THE PORTSMOUTH postponement will help Arsenal to win on Tuesday night
Sure, Juventus are a team of ruthless old pros who know how to grind out results.But they have all seen better days : Emerson was in his prime at Leverkusen, Cannavaro and Thuram were in their prime at Parma, Del Piero is a golden boy in his twilight years, and Vieira gave his best six years to Arsenal between 1996 and 2002.
Juve played on Saturday night and drew 1-1 with Roma, conceding a late equaliser after Nedved was sent off in the 45th .
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC is a marvellous talent but he has never been a prolific scorer, either at Ajax or Juve.
When coach Fabio Capello says, “Vieira has nothing to prove against Arsenal” he is signalling the obvious danger of Patrick being over-motivated against his former club, who unloaded him last summer..
Arsenal have fresher legs and if they find their passing rhythm quickly they could stretch Juve and penetrate often enough to win the game. Of course, the flow of play could broken up by strategic fouls in the middle third. Emerson is one of the masters of a strategic foul to interrupt a counter-attack.
As ever, a lot will depend on Thierry, who has done well in the past against Roma and Inter, and scored a fantastic free-kick when Arsenal beat Juventus 3-1.
MOST OF THE BIG Champions League teams dipped on Saturday, as they often do.
Lyon only drew 1-1 with Toulouse, Inter lost 1-0 at Parma, Barcelona could only draw 0-0 at Malaga, where Eto’o had a goal wrongly disallowed for handball when it was a Malaga defender who had handled.
AC Milan, reliable at home, beat Fiorentina 3-1.
LYON v AC MILAN could be a classic, since Milan are vulnerable in defence.
Their back five cannot handle crosses,free-kicks or corners. Yes, Kaka, Shevchenko and Gattuso are better than any footballers in the French League, but the collective atheticism of Lyon could win the night.
Tiago is so classy he could play for Milan. There is something refreshingly positive, almost innocent, about Lyon. It’s almost as if they don’t know how good they are..
History suggests Milan should prevail over two legs, but Lyon are quietly rewriting history.They’ve improved a helluva lot since Arsenal last played them .