Nervous about tonight?

Not worried. Not much rides on the CL. Frankly we will have a better chance of winning the league if we are not in it. We don't have the squad to do anything in the CL.
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if we drop into the europa league our season is finished!!

we will never be able to win the league playing thurs/sun/thurs/sun

comment by Rusky (U15847)
posted 18 minutes ago
That Udinese tie was a nightmare. They were in the middle of Wenger's darkest period in charge.
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Massive character building win for the youngsters who played though

Ches with the pen save, Walcott's goal and alround performance... One of the first times Jenks looked solid too

comment by returnofDaSilvaSurfer (U12750)
posted 3 minutes ago
Not worried. Not much rides on the CL. Frankly we will have a better chance of winning the league if we are not in it. We don't have the squad to do anything in the CL.
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if we drop into the europa league our season is finished!!

we will never be able to win the league playing thurs/sun/thurs/sun
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We can play the League cup team in it. Frankly it will improve Akpom etc.

comment by HUNTING FOR GLORY (U16317)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 12 minutes ago
Not worried. Not much rides on the CL. Frankly we will have a better chance of winning the league if we are not in it. We don't have the squad to do anything in the CL.
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Agree completely.
But it would be better if we qualified for the group stage so we earn some extra cash but finish bottom of the group so no Europa and then just focus on the Prem
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True. But the money issue doesn't make me nervous anymore. And lets face it. I expect us to qualify pretty easily.

If we lose £20m by not qualifying through the group, our financial strength disappears. That's £20m less we have to spend.

I cannot understand people who make comments about not wanting to progress. It's a cash cow and the world's best club competition.

Jenius, I doubt we'll sign a top world class player if we don't get in the CL which thus reduces the League chances.

I think we need to finish top of the group if we're going to do anything in the CL.

Winning the Champions League (if you win every group game and come through the play offs) is worth 39.5m euros just in prize money. That's not to mention the television money, which is worth a lot on its own. In 12/13 Juventus made just under 45m euros just from the television money alone and they only reached the quarters.

Then there's the sponsorships and boost to the global brand and the worth of that is also very high, though harder to quantify.

The Champions League is how you make money. It's not worth not being in it for the sake of league success.

Being in, and winning the Champions League is worth nearly as much (£10m under from Eufa, but again the outside sponsorships etc) as selling a Bale or Ronaldo, to put it into perspective.

comment by Alexis (U6685)
posted 14 minutes ago
Jenius, I doubt we'll sign a top world class player if we don't get in the CL which thus reduces the League chances.

I think we need to finish top of the group if we're going to do anything in the CL.
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The fear I have is he isn't going to do that anyway.

Cavani's availability is questionable because of Ibra's injury. And is Wenger going to spend £51m on him. Not so sure unless his eyes have been opened with Giroud.

The others on the market, Balotelli, Bony, Benteke, Etoo etc are all better than Giroud but we really don't need to be qualifying for CL. None of them cost that much.

The only one I think who is dependant on CL slightly is Carvalho. But those 3rd party negotiations take ages and I don't think we have been active in that direction or we would have heard abt it.

Khedira? €10m? No need for CL there either.

I think we will qualify anyway.

I don't really think the CL negatively affects our league chances at all.

In fact, as with last year, our league form often falls apart at around the same time we exit the Champions League (i.e. when it gets difficult).

It's the best competition with the best teams, players, matches and the best theme song. When those Tuesday/Wednesday nights come round in a couple of months and all the top teams are playing each-other, would you really want to see that without Arsenal? Not me.