The defending champions have been in stunning scoring
form and the visit of the north Londoners should see another
goal-filled encounter for punters at Camp Nou
These two sides could hardly have had more differing preparations for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash.
While Barcelona crushed Getafe 6-0 in a display of total dominance which reinforced their status as La Liga leaders, Arsenal were limply crasing out of the FA Cup at the hands of Watford.
The Gunners will now almost certainly finish the season without any silverware. Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, they head to the Camp Nou attempting to restore their badly wounded pride.
They should expect little mercy however from the Catalans, who rested Luis Suarez at the weekend in preparation for the visit of the north Londoners. In recent years the Blaugrana have recorded convincing home wins over Arsenal, beating them 3-1 in 2011 and 4-1 in 2010.
It is certainly difficult to envisage anything other than another victory for Luis Enrique's men who are offered at 1/4 (1.25) with bet365 to triumph, while Arsenal can be backed at an optimistic 11/1 (12.00) and the
draw is available at 6/1 (7.00).
Barcelona's undefeated run has now reached 37 matches in all competitions and in recent games the team has been at their most fluent, scoring goals with almost embarassing ease.
In their last three La Liga matches they have racked up 15 goals, while their last four games at the Camp Nou have seen them net 21 times.
Naturally Arsenal should provide sterner opposition than the likes of Eibar and Getafe, and in the first leg Arsene Wenger's men ran Barca close until Lionel Messi struck twice in the last 20 minutes to all but kill the tie.
The Gunners have precious little to lose and an unlikely victory, or at least an impressive showing, could be the catalyst for them finishing the Premier League season strongly.
Barcelona, for their part, will want to seal their place in the last eight in style and their rampant forward line of Messi, Suarez and Neymar will be hungry for more goals.
To that end we will back over 3.5 goals at evens (2.00) which seems like a solid option whenever Barcelona are involved in a game.
Arsenal, of course, have the capacity to contribute to the goalscoring themselves, while Barca have been irresistible in the final third, with this bet paying out in 12 of their last 14 matches at home in all competitions.
Source : goal.com
