Arsenal V Villarreal: A Cautious Fan's Preview

This coming Wednesday sees the return leg of last week's entertaining Champions League Quarter Final First Leg 1-1 draw between the Premier Laegue's Arsenal and Manuel Pellegrini's Villarreal. The general consensus suggests Arsenal will consolidate their slender advantage and progress to the semi finals of the Champions League.

Arsenal, thanks to Emmanuel Adebayor's sublime efforts, take a potentially vital away goal back to the Emirates and will feel confident that home support and the high tempo approach that that engenders will be too much for Villarreal and steer them towards the last four of the competition for the first time since 2006.

However, Arsene Wenger will know as well as anyone else that to write Villarreal off and approach this game with an undue degree of self-confidence could be dangerous against a side that proved in the first half of the first leg at El Madrigal that it is more than willing to go toe-to-toe with Arsenal in terms of outwitting the opponent with classy attacking football. 

As Liverpool found out last week, relying too heavily on the belief that home support and attacking strength will overwhelm the opponent can be dangerous in European competition where teams prepare so meticulously to meet the challenges that European away ties throw up. 

One should also be aware that Villarreal have a defensive unit more than capable of dealing with constant attacking pressure, so patience will be vital too; Villarreal would like nothing more than to be faced with a  frustrated Arsenal team and support.

What is vital for Arsenal is that they employ a game plan of sensible balance which seeks to nullify the Villarreal counter-attacking threat at the same time as fully implementing the potentially devastating attacking armoury at the North London side's disposal. 

Such a game plan requires maturity, discipline and a full understanding of the tactical nuances that this competition demands.

Given the relative inexperience of this Arsenal squad, one might question its ability to fulfill these criteria but Arsenal fans have seen enough in the last few months to suggest that its fledgling stars have now accumulated enough know-how to produce results at the business-end of the season.

The midfield triumvirate of Alexandre Song, Denilson Neves and Cesc Fabregas will be absolutely key to executing this tactical balance with Song (if selected) in particular being given primary responsibility for nullifying Villarreal's advances in the central midfield area.

It seems trite to focus on the quality and importance of Senna so we'll leave that to one side except to say that his calming presence and unrelenting willingness to accept responsibility for the ball are reasons for Villarreal fans to be confident that they have the type of personality that can boss the ever-important midfield battle. 

Of principal interest though is the intelligence and trickery of Ariel Ibagaza and Ruben Cani (if fit). 

These players hold the key to Villarreal's attacking ambitions on Wednesday night because of the fact that most of the game will be played in the centre of the park and with the possibility of facing intense attacking pressure, Villarreal will look to their creative outlets in midfield to commit Arsenal's defensive players and pull them out of position to make spaces for an advancing Senna, or the dangerous Giusseppe Rossi (and perhaps Nihat if selected). 

If Villarreal can pressure and harass the Arsenal midfield enough then opportunities will be provided for Cani and Ibagaza to pick the "second-ball" up in deep positions and run at Arsenal, or pick a pass for one of their colleagues.

We saw in the first half at the El Madrigal that these two can do damage with their delightfully slick short-passing and tidy footwork, and it is their ability to create a scoring opportunity for themselves or others that will again pose the biggest threat to an Arsenal victory.

It is of course against Arsenal's nature to be overly concerned about defensive tactics though and it would indeed be illogical to do so on this occasion given that it is a home fixture and that Arsenal are in such a rich vein of form.

I expect a huge emphasis on Arsenal's attacking tools on the wings with Theo Walcott and Samir, back up by Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy, being given the responsibility of stretching the opposition and providing a ubiquitous target for the visionary passing of Cesc Fabregas and effective hold-up play of Emmanuel Adebayor.

It will be interesting to see whether Wenger selects Robin van Persie to play alongside Adebayor or if he keeps faith with Alexandre Song in the middle of the park, thereby allowing Denilson and Fabregas the freedom to express their creative instincts more than they would be able to do otherwise. 

Again, this choice will be governed by Wenger's opinion of how much of a balance needs to be struck between defensive discipline and attacking endeavour. I would suggest that van Persie will be left on the bench and utilized later in the match as and when needed.

Losing William Gallas for the rest of the season is a huge blow to Arsenal as he has been one of the outstanding performers in the last three months but in Johan Djourou they have a very able understudy who, with the tutelage of Kolo Toure, can provide the stability that this stage of the season requires.

The point is that the  game will be decided by matters both technical and tactical, and so long as Arsenal get the tactical side right, they will progress to the last four.