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Since the opening day defeat Arsène Wenger’s men have come back strongly, proving a lot of people wrong so far. Arsenal have won nine consecutive away games in a row and are expected to carry on their excellent away form and make it ten against Marseille tonight.
After losing to Aston Villa in the Premier League, Arsenal have racked up five consecutive wins in all competitions and are Paddy Power has Arsenal down as 6/4 (2.50) favourites to leave the south of France with three points.
And in the form Arsenal are in, especially Giroud and Ramsey, you have to feel confident of coming away with a result from arguably the easiest team in what is probably the hardest group.
The Villa loss was met with cries of ‘crisis, crisis’ but five wins out of five since then and just one defeat in the last 17 competitive matches and nine consecutive away wins since the win over eventual Champions League winners, Bayern Munich, suggest that it was a mere hiccup.
Arsenal welcome back Per Mertesacker from illness and Özil is over his illness and looking to improve on his impressive EPL debut. Wenger and the lads should be confident of beating Marseille, who have lost their last three games in the Champions League and three of their last four Champions League home games.
Marseille lost to Arsenal two years ago and those 6/4 (2.50) odds offer excellent value on the visitors coming out on top once again this time. And with Olivier Giroud in fine scoring form it’s well worth a free bet on an Arsenal win and Giroud goal.
Olivier has five goals in six games this season and has opened the scoring in four of those six, so he must be feeling confident.
The confidence doesn’t stop there, as Mertesacker declared that the Arsenal players believe they will win every game on their travels as the away form has been so good.
Mertesacker said: “We have an exceptional team. That is the main thing. We built that up from last season. We built our confidence up – especially the 10 games last season [on the Premier League run-in] where we did not lose. You could feel it from the first day that there is something special… apart from the first game.
Arsenal have a few injury problems that leave them with few options as they miss Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Rosicky, Podolski and Arteta, meaning Wenger has to offer spots on the bench to Akpom and Hayden.
Mertesacker concedes that the first 20 minutes will be key but we fancy Arsenal to come away with a two goal margin win, 2-0 or 3-1.
Likely Line-ups
Marseille: Mandanda, Fanni, Morel, N’koulou, Lucas Mendes, Imbula, Romao, Valbuena, Payet, Thauvin, Gignac.
Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Ramsey, Flamini, Özil, Wilshere, Giroud, Walcott
