Arsenal v Dynamo Kiev Preview & Game Thread

By: travis | November 25th, 2008

Matchday 5 of the Champions League is upon us, and after a short respite, the nerves must be high for Gunners fans around the world. With title aspirations waning, competitions like the Champions League and the FA Cup seem to be the only likely sources for silverware this season. The record has been woeful as of late, with just one win in the past six fixtures - EPL and CL included. A victory, which would equal advancement into the knockout stages of the Champions League, a much needed shot in the arm for a struggling squad of youngsters.

I expect that the players will come out fired up, and look no further than Cesc. By his standards he hasn’t had a great season, and he much miss having decent, older players surrounding him in the midfield. I’ve glossed over a number of times about Flamini and Gilberto, so there’s no reason to talk about what ifs. A strong showing from the Spaniard, in his debut as captain, would do wonders for the team. And having a weaker opponent come to the Emirates, fans and players alike should be fired up. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of a game we see from Gallas. Having been demoted from the captaincy in the past week, will he sulk around the field or step up and act mature? He can still be a leader.

Aside from the game, Wenger fires out with some interesting remarks surrounding the world financial crisis affecting football:

“This Club has been pushed into the 21st century with a training ground, a stadium and a young team. It is in a very healthy financial situation and that is contrary to many teams we fight against. . . We are going towards a world where our healthy financial situation is already in place. We have a new team living in a new stadium and that will be much more important than anything else. People don’t realise that at the moment. They still live in dreamland and are spending more money but you don’t know what kind of world we are facing in the next 12 or 16 months.”

I think Arsene is banking on some massive problems hitting football, which would hopefully turn into success for the Gunners if they have all this youth sticking around. We’ll see what happens.

Time to focus on the game. Under three hours til kickoff. Thoughts before, during, and after the game welcomed and encouraged.