Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny says he is confident his side can turn around the one-goal deficit when the Blues visit the Emirates for tonight’s Carling Cup semi-final second leg. Town midfielder Colin Healy says the first leg victory has given the Blues the belief that they can reach Wembley.

Szczesny says fatigue was a factor in his side’s first leg loss: "We are playing twice a week, every three days, so there will be some tired legs. But you can't fault us for our attitude, we always gave our best.

"Ipswich was just one of those days where nothing would go in and they did well to defend, then score on the counter-attack. We were disappointed with the result, but are confident for the second leg - we believe we can beat anybody.

"We have a team from the Championship coming to the Emirates, we fancy our chances and are confident we will go through.

"We just have to break them down and score as many goals as we can. They have a one-goal advantage which they will try to defend, but if we can score the first goal [we will have a great chance]. We are confident we can turn this around."

Midfielder Healy says Town have greater belief after their first leg victory over the Gunners: “We will be going there with a chance. Arsenal are one of the best teams in Europe, but not many people thought we’d get a good result in the home leg, and we won, so we will be going down there with a bit of confidence.

“There’s not a fear factor after what happened at Stamford Bridge, because there’s a lot of confidence in the team.

“We know there’s a few goals in the team, and hopefully we can score down there, but we’ve got to defend very well and everyone has got to put in a shift.”

The Irishman is expecting a stronger Gunners line-up and says Town can’t afford to simply sit back and defend for 90 minutes: “Arsenal will have a few players back who did not play in the first leg. I think we need to reach the levels of our first leg performance. In fact, I think we need a bit more still because they will be right up for it.

“We defended well in the first leg, when people were wondering how many goals Arsenal would score. But we can’t just go there and defend. If we do get some chances, we must take them.”

Photo: Action Images

bedsitfc added 09:26 - Jan 25 If we can hold them off for 30 mins the crowd could turn against them. Same set up just defend a bit deeper (how big is our bus) and hope to knick a goal.
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Bugs added 09:28 - Jan 25 Szczesny's all we have to do is turn up type attitude is what gives us a chance!!
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bedsitfc added 09:30 - Jan 25 1 nil to the rugby team haha blueeeeeeeee army.
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moomoosereni added 09:38 - Jan 25 Swing low, sweet chariot!
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olimar added 09:45 - Jan 25 Does Szczesny not realise that, actually, other teams play in midweek too? At the moment, where there are no champions league matches, we have more games to fit in that Arsenal do, with a bigger league fixture list. We played on the Sunday before the match with Arsenal, they played on the Saturday. We played on Saturday, they played on Saturday before this weeks match. The only real difference is a midweek match against Leeds last week, which they only played because they failed to beat Leeds in the first game at the Emirates.

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bluelady added 09:54 - Jan 25 ollimar and to put it in perspective we play a far more physically demanding game then most premiership teams too...... must be sooo tiring all that pretty passing football.
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ClassyIpswichLass added 10:18 - Jan 25 I love it when footballers reveal their team's tactics: "We just have to break them down and score as many goals as we can." Ah ha, now we know what the gooners plan to do. Do they know that we plan to use our height in the line out, get the ball to the 3/4s, kick to touch early when we're defending deep and and try to hold them in their 22 as much as possible. We'll out-scrum, out-ruck and out-maul them, stop them getting the ball out to their pacey backs, and pepper their posts with drop goals. but then, that's the way we always play against Arsenal.

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gypo added 10:49 - Jan 25 I so hope we score and the boys get the ball and pass it down the line like in rugby towards the away end to celebrate. Now that would make my night win or lose come on you blues do us proud i know the fans will.
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SouperJim added 11:04 - Jan 25 We're going to need to hold them off early on, but after that I hope we have a real go at them. Arsenal are dodgy at the back, we just need to have some courage and it could be first goal wins!
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BrettenhamBlue added 11:50 - Jan 25 ClassyIpswichLass,- Are you claiming we will be using rugby tactics against them? Surely not us? lol
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poringlandblue added 12:25 - Jan 25 if we just sit deep and try and hit them on the break theyll murder us got to take the game to them as much as possible, pressure them on the ball play nasty theyll be whinging.
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BraintreeBlue added 14:25 - Jan 25 PJewellisaGod....... is that a wooooooooooooooooshhhhhh! :)
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Ipswich24 added 15:08 - Jan 25 Come On You Blues!!!!
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blockb_steward added 17:23 - Jan 25 They don't like it up 'em!!! The sheer arrogance of these overpaid Premier League clowns just winds me up. C'mon Town
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sherborneblue added 17:24 - Jan 25 after his handball in the first leg Szczesny can go do one
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bedsitfc added 19:14 - Jan 25 Bet we have a player sent off for a fair hard tackle. Refs love them and town dont get any luck.
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