Rafael Benitez says thinks Arsene Wenger is the best coach in the Premier League, but also that he and his players believe they can get the win they need tomorrow night.
The Italian side will book a place in the round of 16 if they get a better result against Arsenal than Dortmund can achieve at already eliminated Marseille.
The former Liverpool manager is making positive noises, despite being impressed with this season’s Arsenal.
“Arsenal is currently ranked first in the English Premier League and in my opinion, have the best coach in all of the Premier League. Arsene Wenger prepares by taking into account the quality and potential of their players and the game just the same as we have to do.
“But we will try to gather ourselves, that is our obligation. Obviously, we will have to play with a balance that allows us to impose our way of play and with a confidence in what we do.
“It is true that we have had no luck and our group was one of the most competitive, both extremely difficult and complicated but we play for the qualification to the next phase in the last match and with options of success – this is a matter of pride for us.
“We believe we can win and we will make every attempt to achieve win it”.
Meanwhile, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is expecting a difficult time against a Napoli side that Arsenal blew away at the Emirates in early October.
“It will be a completely different game now,” he told Arsenal Player. “They play at home, they know they need to win, so they will probably throw everything at us and we’re going to have to be focused to deal with that.
“But I believe we can turn up with the same sort of result again. I don’t think we should approach the game thinking that we need to avoid a defeat.
“We believe that we’re good enough to go there and get a win. We don’t need to change our attitude, we need to keep it going the way we have been and that should give us a result.”
Lol. Yeah nice enthusiasm Rafa, like you can set out a team to chase a win.
Istanbul 2005…. 🙁
Weirdly looking forward to the game, what the champions league is all about. Sp**s can but dream of such occasions.
Yes….but maybe his team will ignore his tactics as Liverpool did in Champs Final and go for it!!
Let’s not be complacent guys. We play the way we can, we’ll win but it could be dangerous if they play like everton in the first half. But with the defense we have I’m not really worried. Let’s gun them down. Coyg
Maybe they won’t go for it in the first half like Everton did. They are probably aware of arsenal’s counterattacking prowess and know that if they concede a goal in the first half, the game is over. So they might decide to have a solid degenve, nick a goal late in the first half, and then really go for it in the second half.
When you’ve got to score 3, there’s no room to waste time.
Exactly and it seems everyone has forgotten that we have a midfield that clearly makes the Napoli midfield look like a Serie B squad. Its not like we just sit back and defend for our lives, we will look to score not just on the counter, but directly.
Problem is u cant go for it like everton or villa did. its champs league, such approach would make yellows rain.
I’m afraid to feel as comfortable as I did against MANU but I am, must remember that although we’re a much better team than MANU, look what happened, nervous as hell but still confident.
Well if they beat us 3-0 then they deserve to be in the next round more than we do, simple as that.
It’s not going to happen though.
what if they score two incorrect penalties and a should’ve-been-offside-goal?
well, it’s not going to happen unless Mike Dean is officiating.
And fortunately for us, this match can’t have an English referee. So we’re not only free of Mike Dean, there’s also no chance of Howard Webb, Lee Mason, or Anthony Taylor.
I think our record with Howard Webb is as good as with any refree in the world.
Yeah it is but no thanks to him thou’.
this wld be a good game to unleash Theo on the counter
Napoli & Rafa have a huge task 2 overcome against rampaging gunners
Seriously, what is the point of commenting if you’re literally just stating vague, obvious facts?
What is the point of commenting if you’re literally just stating that hes stating obvious facts?
Bearing in mind that we only need a point to win the group, maybe Wenger should think about resting players for this one. Even if we narrowly lose we’ll still go through. It wouldn’t bother me to see Bendtner start in Naples. With only two full rest days until the City match (a bigger game) we have to take a long-term view.
We need to get a draw. Narrowly losing this one means getting a really difficult opponent in the round of 16. Get a point, and we avoid Barca, Bayern, Madrid, PSG and Atletico.
Putting Bendtner out there at such a pivotal point is foolish.
I should add, having Giroud out there is akin to having another defender. He’s solid front and back.
Yeah. I’d love to see this:
…………………Giroud……………………
Monreal…… Santi……………..Walcott
……….Flamini……..Wilshere……..
Gibbs …..Kosc…….Per……….Jenks
………………..Szsc…………………….
This way, Monreal gets the game time he thoroughly deserves and provides extra defensive cover.
Walcott gets a start and helps us play on the counter.
Santi gets a chance through the middle and Ozil can have a day off.
Wilshire gets to play in CM (B2B) and has Flamini to cover him so his natural tendency to get carried away attacking doesn’t cost us.
Our other players get a good rest.
And IF, IF something goes wrong, call on Rosicky. He’s a class act.
Oh and Ramsey gets a rest. That boy has been a fucking beast this season. 🙂
this could work but with arteta instead of jack – since theo is playing on the wing, you need flamini to cover that flank and thus he can’t play as the sole dm.
Yeah we need to keep them quiet for the first twenty mins, their fans will get increasingly agitated and this will impact on their team to our advantage
i panic whenever i hear anything about tomorrow’s match, then i remember we went to dortmund some weeks ago. coyg!
Not so sure about playing the dane. Tinker with the midfield maybe play tw14 as lone striker. Anything but bentner!
Let Arsenal go go go.
I might even be tempted to play Nacho on the left wing with gibbs behind. Rest Ozil, Ramsey and Giroud.
That’s a thought. But I think we’re more likely to see Wilshere or Rosicky out there, with Walcott on the right and Ozil in the middle.
Szczesny
Sagna/Jenks, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs/Monreal
Flamini, Arteta
Walcott, Ozil, Wilshere/Rosicky
Giroud
Sagna if fit, obviously. Either Gibbs or Monreal would be fine at left back. I lean more towards Wilshere on the left because he can tackle and defend better than Rosicky.
I’d wrap Sagna up in cotton so he can play on the weekend rather, that’s if he’s fit for Napoli.
I don’t wilshere can tackle better than Rosicky , or that has the same driving forward force as him. From all the midfielders available.. Jack and santi are the weakest links at the moment
It’s a strange 1, we can’t afford to take them too lightly & at the same time we have to rest players for the match vs City.
I’m glad we have a manager as astute as Arsene to make the decision.
Cos I frankly haven’t got a clue who I’d choose to rest!!!
I would personally like to see nacho start at left back, Arteta and Flamini/Wilshere in the center and Walcott, Rosicky and Santi behind HFB.
This gives a little bit of rest to Ramsey nd Özil.
Maybe start with vermaelen also!
Vermaelen, walcott, monreal, flamini, bendtner IN
Koscielny, ozil, gibbs, ramsey, giroud Out
We will still win. Simples
Would love to see Vermaelen play, He needs matches like this or else he would feel excluded and no one would want to loose such a massive player.
We should start with
-Chezzers-
-Jenk-mert-kos-mon-
-arteta-wilshere-
-Walcott-carzola-rosicky
-Giroud-
And get the likes of bendtner and gnabry on as a sub depending on how we fair.
Can see a 2-1 to the gooners!
Absolutely no to Arteta-Wilshere anchoring us. Napoli will look to press and press and then counter and Wilshere is an open door in any sort of defensive role. I think the boss will go for a very solid defensive wall which means Arteta-Flamini. One of them can get subbed off with Man City in mind, so long as the game is a done deal. Further up front we could go with Theo who will counter well when Napoli press, and possibly Cazorla in the middle to give Ozil a rest but that worries me a bit given his recent struggles… Read more »
Not sure if Benitez said that to really appreciate Wenger or to give his old rival Mou a slap in the face.
Whatever may be the sincerity or insincerity of the comment, I can’t agree more with you Mr. Benitez.
Now let’s unleash Theo and the ever-fantastic Rosicky on those lots!
“Arsenal is currently ranked first in the English Premier League and in my opinion, have the best coach in all of the Premier League”
Sticking in the boot on Jose is the first thing that comes to mind for some reason. lol
Yep. And the wry smile AW had when he was asked about this quote showed he seemed to agree. “I don’t take it seriously.”
By the way, I hope we finish strong tomorrow to go top and show who was the best of the great managers in this group.
Can only see Arsene making a couple of changes for this one. Probably have Arteta and Flamini starting with Walcott starting to catch them on the break. On a side note Dortmund are having an injury crises think they may struggle in France.
…………………Giroud……………………
Santi…………..Ozil……………..Walcott
……….Flamini……..Rosicky……………..
Monreal…..Kosc…….Per……….Jenks
………………..Szsc…………………….
We have to go for the win. Second place team will likely have to face some very tough opposition. Plus Dortmund will likely pummel Marseille.
Genuinely I would rest Aaron because he looked tired the last day, play Flamini.. I would also play Theo on the right for the first 60 minutes or so, then bring on Santi for the rest.. Atleast Flamini would cover behind Theo then..COYG