As we gladly archive the English Premiership, for now, we launch our attack to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League, something which I’m afraid should have been finalized against Fenerbahçe.

Needless to say, the papers have all been writing about the promotion to captain of Cesc Fabregas, who has been a shadow of himself this season. I’m not sure what to make of this, the Spaniard looks to be in need of a break, and I would have wanted Wenger to rest him ahead of the Chelsea match, instead he promotes him to captain: more responsability, more time on the pitch and more pressure. According to Wenger, this is a permament thing, but I’m not sure if he means next season as well.

But anyway, a lot can be found on Cesc in the papers as I’ve highlighted in the other post. Let’s therefore start by analysing the current state of form of our opponents. They won two of their last three domestic league matches, losing the big match against FC Shakhtar as they suffered their second domestic defeat of the season. Away from home we struggled to achieve a late equaliser but I hope in a different story today.

As for us, William Gallas will play despite having the captaincy taken away from him and it will definitely be an important test for the Frenchman. Elsewhere, Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby will not play after getting injured in training on Monday so expect some of the young ones to be called into action. Also injured are Kolo Toure, Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Eboue, Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna and Eduardo. Our team looks more like a hospital than a football team at the moment, but again, I believe we have the substitutes to do well. Needless to say, I hope to see Ramsey and Vela from the first minute as rumours say that Fran Merida will start.

A win will get us through, but will not guarantee us the first place as we’ll then have to face Porto away from home and that one won’t be as easy as it was at the Emirates. Arsene Wenger said ahead of the match:

It’s a good opportunity for us to show the team has strengths and ability. You know how the media works — you go from catastrophe to fantastic but real life is in between. The team is frustrated but it’s not all doom and gloom. We have a strong belief in our ability and we have a good opportunity to show that we care about the club and we believe in our strengths and we can qualify tomorrow.

Dinamo Kiev’s coach, Yuriy Semin, is uninterested of Arsenal’s so-called crisis as he focuses on his own grass:

The problems at Arsenal are their problems, it is not important to us. What will only be good for us is to play the best game we can, and the players realise that themselves. I think it will be a very difficult game.

Our group is very difficult because everybody is gaining points and every point will be important when deciding who qualifies. We came here to fight, to gain access to the next round and we are prepared for that.