Morning all.
What do I know about Benfica? Nothing other than they’re a Portuguese Premier League club sat 4th place in the table. They came runners up to Rangers in their Europa League group having won three and drawn three of their fixtures.
The last time the two clubs met was donkeys years ago and Arsenal didn’t win either fixture but history is irrelevant as far as tonight’s fixture is concerned. Benfica’s head coach is Jorge Jesus for a second time in his managerial career having first been there from 2009/10 – 2015, when he won three league titles and came runners up in two Europa League Cup Finals too, and again from 2020. Spells at Sporting CP, Al-Hilal and Flamengo came in between. The Flamengo fans didn’t like his appointment by all accounts, he was considered too old by them and the media. Even when they won, Jesus was seldom praised. Yes, of course that little snippet comes from Wikipedia. He won five trophies with the Brazilian club, winning 43 of the 57 games in charge. Not too shabby eh, but he only lasted the one season in Brazil before returning home.
A few familiar names appear in their squad. Jan Vertonghen, Adel Taarabt and Nicolas Otamendi. The rest of the squad is mainly made up of Brazilian and Portuguese players so flair and strength springs to my mind. Portuguese teams are renowned for being hard to beat, as are managers of the same nationality. However, if the League table in Portugual tells the real story, this season isn’t going particularly well for Benfica. The Premier League table certainly tells the real story of Arsenal’s season so far. Referee and VAR cockups aside that is.
Tonights fixture is of course being played at a neutral ground because of Covid restrictions so both clubs travel to Rome to play in Stadio Olimpico, the home ground of both Roma and Lazio. I didn’t know that.
The big question relating to Arsenal is, will Mikel Arteta continue with a younger team or will he now bring in more experienced players to give the team a better chance (on paper) of progressing in the competition? I don’t mean Willian by the way. Talking of the Brazilian, Mikel Srteta had this to say about him yesterday:
On if the criticism of Willian is unfair…
I don’t say it’s unfair because with Willy the expectation is really high in terms of the goals he can score. The assists he can create, you expect him to be in the starting lineup as well so it’s normal that people write things about him. We have to protect him, we have to support him as much as we can because he deserves it from the way he handles his profession and the way he is with us.
Ouch!
Barring Thomas Partey, Arteta has a fully fit squad to select from. Leno or Ryan? Does Pepe come back or will Ødegaard get the nod, Holding and Mari or Gabriel? Aubameyang or Martinelli? Will Balogun and Nelson be in the squad, and Azeez?
Cedric was alongside Mikel Arteta during the press conference after landing in Rome which would suggest he’s likely to start at left-back again which makes sense as Kieran Tierney has trained just the once. Maybe we’ll see the Scotsman get some minutes during the latter part of the match if the situation allows.
Mikel Arteta on Benfica’s strengths and weaknesses:
What I can say is that they’re a really competitive team, a really high-rhythm team. They have a really high press and they are dominant when you allow them to be. They have very aggressive attacking players too. When they have the space to attack and they are close to the final third, they are really dangerous. Their manager has a huge history in football and some of our players know him really well as well. There’s a big respect there and they’re going to be a difficult opponent.
We know what happened last year at the same stage of the competition so the best way to avoid a repeat of that disappointment it to get an away goal or two. The more the better obviously, and with a win.
Fingers crossed.
See you in the comments.
Morning rico, house, nice preview for us. It’s quite strange that we have no idea what team will be sent out. But I bet Willian plays some part. Can only assume his confidence is shot to bits, he really shouldn’t be this poor or negative every time he plays. I reckon Arteta always believes one more match and he will turn the corner, only so many times can he keep trying though.
Morning Andrew, all. Thanks.
It seems to be the trend for Arteta, he gives a player X amount of games and then leaves them out. It happened to Ozil, Lacazette, Eddie, Willock, Pepe and AMN.
Willian was good with Chelsea so it’s hard to understand why he’s suddenly become so negative.
Made it
Morning Rico, I think the team selection needs to be taken with a view of our game against Man City this weekend. I would suggest it’s a fair assumption we won’t win that game but maybe we decide to park the bus for a change. So I would be putting my strongest team to play Benfica and consider the Man City game as a run out but in a much more defensive line snd look to press and spoil where possible. Has we been playing anyone else I wouldn’t have taken this approach but I just can’t see us winning, a draw maybe.
Isaias still gives me bad memories……
But hopefully we have too much for them these days. Arteta seems to have either fallen into a successful, balanced formation or his longer term plans are coming to fruition.
I hope we stick with it, as it finally gives us a sensible structure to build on.
Where that leaves certain players, we can take care of at the end of the season.
Oh, and as an aside on the news now discussion yesterday. If you log in and create an account you can hide publications. I’ve done it and no longer get tempted by the click bait.
Morning Mig, it’s a balancing act because top four is still mathematically possible and with the way this season is going, I wouldn’t bet against any team within reason. We’re just 8 points off 4th and that could change in a flash.
I think just play the strongest, or best team to face any opposition on the day. City can wait imo, getting the right result against Benfica is all what matters today. An away goal is crucial I think.
I’ll have to try and remember to put a link to the new post in the comments section of the old post Hobart. It seems a few are having problems.
Good post Rico, yes we underestimate Benfica at our peril…
They are actually a massive club, easily the biggest and most successful in Portugal, all other Portuguese clubs are in their shadow, so we need to respect them.
Good morning all.
Arteta has been forced to defend Willian, just as if he was a teenager breaking into the first team and finding life difficult. Yet Willian is a very experienced player, is thirty-two years old and has done it all and got the t shirt. Apparently he trains well, works hard and is entirely professional in all he does. It’s just a pity that he is unable to carry that work ethic and professionalism out onto the pitch. Arteta will put him on the bench tonight and give him ten to fifteen minutes at the end of the game. It seems to me, that Willian is content to treat his three year , £100,000 plus bonuses contract as a pre-retirement freeby while he decides how to laze away the rest of his life.
City are on a roll at the moment so we should not be surprised whichever way it finishes.
As for Benfica as Hobart says that night Isias showed us a new way of playing. We had a good team out with only Pates playing instead of Bould at the back but their movement was fantastic to watch . They were by far the better team and actually had Stephen Schwartz who later joined us for a bit playing for them .
Still water under the bridge now.
Tonight I expect us to play with a degree of caution to keep us in the tie but I can see a narrow defeat on the cards . This is not being negative just pragmatic , We blow hot and cold at the moment and I fear this might be a different level of technical play than we are used to.
Thanks Kev. We have to be smarter than last year. It’s a two legged tie, not a one off and I think the players need to be clever. We’ve been dreadful in Europe for years because in my opinion, we’ve taken the matches as two separate games if that makes sense. It should be a cat and mouse tie I reckon.
I don’t think Mikel Arteta has defended him though Cicero, he’s just been honest. A good player who right now, isn’t playing as he should be, or is capable of.
Hi Rico and all Thanks for the link Rico still showing yesterdays story.
I normally type in highbury house football and it gets me in.
On the lighter side I would like to see the day Arteta coaches Arsenal and then we see Thienry Henry and Patrick Viera both coaching their own teams in the premier league against each other.
looking forward to tonight’s match lets just hope they all come home safe with out catching the virus
Morning Rico /all
Thanks for the preview. I’ve seen some Portuguese league games on Freesports, only 1 Benfica game, they weren’t that impressive but I’m sure they will be a tough test. Vertonghen was one of the best defender’s of the last 10 years in the Premier league.
I agree with the above – Willian is sure to play some part. Let’s hope tonight he comes good.
One thing strikes me, Rome is a long way away for both clubs, and our so called home leg is even further.
COYG
Morning Limey, Geoff, I’m hoping Vieira or Henry succeed in the PL too, Arteta will need replacing one day. Lol
Jesus is in a similar situation to Arteta really, he’s not been back at the club long, he took over a squad which had been struggling and I’d imagine he wants to change his squad. The ex PL players are all in the 30’s. On paper, we’re playing them at a good time. However, they’re playing Arsenal at a good time too.
We need JM to give us his views on Benfica.
Test
Rico, if Arteta is not defending Willian, he’s defending his own decision to sign a player who is coming in for a lot of criticism in the media and on line.
I see that Eddie Nketiah has, according to the Arsenal CEO, come in for some racist abuse on the good old ‘woke when it suits us’ social media…
Of course nothing will be done by the duplicitous Big Tech, they’ll just role on following their own narrow narratives.
stroll on
Afternoon Rico and the House,
Looking forward to tonights game.
Just testing
Looking forward to tonights game.
Just testing .
I’m not
Did you mean Just Jesting ?
Just resting, before tonight’s match.
Depends how you read his comment I think Cicero.
That’s disappointing Kev, what on earth goes through peoples minds these days.
Afternoon Rick. Me too. I think we’re going to win.
I know Rico, there really isn’t any excuse, I mean he’s hardly played since the turn of the year so he’s not exactly keeping anyone out of the team…
Sadly Kev, some people don’t need an excuse to be a prick.
Same starting eleven from the Leeds game. Thought Holding would be back for this one.
Benfica: Helton Leite (Port.); Diogo Gonçalves (Port..), Otamendi (Arg.), Lucas Veríssimo (Brasil . first game – came in last week), Vertonghen (Ned.) e Grimaldo (Arg.); Weigl (German), Taarabt (Mar.) e Pizzi; (Port.) Waldschmidt (Germ)e Darwin Núñez (Uruguai)
Best player: Pizzi
The strikers are dangerous
Nice line up, Rico! Now let’s do this, even if it is in that horrible blue kit 😄
Thanks Jm, so just the strikers to worry about. Lol
I worry about Luiz Sue…
Something very weird is happening to this blog, I’ve logged on three times and got a different result, Big Tech is messing up big style…
Interesting team, I guess if it ain’t broke don’t change it…
Has it all gone quiet?
Pretty much the first team then?
Special place the ‘Eternal City’
Arsenal to win, or perhaps come second! A win I think (hope)
And the ex Toot goes straight at Saka and fouls him…
What a miss by Aubameyang
Great move, terrible miss by Auba.
What’s going on? Two comments have just gone missing.
Testing, testing, testing.
Four comments now in first half and they’ve all gone missing.
That’s 45 minutes we will never get back
Iv’e put five comments on since kick off and they have all disappeared.
Cicero, your comments went into moderation because you used a different name. I’ve now changed it.
FGS, stay onside Aubameyang.
European football, don’t you just hate to love it, a game we should have won comfortably tha5 we could have lost…
Portuguese teams are masters at letting you think that you’re in control and then you end up losing and can’t work out why.
Once we equalised Benfica came at us looking for a second because they were banking on a 1-1 in the 2nd leg and winning on away goals. Now it’s up for grabs, but we need a clean sheet in Athens and that’s it, I don’t care if it’s a boring game, just keep the clean sheet.
Unfortunate handball but if it was the other way I would have called for it despite it hitting his ribs more than the arm .
The second half was livelier but we are pretty toothless on the edge of the area. could have ended 3 or 4 should have ended at least 2.
Shoul be out of sight.
Missed at least 4.
Kev id love to see Reiss Nelson playing inthis team.
But not on the wing as a no 10
You should already know that Portuguese teams against English teams, always play online, to benefit from the Law of the Off side; the 2nd leg game will be different and we will be subject to conceding goals; the Benfica team will be different.
Yep, Auba should be coming home with another match ball. Woeful finishing, again. Not like him. I thinks he’s lost his mojo, and by that I mean, he used to score for fun but now he can’t score for toffee ( for the old ‘ins that last remark.) I believe where he used to shoot by instinct now he’s thinking about it, in the nano second he takes to engage his brain the chance has gone. It happens you know, as you get older, and sadly he’s getting older. He’s lost his pace too, he got out chased again by their full back at least once when he had nobody in front of him. Really sadly I think he’s a spent force. Great shame.
Rick there’s no doubt in my mind that Reiss Nelson could do what Willian does and probably more, but Willian is the managers pick so he gets the game.
I think that when he came in he realised that there was a good crop of youngsters coming through and so he planned to keep a group of experienced players to keep the pot boiling whilst they developed .Perversely what has happened is that the young ones are carrying the old ones as they seem to be all drifting over the hill at the same time .
As they flew home tonight I would not be surprised if he and Edu were revising the plan somewhat.
I am not so much concerned with next weeks return match but the ones that may follow will be harder
. Tonight we showed where we are at present , we can give anyone a game but there is still something missing .
Rico has hired me as the editor.
So many comments are just wrong or gibberish so I’m deleting them To improve our overall quality and attract more contributors.
Of course, I delete most of my own as it’s pure trash 🙂 🙂
In recent days, I can rarely find the new post for several hours.
All we can do is be patient and it’ll be sorted soon enough:
PS-Kev, last warning mate 😉
Too many loose passes and back passing but I will take the draw over a loss
Testing.
Thanks Rico.
The same result as 30 years ago.
It is not a good omen …
Hey, tie me kangaroo down sport, waltzing Matilda , Cell Block H, 4 X, how’s that Scott, does that get me a reprieve. 😄
Kev my money is on Scott to give you 4 weeks in the cooler for Tie me kangaroo down sport
Kev, you’ve been voted off the island 🙂
Morning all.
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/02/19/tie-hangs-in-the-balance/
Afternoon Rico and the House.
Very tough game for the U23s tonight.
They are at home to the high and mighty Man c.
The goal scoring City top of league are expected to win.
https://fernandoamaralfc.blogspot.com/2021/02/o-dia-em-que-o-pequeno-luton-town.html
For those who want to remember some Arsenal players and a disappointment ..
Afternoon Rick, there’s a new post up now.
https://highbury-house.com/2021/02/19/tie-hangs-in-the-balance/
Seems every City team is good these days.