By Richard Clarke
It may be the Semi-Final of Europe's top competition but Arsenal face a side with a distinctly South American flavour at Highbury on Wednesday night.
Villarreal are expected to have five Argentineans, two Uruguayans and a Bolivian in their squad when they arrive in England on Tuesday. Arguably, players like Juan Ramon Riquelme, Diego Forlan and Juan Pablo Sorin - all South Americans - will carry the greatest threat for the visitors.
It gives Arsène Wenger a new sort of problem.
"I am convinced we face more South American football than Spanish football by playing Villarreal," he said before the weekend's game with West Brom.
"Riquelme is a kind of quarterback to call on when it is needed. Forlan is the runner and they have Sorin too.
"It means they are a team that has technical tricks, tactical knowledge yet can slow the game down and wait for a weak moment.
"The South Americans are good in the one-on-ones - both offensively and defensively. Therefore it's important for us to take a high pace to the game. We have to certainly dictate an English game without being caught on the break.
"Once again we need the right mixture to keep them quiet - to defend well and without losing anything going forward. If we want to cause them problems we have to play at a high pace and work hard when we lose the ball."
18/1 - Arsenal v Villarreal - Henry to score first and Arsenal to win 2-0
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 18 Apr 2006
