The Game

I’ve never felt so good about Arsenal, not this season at least, and how can you blame me, we’re on a roll, van Persie is on fire and today we can secure a place in the next round of the Champions League.

A lot has been said and a lot has been done this season but as it’s almost always the case in football, all one has to do is to stop thinking about the past and look forward, look forward to a future that for us Gunners looks bright and positive, although of course one should not forget that as Arsene correctly said, there’s still room for improvement.

We today host a Marseille side that just like us is on a positive run having won their last three games so it seems that today’s game will be a nice game of football in which both teams are after the three points.

In my preview I considered resting a number of players like Gervinho and Aaron Ramsey but to be honest I completely forgot that a new break will soon be upon us so maybe we should insist with the same line-up, get as many wins as possible and then use the break to rest some players who will not be involved with their respect national teams.

Because ultimately, indeed, if we get all three points today we will consolidate our first place in Group F, probably reach the next round as group winners and be in a position to afford the luxury to use players from the bench in our last game.

So come on Gunners, show us that we mean business in Europe as well on a day that will see Borussia Dortmund host Olympiakos Piraeus in the Group’s other game.

And, until you wait for kick-off, check out Arsene Wenger’s comments in which he indeed stresses the importance of improving as Chelsea was yes a good win but there’s still room for improvement as also, always according to our manager, the area in which Laurent Koscielny improve compared to last season.

As always, please do join the discussion in our chat room which will also be active after the full time whistle. You will be glad to know that from this season, to provide a better chat experience to our readers, users can be banned if they post offensive comments.

Streaming Links

For those who don’t know where to watch the game, maybe we can help, follow this link for streaming options. Links are updated before and during the match.

The Line-Ups

Arsenal

Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Arteta, Walcott, Ramsey, Gervinho, Park

Subs: Fabianski, Koscielny, Rosicky, Djourou, Arshavin, Benayoun, van Persie

Olympique Marseille

Coming Soon

Subs: Coming Soon

Half-Time Thoughts and Analysis

As the chat room has grown in popularity, my half-time thoughts as well as the comments of other Arsenal fans are now being discussed in the Arsenal Interactive chat room to which you can find a link at the bottom of this page. Please feel free to join the fun and share your point of view.