The castigation begins in earnest! Bring on the Shakhtar!

Diminutive Jack Wilshire has become something he has never dreamed of. He is now a stick with which to hit Arsene Wenger. The lunge and resounding red card, deservedly administered is now ammunition for the tabloid toilet papers to hit back at Wenger. After all, he's been proved right and backed up by fellow professionals - can't have that now can we?

I'm not going to dwell on the red card or the challenges in the game, it detracts from what was generally a great performance and a good warm up for tomorrow's game against Shakhtar which should be quite a spectacle.

I'm looking forward to european competition again, its pleasing to be top of our group in the champs league and I hope to continue that success tomorrow night. Shakhtar are not to be discounted though. These aren't some russian farm boys on a day trip. Their squad is littered with Brazillians such as Douglas Costa(linked extensively to Chelski and ManYoo), Jadson, Willian, Ferdinandinho(currently injured with a broken leg), Alex Teixeira and Luiz Adriano. Not to mention plenty of Ukraine and other established internationals such as Tomas Hubschman, Darijo Srna, Dmytro Chyrgrynskiy (formerly of Barcelona) and our very own Eduardo. So not to be taken lightly, these are a team of experienced international players who have all played at this top level of european competition.

In terms of squad for this fixture, I've not heard anything more about injuries following the game so I'm hoping to see a similar line up to the weekend and a similar performance. We're going to need to be solid, Shakhtar are a very attacking side. Despite their record in the Champions league of scoring 4 goals in 2 games, they've not conceded at all so they are not tactically naive and know the defensive side of the game very well.

I'm really looking forward to this, as a spectacle it will be interesting to see how we line up. I fully expect Wenger to start both Diaby and Song to try and shore up the midfield. Maybe a cameo for Fabregas in the 2nd half?

I'll wait patiently (or not) for the press conference to find out the squad details.

WG

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