I’ve looked at the Steaua Bucharest team.
And I’ve looked at what they did last season, and in qualifying this season, and it has to be said : Steaua are not very good.
The Group Stages is where strong teams meet weak teams and Matchday 2 is a night when away teams do well. Last year on Matchday 2 there were 16 games. Five were away wins and five were draws
These were the five away wins a year ago :
Steaua Bucharest 0 Lyon 3
Bordeaux 0 PSV Endhoven 1
Inter 0 Bayern Munich 2
Benfica 0 Manchester United 1
Levski Sofia 1 Chelsea 3
The Steaua side has some competent guys who have played for Romania, plus skipper Nicolae Dica at No10. They play 4-4-1-1 and have a Colombian goalkeeper, Robinson Zapata. Italian coach Massimo Pedrazzini has been there five minutes and has no pedigree.
In the last seven games Arsenal have shown us a lot. They can now score from distance, from set-pieces, from three yards. They can defend a lead. They can win away from home regularly, as we saw at Spurs and West Ham.
Sure, Arsenal will have a wobble in the next few weeks. They will have a blip. But it won’t be in Bucharest. There will be a time for anxiety but it’s not tonight. Goals will take a while to arrive but Arsenal will beat Steaua 2-0. If they don’t concentrate when defending set-pieces it will be 2-1. Not many teams score against Arsenal in open play these days but free-kicks and corners give them problems.
Clearly, Arsenal 3 Sevilla 0 was a great result. Starting at home, they got three points in the bag. While Arsenal are not three goals better than Sevilla, so I reckon that result made a bigger impact than the performance. I reckon Arsenal were a bit flattered by 3-0. Results in the next five Group H games may support that view. Sevilla won the Uefa Cup twice and they are better than the Uefa Cup. They’ll rip Slavia Prague to shreds tonight.
Arsene, cautious as ever, says it’s a slightly strange atmosphere in eastern Europe. “It is darker, a little bit less glamorous, you don’t feel on a high. There are always good teams who are up for it against Arsenal. Can we raise our level in a less exciting environment, that’s still a very difficult one? We don’t have a very good record in eastern Europe. We have to show we can improve.”
At 5.30 I’ll watch Roberto Carlos and fellow Brazilian Alex of Fenerbahce take on CSKA in Moscow. Fenerbahce are a stylish side that I want to see again. Do they travel ?