Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Arsenal v Villarreal UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals: Who Will Win?

Arsene Wenger suffered a lot of criticism in the last few months for the poor performance of his club. It is not that he plays in the field but it is the norm in our time that when a club cannot perform well the lion’s share of the responsibility comes to the coach. Well, many Arsenal fans understand the dilemma in which Arsene Wenger has to work with. The club has to arrange a lot of money for paying back the loans that happened because of building the new Emirates stadium. So, he has to maneuver within a very tight budget. He cannot think of buying a player like Messi or Christiano Ronaldo. However, there are a lot of expectations for the club to perform well because they have a very large fan base not only just in UK but also in many other countries in the world.

For Villarreal, the problem is of different kind. They have suffered from consistency. They are sometimes playing very well and sometimes not so good. For example, in the last week match, against the Gunners, Villarreal players could not perform well. They were at home and their fans felt frustrated. The draw has made many of their fans very disappointed.

For Arsene Wenger, there are now two big problems. The first one is injury. Many key players are injured and will not be available for the match. I am worried for the defense of Arsenal. Their top goalkeeper is injured. William Gallas will not be there. Clichy is out too. Thus, they will be without at least 3 top players in defense. A highly inexperienced defense will be put to the maximum test in this match. Of course, they played very well against Wigan this Saturday and defeated Wigan 4-1. However, you have to remember that Villarreal is a different club and it is UEFA Champions League. Another major problem is the pressure of the fans. They want some results at last and they don’t care how many players are injured or fit.

So, who will win in the match between Arsenal and Villarreal? What do you think? I feel that Arsenal has more chance to do it infont of home crowd.

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