Arsene Wenger says Gabriel will miss tomorrow night’s clash with Barcelona having failed to recover from the hamstring problem sustained against Bournemouth.
The Brazil international took part in training on Monday but didn’t take part in a full session. The centre-back joins long-term absentees Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla on the sidelines, while Mikel Arteta also misses out.
Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil, dropped from the squad for Saturday’s FA Cup game with Hull, will return to the starting line-up with Francis Coquelin likely to anchor the midfield.
Assuming nobody banjaxes themselves in the next 24 hours, Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal should line up alongside Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny at the back.
It will be a breeze my friend..
BELIEVE
A strong breeze perhaps. But good thing is we’ll only be at opposite end for 45 mins!
That injures one of our players before tomorrow night? Not sure I need any encouragement in believing that it’s a possibility…
we can do it
I see arsenal winning barca
Whatever happened to Arteta?
Pre-retirement blues
This better be the game the flood gates open on our goal scoring prowess, bmcus we’ve been shite as of late in front of goal. High scoring gane, this. 3-2; it can go either way ..
1-0 is mucho better than 3-2. I’ll take a shitty counter attacking game that we squeak at the death
Going tomorrow – equally excited and ****ing myself. But we can do this- COYG!!!
Big Champions League nights at the Emirates, love every minute of it mate. I hope the boys put up a performance to do justice to the occasion!
Currently debating whether to wear my lucky trainers or not. Worn them to Wembley four times; seen Arsenal win four times. Do I dare test their true powers against Barca? COYG!
Save them ’till we really really need them…
Come on Arsenal,they’re beatable and u’ve done it before,COYG
Holy hell this is nerve-racking. If Messi/Suarez/Neymar get an inch something terrible will happen..
The recent form of Barca’s defence should more than anything else give us hope. We just have to be focused at the back and not make too many mistakes. #COYG
It’s not a game we are expected to win so if we lose it is not the end of the world as we can focus on the title. If we win it will boost the teams self belief. As long as we don’t get trounced it is win win.
Here’s to a good game! I hope Mesut, as a former Madrid man, will pack some extra motivation and skill tomorrow!
Ozil for madrid playing against barcelona had the best games in madrid shirt.
i guess Flamini will play – there must be sth wrong with le Coq
Can you not read?
We’re going to lose- over the two legs. It’s not me being negative/pessimistic but we’re playing an exceptional side. Champion’s league is a cash cow- winning it is another matter.
Personally, I’m happy to go out- we can focus on the league, which we have a realistic chance of winning.
Go on, hit that dislike button and call me ‘negative’ blah blah blah. No amount of positive thinking is going to change the fact that we’re going to get beats.
Having said that, I hope I’m wrong and Arsenal pull out a performance. But it’ll have to be some performance…
I really don’t think this is a negative view and am surprised by the number of dislikes. Realistically does anyone believe we could really win the CL this year? There would be no shame in going out to a very strong Barca side and focusing on the league while some of our competition are distracted with European ties. I want us to beat Barca but it’s not the end of the world to go out against them. Better than going out of the FA cup to Crystal Palace…
Perhaps, yeah. But giving up without even getting onto the field is unARsenally and cowardly and deserves prolly double the amount of thumbdowns he currently has..
It’s going to be 11v11 on matchday
Obviously the scariest encounter yet this season, but we can draw motivation from the fact that the team that beat them 2-1 in 2011 had Zsczesny,Eboue, Djourou, Kos and Clichy at the back. We definitely have a better back 5 for tomorrow. Also Coq is a better marker than Song, Alexis better than Nasri on the left, and Welbeck better than Arshavin.
Good luck to those going to the game. Please make the atmosphere unbearable to the Barca twats. COYG!
Funny your mentioning Arshavin … when I read your comment you were on exactly 23 thumbs up!
this is what it’s all about. this is what wenger keeps serving up for us – these amazing champions league nights. we’re spoilt really.
we can do it!
I am quite astonished at the level of negative hopelessness and defeatist mentality some of our fans have. who says Barcelona winning is a foregone occlusion? why believe that we wont win. I for now am not idiot in thinking that we are world beaters but I certainty believe that we are an equal match. I don’t believe for example that their goalkeeper is better than ours, the same way as I don’t believe that they have a better defence. apart from the front three and Iniesta, I honestly believe we are equals. and in mind that means more than… Read more »
It’s not a question of: ‘I don’t want Arsenal to win’. I’ve wanted to Arsenal to win every match since I started supporting them when I was 6 years old (in 1986). All I’m saying is, I don’t think we’re good enough to beat Barcelona over two games. Of course, I would absolutely love it if we beat them and I’ll be watching and supporting The Arsenal. But I’ve been watching football for quite a long time and I’ve not seen a side like Barcelona- I just can’t see us doing it. But would that be so bad? Would you… Read more »
You can’t be more right @duck. I Love Arsenal to bits and everytime Arsenal looses I stay off all football related matters for sometime. That said, judging on current form, it’ll be a major surprise if arsenal wins this one. Barca have very obvious frailties at the back, but they absolutely make up for it with their attack and attacking midfield options. On our day, Arsenal are a force, but those days have not been too frequent this season. If we can repeat the performance we had against Bayern at the Emirates, then we can get something reasonable from the… Read more »
It’s no God given right that a team wins. So to say that watching Arsenal play does your head in is beyond a joke, imagine supporting a team like WBA, Coventry, Plymouth etc, etc.
Arsenal are the second most successful team in the premier league era and we should thank our lucky stars that we have enjoyed as much success as we have over the last 30 years as we have
As tough a game as youll get but stranger things have happened . Barca are beatable on their travels but we wont get much change at the nou camp so being clinical at home is vital .
Ok so barca have: Messi, neymar, chewy, iniesta, rakitic, busquets, mascherano, pique, alves, alba, turan and bravo in their squad – not sure who is in their starting eleven – but I would like to see a comparison of like to like players!!! Guessing we top them goalkeeper wise, but where else do my fellow gunners think we out do these scummers?
Bellerin and Ozil.
And also we’re not A grade cunts.
Turan can’t play tomorrow as he’s serving a one match ban.
We rop rakitic, alves, turan , bravo , ozil for inesta, kos for piqe
I am so excited for this game. We drew some Spanish side, never heard of them personally, but it should be a great atmosphere.
We have to take advantage of our free kick opportunities and be smart as we attack to keep our balance behind the ball (instead of throwing too many people forward). We certainly can do it (we’ve beaten Bayern this year) with this squad, won’t be easy, but we can do it.
Does anyone know how much longer Carzola is expected to be out? Would love to have had him in this match.
Who is this Carzola? I’ve seen the name mentioned several times, but I’m sure there’s no-one of that name on our roster.
C’MON gunners we can beat these mouthy scamsters from Catalonia. Lets do it tomorrow.
Prefer to read Arseblog than Arsenal.com for Arsenal news. Just saying.
Beat them here, and beat or draw at the nou camp and job done COYG!!!
Thank you, Michael Owen. Did you know that if we score first, we’ll probably have the lead at some point in the match?
Le coq to absolutely smash bitey in the first minute, take one for the team…COYG
Mertesacker against that lot? We are doomed. Mark my words.
Considering we’ll probably be sitting deep from the opening kick and therefore negating their speed (much like teams do to Walcott), his positional awareness may actually really help us. And they won’t win shit in the air (do any of their attacking players stand taller than his shoulders?)
A level playing field would be nice for once. Can we at least get through the two legs with eleven men and no dodgy pens against us? That would be really refreshing.