Arsenal face the daunting prospect of having to overcome La Liga giants Barcelona to make it through to the quarter finals of the Champions League, but is it a tie that the Gunners can win? Arsenal are often described as the Barcelona of the Premier League in regards to the passing football that they play. However, if Arsene Wenger’s men try to beat Barca at their own game will the come unstuck?

This is certainly the way that current Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish looks at it and the Scot knows a thing or two about European success. Dalglish said in the Daily Mail that “the truth is that nobody plays the Barcelona way better than they do. So if you take them on at their own game, they win. It is the contrasting team that might cause them problems, as Inter did last year.”

The question is though, can Arsenal play that way? When Arsenal tried to play Barcelona at their own game they were comprehensively defeated the last time they met in the Champions League. The Gunners would be foolish not to learn from their mistakes in that tie, but I’m not sure they have the players to get amongst Barca and overpower them in the way say a Chelsea might be able to do.

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One player that all the limelight is on at the moment is Jack Wilshere, and Dalglish thinks the tie will be a good marker as to just where the talented starlet is at. Dalglish opined that “I’ll be interested to see how Jack Wilshere does in such exalted company after his impressive performance for England against Denmark. Nothing fazes Wilshere and coming up against Barcelona will be a terrific education. He will face three guys of similar physical stature to himself — Messi, Xavi and Iniesta — and it will emphasise again that you don’t have to be 6ft 4in and built like Arnold Schwarzenegger to flourish in the modern game.”

We’ll just have to wait and see how Arsenal approach the match and how they get on, but the Gunners simply have to get a positive result at The Emirates. Will you be backing Arsenal at 11/4?

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