Arsenal-Barcelona: What's in Store for the Gunners in UEFA Champions League?

As football matches go for a team like Arsenal, they don't come any harder than a trip to the home of the current club champions of Spain, Europe, and the world, but that's the treat we have in store for tonight.

You would hope for Arsenal to be able to field its strongest team to give us a fighting chance in such a difficult encounter, but sadly we are without five players who would be considered certain starters.

Among them are some truly fantastic players. How we will cope without the injured Cesc, Gallas, Song, Arshavin, and RVP is anybody's guess, but we have to because we have no choice.

It obviously means the boss is very limited in his options and the news that both Campbell and Rosicky are also struggling to be fit for the game is very worrying.

Campbell will apparently decide for himself whether or not he is fit to play. Rosicky has four stud marks on the back of his leg from the challenge on him that saw the Wolves get a player sent off on Saturday.

They are two very experienced players and we could do with having them both in the team.

The team should look something like this:

Goalkeeper: Almunia

Defense: Sagna, Clichy, Vermaelen, and Campbell (Silvestre)

Midfield: Diaby, Denilson, and Nasri

Strikers: Walcott, Bendtner, and Rosicky (Eduardo)

If Campbell and Rosicky don't play, it would definitely see Silvestre come into the back four, with Eduardo probably getting the other slot up front.

Eboue, Vela, and Merida are all possibilities as well. If Campbell and Rosicky don't play, I wonder if they will be on the bench as the squad on the official site has only 18 players listed, and if those two are out, it leaves us with only five subs.

Is it too late to fly any more players over to add to our bench and do we have any fit players available to do that?

The game itself will be a very tough proposition for the players, and Barcelona will do everything they can to dominate us as they did for the first hour in the game at the Emirates. With their two away goals in the bag, they know we have to score or we will be out, but I can't see that making them sit back and defend.

I expect them to play the exact same way and come at us right from the start with all guns blazing. Hopefully, we can react a little better this time and manage to move the ball quickly enough to keep possession when we have it. 

We know that Barcelona's weakness is a ball over the top of their defense and they are afraid of pace too. In Walcott, we have a player who can take advantage of them on their very big pitch.

Most times that I have seen Barcelona playing at home, their opponents get in behind them at some stage. If Walcott manages that, I hope we will see the good version of him that can finish with aplomb and not the version that leaves the ball behind him when he's running. 

There is bound to be an enormous amount of pressure on our defense and that quick ball to Walcott on the break can be a real weapon if we manage to get it right.

If Clichy can play it to him from his left back slot or any of our central midfielders, he should be capable of cutting in from the right and scaring the hell out of them.

We also have the capability of Bendtner from crosses as he showed against Wolves on Saturday, and with both of the central defenders who played at the Emirates for Barcelona suspended, he might just get some joy there.

The team as a whole cannot allow Barcelona to build up the head of steam that they did last week, and if they are getting on top we will need to do anything and everything possible—within the rules of the game—to take the steam out of the game. 

That means that players will have to show courage in possession and the players who are not in possession have to keep moving into space to give us options.

We are being written off by every single expert and it would seem that the media has eventually realized the extent of our injury crisis.

It's something that Arsenal fans and players have coped with all season, and just when it seemed to be abating last week it came back again to bite us even harder.

We are apparently playing for our pride tonight and we will show lots of spirit but none of them give us a hope. I just hope that Barcelona thinks along the same lines when they see our team sheet and it might just give us the edge we want.

I always predict a win for Arsenal in every game they play and tonight is no different. I think we will definitely score and possibly emerge as 3-2 winners, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

Hopefully Nasri can step up and take control and if Tosicjy manages to overcome his injury I think he can have a huge influence on the game.

We managed to keep Messi relatively quiet in the first game, and although the thought of him running at either Campbell or Silvestre scares me, I'm hoping we can do it again tonight.

As always, the first goal will be crucial and it will be interesting to see how Barcelona reacts if we get that first goal.

In their group, they lost at home to Rubin Kazan, which shows that they are not invincible at home, and the longer they go without scoring the more nervous they will get.

If we can hang in there until there are 20 minutes to go, Barcelona will be only too aware of the comeback we staged at home and our incredible ability to score late and important goals this season. 

There are a lot of "if's" and "but's" in there, I know. Things could go badly for us tonight, but until that happens I choose to believe that we will progress to meet either Inter Milan or CSKA Moscow in the semifinals.

We have eight days before our next game after this and it's an away game against our local rivals, the Spuds, which could see St. Totteringham's day arrive for us.

But I'll deal with that as we get closer to the game.

I'll be in the supporters' club in Bray watching the game again but I'll be on the 7up after a very hectic weekend. Wherever you're watching the game, try to keep the faith and believe that Arsenal can do it as we march on to a glorious double of Premier League and Champions League. I can dream, can't I?

Here's a look at the Walcott that we want to see tonight.

See you tomorrow.