I couldn't cover the previous Premier League match against Swansea as my faithful laptop crashed and I had to go to get it repaired. Thankfully it's up and running now and I can resume my usual daily activities. We eked out a gritty win on Saturday and it was nice to feel getting three points again. Hopefully our season will be back on track after that game.
But tonight it's Champions League time and we're possibly facing the toughest match of the group right away. Tonight we face the German Bundesliga champions in Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund are a solid team who have a fluid attack and a stern defence. They may have lost Nuri Sahin from last season, but they still possess a great team nonetheless. In defence, they have a rock solid pair of centre backs in Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels. And they have one of the most exciting young prospects in world football at the moment in Mario Goetze. Not to mention that Dortmund have the biggest stadium in Germany and an 80,000 strong fan base who will be rooting for the home side.
That being said, form wise Dortmund have not had the most promising of starts in the Bundesliga. They have secured only 7 points from a possible 15 and they lost their last match in the weekend though it can be argued that they had one eye on the Champions League tie and hence rested Goetze. Still, they will prove to be quite, if not more than, a match for this new look Arsenal side.
For us, we welcome back Gervinho and Alex Song after their absence in the Premier League games and they'll go straight into the starting line up. Aaron Ramsey and former Dortmund boy Rosicky have not made the trip to Germany owing to injuries and we're a little short of bodies in midfield at the moment. The duo join Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby on the sidelines, along with Thomas Vermaelen.
Team Line ups:
Borussia Dortmund(4-2-3-1): Roman Weidenfeller, Lukasz Piszczek, Neven Subotic, Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer, Sebastian Kehl, Sven Bender, Mario Gotze, Shinji Kagawa, Kevin Grosskreutz, Robert Lewandowski
Substitutes: Mitchell Langerak, Felipe Santana, Antonio Da Silva, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Ilkay Gundogan, Ivan Perisic, Mohamed Zidan
Manager: Jurgen Klopp
Arsenal(4-3-3/4-2-3-1): Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Bacary Sagna, Alex Song, Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Gervinho, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott
Substitutes: Lukasz Fabianski, Johan Djourou, Andre Santos, Emmanuel Frimpong, Andrey Arshavin, Park Ju Young, Marouane Chamakh
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Interesting to see that Arsene has gone for the more attacking option in midfield by fielding Benayoun instead of Frimpong. This means that both Song and Arteta will stay deep to cover for the defence. Dortmund have a nearly full strength line up with only Lucas Barrios the notable one missing due to injury(Hey, other teams can have injuries too!). This promises to be an open game, exciting to watch, and not for the faint hearted as there'll be plenty of worrying moments at the back. Hope we can at least nick a draw from this.
COME ON ARSENAL!!!
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