Can Arsenal Put Monaco To The Sword?

Champions League

Football
Published: 24/02/2015

Arsenal are currently unbeaten in three games in all competitions and will be looking to continue this strong vein of form when they meet French side Monaco in the Champions League tomorrow evening (19:45). Arsene Wenger`s North London side are flying-high in third in the Premier League, though are 12 points from being top of the tree. They qualified for the knockout stage of this competition after finishing the runners-up of Champions League Group D.

Monaco occupy Ligue Un`s fourth position and are 11 points off league leaders Lyon following an inconsistent run of form that has seen them picked up a draw, a defeat and a win in their last three league games. Leonardo Jardim`s side`s Champions League campaign saw them accumulate a total of 11 points from their six group games and saw them progress as the winners of Group C.

Despite Monaco`s superior group stage finish, it is the home side who are the favourites to take the advantage in this first leg clash. The Gunners are available at 8/15 with a number of bookmakers (betfred, boylesports, Bwin, Totesport, william hill) whilst the visitors can be picked up at a price of 15/2 with betfair. Betbright have priced up a draw at odds of 10/3.

The Emirates outfit racked up a total of 13 points from their group stage fixtures, this being the result of four wins, a draw and a defeat. They progressed from a group that also included Anderlecht, Borussia Dortmund and galatasaray.

The North London side netted 15 times in these six ties and conceded a total of six goals, the equivalent of one a match. Both betfair and Betvictor have odds of 17/10 on Monaco scoring exactly one goal tomorrow night whilst an Arsenal clean sheet, something that would be their fourth in the competition this season including their play-off fixtures against Besiktas, can be backed at 4/5 (Betbright, Betfair, Spreadex).

Three Arsenal players have contributed three goals in the Champions League group stages, these men being Lukas Podolski, Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck. Despite being in-form for Arsenal in this tournament, 29-year-old Pole Podolski is currently on loan at Internazionale and will be unavailable for selection tomorrow night.

As well as scoring the second goal of the match in the 3-3 home draw with Anderlecht, Chilean Sanchez has also provided goals in both galatasaray (4-1) and Dortmund (2-0) home wins. The 26-year-old is on offer at 9/5 at Bwin to add to his tally at any time against Monaco.

Welbeck hit the back of the net three times in that very same win against Galatasaray but has failed to score another goal in Europe since. The England international is 2/1 (Betvictor, Bwin, paddy Power) to re-find his form but is also available at 66/1 (paddy Power) to hit his second hat-trick of the competition.

Monaco`s Group C contained Bayer Leverkusen, who also qualified for the knockout stage having collected 10 points, and the pair of Zenit St. Petersburg and Benfica.

The French team only scored four goals in their bid to qualify for this round of the tournament but kept a massive five clean sheets. Jardim`s men are 9/2 (betfair, Spreadex) to not concede for the sixth time in this competition against Arsenal whilst are also available at 10/1 (32red, 888sport, Spreadex, unibet) to win to nil. Four different players bagged goals for tomorrow`s visitors to the Emirates though the favourite to score for Les Rouges et Blancs at any time is Dimitar Berbatov at 41/10 (888sport, unibet).

All four of Monaco`s goals, however, have come in the second half of games. betway`s 14/5 says the club`s first goal will come in the second half once again.

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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (24/02/2015) but are subject to change.

24/02/2015     © Frixo 2024

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