Dortmund KO’d, who’s next?

Firstly, I am beginning to like a team in Germany. In the first leg against Dortmund, they showcased to us a wonderful stadium, immersed in yellow, filled with vociferous fans chanting away. Their fans did not disappoint at the Emirates, as well, creating a wonderful atmosphere. BVB has an exciting team, with a solid defense and a team that can match toe to toe with any club in Europe on their day in attack. Jurgen Klopp looks to me like a coach to look out for. Arsene is talking short term about two years of his contract being left. Jurgen Klopp looks like a young manager who runs a tight budget and knows to manage a team of kids. You run the Math and tell me what I am thinking! A quick comment on three players that caught my eye in this BVB side. Kagawa, Hummels and Goetze. I wont be surprised to see them plying their trade in one of the top leagues soon. Hope we do get our hands on Goetze, though! Once Theo moves to the centre, he looks to me to the perfect right winger to play at that position.

 

But firstly, it is a time to showcase immense pride. Qualifying out of this group looked a task when the draw was made. But qualifying top of the group with a game to spare shows the kind of recovery that this team has shown. I can hardly pick on any performance yesterday. While the mainstream lazy media would again talk of Van Persie, it would be foolish to ignore the contribution the rest of the team is making. RVP is putting his chances away and has been phenomenal. But the team is giving him the chance to score authentic striker’s goals. I would be worried if Van Persie is beating three defenders and going on solo runs to score all his goals. But, thankfully, such a need has not arisen. The team has created chances and offered to him on a platter. If by that definition, Arsenal is a one man team, I think I know of atleast two more “one-man” teams called Real Madrid and Barcelona. The other The other reason that this one man team chant has increased amongst lazy journalists is that there has been equally strong contributions from the majority of the team in this mini-run that we are in. All players are standing up and giving an 8/10 performance. Last few years, most games would have some players at 9/10 and some at 5/10. This year, I do not see any passengers in the team. Everyone is contributing in their own way. Ramsey regularly puts in a through ball that opens up a defense or makes a telling late run. Song has been ever present as the shield. Walcott and Gervinho have added a dimension with their directness. Arteta has given a solidity to the midfield that has long been missed. Koscielny and Vermaelen have been immense. Santos and Mertesacker (barring the crazy blip against Norwich) have been growing with every game. Szescesny and Van Persie have not been that bad, as well, have they?

From what I see of the Champions League tables, this is how it looks like the teams that would qualify.

Group toppers	Runner ups
Munich	Napoli
Inter Milan	Lille
Benfica	Man U
Real Madrid	Ajax
Leverkusen	Chelsea
Arsenal	Marseille
Barca	AC Milan
APOEL	Porto

Amidst all the vicarious joy, my fellow Gooners have enjoyed in the misfortunes of the other English teams, it does affect us a little bit. From this above table, AC Milan and Napoli look like the teams to avoid when the draw is made. If United and Chelsea had done their job properly, a probability of landing this unfavourable draw was 28% (2 teams to avoid out of 7 possible opponents). But United and Chelsea threaten to potentially finish second, which would mean the probability of a bad draw increases to 40% (2 teams out of 5 possible opponents). Not good at all. I hear you Arsenal fans cry out if they qualify third then we would be back to our 28%. I guess so. But United would surely qualify and City would surely go out. Chelsea is a 50-50. We drew Barcelona last year and gave them a proper run for their money till a referee got irked with us for daring to compete with Barca. So bring on the draw, and we are ready for the lot!