Arsenal vs. AC Milan Preview: The Big One 3 March, 2008

Excited isn’t the word. I’ve got to get up in 5 hours to start my journey to Milan and I’m still up getting any late team news and writing this early preview for you guys. When you read this though, I’ll be just boarding my plane into Milan, I’ve put a timer on this so it’ll come out in the morning. Wow, you guys are all like in the future, what’s Monday like? Wow.

Anyway, it’s the second leg and it’s all perfectly balanced at 0-0 from the first leg. We should be 1-0 up at this point if it weren’t for a certain crossbar but I’m not too bothered; If Milan were 1-0 down I think they would be more up for this than at 0-0.

They have to defend, but at the same time they need to score. If we get a goal tomorrow night then they’re in trouble. However saying that, we need to score too, but because it’s away that goal would be so much more important. Both teams will be cautious, yet dangerous at the same time, it’s set up to be a great game.

We were the better team in the first leg, I don’t think I’m being bias there. We were very unlucky to not get a goal at Ashburton Grove and I suppose Milan might feel a bit lucky at not conceding. They know that we will be a threat, and a goal would be a big blow. If they score first, it doesn’t really matter, we still have to score anyway as a score-draw would take us through.

I’m quietly confident to be honest with you. We’ve produced on the big stage before and I believe we can do it again. The score? I seriously have no idea, it could actually be anything. If we go a goal or two up Milan will have to attack and we could score more on the break. Or, Milan could completely out-class us and teach us a lesson. I think at this point, the draw is the best bet though.

If we can get a goal at the San Siro, that would be amazing. We’re not going to go all guns blazing though, we particularly want to concede either; but as I mentioned earlier, if we went 1-0 down early on it wouldn’t really change our game plan.

The team news is quite good, no new injuries to report. Eboue is back from the weekend, Diaby is back as you know, Toure might be back, I think Djourou is fit again and van Persie might even travel to Milan:

“At the moment we need to get our players back. We have Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie who are out and in the context of today you would like to have those players with you and hopefully we can get them back very quickly.”

“He (Van Persie) might be in squad for Tuesday but certainly won’t start. We will assess him on Monday morning.”

I do hope that Arsene doesn’t rush Robin back if he’s not ready but he’s promised he won’t, so I have faith in him. Obviously, it’s going to be a boost if Robin makes the squad. He lacks match practice but if we need someone to bring off the bench to create something, who better than van Persie?

It’s a bit early yet to start guessing the team but here’s what I’d say at the moment:

I’ve gone for Eboue over Theo because, if he’s not an idiot, Eboue will be better defensively and he has the more experience for a game like this. However, I’ve mainly chosen the Ivory Coast winger due to the fact that Walcott has an incredible impact as a substitute, and against a tiring Milan defence he could be really dangerous.

On the left it’d have to be Diaby, hopefully he’ll be a bit more inspired than he was at the weekend. I’ve have Hleb in the middle because it gives us the security of an almost 4-5-1 formation but he’s got the creativity and trickery up front that we’ll need to weave a goal. Adebayor will be the target man up top and what a fucking incredible time it would be for him to grab his first European goal in an Arsenal shirt.

As for Milan, well they’ve got a few injuries to worry about. ‘Kaka is a doubt, there was a story going round earlier that he’s definitely going to miss it but it seemed a bit dodgy to say that so early. He, Nesta and Pirlo all missed their game at the weekend. That either mean s they weren’t being risked or that they needed that time to try and recover for the Arsenal game. However Seedorf picked up a muscle problem in that game and he’s definitely going to miss the 2nd leg.

Before the first leg there were these stories about the top Milan players being injured but they all played in the end so I’m not really paying much attention to these. We’ll just see on the night who turns up. If ‘Kaka misses the game, that’s a bonus because he’s really fucking good but I’m not too bothered, Senderos owned him in the first leg.

I’m so excited about this game. It’s still ages away but I can’t stop thinking about it. In fact I’ve actually been thinking about my trip to Milan since December when I booked it. It’s my first European away game, I did go to Paris but I didn’t have a ticket.

People have said to me, “Won’t you be pissed off you’ve spent all that money going to Milan if Arsenal get knocked out?” My answer is a firm no. It’s still going to be a brilliant trip going to one of the best stadiums in the world, witnessing two of the best footballing teams ever and it’s just generally going to be a good laugh. Hopefully I’m not making you a bit jealous! If you’re thinking about booking a cheeky flight out there, I know for definite there’s going to be a few spares knocking a bout so I say, go for it!

I better go and try get some sleep now but I’ll speak to you on Wednesday night and tell you all about my trip. Until then Gooners.