In my view this thread seems to veer between unrealistic optimism and excessive pessimism so I'm going for something in between.

First, though our recent attacking record is woeful our defensive displays have largely been quite impressive. This suggests to me that though a win may be hard to come by a defeat by more than a goal or two is also unlikely.

Second, if luck is to play a part then fate will favour us on the basis of the last half dozen games against this lot. Strange to say but I think this fixture means more to us than to them (by that I mean to the clubs rather than the fans). So no real surprise if we squeak some sort of result.

Third, and realistically, there is little doubt that they are in substantially better shape than we are so home advantage and recent form should suggest a win for them.

However, I'm going for a draw (1-1) for these reasons: I can't see them not scoring but I think defensively we're good enough to limit the damage; good as they are they play quite risky stuff under Di Zerbi and do get caught out reasonably often. This, coupled with the law of averages that we will likely get a shot on target sooner rather than later, I can see us scoring on a rare counter attack. (If we score that one first it's just possible we'll hold on though personally I would not bank on it.)

And now I hand the thread back to those prophets of doom and eternal optimists..

You can't change the way things are but you can change the way you are with the way things are.

I feel we will play aggressive and desperately, thinking that is passion.. it's not..

I don't think PV truly understood coaching int his league.. esp at this end of the table.. it's all very well being cool, calm Wenger, with the players and budget he had... but us?

We ned to clean house this summer, manager may as well be part of that.

This was once a quality forum....

The way I see it, this game is a free hit for us. No one is expecting us to win so let's throw everything we have at it and select the most attacking squad we have. Let's see Ahamada, Lokonga, Eze, Wilf & Olisse and go out there with the intention of trying to score as many as we can. WE have nothing to lose tonight so let's not get hung up on defensive tactics and safe squad selections. Put it this way, we can't score any less then we usually do!

Sadly with Eze, Wilf and Olise playing our right and left backs will have no cover and we will be stuffed. Those 3 need service and they won’t get it other than a clearance upfield that may fall to them. The team needs balance, with Olise and Wilf either side and 3 in the middle (Lakonga and Doucoure with Schlup or Ayew) and Edouard up front. Eze coming on later on if needed. I’m expecting us to lose but a better balanced 11 as we had against Man City might just pull off a result? Only problem against City was Zaha as our main forward which just doesn’t work?

We have moved from 0-0 draws to 1-0 defeats.

So 1-0 defeat.

Unless of course we are now moving onto 2-0 defeats stage.

You are true to your name, a very academic, and well thought out post, which balances the arguements very well. I think Vieira is a good coach and hasn't yet lost the players. Defensively the last few performances have been pretty good, and he's been working on getting into better attacking positions. Our strikers are not totally bad, they just need to get some confidence . And of course, Vieira has to decide to play one of them consistently. I am still going for a bore draw though