Three Things We Learned ahead of Real Madrid vs Arsenal at the Bernabeu

Here's Ian Mills ahead of Arsenal's trip to the Bernabeu to take on Real Madrid 

After the Lord Mayors show as tame draw moves Liverpool ever closer to the title as thoughts turn to the Bernabeu.

 Here are three things that stood out for Ian Mills ahead of Arsenal's trip to Real Madrid:-

 1 - Rested legs ready for Real challenge

– with the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jurrien Timber all starting on the bench and Declan Rice and Thomas Partey both being substituted in the second half, albeit with Partey having ‘felt something’ it is to be hoped that our first eleven will be fresh and ready for the huge challenge that awaits at Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening.

There is a strong chance that Mikel Arteta will stick with the same players that did so well in the first leg of the quarter final.

2 - A lack of goals threatening to derail top four hopes

– this result ensured that we have now failed to score more than one goal in all but one of our last seven Premier League games scoring just 23 goals during this calendar year  - with just seven wins from our last 14 fixtures.

In contrast, we have won four of our five Champions League fixtures in the same period registering 17 goals.  With our well documented attacking absentees it is understandable that we have struggled for firepower yet those two competitions show a stark contrast in form.

This match also made it 12 league draws, equalling the record of The Invincibles, the difference being that we famously won the other 26 games that term to make history.

We have now dropped 16 points from winning positions which is just one point less than the last two seasons combined. Only three league defeats by mid-April is by no means fatal in terms of a title challenge yet the inability to turn the majority of those draws into wins very much is.

3 - Squad players show why they are not first teamers

– on a personal note it has been great to see Kieran Tierney being used regularly as a substitute when his Arsenal career appeared to be over and it was greater still to see him start this game and he was just offside when he thought he had headed us into the lead in the first half.

However, apart from our Scottish left back, our other fringe players largely failed to impress, Alex Zinchenko bar one effort which appeared to be going wide in any case was disappointing in midfield as was Jorginho.

As for Leandro Trossard, a player I really rate, a decent first half effort aside, he was largely anonymous.