I love being in the Champions League. Even without the need to qualify, it’s one of the first games of the season. The rush to the stadium on a late summer’s evening, the excitement at hearing the unsingable Champions League anthem. ‘These are the champions’ or whatever the words are – it doesn’t matter what they are, we’re in the Champions League and that’s very special.
We expect to be there. It’s an exclusive club. Even in the past four years when it’s been possible for some lesser club to take our place (you know the one), I’ve always believed we’d qualify. I’ve bet other gooners we’d qualify. I’ve never collected, I was always just delighted that once again we’d claimed our rightful place amongst the cream of Europe’s élite clubs.
This season, barring a real disaster, we’re not worrying about whether we’ll qualify for 2011, but who we’ll face in the quarter finals this year. We can go all the way as we did in 2006, and that belief stems from the desire and yes Arsène’s much quoted ‘team spirit’ – our boys have come of age. We won’t be a pushover for any team in the next round and I expect most will fear us.
Last season, we had signed Arshavin, but couldn’t play him as he was cup-tied – remember the FA cup semi when he was ‘rested’ apparently to show the other players that they could win without him! This season he will be our ‘not-so secret’ secret weapon. The omens are good. We have players that opposition teams across Europe will fear – Cesc, AA, Nasri, Rosicky, Theo, Vermaelen and even Nikki qualifies after his hat-trick against Porto last week. The possibility that van Persie will play some part in the final stages is encouraging too.
Only the mancs will be thinking that we are a soft touch. The boss has said he’d be happy to be drawn against manure, and there are those amongst us who agree. I’m not so sure, let someone else knock them out – I’m sure Mourinho would love to oblige.
After last night’s results, the eight quarter finalists are: Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, CSKA Moskow, Manu, Lyon, Barçelona and Bordeaux. There are no easy ties at this stage, we will have to beat whoever we are drawn against. CSKA would seem to be the weakest opponents, but what a message we’d send out if we beat one of the favourites.
If the fairy tale is to continue, then the bigger teams will be saved for the final showdown. I’d prefer not to play Barçelona in this round – a game against Barçelona should surely be the final at the 80,354 seater Santiago Bernabéu. It would be our chance to right the wrong of the 2006 final. TH14 played for us that night in Paris and some believe he missed a sitter that could have won us our first CL title. He won his CL medal last year with Barça and is not the player he was when wearing the red and white.
So tomorrow the draw will be made. The theory that M Platini would like to see an end to the dominance of English teams in recent years will be surely tested. If we are drawn against the mancs, many will suspect that it’s too much of a coincidence. – me, I wouldn’t mind a trip to Inter or Lyon in this round, but whoever we draw, I say ‘BRING IT ON’ – we have nothing to fear.
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
good post rasp
like rooney said last year
“he had a dream of playing in white v barca”
i think this is why we have the white kit this year
for playing in the santiago v barca.
We’re on our way…..
A peaches post….what a pleasure.
My choice in order of preference would be
Bordeaux
CSKA
Lyon
Bayern
Inter
Manu
Barça
Morning RSD,
I’ll take the credit for the graphic, but the rest is all peaches work 😉
thought it was a bit fluffy round the edge’s 😉
i think inter is the one i most fear
bore the shit out of you then hit you on the break
the new kit has been leaked have you seen it?
Morning London,
For some reason, I have a feeling we’ll get Inter. Maureen’s tactics against the chavs were spot on, but I reckon we can beat them – particularly if we’re away for the first leg. I’d quite like to see Barca get the mancs – and win decisively.
if we can play with width and split the their two DM’s we might have a chance v inter
Inter beat Bayern twice in the group stages. I fancy we will get United in the semis and if we progress to the Final against Barca all the locals would be on our side.And I can get tickets from the RM shirt sponsors BWIN.
Super Article Peaches, couldnt agree more you have summed it up precisly.
Dont think we need fear anyone. Respect yes, fear no, Its our year.
Morning kelsey,
Remember who your friends are when you get tickets for the final 😳
Morning dandan,
I believe peaches is out this morning so can’t respond to comments until later.
I’d hope we treat all teams with respect including the upcoming premiership games. It appeared that when we dropped points to lesser teams at the start of the season, we thought all we needed to do was turn up! We now know how that every game from now onwards is vitally important.
Hi guys…
Excellent article, we just have to believe. I know I do…besides, just imagine how much stick I can give all the mancs and chavs supporters!!!
Some say TH14 never turned up in big games but his record of 50 goals in 109 CL games isn’t exactly bad.
Anyone know if it is just a pot luck draw or are certain teams drwan either at home or away first.having the second leg at home is usually an advantage.
My understanding is that it is pot luck.
Nice post peaches.
I really can get tickets for any matches at Real Madrid, how many I don’t know. So fingers crossed.
very true mate have been just been playing predict a the champions on the bbc website
i left out the game that could go either way
if stoke and the dippers can do us a favour
just get a point off utd & pensioners
we can nick it by 1 point
even if they win every thing else
really kelsey can i book the flight then
i got done by my tout for paris
had to watch it outside the ground
through a window on a 12″ screen
in the rain
dandan this might interest you, a coloured photo of George Armstrong
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&source=hp&q=george+armstrong+arsenal&meta=&aq=1sx&aqi=g-sx10&aql=&oq=geaorge+armst&gs_rfai=&fp=7af73
Welcome Wearegoonersgonemad,
We’re bound to stutter at some point, be it in the prem or CL. I think the resilience is far stronger than in recent years and this time we have the key players coming back at the important stage rather than losing them when most needed. I hope Cesc is allowed to recover fully this time as his hamstring is a recurrent problem. We should have enough to beat wham without him.
Morning all, I’d like us to get Bordeaux in the Q/F then the winner of Lyon/CSKA in the S/F. That leaves the Manks to play Inter then the winner of that game to play the winner of Bayern/Barca.
That would be sweet, in fact it would be just peachy
Come May, if we are in the Final I’d of liked to have dismissed Barca in the quarters and Utd in the Semis and face CSKA in the final..
Tomorrow however, I hope Barca and Utd are on the other side of the draw to us 😉
That’s the draw I’d like Livers – I reckon we’ll get Bayern next then the Manks in the semis. I don’t follow this “We might as well beat Barca and the Manks early as we’ll have to beat the best to win the CL” – no, Porto beat Monaco to win their CL Trophy and nbo one says “OK Porto won the CL but they only beat Monaco in the final so the trophy doesn’t really count”.
I just want to keep our CL run going as long as possible as success breeds success.
Hi Livers, chary,
Shhhhhh….. if we draw Barca tomorrow, I’ll expect fighting talk 👿 We can beat the best to win it too 😛
Hello Raspers, yes we’ll show no fear if we do get Barca, but the pragmatist in me would prefer the “percentage” draw.
least barca will play against us unlike inter
rright must gets some work done
always a pleasure….
Me too chary if I’m honest. I’m reminded though of how we outplayed the mancs at OT at the start of the season and lost to a superbly executed OG by Diaby. Manu, like the chavs have a ‘mental edge’ over us. I wouldn’t be too upset if Messrs. Rooney and Messi picked up minor injuries to keep them out to the end of the season.
The words to the Champions League anthem go something like:-
We love Sepp Blatter
We love Sepp Blatter
We all love our hero, Sepp Blatter.
At least, it must be something like that, as it was his idea!
Let’s hope for the Shrek to get Masched by Masceranho on Sunday Raspers; it’s about time he got his pre tournament broken metartarsal methinks.
😆 aj
I get the impression that the governing body of UEFA is about as corrupt as the IOC – or ‘jobs for the boys’ at the very least.
On that subject, I remember seeing a documentary that exposed the ‘bribery’ in the form of free gifts, holidays etc etc that is involved in choosing Olympic venues – I wonder if that plays a part in deciding the hosting of CL finals. The Emirates is the obvious choice in London – I wonder how far Ivan goes to smooch with the power brokers?
I would think that neither United or us would want to draw Inter based solely on the Mourinho factor.
As I diodn’t get a reply I presume the draw is fixed I mean pot luck. But why do they draw the quarter final and semi finals together.There must be a reason, but I don’t know why.
afternoon gang
spring is truly in the air 🙂
champs league draw on the horizion, push for the title at the business end..
cigars at the ready, remy martins in hand… life is sweet.
Rasp,
I mentioned a while back on another site that my friend who is a director of BWIN also represents all the bookmakers in Gibraltar(and all the big names are there.)with regards to peculiar betting patterns on football matches throughout Europe, in meetings with platini and blatter. it has already been proved the corruption of refs in germany and italy and some of the UEFA officials are involved as well. This is a momentous problem and usually non high profile matches are targeted where millions are bet, most of the money coming from Asia.
It may just be cost cutting/expedience kelsey. Representatives of the clubs involved attend the draw, so it would seem crazy to make it 2 draws when it can all be achieved in one sitting.
That is very interesting and exceedingly worrying kelsey – plenty of stuff there for your next headline post 😉 – or even a paragraph for Rant Friday
far eastern gambling rackets are here to stay, go back to the 90’s with that spate of premierhsip games being called off with floodlight faults..
the grobbelear stuff.
betting exchanges have massively opened up easy money for these people.
i know of people of make thousands a week, from little tips offs about certain horses that might not be quite ready to run 😉
it’s impossible to prove, look at the kieron fallon/ballindger ridge case.. went all the way to the high court and got struck out..
Not much going on today except future speculation.
I agree with London’s list of choices.
Hmmm, I just see our re-arranged game with Spuds will be the 14th April if they get to semi of FA….
Was banking on title win at WHL again… oh well
“an endless calf injury”. The Frenchman has missed the last six games with the problem and will sit out at least two mor games. So said AW today about William Galls.
Peachesgooner, the Champions League Anthem is one of my favorite tunes of all times. Whoever came with it was very creative
hey you guys and gals, let me know what you think of my new blog http://socceropera.blogspot.com/
SH,
as it’s Cheltenham Festival week, and we both obviously like and know about horse racing, here’s a little story but absolutely true.
I also had connections and I was told in the december before the 1988 Festival to back Kribensis for the Triumph Hurdle( who had never jumped a hurdle in public) and double it up with Charter Party for the Gold Cup. Both were ridden by Richard Dunwoody(the leading jockey of his time)
Both were freely available at 33/1.So i backed them as singles and an each way double ante post.
Both ran on the Thursday the last day of the meeting, and Dunwoody hadn’t ridden a winner at the Festival.
Both obliged and the return was enormous, never to be forgotten.
What do I think of your blog Nemasis…..confusing was the word that sprung to mind as I tried to decipher what was going on.
That’s it I can’t wait any longer I have to talk about Saturday’s game. Song is back, nicely rested and ready for the run in. Can someone tell me how the card system works? That’s to say if he get another yellow does he miss another two games?
Kelsey – blimey, that’s some double
almost 1,100 /1
!!
Golf and horse racing……both as mysterious as each other to me.
London. Song got the extra 2 game ban for 10 yellow cards. He will automatically be “severely censured and warned about his future conduct”. Which given Kevin Davies’s record is a bit of a joke!
If Song reaches 15 yellows in a season he will incur a 3 match ban. If 20, he will get another 3 match ban and have to go in front of the FA Disciplinary Committee, where he will be given a cup of tea, some Rich tea biscuits and told to stop being a naughty boy
Hopefully this link will work.
Taken from Gunnerbog (thank you) it is supposed to be our kit next season, and I have to say, it looks great. Be even better if it was made from cotton …..
BR,
Arseblog had the same photo yesterday. Could it be, or is it a wind up.
Hello raddy – what have you done?
It is a classic Kelsey, but would Emirates allow us to give them so little space on the shirt?
Thinking of which – are AFC so needing of money to allow a Ukrainian Dating site to advertise on their homepage? What next …..
Where Peaches?
Hi kelsey – how are you?
Glad everyone enjoyed the post and thanks for your kind comments.
Here I am…………. I’ve had such a busy day…..
@big raddy do your reakon there AA girls 🙂
evening all
Hope it was a fun and worthwhile day.
Mine was spent forcing my brain to accept the unacceptable.
But AA instills a sense of normality. Have we enough rants for tomorrow?
Evening RS.
Perhaps – better ask Peaches.
i’ve seen these picture to but if you compare them to the 25 years in the community pics they could be real.
http://bit.ly/cz1yqA 125 years
http://bit.ly/bZjJ43 probable new kit
Can you ever remember a time when the leaked photo turned out to be the kit that was used the following season?
I have to take two friends on a no expense spared weekend break and can I think of anywhere to go. Istanbul: flight too long. Granada: no airport near.
Madrid 22nd……hmmmm…..could I get away with it?
no, but one can dream….
pool nicely tuned up to nick a draw on sunday.
This is a poor Liverpool team. Very fortunate to be beating a very ordinary Lille.
We live in hope that the Dippers can get a point at OT, but from what I see, they haven’t got a prayer.
Top performance from Fulham though.
We clearly disagree SH 🙂
with torres in the side, they can certainly score goals.
with mascherano in the side, they can certainly break down midfield control.
against their real rivals, manure, they can certainly get a result on sunday.
They will be in my prayers SH.
But had Lille any strikers whatsoever, they would have got a result tonight
i wrote about torres and liverpool finding some form ahead of sunday’s game, on my blog on monday morning.
in the last 4 days, liverpool have scored 7 goals, 4 of them have been scored by fernando
he is deadly when on form, he will score at old trafford.
mornign all
Morning RS.
Looking forward to today’s rants.
Strange to read that Aaron Ramsey has refused to contact Shawcross. Could it be that Shawcross is lying about his contact by sms – how would he have AR’s mobile no.?
Maybe he wrote tp AFC box-office, because if he did the message has no chance of arriving at it’s destination!
Morning all,
I think I will leave my rants until after the draw 😉
I fancy us being drawn against one of three teams starting with the letter B
Morning all
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