Arsene Wenger welcomes his former club AS Monaco to the Emirates tomorrow evening as Arsenal look to advance to the quarter finals for the first time in a number of years. In recent seasons, Arsenal's failure to win their group has undermined their prospects of progression beyond the last 16 stage with the Likes of Barcelona, Bayern and Milan knocking the Gunners out in each of the last 4 seasons at this round. This year however represents their best opportunity in a while to move to a quarter final berth as they take on a fairly average Monaco side, bereft of last seasons Colombian talents, Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez. While Arsenal cannot afford to be complacent, they clearly have superior players to Monaco and come into the game performing at somewhere close to their best while their opponents base their game on a tremendously solid defence.
Monaco have conceded only 19 in the league while they progressed through their group with only the loss of a mere 1 goal and remarkably have only conceded more than 1 goal in a game on 5 ocassions all season. From 38 games, that is remarkably solid but of course, Monaco only sit 4th in their league and goals have been hard to come by at the other end as well. Arsenal have certainly improved in recent weeks and look particularly good going forward while establishing something of a stronger defence as well in this time but given the defensive strength of Monaco, I do not expect an easy night's work for Wenger although it must be noted that the French are missing some key players in defence in the likes of Ricky Carvalho and midfield enforcer Jereremy Toulalan. As a result, Arsenal are strong favourites and I do think they will win tonight, and I am anticipating under 2.5 goals at 7/10 odds. It's not a bet I particularly enjoy but the stats here would suggest this is the best bet to have in the market. But I do believe Arsenal will be too strong, and expect a 1.0 or 2.0 scoreline so another nice bet could be Arsenal to win to nil and that is priced at 6/5 and will probably feature in my best bets of the day. I am also tempted by Arsenal -1 at 11/8 as I feel this Monaco team, with the aforementioned absences could struggle to deal with the firepower of Giroud, Sanchez, Walcott, Welbeck and Ozil. I backed Olivier Giroud to do the business sucessfully at the weekend and I expect the handsome Frenchman to find the net at 6/5 odds or 9/2 first. In the evenings other tie, Ateltico travel to Leverkusen in what should be a pretty open game as the Germans will no doubt be aware of the need to try to get a positive result to take back to the cauldron of The Vincente Calderon in Madrid. Bayer Leverkusen were forced to settle for a point at Augsburg at the weekend and the Bundesliga outfit come into this fixture on the back of a poor run of form having won just 1 of their last 6 league games. Atletico returned to winning ways at the weekend, though they are still 7 points behind rivals Real Madrid in the quest to defend their La Liga crown. Last season's finalists should be buoyed by their performance against Almeria on Saturday with confidence high in the Rojiblancos camp but I am not necessarily convinced that they will win here. This is a tough one for me to predict, and I am not too sure I fancy a bet here. Ateltico could sneak it but a draw is also a possibility and I do not expect many goals. I think I might ignore this one because I have been burned so recently by Ateltico and while I think they should win, I am worried by that recent defeat to Celta Vigo. Finally, there is 1 more match worth considering tomorrow and it is one where I see goals a plenty In the English Championship where Forest entertain Bournemouth Nottingham Forest have turned things around under Dougie Freedman with three wins in four games but they are still 12 points shy of the top six and it looks a tough ask to break into the play-offs. Meanwhile, Bournemouth's form has stuttered since the turn of the new year and they were beaten at the weekend. Now they find themselves out of the top two having only won 2 in 6. Forest could get a win here at good odds of 21/10 but I think the BTTS at 4/7 looks nailed on and over 2.5 goals at 7/10 also represents good value. I will be backing the BTTS here and Arsenal tomorrow in my "deadly double" and will consider the home side on a small stakes bet as I do feel this is a game Forest can win. So only the 3 matches for us to focus on tomorrow but I am hopeful of pulling out the winners to get us back on track for a good weekend with my "best bets" to follow tomorrow. TOP TIPS Arsenal to win - 1/2 Arsenal to win to nil - 6/5 Arsenal v Monaco - under 2.5 goals - 7/10 Forest v Bournemouth - BTTS - 4/7 Forest v Bournemouth - Over 2.5 goals - 7/10 BOna Nit Comments are closed.
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