Arsenal to Beat Barcelona in Memory of David Rocastle

On a great occasion like today it's easy to forget that life goes on for other people or in some cases it fails to go on.

On this day in 2001 David Rocastle died at the very young age of 33 from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was a member of the league-winning sides of 1989 and 1991, but much to the shock of all Arsenal fans he was sold to Leeds at the start of the first ever Premier league season in 1992.

During his time at Arsenal he played 218 games and scored 24 goals and was a firm favourite with the fans. He also played 14 times for his country during his career.

After he left Arsenal his career went downhill, but the Arsenal fans will never forget his contribution to those title-winning teams—he always gave everything he had when he played for us.

I saw him play a few times myself on preseason tours to Ireland and during those years he was one of my favorite players as he could actually play a bit, which was unusual under George Graham.

On to tonight's game. It simply doesn't get any bigger than a home game against the current club Champions of Europe—and the world too, for that matter.

It's a match where two teams with a similar style and philosophy will meet each other and it has the potential to be an absolute classic.

However, I will say that first legs in European can also be very cagey and it could well be a tactical battle in which neither team commits too much.

Arsenal will be afraid of conceding an away goal to Barcelona and Barcelona will be confident of finishing Arsenal off at the Nou Camp as long as they can get back there still in the tie.

We also have the added factors of Thierry Henry's return to the club where he was—and is—an absolute legend in my opinion. He may have left us to go on to pastures new, but that was for more than just football reasons as we all know. And to be honest, he had passed his peak anyway and we had got his very best years out of him.

We also have the prospect of Cesc. If he recovers from his injury he will play against his hometown team and the club who nurtured him before he joined us at a very young age. They have made no secret of their desire to get him back, and to be honest some of their behavior has been downright disgraceful.

Our biggest injury worry is obviously Cesc. Barcelona will be without the influential Iniesta too, but in a bit of a surprise it would seem that Gallas has a chance to play after recovering from his injury sooner than expected.

According to the boss a decision will be made on Cesc as late as possible and we have a 19-man squad for the game to allow for Cesc either making it or not.

It remains to be seen if the boss will pick Gallas as well as he has only had three days training in over a month and it's a big game to come into if he's rusty. Of course, the alternative of Campbell playing after having played on Saturday isn't ideal either and I'm sure it will be a very close call.

The team will more than likely consist of Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Vermaelen, Gallas (or Campbell), Song, Diaby, Cesc (or Nasri), Arshavin, Bendtner, and Nasri (or Rosicky).

If Cesc doesn't play I think Nasri will fill in for him with Rosicky coming in on the left or right. I don't think Walcott will start, but the boss might surprise me. Although I think the away leg is made for him if we are still in contention.

I'm obviously worried about Almunia playing as I have no faith in him, but besides that it's a full strength side with the exception of RVP if Cesc plays—although the difference between RVP and Bendtner in a game like this is huge.

I hope to see Bendtner give us a presence in the box and not outside of it, involved in the build-up where his touch is not to the same standard as the rest of the team.

I don't know how the game will progress, but as they say "goals change games" and I think as soon as the first goal is scored we might see a real game as one team will have to come out of their shell.

At this stage I usually predict a scoreline and although I am predicting a 3-2 win for Arsenal, it's more in hope than expectation. 

In other news, the reserves beat Birmingham 3-1 last night at home with Miquel, Ozyakup, and Barazite scoring the goals.

If you have been cut off from the football world for the last 24 hours you might not know that "Manure" were beaten 2-1 in injury time by Bayern Munich last night and "Shrek" limped off in a lot of pain with an ankle injury.

There's no news of how long he might be out yet, but if it's for the rest of the domestic season they will be in more than a spot of bother. I'm sure all of us Gooners are waiting anxiously to see if they can cope without him as we have without RVP since early November. As long as it doesn't stop them drawing with Chelsea on Saturday I'll be happy.

That's it for today, and I'm sorry for the late post, but it was beyond my control. I had set up a template of the blog last night with the tribute to Rocky, but I was too busy to finish it until now. If you're going to the game tonight like REzNUk I hope you have a great time and enjoy a famous victory.

If, like me, you're in a pub, try not to drink too much if you have work tomorrow. Otherwise you can always check out LadyArse and her live chat type thingy during the match (it's not a live blog, seriously) as it's always very enjoyable.

Finally, I was asked to write a preview of tonight's match for 11Gunnerz through talking to him on Twitter and it can be read here .

Here's a lovely tribute to Rocky that I'm not afraid to say brought a tear to my eye.

See you tomorrow.