After a mouth watering champions league clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday, Arsenal are back on a revenge mission against Rennes in a much awaited Europa League play offs.
According to ESPN pundit Steve Nicol, he believes the Gunners need to be ‘very careful’ and keep things tight at the back.
Unai Emery’s side trail 3-1 ahead of this evening’s second leg at the Emirates. Arsenal do have an away goal in the bank, nevertheless, meaning a 2-0 victory will be enough to see off the French outfit.
But Nicol worries if Arsenal’s backline are capable of tightening up defensively, while pointing to Rennes’ impressive recent form as a cause for concern. Here’s what he had to say;
“Yes they can [come back], I think the away goal was huge,” he told ESPN FC.
“Unfortunately I didn’t expect them to lose [by] three, and actually I was surprised how good Rennes were going forward.
“Rennes, since they came back from their break, 15 games – they’ve only lost twice. And one of those was away at PSG. So this is a team that’s in form, it’s a team that pretty much knows how to win and not get beat.
“So Arsenal better be very careful. Rennes scored three away at Betis in the last round, so Arsenal need to be real, real tight at the back – and I’m not so sure that that’s one of Arsenal’s strengths right now.”
In order to qualify for the next stage, Arsenal should win by more than two goals to nil, hence a single away goal from Rennes will change all the arithmetics meaning that arsenal’s qualification will be on a hanging balance.
