No Cole but a Reyes of light. Real preview


Celebrate?

By Boris Mellor
February 20 2006

Arsenal will travel to Real without Cole, Bergkamp or Robin van Persie. On the plus side Walcott and Reyes are available. So there is some good news.

 Whatever the result (Arsenal are clearly the underdogs) it must not be forgotten that this is a two leg fixture where away goals count double. Real Madrid has acquired new signings and a new coach since their pre New Year slump. They are now rampant.

 

I find it hard to believe that Arsenal can keep a clean sheet at Real, but I am all for being pleasantly surprised. To discuss Wigan may be from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the lesson must be learnt. We didn’t go out because of what happened at Highbury, we went out because the Gunners fired blanks at Wigan. One goal at Wigan would have seen us through. So what’s the point? The point is the Arsenal must get at least one goal in Spain.

If we can come back with one away goal and they have two we could still do it. Especially on a nice cold night pishing down with rain and all our strikers back. Wistful thinking? Maybe – but it’s worth a try. The alternative is to play like we did at Liverpool and concede without reply. I know which I prefer

 

Full squad:

 

Jens Lehmann
Abou Diaby
Robert Pires
Freddie Ljungberg
Jose Antonio Reyes
Alexander Hleb
Thierry Henry
Cesc Fabregas
Mathieu Flamini
Alexandre Song
Gilberto
Philippe Senderos
Manuel Almunia
Emmanuel Eboue
Kolo Toure
Sebastian Larsson
Theo Walcott
Johann Djourou


 

 

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