MSN are going to tear Arsenal a new one.

That’s if you believe the press anyway. There’s been lots of hype around Barcelona’s attacking threat, stemming for their triple-headed forward line, and the overall message has been that Arsenal’s only hope is to start praying.

Here at Daily Cannon, we thought it would be interesting to see if our fan base agrees, bearing in mind that we’re the ones who watch our team week in week out.

We gave our Twitter followers four options to choose from, in answer to the question of how many goals Barcelona are likely to score.

The most popular choice was the conservative 1-2 goals, with 42% of voters expecting us to concede, but retain some element of dignity.

By contrast, 29% of fans thought we would manage to keep the European champions out altogether. Arsene has precedent after all!

And oddly enough, 29% of fans also thought we would concede 3 or more goals (18% think 3-4 goals shipped, and 11% think we’ll let in a whopping 5 or more goals).

That balance between the sublime and the ridiculous probably sums up how the game is likely to go, as much as the 42% think it’ll be close. There’s every possibility that we’ll either turn in a great defensive performance to thwart Barca and hit them on the break, or we’ll concede a couple, chase the game and get tonked.

Either way, it’s hard to see us progressing unless we take a lead to the Nou Camp, so keeping a clean sheet would be half the battle.

Our friends over at @totalbarca ran a similar poll. Somewhat interestingly they didn’t even give zero as an option – cocky?!

The results were an interesting insight though into their fans’ confidence, with 30% expecting two goals, 38% expecting them to put three past Petr Cech, and 25% hoping for four or more to celebrate. Perhaps they’re underestimating our defence somewhat, since we’ve already kept Bayern out at the Emirates, and we all know about Messi’s record against Cech.
Anyway, as @abdulsalamahm10 replied to our poll, surely it should be a question of “how many goals Arsenal will score.”
Come on you Gunners!