Afternoon folks.

With all the hullabaloo and outrage surrounding Chelsea’s, quite frankly, absurd sacking of Roberto Di Matteo today, most of the footballing world is focussed in the direction of that. As the media circus goes into overdrive, us Gooners have far more important things to concern ourselves with. We’ve the opportunity to cement our place in the elimination rounds of the Champions League tonight.

A win tonight is very important. A draw or defeat wouldn’t necessarily see us go out of the competition, but a poor result would leave us in the less-than-desirable position of heading to Olympiakos in need of a result. Given the tricky nature of that fixture, it’s best we do the job tonight.

There’s the usual mixed bag of team news tonight. Gibbs and Gervinho return to the sqaud, which is good. Walcott will play no part thanks to a bad shoulder, Andre Santos has a “stomach complaint” (I presume that it’s too big), and there is talk of the fatigued Santi Cazorla being rested, which isn’t ideal.

If Cazorla is indeed rested, and Gibbs is fit enough to start, I’d guess we’ll line up like this:

Montpellier are a useful team, and they’ve still the faint hope of a Europa League spot to play for in the group. In the away fixture, they put us under a lot of pressure in periods, and they’ve a few players who’ll be a handful. I expect them to approach the game with a less attack minded set up tonight, hoping to expose a few of our defensive frailties on the counter.

Saturday’s win was splendid, but North London derbies count for little when it comes to form. If we are to build on that, we need to get a win tonight. We’ve a good team available, against opposition we are expected to dispatch comfortably; usually a combination that spells Arsenal doing something silly.

That said, I’m confident of a win. Twatting Spurs 5-2 can do wonders for confidence, and the players should be brimming with it. If we play to our potential and concentrate at the back, we’ll win. I’m going to predict a comfortable 2-0 to the Arsenal.

What are your predictions? How would you like to see the team line up? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading today, you beautiful bastards. I’ll be back tomorrow with a review on the match.

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