A Night In Munich

A lady friend recently elucidated her concerns about dating a bloke whose work involves plenty of travel. This was a conversation that occurred before the disappearance of the 310 ton Boeing 777-200, Malaysia Airline flight MH 370; one of the bizarre happenings this 21^st century. It is in order to tuma rambirambi; pass our condolences and offer our prayers that any semblance of closure is arrived at. Pole sana; an empathetic sorry to the families and friends of the victims.

My lady friend, an Arsenal fan for the record, explained the reason for her unease was the instinctive drive by the Y- genome to mark territory whenever on its travels. Territory marking as exhibited in nature ranges from the simple leak on the fence by your mongrel somewhere along your evening walk, to the human male itch to deposit seed in a warm, wet, well innervated receptacle. Some of my friends call this sampling the local menu.

I am sure for a host of you, alongside the legendary tales of German beer, the possibility of exploring new lands ranks high on the osmotic pull towards Munich tonight. We envy you, us who cannot travel. What, however, makes us all equal is the hope-laced, nerves-tainted excitement; complete with a late kick of the aroma of finality.

It could be a case of a leak on the fence, or like an absentee father, arsenal could exit Munich and leave The Allianz arena crowd pregnant with sadness and bewildered at the cruelty of football. The fantastic @Optajoe quoting @1Davidwall reveals that Bayern have failed to score (only) once in their last 100 games , (the deviation from norm being ) against Arsenal in the last Champions League campaign; lending umpteenth credence to the at least-we-showed-up, at least-we-tried scenario.

The cathedral. Image: stvstreams.com

The optimistic cite Wigan’s double triumph, over a similar period, against Manchester City as proof that football is a master unto itself and at its own discretion, lords over all, including that which has been widely labeled as the unlikely. To that, a humble prayer: May the Liverpool gods of Istanbul descend upon us, may the spirit of Inter Milan away swoon into the away dressing room, Amen.

What to do then for Arsene Wenger? I expect to see some surprises on tonight’s starting line-up. I believe Wenger will dig into the stats and chose energy over any other parameter. His pre-match press conference comments about the referee to me served to prime the way for a high intensity pressing game rather than just an old man crying wolf wolf.

Bayern with all their possession play appear to be less comfortable in asphyxiating circumstances as indicated by our dominating first 10 minutes at the Emirates in the reverse fixture. Going back a season or so, Dortmund’s brief reign over Bayern and the entire Budensliga was premised on an approach.

Delving deeper into the semantics of our possible tactical approach, it would be interesting to see if Wenger goes with Arteta in a double pivot with Flamini, tasking the Spaniard (and Ozil) to do a job on the deep lying playmaker (Lahm, Thiago or Shweinsteiger)  forcing errors in the he products of his distribution play .

The downside is the conservatism in such a midfield pairing arising from Flamini’s limited range of passing and Arteta’s lack of box to box credentials. With Bayern’s midfield dominance, it COULD be suicidal to leave the defensive duties to Arteta alone while having Flamini alone would curtail our ball retention abilities.

However, either’s deficits could be compensated by whoever pairs each. Rosicky provides the tactical nous to act as the orchestrator of the side, alongside his credible box-to-box abilities. The other option, The Ox provides the energy, skill and directness to make him a hit as a central player, although his defensive awareness may prove to be drag.

Given the musings above, I would go for an Arteta-Oxlaide Chamberlain pairing in midfield. The obvious miss in such a set-up will be lack width in our attack that proved so effective the last time out with Bayern. Rosicky would then deputies on the right flank while Sagna would have to be his Everton best to patrol the right wing up and down.

The question therefore is who plays at left back with Monreal and Gibbs out? Vermaelen is the easy choice though his performances for arsenal at left back have not been a master-piece.Conversely, I feel Wenger will consider it too much a risk to have an inexperienced Jenkinson at right back and Sagna in an unfamiliar role at left back.

Flamini as an option at left back remains my favored choice as with him, we have his voice to organize the defense plus it would allow us to start Podolski ahead of him thus doubling our goal threat. However a Flamini unlikely to overlap  will obviously curtail our left attack play, but might just give us the stability needed there given that Bayern sought to exploit that flank in the first leg. 

Wenger,if feeling sufficiently adventurous, might go for a pseudo back three of BFG, Koscienly and Vermaelen with Sagna slightly in an advanced position though this might expose us to Bayern's excellent wing play with Robben and Ribbery.

Finally, it might be time Arsenal to open the closet and exploit our English roots. Sagna and Podolski ought to whip those balls into the box for Giroud. While we should make the best of set-pieces as the Germans appear to be uncomfortable dealing with these. The guile of (a) Santi Cazorla and the pace of Serge Gnabry offer credible options from the bench.

Is Munich mission impossible? Do you believe in Miracles? I do. Enjoy your night in Munich you all Arsenalii Damu. Have one and then another one on me #COYG

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