CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BETTING PICK - STANDARD LIEGE V ARSENAL

Champions League

2009-09-16 - Standard Liege vs Arsenal

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Standard Liege v Arsenal
Football : UEFA : Champions League 2009/10
Wednesday, 16th September 2009 - Kickoff 19:45

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Standard Liege

Standard Liege are the reigning Belgian Champions and will be confident in their ability to cause a surprise in this group where they are ranked as the outsiders. While the Belgian league is not the strongest in Europe, Liege gave a strong account of themselves last season in Europe and will look to repeat that this season.

Standard are 5th in the Belgian League so far this season but remain undefeated with their 2-4-0 record. They have a 1-2-0 record at home where they have scored 6 goals and conceded 3. Liege should be buoyed by their 3-0 home win at the weekend.

The Belgian side reached the 3rd qualifying round in this competition last season when they were eventually knocked out by Liverpool in the 119th minute of the 2nd leg after drawing 0-0 in 90 minutes in both ties.

Standard Liege lost their captain Steven Defour to an injury for the rest of the year at the weekend. They will be hoping to dedicate their matches to him in his absence from the side.

Arsenal

Arsenal must be sick of the sight of Manchester after losing for the 2nd time in the city in 2 weeks. However, they did receive better news when UEFA accepted their appeal regarding the Eduardo ban who will now be available for this match.

Arsenal are down in 9th spot in the Premier League at this early stage although they do have a game in hand over many of the teams above them. They are 2-0-2 and are 1-0-2 away from home where they have scored 9 goals but conceded 7. The Gunners have lost 2 in a row.

While they did make the Semi Final of this competition last season, the Gunners were not so convincing in their away games. They had a record of 2-2-3 away from home last season in this competition where they scored 9 goals and conceded 8. They were 1-1-1 away from home in the group stages.

Eduardo is available after having his ban overturned by UEFA. Arsene Wenger is not expected to make a raft of changes to his side, although it is possible that Tomas Rosicky will make the side after coming on at the weekend.

Head to Head

Arsenal and Standard Liege have not met in competition. Arsenal have only played 1 Belgian side in competition previously, and went out on away goals on that occasion.

Standard Liege did have a bad record against English sides, but have rectified that somewhat in the last season. They have met both Liverpool and Everton last year and did not lose a game in 90 minutes. They won 1, against Everton at home, and drew the other 3 games.

Prediction

Standard Liege will look for positive results at home if they are to have any chance of progressing through to the next stage of this competition and I feel they are capable of springing a surprise or 2.

Arsenal have played some good football this season, but have struggled to put teams away and this has come back to haunt them in their defeats so far this season. They need to improve their away form in Europe if they wish to take the next step in this competition this season.

This is going to be a tough test for Arsenal and I am very surprised to see them so short in the market. Standard Liege are no pushovers, as Liverpool and Everton will testify, and this is not going to be an easy start to the new campaign. A draw here would be a respectable result for the Gunners and I think I will take that as my bet here.

However, for those wishing to take the safer option, Standard Liege have a nice start on the Asian Handicap that will protect if Arsenal win by a single goal

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