Why Arsenal need to forget about the Champions League
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Despite some negatives in recent weeks, Arsenal are still in with a chance of bagging a treble.
They are eight points off table-topping Leicester City, not an insurmountable gap, and are still competing in the Champions League and the FA Cup.
However, the Gunners need to give up on their European ambitions if they want to succeed domestically.
Arsenal need to score three in Catalonia in order to have any chance of progressing and this is no easy task.
Barca haven’t conceded more than two in a game since September, when Celta Vigo shocked them in a 4-1 win and that was enough to convince Luis Enrique to tighten up his defence.
Indeed, the La Liga giants haven’t let in two in a single game at all in 2016 and have only been breached ten times in the calendar year.
Their footballing dominance is so severe that they have won 27 matches across all competitions since their last defeat, a 2-1 reverse at the hands of Sevilla.
Furthermore, Enrique’s men are currently on a seven-game winning streak that is showing no signs of stopping.
The difficulty facing the European Champions means the Gunners should view the game as a write off and instead focus all of their efforts in Watford in the FA Cup.
Beating the Hornets to make it into the semi-finals will be no easy feat, with Quique Sanchez Flores’ men used to playing out tight affairs.
In Watford’s last 15 fixtures across all competitions only one encounter has been settled by more than one goal, a 2-0 loss at the hands of Southampton in the Premier League back in January.
Of those 14 remaining games, the Hornets have won five, drawn three and lost seven meaning they are there for the taking but Arsenal will have to be at the top of their game.
The safest bet for punters looking to profit from this match would be to back the Gunners to win by one goal at 13/5.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
