yousouph:

Arsenal vs Barca. 100% out in the next round. Arsenal vs Madrid. 40-60. Arsenal vs Bayern. 50-50. Arsenal vs Shalke. 60-40. With the new style of defending where clean sheet hardly comes by, it will be difficult to advance to later stage of the UCL

Arsenal Bayern can never be 50-50. . . Bayern have 45% chance at best.

I'd say vs Barcelona 10-90, vs Madrid 49-51, vs Bayern 60-40, vs Schalke 75-25.

ritchboy:

Arsenal Bayern can never be 50-50. . . Bayern have 45% chance at best.

I'd say vs Barcelona 10-90, vs Madrid 49-51, vs Bayern 60-40, vs Schalke 75-25.

Hehehe . . . you think Wenger has a 49-51 chance of beating Mourinho?? Especialy in a year they're joint top favourites to win the UCL??
You're high on agbo.

Great, Arsenal in the next round of UCL. We got the job done after making it difficult than it should have been. Sagna had a nice game and I felt sorry for the red card he got. Weak in the centre again with our usual partnership. I'm feeling there's something AW is hiding about Djorou or is it that he wants to play him at OT? @ Prince Nas, what else can I say, a player in the form of his life, according to FAB 4 (olori odo), and it’s hard to disagree.

On to the next round, I know we have to play the big teams at some point, so I'm not afraid of anyone. I've the believe we can go past any of em (Barca, RM, Bayern or S04)

Wonderful report by our dependable reporting reporter from TNHOF aka Deboskylomolatile.

@eldee, free the Madrid talk, when they are joint favorites nko, when have they ever not been joint or sole favorites.

The issue here is when will these boys step up. We are yet to go full throttle.

After much much I join Debo to request for the bayan-munch-s#!t.

slimshay:

@eldee, free the Madrid talk, when they are joint favorites nko, when have they ever not been joint or sole favorites.

The issue here is when will these boys step up. We are yet to go full throttle.

After much much I join Debo to request for the bayan-munch-s#!t.

All that one na yarns . . . the boys will beat any team in the world if they go full throttle, but Mourinho does not need to be on full throttle to beat Wenger.
Me I don talk am, I don't want Barca or Madrid . . . I don't want us working hard right from Second Round abeg.

^^

Give us whoever is available. . . . you don't win trophies by hoping not to meet the big teams, be it earlier or later, we'll need to meet them.

Besides, I don't buy all this talk about a 'Mourinho team' - if they play useless defenders like Ramos and Marcelo against us, you won't be able to compare that to playing against the defences that JM had at Chelski.

My personal preference is for Bayern - both for competition 'revenge' and to desecrate DK's thread on NL.

^^^^

God know's me I'm no dey for this mawoju ushe talk . . . I want easy people like Shackle abi weting be their name.
The EPL is my main concern this year, I don't want us resting key players because we need to play Madrid on Tuesday, that almost cost us a UCL spot every year.

BTW. . . Pepe is probably the best defender in Spain right now, just because they shipped in goals at Nou Camp don't mean shit. . . it's only because it's against the law to use negative tactics in an El Classico, ask anyone that follows the La Liga.
In fact that's the first time I've ever seen Mourinho playing a high line.

Marcelo, Pepe, Carvalho, Ramos is as good as it gets.

There was nothing special about the Chelsea defense apart from the defensive mentality of the team, and that's not left Mourinho. And now he has attacking players like Ronaldo . . . this is even better than what he had at Chelsea abeg.

eldee:

^^^^

God know's me I'm no dey for this mawoju ushe talk . . . I want easy people like Shackle abi weting be their name.
The EPL is my main concern this year, I don't want us resting key players because we need to play Madrid on Tuesday, that almost cost us a UCL spot every year.

If that’s the case, then we’d be better off being knocked out of the UCL and focusing on the EPL. If not for UCL wahala, we’d probably not have lost Cesc with a broken leg last season.

BTW. . . Pepe is probably the best defender in Spain right now, just because they shipped in goals at Nou Camp don't mean poo. . . it's only because it's against the law to use negative tactics in an El Classico, ask anyone that follows the La Liga.
In fact that's the first time I've ever seen Mourinho playing a high line.

I don’t doubt his quality, but we can still beat them, especially with their weakness on the wings.

Marcelo, Pepe, Carvalho, Ramos is as good as it gets.

For Madrid maybe, but evidence shows Marcelo and Ramos are big weak points. If our wide players are on form, they’ll be destroyed.

There was nothing special about the Chelsea defense apart from the defensive mentality of the team, and that's not left Mourinho. And now he has attacking players like Ronaldo . . . this is even better than what he had at Chelsea abeg.

The Chelski defence was so good they would’ve won the league unbeaten if not for a single dubious decision against Citeh that gave Anelka a penalty to score. You can’t compare Madrid’s defence to that unit.

Anyways, this is all theory, ifs and buts - let’s see what happens on the day.

Arsenal. . Arsenal  *sighs*

We seem to play our games with alot of urgency in the first 20mins (if we get the goals, good. .if we don't, well there's 70 more mins to pass the ball around). Not the best performance I've seen in a long time but credit must go to the boys for digging deep to find the goals they needed to win the game.

Round of 16? Bring on Madrid or Bayern! My main worry is Sagna's red card cuz Eboue at RB doesn't do it for me. . then again, i'll let Lord Wenger handle that. Bar the earth-shaking free-kick  , RVP was not effective yesterday. . losing possession way too many times.

@Senor Debo y Eldee
Forget the Madridsta talk, United is just days away. . With yesterday's defence & nervy performance? I'd tattoo extra eyes on my butt to watch the game

debosky:

If that’s the case, then we’d be better off being knocked out of the UCL and focusing on the EPL. If not for UCL wahala, we’d probably not have lost Cesc with a broken leg last season.

I want us to go as far as we can in the UCL, but does it make sense playing Barcelona if we could easily play sum losers from Germany??

debosky:

I don’t doubt his quality, but we can still beat them, especially with their weakness on the wings.
For Madrid maybe, but evidence shows Marcelo and Ramos are big weak points. If our wide players are on form, they’ll be destroyed.

What evidence?? You should watch the La Liga more often. . . as I said, El Classico is a one-off, they played a different game that day.

Ramos is not a weakness, he's arguably the best right back in the world . . . and he's so good that he plays CB and he's excellent at that too. And don't let me even talk about his ability to go forward and be a threat . . . he ships in more crosses than most wingers I know.

Madrid's defence is one of the best in Europe . . .

debosky:

The Chelski defence was so good they would’ve won the league unbeaten if not for a single dubious decision against Citeh that gave Anelka a penalty to score. You can’t compare Madrid’s defence to that unit.

As I said, it was more Mourinho's defence than Chelsea's, he was years ahead of the rest of the premiership with his defensive mentality.
He was playing Tiago and Makalele with Lampard in the middle of a 4-5-1/4-3-3.
It was so new to the Premier League that every manager was complaining . . . now everyone does it.

This defensive mentality is the one thing Wenger has never been able to overcome, I don't think he can do it against a team that has that with an extra attacking advantage.

Hehehehehehehehe. . . . . El me i dey gbadun you jare.Even though you need to beat the best to reach the UCL final,i do not wish for any of Barca and Real right now.Real has one of the best attack in Europe and a defence of Carvalho,Pepe and Ramos is as strong as it gets.You have to be a Barca to beat Real like that,and don't lets deceive ourselves,we are nothing close to the Catalans.Either of Schalke and Bayern will be OK,with my personal preference being the former.

That said,can we "spoil" United's unbeaten like they did ours?It depends on which Arsenal turns up.Suffice to state we must outscore thm to realise this as our D is a major worry.

Eldee are you for real. AW has not beaten Maureen b4, but he hasn't overcome a defensive mentality. As in really?

It is almost routine for the opposition to line-up in their third Arsenal. The difference is Maureen's teams have had better quality on the break.

So if it is still straight up defense mentality against attack mentality as usual, I won't just dash Maureen as you are doing right now.

All these however might end up a moot point. There will be no Maureen glorification on this thread, and I would prefer to face those closet homoz from Munich.

@Slim

It's not straight up defensive mentality, it's the defensive mentality plus other things JM didn't have at Chelsea, like the break as you rightly said and the Ronaldo moments of Ronaldoness.

Besides you don't really get the defensive mentality, it's the fact that players like Gudjohnsen and Drogba learnt how to defend properly, yesterday . . . our CBs were torn between who to attack the player with the ball and who to attack the threatening players, that's not a problem for Mourinho on an average day . . . defenders stand rigid, everyone else tackles.

Don't get me wrong, we play the right kind of defending for a team that has fast defenders and wants to attack . . . but even in the attacking part of it we're not better than Madrid, kama puro kama jale.

And then there's the problem of why anyone would want us to play Madrid when we don't have our right-back.

Now one question I'll need to ask is . . . why does our frontline look like Van Persie VS Chamakizzle??

When the fullbacks give crosses, it's like a big debate between both of them on who should take the header.
Van Persie's completely stolen Chamakh's right to roam in the box and I don't know how Wenger plans to do it.

The fact that VP likes to slide in those thru balls doesn't help either, it's like a deliberate attempt to make Chamakh look bad.
In my own opinion, since Fab 4 is still not back yet, Nasri should play his role, Van P plays on the right where he chooses whether to cross or come into the box.
I think it works better that way. . . I'm tired of seeing Sagna's new crossing ability waste because we're not putting our best head in the box.

TBH, Barca is by far a better team than we are as we speak. But like someone pointed out,you dont earn trophies or respect by shying away from better teams. I dont see any sense in beating shalke or bayern and getting to the finals to meet barca and relying on fastin/prayers for a miracle to happen. I am tryin to say 'bring on barca or madrid'. I no fia. Is that not why its called the champions league? Football is about which team is more willing to win. As good as barca is,dont you think the totts can knock them out? Its Champs lig mehn,nobody come juggle ball

dipo2much:

TBH, Barca is by far a better team than we are as we speak. But like someone pointed out,you dont earn trophies or respect by shying away from better teams. I dont see any sense in beating shalke or bayern and getting to the finals to meet barca and relying on fastin/prayers for a miracle to happen. I am tryin to say 'bring on barca or madrid'. I no fia. Is that not why its called the champions league? Football is about which team is more willing to win. As good as barca is,dont you think the totts can knock them out? Its Champs lig mehn,nobody come juggle ball

You know why teams are seeded?? So that the Barcelonas and Arsenals don't meet each other in the second round.
But Arsenal has started this thing where they want to qualify on the last day by force. . . and this is a punishment for us.

The second round should be a walkover like the group stages, but we know how Arsenal roll, we're so used to the bad luck in the FA Cup that we created this one for ourselves.

First off this 'you have to beat the best to be the best' stance, me no knw oh. We beat Juve, Real, and another time AC, still no show. Beating the best doesn't win it for you. Beating evrybody does.

As for Maureen, why they keep saying she is unbeatable, again me no know oh. You can say we are not Barca but against them I did more than he did. At least me still dey shout 'ewoooo see football' she jus sit there dumb in celestial awe. That is what happens if an attacking team brings their a-game, same as Arsenal.

But sha, me I want to meet BayanMunshit for dKarian reasons.

As per yesterday win or no win that 4-2-4 wey Wenger just event, I have said it before, I am not feeling the ball yeah. Koleku.

^^^wenger jus invent*

@ eldee

What difference does it make in the final analysis?

If Arsenal can't beat Barca in the second round, will we suddenly be able to beat them in the semi finals?

I understand you want to progress as far as possible, but TBH, the seeding is done so that the big teams stay longer in the competition and keep the audiences watching for as long as possible.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no point going to the semis and then going out again (beyond financial benefit of course). If we want to win, we must be ready to face the best teams whenever, unless you're saying we will be 'better' in the latter stages than we will be in the second round.

The name of the game is simple - once knock out starts, beat your opponent and move on.

As for RVP and Chamakizzle, I think they need time to gel - the whole team was generally flat y'day so it can't be a good yardstick to judge the combo.

@Debosky

It doesn't make any difference, but it just means that we're more likely to last in the competition, which is a big factor to me.
Why should I beat out the big teams when Roma can??

It's easier to beat Schakle-Tottenham-Barcelona than Barcelona-AC Milan-Madrid, and believe me, I'd rather we lost out in the semi-finals than second round.
I don't know if you enjoy watching United and Chelsea.

@Slimshay

The El-Classico is not just any game, because we did 'better' against them don't mean ish.

^^ Of course I want us to last longer, but if we're not good enough at the second round, we're not good enough period.

I'd like to think we're in the tournament to win it, and not just make up the numbers, so let's give it our best shot, whoever we face.

These clubs might be big and tough, but they're still 11 men (ok Messi is 1.5 on his own ) on the pitch.

debosky:

^^ Of course I want us to last longer, but if we're not good enough at the second round, we're not good enough period.

I'd like to think we're in the tournament to win it, and not just make up the numbers, so let's give it our best shot, whoever we face.

These clubs might be big and tough, but they're still 11 men (ok Messi is 1.5 on his own ) on the pitch.

Even if we're not good enough, we can escape major tests as much as we can.
Many teams have won tournaments by just breezing through minnows till the semis. . . an example is Chelsea that played only one EPL team before Portsmouth in last year's FA Cup.

Well if in a match that is more than just a game, somebody can be so utterly clueless, I think I can be pardonned if I'm not sh!tt!ng my pants when I think about facing them.

To me, this thing is quite simple, the draw will throw up whomever and we have to be at our best against whichever opposition there is of the four.

Howevr it will be bliss in the proportions of dkarian pestiness to shut that noise maker up anytime he comes in here. And some other interesting analogies we can get into later eg Shalke will jus present another opportunity to be strolling about falsely acting like we are already champions.

Well eldee only that there are no such seedings in the FA cup.

^^
Simple. Eldee,so what when the draws come and we are drawn with barca? will you just say 'its over' or you support the team even more and hope the lads play to their full ability knowin that two GOOD teams are takin on each other. Imagine a game where arshavin,nasri,RVP n fab all play well,do you think even barca will outscore us? (given that its improbable that we keep clean sheet against them).
I am not so keeo about us just being 'present' the the CL. I want our presence to be a feared one. That we can achieve if we beat top teams again as we did 2006

eldee:

Even if we're not good enough, we can escape major tests as much as we can.
Many teams have won tournaments by just breezing through minnows till the semis. . . an example is Chelsea that played only one EPL team before Portsmouth in last year's FA Cup.

That's unlikely to happen in the CL, precisely because of the seeding mechanism that tries to keep big teams apart till the quarters. Besides, with the luck of the draw we could still come first and get Inter Milan or AC Milan.

I want Bayern - we will have ammunition to destroy the pest of dkarian proportions for a while.

@dipo2much
Porto beat only one top team(That's if we count a Beckhamless, Ronaldoless Man Utd as a top team) on their way to winning the 2003 UCL, do people bring that up when they talk about how many UCLs Mourinho has won??
You can stay there and beat Madrid on the way to the Final, me I want Wolverhampton if possible, I don't care bout beating the big boys.

slimshay:

Well eldee only that there are no such seedings in the FA cup.

See it like this, in the FA Cup, you get whatever luck Noel Gallagher picks for you . . . in UEFA, you get a lil control over your luck. Winning your group means you less likely to face Real Madrid or Barca.

^^ There's no guarantee of getting the big boys anyways - the draw will tell us more.

Besides, the Mourinho case is a clear exception. . . .the entire competition was substandard that year.

@debosky

There's no guarantee, yep . . . but what I'm saying is I'd rather we had Schalke than Madrid, any day. I nor dey follow una do alagbara Mile 12.

Bout Mourinho, it's happened before, that was just an extreme . . . especially in competitions like the World Cup.
At the end of the day, they didn't decide that he was only getting half of the trophy because he beat Monaco and not AC Milan or did they give Chelsea a wooden FA Cup last season??
My point is, we should all be going on fasting and prayer now to pray that we get the easy teams instead of forming Rambo.

^^ We have to form like Rambo. . . how can we be gunners if we aren't confident of gunning opponents down?

We are not alabgara Mile 12, we are alagbara N5.

What do you think of Tottenham? Shyte!!

What do you think of Shyte? Tottenham!!

Eizaitly Debosky, ah ahn Gunner ni now, wo oju e. He is a very badt guys. We can't come on our thread and be cowering from Maureen. . .dbanj ki lo wi? Olorun maje ooo.

Eldee, at the end of the day, it is now in Platini's hand. Next week friday we go know how far. Until then. . . .its the Arsenal biiiinssheees!!!!

debosky:

^^ We have to form like Rambo. . . how can we be gunners if we aren't confident of gunning opponents down?

We are not alabgara Mile 12, we are alagbara N5.

What do you think of Tottenham? Shyte!!

What do you think of Shyte? Tottenham!!

Ahh . . . sorry then, maybe I didn't get the memo.
Anyways, we've got this vigil in our Church this week . . . my G.O Reverend Apostle Primate Archbishop Pastor Woli James Prosperity Daniel (GCFR) is laying hands today.
Prayer request na £50, team success £100 . . .

You're all invited.