Watford are in the Premier League Grim

Still can't complain about the draw though if we get there of course.

Nah, especially not if they have to play Brentford the day after. Just kidding of course - I assume Hull v Brentford, scheduled for Tuesday 8 March will have to be moved.

There is talk of the replay being on Monday 7 March so that it can be televised, which would mean 2 games in 3 days for us

Whenever it is I'm confident we'll win - mind you, I was confident of a win on Saturday.

DOH! Of course.

We never seem to do very well playing games with little recovery time - I'm a bit

I gather the club would like the replay to take place the following weekend, ie the q/f's weekend. Probably on the Saturday. Hull City would prefer to get it played earlier, the Monday for the telly. I doubt if the FA will allow it to wait until the weekend.

The CL games being stretched out over weeks has only exasperated the problem. Domestic games can be shown on the telly at the same time as the CL but UEFA get the right hump and impose financial penalties on the FA if they do clash.

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I think if we play to our best we have a good chance of getting a result later.

Of course they are a huge task, but they scored 4 goals and conceded 2 in their three away matches in the group stages. Our home record in our group was F7 A3.

It is do-able.

We just need to give ourselves half a chance over there in the return leg. Keep a clean sheet tonight and you never know.

To be honest we have NO chance of winning the Champions League so my preference would be to forget about tonight, play a shadow side and concentrate everything on Sunday for a competition we still have a possibility of winning. We won't of course and by attempting to concentrate on tonight run the very real risk of ending up with nothing.

One has to have hope! If by some miracle we were to somehow dispatch Barcelona then it's game on. Wenger would get crucified if he were to play a shadow team. All I hope is we give a decent account of ourselves and not get stuffed!

What a defeatist attitude.

Of course we have to give it everything tonight. What is the point of getting into the CL and playing sides like Barcelona if you are not even going to try?

Noooo, never do this against the likes of Barcelona. It could get embarrassing with a full-strength team, let alone with our reserves. I'd be concerned that a hammering from Barca could have a detrimental effect on us going forward.

There is always a chance. And anyway this is what the Champions League is all about, nights like this. I am excited about the match tonight – and as long as we play well and give it a good go I'll be happy.

Besides, I had a dream last night that we won 2-0 and my dreams are never wrong...

It's called being realistic and prioritising limited resources where they will have the most effect. I'd much rather win something than nothing.

Call me defeatist if you like. If you think we can win the Champions League with this team and this manager I'll call you delusional.

It will be a tough test tonight - I don't see any way of stopping them scoring with that front three, but if we can at least keep the score down then you never know. If Mertesacker plays then we've got no hope and could get a right beating, but our consolation is we have got Cech in goal to hopefully keep them at bay.

If we don't win tonight then there's no chance of us going through, so lets hope we play to our best and give it a go. I think it'll be a 1-1 draw but it's not my most confident prediction ever.

As has been said, if Wenger put out a weakened side against Barcelona he'd get slaughtered, and you'd be out there in front of them.

Given what I've just said in this very thread it's clear that I wouldn't!

Is that the best you've got?

Hopefully, we'll be able to give a decent account of ourselves. I'm not expecting anything, certainly not with Merts playing against Messi, Suarez and Neymar. Gabriel would have been a much better choice, but I think he is out...

If they all play to their strenghts, we have a chance at home, although I can't see beyond us being beaten comfortably away. Best thing would be for the players to go out and enjoy the game and treat it as a friendly. We'll be expected to go out, so it shouldn't really affect things going forward. Key game, for me anyway, will be on Sunday.

You don't stop slagging him off. I don't see why you'd be any different in that case, no matter what you've said or haven't said.

The very idea of fielding a weak team against Barcelona in the knock out rounds of the Champions League is hilarious. People went mental just when Wenger played Ospina instead of Cech in the group game v Olympiakos!

It isn't, I feel. Realistically, we have little chance against Barca, so it would make sense to try and maximise the squad for Sunday instead. Saying all that, I'm not sure this would be a good idea, but to call it hilarious is a step too far. We're better of (imo) to go out and enjoy the game and try to give the fans in the stadium an entertaining match with a full(ish) squad. Knowing our luck, we'll end up with a few injuries though...

People did go mental to Ospina's inclusion, and rightly so. Had it not been for the first two losses, we may well have topped the group and avoided the bigger teams (incl Barca).

There's no way Barcelona won't score in the two legs.

Arsenal are just tactically flimsy, and against the European big boys they'll keep making the same mistakes.

Sure these are the games you look forward to and if the players can't raise their game, all hope is gone. But seen it year after year that they never learn and keep making it difficult for themselves.

I'd love to see Arsenal win the European Cup, but it's never going to happen under Wenger.

You're right, we are not favourites. But all the same, there IS still a chance, however small. And so for as long as we still have a chance we should go for it. There have been bigger footballing shocks in the past than Arsenal potentially knocking out this Barcelona team.

Also, they're professional footballers. Is it really that much of an ask to expect them to be able to handle playing today and then again on Sunday?!

Big ask. I feel Arsenal sides of the past had better chances simply as Arsenal had better players. Now its lot more difficult as this Barca side hasnt really declined and have a better front 3 than they did under Guardiola even though I think Pep's side controlled games better.

Very interested to see how Arsenal approach this game. I'm thinking they will defend deep like they did v Bayern just not sure that's correct this side is a bit more direct than Bayern and will create overloads in the wide area's.

The team is well rested, no point playing fringe players when it will only increase the chance of get battered thus lowering the confidence of the squad for the next few games.

Play the best team and see where it gets us. Bayern are probably the closest team to them quality wise and we beat them. No reason we can't do the same tonight if we play to our potential.

Saying that we haven't been scoring enough goals lately to be confident in a result tonight but you never know.

As I said, I'm in two minds and can see the benefit of fielding a full 1st team with the likes of Giroud, Walcott, Özil, Coq etc, but I can also see that we may be better off with the likes of Ramsey, Elneny, Wellbeck etc. There's not a huge amount in it, to be fair. Both options would/could be considered fair, but I would draw the line at calling either 'hilarious'.

We should have plenty of time ro recover from this match, considering we're playing our next (imo more important) game on Sunday. The issue would be picking up injuries, which would be the worst of both worlds. I can see Merts picking up an injury simply trying to work out where any of messi, neymar or suarez is or will be at any given time.