Arsenal v FC Thun Preview

Stan James PricesArsenal???..1/5Draw??.??.9/2FC Thun??.?.11FC Thun are quite something. With a population of 42,000 the club is currently 5th in the Swiss League and they have never actually won the league in their history. They will be playing their Champions League games in Berne, because their ground only holds 10,000. At the start of this season they only had 10 players in training. Their coach is a self confessed Arsenal fan. It all sounds made up, but it isn't. This is a Swiss fairy story and the incredible journey starts tonight at Highbury.So do they have a chance? No is the cynical answer, but football does have a way of slapping us in the face every now and then. Arsene Wenger is well aware that Arsenal need to make an impact in Europe this year. Throughout their golden era on the domestic front, they have been disappointing in the Champions League and Wenger knows that he will be judged ultimately on whether he can deliver in Europe. The long and rocky road starts here and in some senses this should be an early chance to rack up some decent goal difference. A part of him also knows that it is a potential banana skin. Anything but three points will be a disaster.Logic says though that the Gunners will cruise this. Thun are 2/7 that they will not score and it shouldn't be difficult for Arsenal to keep a clean sheet. Although they are without Thierry Henry, they really should have enough firepower to put a few past the Swiss minnows tonight. Over 2 goals is 8/11, but there could easily be a hatful and over 4 goals in 3/1. Arsenal to be winning at half time and full time is 1/2. Arsenal 3-0 is 13/2, 4-0 is 9/1 and 5-0 is 16/1. Realistically it's hard to see the Swiss scoring, but they did knock out Dynamo Kiev and Malmo to get this far so you never know. They will try and frustrate Arsenal and they could just hold out. The 0-0 draw is 9/1. More likely though is a 1-0 win to the Gunners, similar to Chelsea last night and that is priced at 11/2. One option would be to bet on the time of the first goal being after the 27th minute at Evens. Thun could certainly hold out until then.The game is being shown live on SSPEx at 19.45pm. FC Thun would make all the headlines if they pull off a win, but it's more likely that The Gunners grind them down and get their campaign off to a winning start.