chance old fella prove me wrong please . COYG
Out of the blue, while getting ready for work today morning, I was listening to Punjab by Karunesh on youtube. He is also from Cologne, omens are our own boy from Cologne is going to rip Bayern apart!
That’s the type of (positive) energy we need! More of that please…
Crap blog today. Shame Arseblog hasn’t the bollocks to sustain his criticism in Wenger for more than 24 hours – but I guess that would go against the legions of sycophants he’s attracted to this site. Yesterday’s press conference was bloody awful. Ok, so The Sun printed some shit, like they do every day, and that was worth handling, but as for the rest of it, Wenger just came across as an arrogant tool. He’s fucking lost it on the pitch and now he’s losing it in public too. Goodbye Mr Wenger, your time is up.
How was the press conference awful? Have you ever worked for a company for 16+ years, giving it your all (& I don’t mean staring at your screen with hangovers). He has every right to be pissed and you as an Arsenal fan should be too. What’s more is that if he was content “winning the 4th place trophy” that “fans” like you harp on about, he wouldn’t have been so agitated.
The British press have always had one against Arsene and even more so now. The guy has given his life to Arsenal, transformed the premiership (alongwith Fergie) to the billion pound entity it is and grown Arsenal into a true global brand. He DESERVES some bloody respect. From the press but more importantly, from us, the fans – and especially from someone who calls himself Bergkamp.
Piers Morgan, no doubt. Until you start spending at least half as much time preparing for your interviews as you do shouting hyperbole about Arsene, keep your hypocrisy to yourself. PSG is more likely to win the FA Cup than you are the Pulitzer!
and, oops. My other comment was clearly directed at Bergkamp, not Brownman.
Change your name to Whiner! Most of the English press hates Wenger. You only have to see the treatment he gets compared to the rest of them be it ‘Arry, Fergie, Moyes, even Pulis. Don’t know why as he helped bring bloody good football into their league. I guess they still hate the fact that even this season Arsenal, when it hits a peak (no matter how brief), plays football that no other team in Engerland can match.
The press does not hate Wenger. What infantile, paranoid garbage. If anything they have been remarkably lenient with him. I’ve lost count of the times they have failed to make him accountable for his failures over the last five years. I’ve wanted tough questions asked, but they’ve bottled it time and time again.
When you lose at home to dirge like Bradford and Blackburn, the fans want and deserve answers and they want to see how Wenger will react to the criticism. That is only natural and applies to all managers and all clubs.
Now Wenger is getting a rough ride he can’t handle it. He thinks he should be some special case. He should let other people judge and get on with what he’s paid considerable sums of money to do. If he thinks he should be immune to criticism he should go find another job outside of football.
Bergkamp… You should check out Le Grove & Myles Palmer. I think you will find like minded fans on those sites that will agree with your views on Wenger and the club. I reckon this will lead to you having more productive discussions/responses coz you really come across as a Debbie downer on here…
In every aspects of life you need to put your foot down once in a while to make idiocy stop. You can be diplomatic, swallow a few camels and come across a nice guy, but we are human, aren’t we? It’s only fair to politely ask the hysterical dimwits to chill the fuck out every now and then.
I back Poldi to stuff a few in the onion bag tonight.. We have definitely got what it takes to win, we just need to play a well as we, the fans, know we can.
And if all else falls I’ll have my boots with me.
I have a feeling that gunners wont be on the losing side 2nite , at max it will be a draw
so COYG!
There is a letter to Dani Alves in another post. This is my letter for Arsene:
Dear Mr Wenger,
I love you. I have loved you since the double in 97, loved you during the season of the Invincebles and I loved you during the 5-6 years after we last won a trophy but when we still played great football and felt like a team that could beat anyone anytime.
I even love you nowadays, even though we most of the time play with the handbreak on, without urgency and often lack a little bit of sharpness in the final third.
But that is the thing that bothers me. Today I love you despite of a lot of things, yesterday I loved you because of a lot of things.
I would love for us to win a trophy together again, (I do not live in London anymore but I would definitely fly in too celebrate all night as I used to do while we had those partys more or less every year.) but that is not the point. The point is: I would like to feel that spark again. That spark where you think anything can happen. The spark where you know that no matter what the team will give absolutely everything.
Because sadly I do not feel that spark anymore. I still love you but more like I love my parents, or like I loved my ex girlfriend the last couple of years when we still lived together but tried our best not to touch each other to much.
Tonight we play Bayern Munich in the Champions League. I should be looking forward to tonight, counting the minutes until they play that music and I go into a nervous trance. But I am sad to say I do not feel it.
I would be willing to give this relationship another chance. But then a lot of things would have to change. Are you willing to make the changes required to make this work?
I will always love you and no matter what some people say about you I know that we will always have our love for THE Arsenal in common. But I am not so sure anymore that we should be together. Not unless you are willing to make some changes.
Yours,
Tony Adams morning breath
I see that I mistyped 97 when it should be 98 in the first paragraph. Shame you can`t edit your posts. Now maybe Arsene will think I don`t know what I am talking about…
Koscielny fit for tonight!
The absolute scumbags in the media are desperately trying to get everyone against us by saying the usual shit about how terrible we are and how evil our manager is because he hasn’t got 400 million or more in debt, but I think we should use their hatred to empower ourselves and unite. We are gooners, and we support The Arsenal! Even if we beat Bayern I know the cunts won’t retract the shit they’ve said, but at least we will know that for all their scarmongering and shit stirring they couldn’t break us.
RED ARMY!
Lukas to score tonight. Lu lu lu lukas podolski to be chanted and heard tonight. What better occasion for that chants against zee germans.
Good article contrasting the fortunes between Arsenal and Bayern Munich, worth a read.
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2013/2/19/4004228/arsenal-vs-bayern-munich-champions-league
I don’t think that is a worthy comparison at all.When the Emirates was built,we were just getting on the ladder alongside the elite clubs in the world whereas Bayern were the equivalent of Manure in their own league,winning pretty much every year.Also, they had recently won the Champions league which would have been massive in terms of controlling the debt of a new Stadium and getting better commercial deals.Imagine if say Valencia won La Liga next season and then decided to build a new stadium.Then contrast that with Chelsea deciding to build a bigger shithole, not really fair is it?
Also,they had actual investment into the team from the board whereas Arsene had to make do with a miniscule transfer budget year after year because the owners were unwilling to invest as, i think, Danny Fiszmann had back in the 90s.
What better team to score your first hat trick than bayern. I believe boateng is suspended tonight and van buyten might start. Hope we exploit that weakness by playing theo centrally.
He scores when he wants
He scores when he wants
Lu-Kas-Po-Dol-Ski
He scores when he wants
Arsenal For The Win!!!!
3-1 to arsenal..!!
#COYG
I’ll take any result as long as they don’t score.
Com’ on the gunners
Lets take the battle to those germans…. Ar supporters its our duty to cheer for whole 90 mins because 2nite the team offer our support
COYG
What a fucking disgrace. Good work Wenger, now we are the laughing stock of Europe and England.
It’s over, we’re out!
What an joke can’t even pass wtf
Looks like we are playing Barca away
i think its more like bayern is playing acrington away.
Shame they couldn’t have played like this against Chelsea last year, spinless nazi fucks!
Didn’t mean that, I’m sorry.
Just a bit down about my club, so I lashed out without thinking.
Say it as it is
Wenger beat by fucking golem
Wenger beaten by his own stubborness. How fucking predictable going out in two competitions in one week in February
Can’t watch much more I’m feeling fucking sick
What happened to our passing game?
Looks like Christy browns left foot!!!!!
Don’t know if I can be bothered with second half, I don’t enjoy this groundhog season shit anymore.
Might go watch a film or something.
Boos alround and and no way back unless we change things
Put in Rocisky for fucks sake take out ramsey and arteta!!!
Going to play dead space 3 because at least I can be shitting the trunks but its not reality
I’ve heard it’s not as scary as the previous 2.
It far better than the others
The shit being played is so obvious and of coz any “wenger out” comment gets a thumb up for 2 days until arseblog decides that we are all spuds… Fucking annoying
it aint arseblog, its those deluded fans that hide when we lose.
Can’t we support arsenal without supporting wenger?
For GOD’s sake its quite obvious he needs to bring in giroud, so walcott can go back to his position
Bring in the army it’s our only chance
Is written anywhere in the fifa rules that we can’t make changes until the 70th minute?
And you are talking about jack having arsenal DNA. If he were your brother would you want him to stay with a club that has zero ambition?
Therein lies the issue, Board involvement. Stan’s leadership, or lack thereof, has failed the Club. I feel like all he ever did was buy into shares cos a Premier League team looks good on his portfolio of sports clubs, and than he just sat there. I can’t think of another major club where the owner is this uninvolved. Wenger has been exceptional, change is needed at the top.