Patrick Barclay: Gunners face moment of truth against classy Klopp

 
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22 October 2013

No sooner had Arsene Wenger said he was looking for an improvement on Saturday, when Jack Wilshere began and completed that sensational move against Norwich, than Pajtim Kasami supplied it. Or did he? Was it a better goal?

Wilshere generously tweeted so, before being reminded by Gary Lineker that the decision is one for BBC viewers. All I’ll say is that the Fulham youngster’s volley, which had elements of Marco van Basten and Peter Crouch, made my observation on Wilshere’s effort — “give me a team goal over a long shot any day” — look premature.

And so the London football lovers’ festival goes on, with Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates tonight and both managers — Wenger and Jurgen Klopp, a mooted successor when it seemed the Frenchman’s long reign might have to end — making no attempt to conceal their relish. Klopp will have a nice view from the stands and Wilshere is just one opponent anxious not to disappoint him. So many Arsenal players are on song — above all Aaron Ramsey — that Wenger’s hardest job will be to decide whom to rest, if anyone.

He may even defer that duty until Saturday at Selhurst Park, for tonight’s clash with the Champions League finalists is a serious test of the form that began after opening day defeat by Aston Villa and has brought 10 wins and two draws.

It will be interesting to see how Arsenal cope with the absence of Mathieu Flamini because, for all the justified concentration on Robert Lewandowski at the front, Marco Reus’s thrusts from deeper positions can be just as dangerous.

Wenger’s team are said to be improved when out of possession; we’ll see how they cope with Reus.

The arrival of Mesut Ozil at the Emirates sent a message round Europe but no side Arsenal have faced have been so capable of tearing it up than Klopp’s. A moment of truth approaches.

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