Notwithstanding rare heart-stopping moments, we have maintained our five-point advantage at the summit of the Premier League table and have come through dominating the teams again.
But now that the Europa League matches are back on the schedule, we must anticipate a bit more rotation than we are accustomed to under Mikel Arteta, but we still need a quality squad to go to the quarterfinals. Thursday’s journey to Lisbon will not be a walk in the park with a reshuffled lineup, despite the fact that we have regained our form with four consecutive victories following our previous slump.
It is important to remember that we lost 2-0 at PSV (despite finishing on the top in our group) in the Europa League and in the cup competitions, we recently lost to Man City in the FA Cup. But we have made through that form, and we are still here firing and still the best team in England…
Sporting, they are no shrinking violets. They have an excellent run of form, in-fact in their last 12 games Rúben Amorim’s side have only lost twice to League rivals Porto. So we expect them to come out on the front foot form that tunnel at José Alvalade Stadium – atleast mentally.
Sporting Clube de Portugal are one of the sides that were demoted to The Europa League from the group rounds of the Champions League, where they lost at home to Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt. But I remember cheering on the edge of my couch back in September when they defeated Antonio Conte’s Sp*ds [2-0] in Portugal and that was followed by a 1-1 draw when they visited our noisy neighbours.
Thus, Arsenal cannot be complacent, and knowing Mikel Arteta – I am certain he’s gonna name a surprisingly strong side tomorrow – but we’d need that to gain advantage in the away leg.
