Champions League Preview: Fenerbahce vs. Arsenal

Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal looks on during a training session ahead of their UEFA Champions League Play Off first leg match against Fenerbache at London Colney on August 20, 2013 in St Albans, England. (Getty Images)

The start we all feared occurred on Saturday against Aston Villa. A loss that completely summed up our whole summer so far, no real plan, gutless and at the end of the day blaming everybody but ourselves. Since Saturday, Arsene Wenger seems to have moved further forward with potential transfer targets but none in time for today’s game against Turkish side Fenerbahce.

Some good news has occurred over the past few days in regards to players being passed fit to play, as it got to a stage where we were almost wondering if we were going to be able to field 11 senior players, with all the injuries we picked up against Villa.

Fenerbahce aren’t off to the greatest of starts this season either, they too lost on the opening day, 3-2 to Konyaspor after being 2-0 up, three goals in the last 15 minutes sent Fenerbahce home with 0 points.

In order to get to this stage, Fenerbahce had to play in the Champions League qualifiers and just about saw off Austrian side Salzburg 4-2 on aggregate. I didn’t see the ties myself but from what I’ve heard it was not a convincing victory at all.

After finishing 2^nd, 10 points behind Galatasaray last year, Fenerbahce will be hoping to close the gap on their rivals this year and manager Ersun Yanal has added to the squad with some very decent signings.

Highly-rated Nigerian striker Emmanuel Emenike was purchased from Russian side Spartak Moscow along with tough Portuguese centre-back Bruno Alves, who you probably all know from Zenit. Michal Kadlec and ALper Potuk have also joined Fenerbahce rounding up the summer spending to about £30m.

The Fenerbahce squad already consists of former Premier League stars Dirk Kuyt, Joseph Yobo, Raul Meireles and Emre; so plenty of recognisable names will be on the team sheet his evening. Whilst there will be star names on show, the Fenerbahce team hasn’t quite clicked as of yet this season and have only mustered one victory from their first four competitive games so far. Surely something Arsenal will have to look to capitalise on.

Arsenal have met Fenerbahce on two previous occasions in the Champions League group stages in the 08/09 season. One of Arsenal’s best European away day performances occurred that season, where an Abou Diaby masterclass was too much for the Turk’s to handle in a 5-2 demolition job.

Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott, Diaby, Alex Song and Aaron Ramsey were the goal scorers that night. The home tie was a little less enthralling and memorable and ended in a 0-0 draw. A performance like the one we had in Istanbul a few years ago is much needed and would certainly give the fans something to shout about and put the critics to bed for a few hours at least.

Possible Arsenal starting XI: Szczesny, Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Sagna, Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky, Cazorla, Giroud, Walcott.

I expect the same back four to start that did against Villa and I expect Wenger to stick with the Wilshere-Ramsey combination in midfield, simply because there aren’t many other options available. It will be a big game for Jack Wilshere, who came under some criticism for his performance against Villa. We all know he has the talent it’s now time for him to find that discipline in his defensive side of the game.

I’m expecting an Arsenal victory and a good performance to go with it. The players will be eager to get over what happened on Saturday and without the added pressure of an understandably tense Arsenal home crowd, the players could well shine.