Samir Nasri is seemingly fit to play for us against Barcelona in the Champions League – but may to have to make do with a place on the bench. That’s according to reports quoting AW this morning. He says Nasri is “physically ready” to play against Catalans, but adds that he won’t rush him back for fear of his hamstring injury flaring up again.
Nasri has been sidelined for just over two weeks after being substituted against Huddersfield in the FA Cup fourth round. It was first thought that he was not expected to be fit for at least another week but AW reckons he has a chance of playing in Wednesday’s Emirates showdown.
“He has worked very hard in the last week – physically he is ready. It is just if there is a risk of a setback or not. I will not take a crazy gamble with him.”
Meanwhile, AW says we must attack Barca without any fear. He added: “I believe, if we manage to get them under pressure, we will create chances. Ideally that is something we can work on before the game. Sometimes you have that extra special focus in these kind of games which makes you more efficient, so hopefully we have that.
“The question at the Nou Camp you can wonder is will we change the way we play? But here at Emirates Stadium, we will try to play to our strengths. We will try to attack the other team. If we play in the final third defensively, we will not only be happy, it will not be our game.
They are not just good at attacking, they also defend very well and for us it will be very important to get out of their pressure. If we can get out of that pressure then I think we can be dangerous so for us we have to think about what we do and how we do it.”
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