Arsenal-Barcelona & Sparta-Liverpool: The games of the season

Ooh to be a Gooner these days. The last league defeat to Manchester United two months ago seems a very long time and since then Arsenal put on some great performances as they beat Chelsea, outplayed City, scraped out a very important 2-1 victory against Everton, got to the Carling Cup final and are still very much in all the four competitions. There were some familiar arsenalesque stumbles on the way including the horror-show at the St. James' Park but in a grand scheme of things it seems like we really are in the best position since the 2007/08 season.

And then there was this small matter of the Barcelona game.

I have to say I wasn't really frightened about the tie at all, knowing that Barcelona could pull out their best performances whenever they had to. I almost take took for certain that they'd go through and in the worst scenario I wouldn't even take 5-0 as so much of a humiliation. But somehow, I was still really nervous and excited.

And we beat them. And not just that, as a first team in this season we beat them in style.

It wasn't just this, though, what made yesterday's 2-1 win the best football experience for me, like, ever. It was that it came as a cream on the crop, not a one-off like that 2-1 at the Stamford Bridge a couple of years ago. We've performed so well for some time already that it really does seem like there's a turnaround from 'a side who are playing some great football at times and can beat anyone on their day' to a side that's very much turning to be one of the best out there. A mature, confident, brave side with the most technically gifted players in England. There's still a lot of work to do defensively, as well as that we are very lucky not to be struck by injuries, there's the issue of complacency and others. But we're getting there and it's nights like these that make it fantastic to be an Arsenal fan.

There's another massive game coming up as well though. Today in the Europa League, Sparta will face Liverpool in what is probably going to be the biggest game for Czech club football in the last couple of seasons. Even in the underwhelming Czech football environment there's a big sense of anticipation about the game and a lot of questions to be answered. How big a support from the fans are Sparta going to receive after the club hiked up the prices of the tickets in such a ludicrous manner? Are Sparta physically ready after the winter preparation? Are the Czech champions still able to trouble the best in Europe?

The background at Sparta suggests that the team is not really in their prime at the moment. The Prague club are about to play their first competitive game in nearly three months, the last one being a 1-1 draw against CSKA - imagine that Arsenal's last game before the home tie against Barcelona would be the 3-1 win against Partizan in the early December. As well as that, Sparta have just sold their two best players (Kucka to Genoa and Wilfried to Vitesse Arnhem) and the results of their winter preparation games were pretty bad, having won only one game in seven.

Speaking of winter preparation, Sparta are also coming into the game on the back of a recent scandal involving some of the Sparta players who were withdrawn from the national team due to injuries. All of them then featured in their mates' dresses in a game against Zenit, having been captured by the club's photographers on the official website. Hilariously stupid and embarrasing from Sparta, and it just shows what a lack of class is there from the supposedly biggest and most proffesional team in the Czech Republic.

With all this in mind, I think this tie is only Liverpool's to lose. It will also depend on whether, after the long winter break, Sparta will present themselves as a side with fresh legs or a side with a lack of proper match fitness. They'll have to put pressure on Liverpool from the very start and if they can maintain that work ratio throughout the game and take their chances when they come, then who knows.

However, Liverpool's form has improved considerably under Kenny Dalglish and with Europa League as their only chance of winning silverware this season, I expect Liverpool to be fully focused and prepared for this one. Their next game is only the home tie next Thursday and I doubt that Dalglish would not want to take advantage of resting his players before going to Upton Park on Sunday.

The future of the Czech league: Reduce, expand or merge?

A lengthy three-month winter break means a very boring period for any football fan and it's no different in the Czech Republic where, during the time, there's not really much happening beyond a couple of meaningless games, occasional 5-a-side cups or a traditional New Year's Eve Derby between the former Sparta and Slavia players. Most of the talk during the winter is then dedicated to foreign leagues, looking back to the glory days or "the glory days" of the Czech clubs and anything that can be even barely considered as a transfer rumour. And, of course, to the ways of improving the Gambrinus liga.

The latter mentioned has been debated for years but now there seems to be a slightly higher intensity of the discussion. There are more reasons to that but as it stands at the moment, it mostly goes down to the sad fact that the improvement of the league within the last five years has been doubtful, if any.

Tomáš Rosický at the start of his career in 2000

At the start of the last decade Sparta were the leading force of the Czech club football; regularly getting into the group stages of the Champions League, they were bringing points to the Czech club coefficient and money to other Czech teams when buying their best players. The Gambrinus liga wasn't so weakened as it would have seemed though. Other teams have done remarkably well at times - Liberec's run in the UEFA Cup in 2001/2002 was definitely the most magical but Slavia or Žižkov have also produced some fine moments.

Over the last five years though, Sparta have been losing their sheer dominance in Gambrinus liga. As the club could not get into the group stages of the Champions League, the board had to cut down their budget and start to look out for players elsewhere. This had two various effects on Gambrinus liga as a whole. The title race has become as open as ever over the period - Sparta have won just two of the last five campaigns - but the quality has undoubtedly gone down, as the only Czech side to take part in Champions League group stages were Slavia in 2007/2008 after eliminating Žilina and Ajax in the preliminary rounds. The 'Bayern effect' of Sparta - a dominant team in the league performing well in Europe - has considerably faded, as well as its benefits - the points into the coefficient. It's also the growing power of scouting that lures players at a very young age abroad, which leads to the lack of quality youth emerging throughout the league.

All this has been on the table for some time already, but it was the direct encounter between Žilina and Sparta for a Champions League spot in August - which Žilina won 3-0 on aggregate - that clinched the public view of a decline within the Czech club football. Combined with the fact that the Czech national team didn't make it to the World Cup finals (and Slovakia did, from the same group), it seemed like the last straw.

Sparta Praha's doomsgame against Žilina

However, to say that the Slovakian football is in a much better position is a bold statement. The problems in Slovakia are worrying to the same, if not greater extent. It's so easy to start dwelling on the negatives as there are plenty of them - from poor attendances in the stands to the amount of debts within clubs. On the other hand though, the way how the state of things in both Czech and Slovakian club football could be bettered to the benefit of everyone involved, seems to be just too obvious to overlook.

Should a merge of top 10 Czech and 6 Slovakian sides into a joint league be introduced, it would bring great profit to the teams - a bigger market with better sponsors, more spectators at the grounds (as there would be new quality opponents instead of the, well, old and boring ones) as well as renewed derbies between Sparta and Slovan, or Baník and Trnava. That the level of the club football in the countries would rise is almost certain.

As far as UEFA and the Czech and Slovakian association are concerned, it's a more complex one. This plan would serve magnificently to Platini's aim of lifting the prestige of the smaller teams and leagues. The UEFA chief himself has declared an admiration to the project, having said that "what the politicians split, the football could reunite." FIFA and UEFA apparently do seem to have sort of a Messiah complex when it comes to these kinds of issues (which was captured brilliantly just a month ago in Zürich when choosing the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups). However, the whole thing is trapped a bit, as UEFA regulations themselves don't enable such proposal, so the further talks of the 'federal league' are very much in doubt.

Honestly though, the CZ&SK league would be fantastic. It's something all fans would appreciate and with the right, positive approach and PR from the executives it could all get a lot more interesting. A fresh start, maybe, if we are to get optimistic. Take Austrian Bundesliga - its quality could be at least on par with the current Czech league, but not the Austrian approach to the football - from players, fans, media. The average attendances are around 8,500 (OK, it's got a lot to do with the quality of the stadia, but then look at Eden), the players are not always the most technically gifted but there's willingness and effort, something which is missing badly in the Czech Republic.

The empty stands at the Strahov Stadium

It's not that the CZ&SK league would become the new Premier League. It never will. There's no denying that the CZ&SK would still be a 'transition league' for players but in a longer term it could at least hold back young players from going abroad (and clubs selling them) immediately as any offer comes up. It could bring a couple of hundreds/thousands people more to the stands and the projects for further developments to the stadia could kick on. This all is just my personal fantasy and dreams, but ones surely not too wide off the mark. What's certain, though, is that we have to wait until the final decision from UEFA.

Apart from all that, other proposals to change the format of the league have also been discussed. We can certainly leave aside the possibilities of establishing a league cup or expanding the number of the teams in the league to 20. The ideas behind these two options are not mad - both are trying to bring more games to the Czech football, when clearly there are not too many of them. Sparta played their last two European cup games in 2010 after the Gambrinus liga had already fallen asleep in its winter break.

The league cup could feature some Slovakian teams, with 20 teams in the league there would be greater room for youngsters to get some playing time. However, while in theory this all sounds reasonable, I'm really curious about who would still be there to see a game between the likes of Příbram and Vlašim (with all due respect). To introduce a league cup, never mind the Slovakian teams, when there's sadly but clearly no one interested in the Czech cup itself, it sounds like a joke for the Czech fans.

Dušan Svoboda, the chief of the Gamrinus league assembly

The reduction of the teams in the Gambrinus liga from 16 to 10 is the only serious prospect left. There's not much to argue about on paper. 36 games instead of today's 30, more attractive, if not new opponents, and, presumably, better attendances; we could also see a rise in the quality level of the second and the third tier.

In fact though, I'm not convinced that the reduction would help the Czech club football. Even if I take aside my personal feeling about the lack of ambition in the decision, there are a couple of points to be made. If we look at the attendances in Hungary or Slovakia, they certainly weren't higher after the reduction in 2001 and 2000, respectively. We can see a decrease in Slovakia at all the clubs apart from the top 4. This downgrade in attendances was permanent with the one-off exception in 2005/2006 when Trnava won the league and the average number of people in the stands of Antonín Malatínský Stadium at that time was 9,219, which then hyped the whole number in Slovakia. In Hungary, the reduction to 12 clubs lasted only 4 years before turning back to the 16-team system. The reduction would also mean very hard times for the 6 teams being relegated to the second league. As well as a massive downgrade in their attendances, it would cut them off from the vital amounts of the sponsor money.

It looks that the CZ&SK league is the only long-term option which could lead the Czech and Slovakian football to something better. It's not perfect - the clubs would have to travel more and less of them would make it to Europe. My views on it are maybe too optimistic, but what else we've got? We can preserve the situation as it is, we can introduce two senseless options, or we could reduce the number of the teams in the league, which wouldn't effectively make it better - it would only make it less boring. The CZ&SK league, though, is something what makes your stomach tickle inside. Even more so, after you see Slovan and Sparta play each other in front of 9,500.

An excellent view on the possible CZ&SK league merge by Play Waved On at IBWM as well as Britski Belasi's bits and pieces about the topic are really worth a read as well.

"Smash 'em at Anfield": Sparta v LFC - An Interview with Mark Smith

Well, at least there's still someone left to support, you might say, after Arsenal got beaten by having drawn Barcelona in Zürich last week. However, Sparta Praha still don't really look favourable to go through to the later stages of Europa Cup either. I know Liverpool are as solid in their recent performances as Arsenal's defence in past few years but, you know, it's Liverpool. Anyway, a great draw for the fans who will surely appreciate one of EPL's top sides playing at Letná. I talked to Mark Smith of Play Waved On about Sparta's chances and many more.

TMO: Mark, as you’re a Liverpool and Slavia fan, it‘s really not hard to predict who you will going to support throughout this tie, is it? The draw must have been a dream come true for you.

Mark: It was a fantastic draw for me as a Liverpool fan! I was hoping the two sides might get drawn together in the group stages, but was disappointed. So to have Liverpool drawn against Sparta Prague in the knockout stages is a wonderful draw.

Although to be fair, I don’t feel much hatred for Sparta Prague. Its true I follow Slavia since moving to Prague but I have been to watch Sparta few times in Europe and have been impressed with a few of their players.

How seriously is the Europa Cup being taken by Liverpool? Can we expect the strongest line-up to play in the tie?

I believe Liverpool and Roy Hodgson will take this competition very seriously, the majority of fans will also expect the team to go as far as possible. It might not be the glamour of the Champions League but winning matches breeds confidence, whatever competition it is.

The domestic games in between the Sparta Prague matches are Wigan and West Ham – not the toughest fixtures, so I would hope and expect that Roy play Liverpool’s strongest team and makes sure that Sparta are given some respect.

How is the draw perceived among the Liverpool fans? Do they consider Sparta as any real threat for them?

The Liverpool fans would expect to beat Sparta quite easily; having the home leg second is also a big advantage. The game in Prague could be tricky, but whatever the result is in Prague the LFC fans would expect to smash them at Anfield.

European nights at Anfield are very special and can be intimidating for visiting players, so it could depend on how the Sparta players prepare for the game in England, if they turn up with the autograph books they could be in trouble.

I think the fans are very happy with the draw, a long weekend in Prague is always a nice trip, regardless of the football!

Where do you see Sparta in terms of quality, had they been playing in an English division?

I have been impressed with the quality of Sparta, in comparison to the rest of the Czech top flight. But I would put them at the level of mid to lower Championship teams in England, alongside the likes of Sheffied United, Derby County, Reading, Coventry etc.

They might be able to surprise teams in one off cup games (beating Palermo at home) but are also prone to lapses in concentration and inconsistency (drawing with Lausanne Sports 3-3 at home and knocked out of the Czech Cup by Banik Sokolov).

Liverpool haven’t been doing quite as well recently as they have always had in the past. Nobody in Prague would have seriously thought about overcoming Liverpool a couple of years ago. Now it doesn’t feel that impossible, even though it’s hardly likely that Sparta could go through. What sort of weaknesses in the LFC squad will Sparta have to exploit in order to get to the round of 16?

Its been well documented about the recent troubles at Anfield, results have been poor and the lack of investment in the playing squad has been found out. Liverpool is very much going through a transitional period right now.

The weaknesses would be at full back for Liverpool, Konchesky is having a torrid time against every right sided player he comes across, also Glen Johnson is not the most accomplished defender as his strengths are going forward.

The lack of pace is also very evident in the current team; if Sparta can attack Liverpool at pace they can cause a lot trouble. BUT, if Liverpool are given time on the ball in midfield and Torres is given decent service it could be a long 180 minutes for Sparta.

The two key players for Sparta are Juraj Kucka and Bony Wilifred, if Sparta Prague manages to keep hold of these players during the January transfer window then who knows?

Which Sparta player in particular will Liverpool have to be aware of?

As mentioned, I think Kucka and Wilifred are big players for Sparta. Kucka’s energy and ability to dictate play from midfield will play a big part in how Sparta copes. The only problem is that Kucka will be facing the likes of Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas and Joe Cole. A massive step up in class for him and Sparta’s players.

I am also a bit worried that Vaclav Kadlec could catch out our defence, Carragher has never been blessed with pace and Kadlec is very lively and could prove a handful.

Would any Sparta player make the squad at Liverpool (or the other way round? :)?

Which Sparta player could make it in Liverpools squad? Ha, well, that’s a tough one. Kucka and Kadlec would be my two picks; both would make the Liverpool bench at this moment in time. But I would be very excited if Liverpool could sign Kadlec as he is definitely a player who will have a massive future.

I would expect the majority of the Liverpool side to make it into Sparta’s, imagine Torres at Sparta? Ha, crazy thoughts! Although there are a few players who might struggle to make Sparta’s first team!

And finally, what kind of a result do you expect from both ties?

I would expect to Liverpool to win both legs, 1-2 and 3-0. The first leg in Prague will be tough, Sparta have been performing well at home in Europe, beating Palermo and getting a decent point with CSKA Moscow.

Even a 1-1 draw in the first leg would be an OK result for Liverpool, a victory in Prague might leave Liverpool complacent for the Anfield game. Overall, it should be comfortable for Liverpool though.

You can visit Mark's great Play Waved On or follow him on Twitter @play_waved_on.