Barcelona pre-preview

The Arsenal team will travel to Barcelona today, train gently in an empty Camp Nou later tonight, and start to prepare themselves for a 90 minutes which might have been a foregone conclusion after an hour of the game at the Grove.

Last Wednesday they showed incredible spirit and desire to come back from 2-0. We saw more of it at the weekend when they eventually scored against a battered Wolves side and Arsene is aware of how important that is. He says:

That spirit, we will need it at Barcelona. It is mental resilience. It is the tenacity of the players and the mental strength these players have in them. That is why I want them so much to be successful, because I feel they have in their bodies and in their heads the spirit of champions.

It's always easier to give up and not as easy to continue to go no matter what happens.

Not once on Saturday did heads go down. We kept going, kept passing, looking for openings, looking for the chance that would win us the game and it came in the end. I know some people might call it luck, it's anything but that. It's a great ability to have and we've seen top teams do it time and time again. Liverpool, when they were dominating, always seemed to score late goals. Man United under Ferguson have done it countless times. Arsene reckons our 'technical superiority' is a factor but I think that underplays the importance of our physical ability too.

It's one thing not to give up, it's another thing entirely to have the legs to make the run in the 91st minute, so that's another factor. For all our injuries when we do get players out there they've got stamina that goes beyond the norm. Maybe that's because of all the time they spend out injured so they're relatively fresh. Anyway, all those qualities are going to be needed tomorrow night. 

We should get more team news later on but the main doubt this morning surrounds Alex Song. He's got a bit of a groin problem but the manager says he should be ok. I suspect, as he's talking about seeing how Sol recovers from his fist pumping weekend, that Song is pencilled in for the centre-half role alongside Thomas Vermaelen. That would mean a midfield trio of Nasri, who the boss says can provide the creative outlet, ahead of Denilson and Diaby who will be tasked with protecting the back four. I think Diaby will have more defensive duties to make up for Song's absence in the holding role.

Up front then it'll be Nick with Theo on the right and I can only imagine Eboue or Rosicky on the left - offering more protection to Clichy than he would get from Arshavin and helping negate the forward running of Alves. The other options are Eduardo or Vela and I just can't see the manager throwing either of them into a game of this magnitude. Eduardo might well see some action as a sub if we need a goal but the performance against Wolves wouldn't have convinced anyone he's ready for this one. Vela's brief appearances as a sub this season have been almost totally without impact and once you go beyond either of them there's not much else to choose from.

The other choice he has is to chuck Sol in at the back, allowing Song to play in midfield, which means Nasri can move further forward. Personally, despite his aging legs, I'd be inclined to do just that. I think Song gives us more in midfield and the back four is probably more solid with Sol in it. I suppose it's all down to how well he recovers.

It means there's a huge responsibility on the starting XI to produce on the night. Injuries have robbed us of players from the bench that might change the game so those who trot on to hear the Champions League music at the start have got to play out of their skins. I know most people don't give us much of a chance and I can understand that. Barcelona are a fantastic team and despite one or two knocks have pretty much their full squad available. Arsenal are without Fabregas, van Persie, Gallas and Arshavin, at least four nailed-on starters and as I mentioned don't have anywhere near as much depth to our bench as we would like.

Nevertheless, this is a cup competition, and if we can come back from 2-0 down to draw against a team that plays that well, with half-crocked players, then fully crocked players, with poor individual performances, then there's no reason why we can't get a result at their place. It'll have to be a remarkable team performance but you just never know. We'll get fuller team news later on and that will be covered in tomorrow's blog (which, due to my early departure tomorrow, might be a joint effort with Tom).

There's not a great deal else going on, as you might imagine. I've seen the stories about the Wolves captain moaning about his sending off but he's just another clogging loudmouth looking for a bit of publicity so people might remember his name. Given what else we have to deal with this week he's nothing more than a minor irritant.

Nicklas Bendtner talks about the late goal against Wolves and has a nice little dig at them for their timewasting. "Somehow the ref has found five minutes", said the commentator, ignoring the fact Hahnneman was going from one side of the 6 yard box to the other to take his kick-outs from as early as the first half. 

From now on though all the focus is on tomorrow night, on Barcelona, on what should be a fantastic game of football. I'll take a win any old way, even a goal as late as Bendtner's at the weekend, but I think for the good of all our health it'd be nice if the team could have it all wrapped up by half-time and give us an easy 45 minutes in which we can enjoy ourselves. I think that's only fair.

More from me tomorrow before departure. If you're heading out today, safe travels, and enjoy the beers.