Smalling another great performance tonight. The midfield is nothing. I hope this is overhauled in the summer. United go out with the attitude of lets not be beaten. Id still fancy them to beat Marseille at home who bar a 15 minute spell in the 2nd half were ordinary enough.
gibson was poor enough (he rarely seems to move into a position to receive the baii) but fucking carrick is worse than uselessā¦ he kept giving the ball away especially in the first halfā¦ how utd are top of the league with those players is beyond meā¦i hope they go out. and they might on the away goals rule. marseille were missing their top goalscorer tonight.
Van Persie out of the Barcelona match with Fabregas only āpossibleā.
Big loss. He is a crock though.
I expect Fabregas to play though Farmer, Wenger is normally very cautious when it comes to bringing back players from injury but the fact that he has said he is making very good progress and is as good as saying heāll be fit to play.
Donāt expect to see him play against Leyton Orient or Sunderland though.
I said when the draw was made that Arsenal would progress and I stand by that. Iāve got a nice sum on them to go all the way at 20/1 and fully expect to collect.
:lol:
And another one.
Van Persie trained this morning and has been named in the squad to travel to Barcelona.
Interesting developments.
Pique and Puyol both out, Arsenal will never get a better chance to put Barcelona to the sword. I continue to stand by my assertion when the draw was made that they would progress.
Thought they were quite average the other night, they may be in a small slump alright. 3.2 for Arsenal to go through is tempting.
Still expect Barca to go through but theyāre certainly defensively vulnerable. Is it Abidal and Milito expected to be the centre halves?
Or Busquets they were suggesting the other night.
Hmmmā¦ not sure whatās best for them. Milito has been anything but convincing when heās been given a chance. Abidal is better but fairly loose in his play. Busquets would be decent enough there probably (as Yaya TourĆ© was last year or two years ago was it now?) but theyād miss him from midfield. I donāt think Keita or Mascherano are anywhere near as effective when they play and thereās an argument to be made that they should keep their strength in midfield and not create problems in a number of positions because of the defensive crisis.
Always felt RVP would be ok to play in this game. He finished out the cup final without much trouble iirc, and while there was the obvious collision in scoring the goal there was no immediate signs that it would be an overtly bad injury other than RVPās own record.
Arsenalās loss of Song is a devastating blow though, not that heās that good, more so that Arsenal have absolutely no one else to do what he does.
Ya, taking him out could backfire. Iād be of the opinion in almost all cases that youād be better off playing a natural centre half of maybe lesser ability than moving too many guys around. It would surely see the lad (Milito i would suggest would lose out) get out of there in the summer if it did happen.
Its not like they are bringing in a youth player or whatever.
Cassetti and Menez are suspended but I still believe.
Come with me.
Roma and Arsenal to go through tonight.
Bandage knows the score 
The Base XI will score tonight but theyāll be hammered. Iād back Barca -3 almost.
5-1 I go for. Another 4 for Messi.
Hadnāt accounted for Song myself, wonāt be touching anything positive for Arsenal in the betting stakes. I wouldnāt mind seeing them win though. I love Barcelona, but in fairness i also like Fab and Wegner and almost feel sorry for the auld French fella now.
Iād be looking at -1 & -2 anyway, will wait for teams first.
-1 is 1.83, thats not bad at all for Barca.
My sources are indicating that RVP will start.
Revista saying Busquets partners Abidal at centre back with Mascherano taking his place in midfield. 2-0 Barcelona with the secoind goal coming in the last five minutes. .