Arsene Wenger wants Walcott as a central striker and Eduardo as a winger

In his post-match conference after yesterday's 3-0 drubbing of Sparta Prague Arsene Wenger discussed how he would be using Theo Walcott and new signing Eduardo da Silva in the future. Wenger has stated that he wants to use Eduardo as the goalscoring left-winger that Arsenal have been missing, while he hopes to convert Walcott from a winger to a central striker.

I think it would be great to use Eduardo as a left-winger. He played some of the Sparta Prague game out on the left flank, and while he did not cross the ball like an out and out winger, he often cut in, took on a defender, and then cut a pass back into the center of the penalty area - it was in fact a move just like this which set up Cesc Fabregas' goal. Eduardo would do well as a winger who pops into the box for to score his own goals as well, as he is obviously an excellent striker as well. I feel that this would be the ideal position for him. As Wenger said, "I found him more at ease on the left flank, where he had tricks of a winger, and then through the middle. He's a great striker, you know, and you could see that." A combination of a striker/winger would serve Arsenal very well.

Eduardo was not the only one who showed promise in the Sparta Prague game - Theo Walcott also showed some of the quality that got him called up for England's 2006 World Cup squad. His blistering pace was reminiscent of the recently departed Henry, and although he is young, his runs caused the Sparta defense a whole lot of problems. It was a cut back from Walcott that set up Rosicky's goal in the 8th minute, and Walcott supplied many chances for others as well. Wenger would like to try some of his magic on Theo, by converting him to a central striker as he did to Henry.

"In the future he'll be used more as a central striker. He can make a difference for England because there are not many strikers in this country who have his qualities or pace.

"If a defender is one yard behind him Theo will never get caught. He makes good runs along the line of the defence and he will be able to use that more when he plays through the middle.

"But it's good for him to learn the job on the flanks."

I haven't seen much of Walcott in a central striker position, but with all of his talent, I'm sure that he will be able to function well in any attacking spot on the pitch. I just hope that Arsene can do with him what he did with Henry. At 18 years old, Walcott still has quite a future ahead of him...

Now that we've qualified: The Champions League Draw Possibilities

Now that we've qualified (after cruising over Sparta Prague) I think it's about time to discuss the possible draws that we could face in the Champions League group stages. The way this works is that UEFA randomly draws one team from each pot into each group, so you get a team from pot 1, a team from pot 2, a team from pot 3, and a team from pot 4 in each group. Here are what the pots look like.

Pot 1:
AC Milan
Barcelona
Liverpool
Inter Milan
Arsenal
Real Madrid
Manchester United
Chelsea

Pot 2:
Valencia
Lyon
Porto
Sevilla/AEK Athens
PSV Eindhoven
Roma
Benfica
Werder Bremen

Pot 3:
Celtic
Schalke 04
Stuttgart
Steaua Bucharesti
CSKA Moscow
Sporting Lisbon
Lazio
Marseille

Pot 4:
Rangers
Shakhtar Donetsk
Beşiktaş
Olympiacos
Dynamo Kiev
Fenerbahçe
Slavia Prague
Rosenborg

Even the teams in pots 3 and 4 are quite competitive, so it would be possible to be drawn a horrible group like Arsenal, Sevilla, Celtic, and Fenerbaçe. However, we could also end up with AEK Athens, Steaua Bucharesti, and Rosenborg, a fairly easy challenge.

Personally, I would like to see a draw of 1 fairly difficult teams and 2 "easy" teams. The reason that I don't want all of our challengers to be "easy" teams is that we never seem to do our best against sub-par opponents. Take last season for example, in which we won the double against the Champions, drew Chelsea home and away, and beat Liverpool 3 times across the course of the season (although we lost to them once); while we lost to teams that were closer to relegation than to European spots.

I think the ideal draw would be something like PSV Eindhoven (for revenge), Steaua Bucharesti, and Rosenborg. That way we would be pretty sure of getting through to the next round, but we would be kept on our toes by PSV, and we would be able to get our revenge. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes tomorrow...

What do you think would be the ideal draw? PSV for revenge, or AEK for a (hopefully) easy way through? Post your comments here.

Arsenal vs Sparta Prague - 2nd Half Review

First half Review

Arsenal beat Sparta Prague 3-0 in the home leg of their Champions League qualifying round, to easily make the group stages. Goals from Tomasz Rosicky, Cesc Fabregas and Eduardo da Silva cleaned up the Czech team, who's normally influential (and controversial) captain, Tomas Repka, had little effect on the game.

Arsenal began the second half without making any substitutions, instead sticking with the side which had almost completely deprived Sparta Prague of chances in the first half. However, Sparta Prague came out much stronger in the second, dominating the early minutes with lots of possession in the attacking third.

After winning a corner, a Sparta player sent the ball in, almost resulting in a Robin van Persie own goal, which was well saved by Almunia. Minutes later, Pavel Horvath took a nice dive in the eighteen yard box, appealing for a penalty. The replays showed no contact at all, and the referee saw nothing amiss.

Arsenal still had some possession though, and Theo Walcott tried to add Arsenal's second with an optimistic drive from a good 30 yards, which went well over and to the right of the post, never troubling Postulka. Tempers rose a bit as Tomas Repka's first significant contribution to the match was a yellow card for dissent when one of his teammates didn't receive a free kick after an admittedly dubious looking challenge.

Sparta Prague continued to press however, and in the 57th minute, Rezek played a nice ball in, which was Almunia reached just in time to smother the attack. After the distribution however, a slip in concentration from Phillipe Senderos gave Sparta a good chance, but the resulting cross was cleared by the recovering Senderos, and the resulting corner ended up in the hands of Manuel Almunia.

Because of similar moments of uncertainty in the Arsenal defense, Sparta actually managed more chances than us in the beginning of the second half, but good recoveries made it so that Almunia was not troubled in goal. It was clear to Arsene Wenger, though, that his side needed some urgency injected in it, so Robin van Persie was taken off in favor of Emmanuel Adebayor and Diaby - who had performed admirably in the midfield - was taken off for the young spaniard, Cesc Fabregas.

A few minutes later, Jan Kolar replaced Rezek for Sparta Prague, and Denilson replaced goalscorer Tomasz Rosicky for Arsenal. the subs for both teams brought purpose to their sides, as Fabregas put a little bit too much weight on a through ball to Adebayor. In the 78th minute Kolar had the ball stolen off his foot by Clichy in the nick of time when it seemed sure that he would score a goal.

It wasn't long before Fabregas had an even greater effect, scoring from 15 yards out after Eduardo brilliantly cut through the Sparta defense and cut back a pass which Fabregas stabilized, and then shot into the back of the net. Minutes later Walcott received a yellow card for a push into the back of a Sparta defender, and Sparta seemed to be after a goal, when Kolar was once again dispossessed by Clichy in the penalty area.

However, the fun was soon over for Sparta Prague as Husek got a yellow for a shirt pull on Adebayor. Just minutes before the end of the match, Eduardo finally found the net. Fabregas supplied Denilson with a nice pass, after which he played the ball to Adebayor, got it back, and crossed the ball right into the path of the onrushing Croatian-Brazilian who made no mistake from a few yards out.

So Arsenal made it 5-0 on aggregate in their qualifying match, making it into the lucrative group stages of the Champions League after a convincing performance against the tough Czech side!!!

Arsenal vs Sparta Prague - 1st Half Review

Arsenal dominated the first half of our Champions League qualifier against Sparta Prague, as they went to the dressing room 1-0 up. Sparta Prague was limited to only one major chance, as Arsenal kept the lion's share of the possession, knowing that they were up 3-0 on aggregate after winning the away leg 2-0, with goals from Cesc Fabregas and Alex Hleb who were both rested today, starting on the bench.

An early short back pass from Justin Hoyte gave Almunia a bit of a scare, but he managed to come out in time to clear the ball - one wonders if Jens Lehmann would have been able to do the same. Arsenal's goal came in the 8th minute Tomasz Rosicky slotted home after a brilliant cutback from Theo Walcott, who has been troubling the Sparta Prague defenders all game with his blistering pace.

In the 19th Robin van Persie should have made it two after a great cross from new signing Eduardo, but couldn't steer the ball towards the goal after stretching to reach it. Instead he steered the ball into the ground from about a yard out, after which it bounced over the crossbar.

Soon after, in the 25th minute, Sparta came close after Libor Dosek supplied Marek Kulic, who's shot was blocked, resulting in a corner, which was promptly wasted. 4 minutes later, the first card of the match was shown to Kulic after a rough tackle on Justin Hoyte. Robin van Persie took a teasing free kick which was barely cleared by the Sparta defense for a corner. The corner however, was not delivered as nicely, and ended up right in the hands of Sparta goalkeeper Tomas Postulka.

In the 33rd minute, Sparta had another rare chance, as Pavel Horvath shot just wide of the post. However, it looked as though Almunia would have had the ball covered had it been on target. Just a minute later though, Jan Rezek was supplied a brilliant ball from the midfield as Gael Clichy was caught out. He wasted Sparta's best chance of the match after he successfully lobbed the ball over the hands of the onrushing Almunia, only to see it go just wide of the upright.

Arsenal was back to its domination towards the end of the half, with Robin van Persie supplying a brilliant pass to Kolo Toure in the penalty box. Toure had no sense of urgency however, and took a few too many touches, allowing the ball to be stolen away by the Sparta Prague defense. This was the last of the big chances for either side, as Arsenal will look to begin the second half, sure of qualifying for the Champions League group stages.

Second Half Review

Arsenal vs Sparta Prague - Match Preview

On Wednesday afternoon, Arsenal face Sparta Prague at the Emirates in their home game of their 3rd round qualifying fixture for the Champions League. Having won the away match 2-0 after goals from Cesc Fabregas and Alex Hleb, Arsenal are heavy favorites to go through to the lucrative group stage of the Champions League. The win was far from convincing however, as the Czech team controlled the first half and the opening minutes of the second. It took a moment of brilliance from Gael Clichy to set up Cesc's 72nd minute goal, and Hleb's second didn't come until injury time.

Nonetheless, it is the result that matters, and Arsenal will be happy coming into Wednesday's game with a two goal advantage. Also, with Adebayor, Gilberto, Eduardo, and Denilson (who were all out for the away fixture) all back from injury/fatigue, Arsene Wenger will have many more options to choose from. Our manager may even give some of Arsenal's younger players a chance by resting players such as Robin van Persie.

After a last-minute win against Sven-Göran Eriksson's previously undefeated Manchester City side, Arsenal will be fairly confident of qualification for this year's Champions League. If Sparta are to stand any chance of winning this match, they will have to fully shut down Clichy's marauding runs into the attacking third, as well as the defense splitting passes of Hleb and Fabregas.

However, it is possible that Arsenal will be weak in defense, although both Philippe Senderos and Bacary Sagna should be available for the match after recovering from minor injuries suffered before and during Saturday's win over Manchester City. With the error-prone Jens Lehmann out for two weeks, and controversial club captain William Gallas out for over a month, Arsenal will have something of a makeshift defense, which may be exploited by Sparta's front line.

Arsenal should prove nearly impossible to overcome though, and I'm guessing that the scoreline will come out 2-1 in our favor, for an aggregate win of 4-1, and a spot in the Champions League group stage.

By the way, here's a link to the goals from the away leg for those of you who are interested.

Edit: Arsene Wenger today told Arsenal.com that Sagna would be sidelined for the match, but is likely to return for Sunday's premiership clash with Portsmouth. Senderos however, is fit, and is likely to start alongside Kolo Toure against Sparta Prague.

First and Second half reviews