Chronicle Editor
Arsenal travel to Inter today hoping the Champions League can provide a change in fortunes for a side that is without a win in their last three Premier League matches.
The Gunners’ recent form, which has seen them draw with Liverpool and lose to Bournemouth and Newcastle means they are now fifth in the Premier League standings behind Nottingham Forest and Chelsea and seven points off the pace of leaders Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta’s men also sit behind Liverpool in the Champions League table as well as other fellow English sides Aston Villa and Manchester City, with seven points from their opening three games.
They kicked off their campaign with a 0-0 draw with Atalanta in August, before securing home wins over Paris St Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk, without conceding a goal — but they have only scored three.
Inter also go into the tie unbeaten in the competition with an almost mirror image of Arsenal’s results. They started with a goalless draw at Man City before securing wins over Red Star and Young Boys, also without conceding but they have scored five so far.
This match has all the hallmarks of a contest that could be played in the latter stages of the competition. Both sides will have ambitions of winning the Champions League and betting sites have odds available of 8/1 for the Gunners to triump and 20/1 for the Nerazzurri.
A win for either team could send out a statement to the rest of the competing outfits. Inter have made an impressive start to the Serie A campaign with just one defeat from their opening 11 matches and they sit in second place one point behind the league leaders Napoli.
They go into today’s game with seven wins from their last eight games and they have kept five clean sheets along the way — but they did draw 4-4 with Juventus and concede two against Torino, so there could be space for Arsenal to exploit.
The two sides have only met twice before in this competition back in the group stages of the 2003/04 competition and it was two outstanding away performances that caught the eye. First-half goals from Julio Cruz, Andy van der Meyde and Obafemi Martins earned Inter a 3-0 win in the first match before the Gunners ran riot in the San Siro two months later.
Thierry Henry scored twice and Fredrik Ljungberg, Edu and Robert Pires were also on target as Arsenal ran out 5-1 winners.
The Gunners would love a return to that kind of scoring form, having failed to score their last four away Champions League games in Italy, drawing one and losing three. Emmanuel Adebayor was the last player to score in a 2-0 win over Milan in March 2008.
The statistics suggest this one is going to be a cagey affair, just look at the fact that Arsenal have only faced five shots on target to date, while Inter keeper Yann Sommer has kept seven clean sheets in 10 Champions League appearances for the club.
Neither manager is known for an aggressive style of play and the nature of this season’s Champions League format may have just altered the approach of several clubs. Given Arsenal’s strong start, a point on the road in San Siro would be a good result. — yahoosports
Online Reporter