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The Wünderkinder of Arsenal

Nov 14th, 2026 by

Gerry Ward joined Arsenal as a trainee in 1952 and was quickly propelled into the first team, making his debut on the left wing in a home match against Huddersfield Town on 22 August 1953 at the age of 16 years and 321 days; this made him at the time Arsenal’s youngest-ever player. Despite making a valuable contribution in a nine-year spell at the Club, he didn’t live up to the early tag of being ‘the new Cliff Bastin’.

It might not be obvious after you’ve read this article but this subject has been taking shape in my mind for several months!  I’ve been intrigued and excited by the arrival of Max Dowman and the impact his introduction into the Arsenal side has had not just on Arsenal but on the whole of the Premier League. Every club is looking for that very special young player who not only adds a bit of stardust but who represents something very genuine in terms of their club – a home produced product who has grown up with his team and whose emergence means something special to supporters .

When Max Dowman skipped around what was left of the Everton defence last March I looked around me and the feeling of excitement, pride and sheer exhilaration was tangible. It was not only one of the moments of last season, it was one of the greatest moments we’ve experienced at the Emirates Stadium. Max’s arrival has inspired the whole of football to look at the potential within their young talent pool. The transfer window was studded with lots of switches of young talent, many to Arsenal. Part of it represents a trading model but there is a new willingness to blood young talent early.

It drove me to look over my Arsenal supporting life to identify the wünderkinder who brought a special excitement to the club, some who achieved huge success and whose feats are indelibly etched into the history of our club. When I  first followed Arsenal we had a fine young wing half called Gerry Ward who had become the youngest player to represent the club in 1953 when at the age of 16 years and 321 days old he was selected to play against Huddersfield at Highbury . He still remains our youngest ever player to start a league match. A sign of the times was that his career was then disrupted by National Service. 

As I started to visit Highbury and follow the club, a lot of new players emerged and made debuts (foreign transfers were unknown then) but nobody created a special thrill although I was a big fan of Jon Sammels, an elegant midfield player with a ferocious shot. But in August 1969 it became apparent that Arsenal were going to start the season with a local boy, Charlie George, in the side. Bob Wilson tells me how cheeky and self-possessed young Charlie was at Holloway School where Bob was teaching and the other boys referred to him as Mister Wilson. Charlie would say in front of the class, “See you at training Bob!” 

Charlie was a lad who had grown up standing on the North Bank and had star quality seeping from every pore. He was dynamic , a brilliant dribbler with a ferocious shot in both feet, especially the right foot that detonated one of the most important goals in Arsenal history.

He made his debut in August 1969 in a defeat at home to Everton on the first day of a new season. The following Saturday he opened his scoring account with a brilliant winner at the Hawthorns and he immediately found a regular place in the side. Arsenal had gone 17 years without winning a major honour but with Charlie upfront alongside John Radford, the side made their way through the Fairs Cup to the semi-final stage. We played the brilliant Ajax team of Cruyff and Neeskens and in a glorious display beat them 3-0. Charlie got two of them, the last a penalty in front of the North Bank. A couple of weeks later, in his first season, he helped us to lift the Fairs Cup as we destroyed Anderlecht 3-0.

His next season saw him break his leg in the first game of the season at Goodison Park as he scored an equaliser. His injury allowed a young lad called Ray Kennedy to break into the team but when Charlie returned in the New Year, it was in an attacking midfield role. Charlie was the classic explosive player, enormously exciting, often inconsistent but capable of scoring outrageous goals. I remember an outrageous fifty yard dribble and searing shot which brought us level with Portsmouth in the FA Cup Fourth Round in 1971. Two goals on a sodden, muddy pitch in the Fifth Round at Manchester City were especially memorable and his header took us through against Leicester in the Sixth Round and then he scored that  unforgettable goal that clinched both the FA Cup and the Double. His iconic celebration, borne out of exhaustion was copied by little boys everywhere. It seemed that nothing could stop Charlie and Arsenal from dominating English football for years. But it didn’t happen!

A number of us have met Charlie who conducts the stadium tours and when he spoke to me he was very frank about falling out with Bertie Mee and their mutual disaffection left Charlie feeling he needed to move away from the club he loved. He felt (and he was not alone among the Double team) that Bertie had dismantled the Double team too early and that without Don Howe beside him, Bertie Mee was not capable of continuing our success. 

Charlie left in July 1975 having scored 49  goals in 133 matches. He joined Derby County under Brian Clough and subsequently played for England while there (he was never capped when playing for us). Among other clubs, he represented Forest and Southampton, but he struggled with injuries and after retirement returned to Highbury to become part of the team that conduct stadium tours, a job he still  does to this day.

On my tour someone asked him how well he knew the then current team of Rosicky, AOC and Walcott etc. His answer saddened me. “They don’t know me from Adam. I can walk down the corridor and they’ve no idea who I am!” They may not have known him but Arsenal fans of a certain generation will never forget the wonderful contribution he made to the club even if there was a feeling of huge promise partially unfulfilled. 

As Charlie left, a massive new talent was emerging at Highbury but he was arriving in a team that was very average and even at a very young age, Liam Brady had to shoulder huge responsibility in a team that was facing a real struggle against relegation. His debut came as a substitute in a dreary game against Birmingham in October 1973. His first goal came, again as a sub (after Alan Ball had broken his leg) against QPR in May 1974, in Bob Wilson’s final match. He appeared regularly thereafter and entranced the crowd and bamboozled opponents but his first two seasons were a hard grind. Very left-footed, he had exquisite ball control and dribbling ability and he formed great combinations with players like Graham Rix and Frank Stapleton. After Arsenal’s fortunes picked up when Terry Neill and Don Howe returned to the club and Brady was feeding a forward line of McDonald, Stapleton and Sunderland. I loved the short period where he ran our midfield with Alan Hudson. We had flair coming out of our ears and the side reached Wembley in 1978 where Ipswich defeated us largely because Brady was injured along with McDonald and Young. The following year we returned to beat Manchester United and this time a fit Brady was man of the match, setting up goals for Talbot and Stapleton and setting up Rix for the cross that led to Alan Sunderland’s winner. 

One of my favourite memories of Liam was watching a game down at Ashton Gate against Bristol City. We were severely under strength but Brady was head and shoulders above anyone on the field. It was like watching a child’s match where one player is hugely superior to everyone else. He scored a great individual goal and set up two others and was clapped off the pitch by the home crowd. That didn’t happen a lot in the seventies! And of course there was that wonderful goal scored by Liam in the 5-0 Christmas thrashing of the poor old Spuds at White Hart Lane. It is still often shown in footage of games between the two clubs. 

Liam won the PFA player of the year award in 1979 but disturbing rumours surfaced that he saw his future in Italy. It subsequently became clear that if the Arsenal board had shown the ambition that Liam desperately wanted us to show, he would have signed a new contract with Arsenal. Instead at the end of the 79/80 season he signed for Juventus after heartbreakingly losing an FA Cup final to West Ham and a Cup- Winners Cup final to Valencia. His departure underlined the lack of ambition of the Arsenal board and marked a watershed in the development of a squad that could have brought the title back to Highbury for the first time in a decade if Brady and subsequently Stapleton, had stayed.

Liam made 307 appearances for Arsenal and scored 59 goals . When he played they didn’t measure assists but if they did the total would have been enormous. He was a footballing genius but we parted with him as he was moving into his prime. He had an immensely successful career in Italy playing for Juventus, Inter Milan and Sampdoria as well as Ascoli. He returned to England with West Ham, George Graham judging that he was past his best but his return to Arsenal was not long delayed and saw him run our youth development very successfully for many years. I often see him limping across the concourse at Ashburton Grove. He is an Arsenal man through and through although it’s hard not to think we did not see all his best years. But the ones we did have were magnificent. 

The next outstanding young player to emerge was very different from all  the others . When we hear of magnificent young prospects we automatically tend to think of attacking or creative players . George and Brady typify that image as do the rest of the homegrown prodigies I have chosen. But the next talent to emerge and imprint himself on our consciousness was very different ….he was a defender and arguably one of the best and most inspirational figures in the history of the club. It was Tony Adams. 

Tony Adams’ Arsenal career is remarkable because he was not simply a great defender — he became the defining captain of Arsenal across two very different eras, from George Graham’s defensive side to Arsène Wenger’s more expansive team.

He made his Arsenal debut at 17 having joined Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980 and made his first-team debut against Sunderland in December 1983, just four weeks after his 17th birthday. When he came into the side (not a very good side) I was amazed that Arsenal would put a boy of that age into such a responsible and important position . 

He became captain at only 21, beginning an extraordinary 14-year spell as Arsenal skipper and he was the leader of the celebrated back four alongside Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn. Their organisation and defensive discipline became a hallmark of Arsenal in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Tony  was at the heart of the side that dramatically won the First Division title at Anfield with Michael Thomas’s famous last-minute goal. When we won the 1990–91 title , Arsenal dominated the league, losing only once. Adams was captain of the champions and a central figure in what was an exceptionally strong defence, but it was a season that he partly spent in prison, having been jailed for drink-driving after demolishing a wall while well over the legal limit. He returned to the side to lead them to the title and then in 1993, he  captained Arsenal to the FA Cup and League Cup Double, one of the great achievements of George Graham’s Arsenal. Adams’ header in the FA Cup semi-final had taken us to Wembley. 

But after the League Cup Final he famously dropped the scorer of our winning goal, Steve Morrow, who sustained a badly broken arm. With Tony there was always a drama underscoring his achievements!  He lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup after Arsenal’s 1–0 victory over Parma in Copenhagen, one of the finest defensive displays ever given by an Arsenal team. 

When Arsene Wenger arrived in 1996 he found Tony struggling to recover from the effects of alcoholism.  Adams was one of the players who successfully bridged the transition from Graham’s Arsenal to Wenger’s revolution. Wenger famously described him as a “doctor of defence” and while he fought his addiction he scaled incredible heights as a heroic defender and captain. In 1998, came probably the most famous individual moment of his career. With Arsenal needing victory against Everton to clinch the Premier League title, Adams burst forward and scored Arsenal’s fourth goal with a superb left-foot volley. It sealed the championship and became an iconic image of Wenger’s first title-winning Arsenal and, in his final season, the 35-year-old Adams captained Arsenal to another Premier League and FA Cup Double. 

His trophy record is extraordinary. 

Across 19 years as an Arsenal first-team player, Adams made 669 appearances and won:

  • 4 First Division/Premier League titles
  • 3 FA Cups
  • 2 League Cups
  • 1 European Cup Winners’ Cup

And a particularly extraordinary statistic: Adams is the only player to have captained a club to top-flight league titles in three different decades — the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In the Premier League itself, Adams made 255 appearances, scored 12 goals and kept 115 clean sheets. His 45.1% clean-sheet rate in matches in which he played remains the highest among defenders with 200+ Premier League appearances. He was also inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2023.

One of the fascinating things about Tony was his  longevity and continuity. He captained Arsenal when it was built around defensive organisation and then remained captain when Wenger transformed the club into a technically sophisticated, attacking side. He achieved this while, in his early years having a constant battle with heavy drinking and afterwards, having admitted his problems having the character and dedication to ward off his demons which were never far away. He went on to establish The Sporting Chance Clinic which helps sportsmen to deal with addictions to drugs like cocaine, nitrous oxide and ketamine, as well as gambling and alcohol. He was a man with feet of clay and who faced his demons in a very public space. But he is a monumental figure in the history of Arsenal, something I am reminded of as I walk past his statue outside Emirates Stadium. It shows him celebrating that wonderful moment against Everton in 1998. 

Three great figures in Arsenal history , all with very different stories, very different personalities and different skill sets but all players who rose rapidly through the ranks at Arsenal to become immortal figures in our history. 

In our next instalment we will examine three more wünderkinder who have represented Arsenal at a very young age and developed to become some of the best players our club has known. 

Posted in Club History, Interlull | 9 Drinks »

The Goonerholic Forever Hall of Fame

Nov 10th, 2026 by

Jack Kelsey makes a spectacular save by diving to his right to prevent a Sheffield United goal during the league match at Highbury Stadium. 12th November 1955.
  1. Goalkeepers

One of the most enjoyable things about blogs like GHF is the opportunity to reminisce . Treading carefully, might I suggest that we might represent one of the Arsenal blogs with the oldest average age! But with age comes experience and memories and we thought it would be fun over the next few months to try to build the GHF ‘Best of All Time’ XI. 

Such initiatives often fall down with younger readerships as they show recency bias. I  remember a survey a few years ago by an Arsenal blog to find the top 50 Arsenal players of all time. Sylvain Wiltord finished way ahead of Cliff Bastin, Frank Mclintock and Liam Brady! Good player though he was – and a title clincher to boot – that seemed a trifle unbalanced.

We will be asking you to vote during this interlull for your top three goalkeepers. To help our deliberations I’ve asked a number of long- term supporters to give their views and they are attached here for your perusal.

Please feel free to comment as much as you wish but if you could vote we’d be most grateful for your views.

Please give me your top three goalkeepers in order to peter@lebeauvisage.co.uk. 

If you wish to make comments please feel free to do so.

Could I have your votes by November 17th?  We will then establish who our goalkeeper of choice and our benchwarmer is.

In the meantime, here is what some esteemed Holics have to say! 

Firstly, our old friend Uplympian shares his thoughts: 

I go back a long way – in the late 50s George Swindin (ex-England goalkeeper) was manager and the superb Jack Kelsey was our keeper but he doesn’t quite make my list. During the period up to the late 60s the club was in the doldrums, Jack Kelsey had retired and the quality of players was poor including the glove butlers. Following the sacking of the abysmal Billy Wright as manager and the surprise appointment of club physio Bertie Mee, our fortunes changed which included the emergence of my favourite keeper.

Bob Wilson – he was our keeper during the long awaited run of success at the end of the 60s and early 70s which included our first European trophy and the league & cup double of 1971. Not only was Bob a top keeper, he was the bravest keeper I’ve seen, forever diving at the feet of on-rushing forwards or goal mouth scrambles – he saved our defence on innumerable occasions. How he avoided serious injuries was amazing. Apart from being a top keeper, Bob’s personality shone through, an Intelligent man who conducted himself in such a classy way. It was no surprise that he became such a well respected broadcaster in the years following retirement. I cannot finish without recognising his compassion. He lost his daughter at a relatively young age and set up the Willow Foundation in her memory, a charity which this blog is proud to support.

My second choice is Pat Jennings. The signing of this world class keeper in 1978 from our bitter rivals in Mddx for the princely sum of £50000 was a complete shock (well to me). Yes he was 32 years old, but goalkeepers have a long career and he performed admirably for us over the following 8 years. He seemed larger than his 6ft frame, he was agile and had those huge hands. He had a modest personality and although an ex-Spud, he was welcomed by the Arsenal faithful. It was a bonus that every time he wore our shirt how much that must have rankled with the neighbours down the road.

My third choice (unsurprisingly) is David Seaman who was an astute signing by George Graham. “Safe Hands” was playing really well at QPR but we already had a top keeper and crowd favourite in John Lukic. GG explained it as we have one of the top keepers in the country in Lukic but Seaman is the best keeper in the country…..and so it proved. He slotted in what proved to be one of the all time  best defences in English football. His outstanding record includes a club record 234 clean sheets. I still haven’t quite forgiven him though for conceding the ex Spud Nayim’s goal in the European final v Real Zaragoza! 

Trev has seen a number of keepers guarding the Arsenal goal. 

These are his thoughts: 

My three best keepers would be:

1 – Bob Wilson.

It has to be Bob.  He was the first keeper I saw and, therefore, remember.

It’s too long ago and I was too young to remember whether Bob was a great technical keeper but he was fearless – or at least incredibly brave, often throwing himself at the feet of an onrushing centre forward, and there were some big brutes at centre forward in those days.   Always an intelligent, lovely man and later on the founder, as we all know, of the Willow Foundation.

2 – Jens Lehmann

A lot of competition for this nomination – David Seaman being the most obvious and Emi Martinez the least popular – but Jens gets it mostly because he was our keeper in the Invincible season of 2003/04.  Theatrical at times, simply bonkers at others, but a character keeper with a big talent and an even bigger presence in a side full of top, top players.

3 – David Raya

It has to be David Raya as, after a less than convincing start to his Arsenal career, he has established himself as undoubtedly one of the world’s best.  If the test of a goalkeeper is whether he gains you points you wouldn’t otherwise have won, Raya has proven himself over and over again.  A brilliant season last time round to play a major role in our first title win since the Invincibles.

JML (John Matthews Lives) modestly remembers some of our great custodians: 

Evening gents…

Not sure I can be of much help here…

1) Bob Wilson.

Having been saved from being a Chelsea fan at 6 years old by my brother (older sisters tried to influence me)…he told me that I can’t be a Chelsea pooftah being from ‘Olloway … thanks bro!

One of the heroes of that double winning team. Wonderful,  lovely bloke. The less said about Geoff Barnett, the better….

2) David Seaman

Safe hands. What more to say?

3) Jens Lehmann.

Invincible.

Honourable mentions to:

Jimmy Rimmer.

Dunno, maybe ’76 …. midweek night game against some lowlife bums (West Brom methinks) 16-17 thousand of us at Highbury … Jimmy goes out towards the right corner flag (seen from the North Bank) and plays it back across goal … one of their players jumps on it and scores. We lost 0-1. For the rest of the night we were singing, ‘Cheer up Jimmy, cheer up Jimmy, cheer up Jimmy, cheer up!’  Had f*ck all else to sing about back in those days! 

Now a Scottish viewpoint from the inimitable BtM: 

When goalkeeping coach Iñaki Caña pushed Arsenal to sign David Raya in August 2023, it sparked fierce debate. Fans questioned the move given the presence of beloved, first-choice keeper Aaron Ramsdale and other pressing squad needs. Yet, Caña and Mikel Arteta saw Raya’s elite distribution and composure as the key to elevating the team.

The skepticism only grew when critics dismissed Raya as too small for the Premier League. But Raya answered the doubters with excellence. Through world-class shot-stopping and relentless dedication, he transformed from a questioned signing into Arsenal’s undisputed number one. By establishing a phenomenal record of clean sheets, he silenced his critics — proving that true greatness is measured not by physical stature, but by heart, resilience, and an unwavering belief in one’s ability.

Ultimately, his brilliance has delivered the ultimate reward. Raya’s heroics have been critical to Arsenal winning the Premier League for the first time in over 20 years. From a doubted signing to the cornerstone of a championship-winning team, Raya didn’t just silence his critics—he was fundamentally important to bringing the title home.

Currently, in my very humble opinion, David Raya is the very best goalkeeper in world football. That’s a claim that it’s hard to make for many/any of his very distinguished predecessors and that’s why he gets my vote.

Noosa offers useful perspective when comparing glove butlers from different eras:

As the game has changed over the years, keeper’s attributes have had to change also. Whilst Kelsey and Wilson may have had to contend with some argy-bargy centre forwards, latter day keepers have to contend with a whole lot more chaos around them from set-pieces particularly and the ability to play out from the back is now essential to most team’s strategies. 

Over time, innovations such as the three step rule, no handling back passes, time limits on holding the ball etc. have also changed a keeper’s skill set requirements. Therefore, it is difficult to rank different keepers from different generations. Maybe Raya will turn out the best so far, good footwork, generally good with crosses and fantastic reaction saves but final judgement for him comes too soon now.

In the meantime, I’ll mention the following three in no particular order:

Bob Wilson for his bravery, a lasting memory of diving headfirst at strikers’ feet. 

Pat Jennings: I loved the way he caught every cross, often one-handed.

Dave Seaman: Some famous missed crosses aside, “safe hands” says it all.

Finally, we hear from North Bank Ned, with some terrific insights into the men behind the sticks for Arsenal:

I based my selections on longevity and consistency, and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, on standout individual matches and memorable saves that stick in the memory. As a tie-breaker, I went with impact on the team as a whole. Not overly scientific, but there you go…

David Seaman tops my list. More than 500 games, more than any other Arsenal keeper. Three league titles, four FA Cups, a League Cup, a European Cup Winners’ Cup, and an undisputed England No 1 in his era. Unrivalled ‘tache and ponytail, plus that immortal FA Cup semi-final save against Sheffield United.

Then it is a toss-up between two towering personalities, Big Pat Jennings and Mad Jens. Lehmann was an Invincible, won us the 2005 FA Cup final against the Red Mancs, and was the rock on which the run to the 2006 CL final was built. Jennings crossed the divide of the Seven Sisters Road and was a commanding presence in the end-70s/early-80s side that reached more finals than it won. Outstanding shot-stopper and probably the best keeper in Europe when he was playing for us, but Mad Jens just gets the nod as the better all-round keeper and commander of his defence (and Pat never had to marshal a defence with Eboué in it!).

Jack Kelsey is my third choice. He made more than 350 appearances for the club and was arguably our only world-class player in a mediocre fifties/early sixties side. He was known for his positioning and safe handling — the Brazilians called him ‘the cat with magnetic claws’ after his 1958 World Cup quarter-final heroics. He was undoubtedly the best British keeper in the 50s and, arguably, in the same pantheon of ‘50s greats as Lev Yashin, Gyula Grosics and Vladimir Beara. Fearless and brave, when keepers didn’t get the protection they do today. 

As a footnote, I excluded Raya from consideration to avoid recency bias, but there is a good chance he will be at the top of the list if you repeat this exercise in 10 years’ time.

TTG’s conclusions:

Many thanks for those insights from Holics who have followed Arsenal over many years . For what it is worth, I would place Seaman at number one. His performances in the 90/91 season after joining from QPR were  incredible and he produced a very high level for years afterwards. I’d have to include Bob Wilson because apart from his stellar career he is the father of Arsenal goalkeeping, doing an incredible job of making his successors better keepers and he is a giant in the history of our club. My third keeper would be the late  Jimmy Rimmer who was protected (if that was the word) by what was often a shaky defence in one of the worst teams Arsenal have ever had. Sometimes it seemed he was the only thing between us and relegation!

But, as others have said, Raya is a magnificent keeper and was a huge part of our title success. I like to watch him warm up before matches and he does it with the energy and conscientiousness of a true professional. It’s interesting to compare his situation with Rimmer’s. Raya has fewer shots to save than any goalkeeper I’ve ever seen (and long may it stay that way!). Rimmer was diving all over the place in an under-pressure team struggling to survive on many occasions. Seaman played behind a legendary back four and most of the rearguards in front of Bob were high quality. Raya’s story hopefully has a long way to run but he will surely become one of our greatest keepers.

Please, if you enjoyed this article and would like to contribute drop your 1/2/3 to me at peter@lebeauvisage.co.uk by November 17th 

I also look forward to reading your thoughts in the ‘Drinks’.

Posted in Club History, Opinions, Waffle | 71 Drinks »

Hey Noni – Yes! Madueke and Ødegaard Pilot Arsenal to a Narrow Victory

Nov 7th, 2026 by

In the pre- match comments by various Holics I sensed a pessimism about this game I didn’t feel. I was confident of a comfortable victory but this win was far from comfortable.

I had the pleasure of a pre- match Guinness with BtM and we sat down to watch a starting eleven that was identical to the one that began the game at Anfield. 

Sometimes title-winning teams have to win ugly. and our narrow victory today was a case in point, as Mikel Arteta’s side needed patience, persistence and a moment of quality to overcome a stubborn visiting defence.

With the interlull approaching, we knew that three points would strengthen our position at the top of the Premier League. We eventually got the job done, but Hull made us work considerably harder than many had anticipated.

Hull arrived with a clear plan: defend in numbers, restrict Arsenal’s space, press high and look for opportunities on the counterattack.

The visitors made life uncomfortable for the league leaders from the outset. Arsenal enjoyed plenty of possession but struggled to turn their territorial dominance into clear-cut opportunities.

Hull even threatened, themselves, forcing David Raya into some important interventions. Stroud particularly tested the Arsenal goalkeeper with a dangerous effort from a tight angle.

At the other end, Declan Rice came closest to breaking the deadlock with a shot from the edge of the area, while their impressive goalkeeper, Tzolakis, proved a difficult obstacle for the Arsenal forwards.

Arsenal also thought they had a penalty when Kai Havertz was pulled back in the area, but a VAR review determined that the striker had been offside. This whole episode was poorly communicated to the crowd in the way that VAR reviews so often are, and in the stadium we were only shown one of those weird diagrams to show Havertz was offside. Kai had another stinker of a game rivalling his performance at Fleetwood – it was all a far cry from his winner at Anfield. 

Rice went close with a drive from distance but we lacked penetration. Bruno was ponderous on the ball and had one nightmare moment where he almost gave the ball away in the Arsenal box. Hull were compact, the referee a tad pedantic and only Madueke looked remotely likely to break the deadlock. 

The half-time whistle arrived with the Gunners still searching for a breakthrough.

Half -time: Arsenal 0 – 0 Hull 

We began the second half with intent but our passing was generally laboured and Tzolis couldn’t get much change out of the right side of the Hull defence.

Arteta recognised that changes were needed and introduced Viktor Gyökeres and Mikel Merino before bringing Eberechi Eze into the action. Havertz, Rice and Tzolis departed. 

The substitutions added fresh energy, but Arsenal still needed that elusive moment of quality.

It finally arrived in the 72nd minute.

Noni Madueke drove towards goal and unleashed a shot which Tzolakis could only parry. Martin Ødegaard, displaying the anticipation and instinct which make him such an influential player, reacted quickest to turn the rebound into the net.

Arsenal 1 – 0 Hull – Ødegaard, 72 mins 

The Emirates erupted in relief.

Arsenal had finally found a way through, and their captain had delivered when it mattered most.

The Gunners might have added a second as Hull began to tire, with Madueke threatening again, when he really should have scored after being put through by Eze but one goal proved sufficient. Arsenal’s defensive shape made it very hard for Hull to create anything and Konsa and Gabriel were particularly  obdurate.

This was not Arsenal at their most fluent or spectacular. Hull deserve considerable credit for their organisation and determination, and the visitors will feel that their performance merited something more.

But Arsenal have increasingly demonstrated an ability to win matches when their attacking football is not at its best.

Full time: Arsenal 1 – 0 Hull

The clean sheet was another positive, while Ødegaard’s decisive contribution underlined the importance of having players capable of producing something special in difficult circumstances. Madueke produced a decent impersonation of Saka today and Konsa was impeccable. He is going to be very hard to drop when Willie Saliba returns. But our other two signings Bruno and Tzolis did not impress although Bruno had a better second half. Havertz doesn’t look like a top quality striker on days like this. He seems to be  a big game player which is very useful to have but we really do need more threat upfront.

The victory takes Arsenal to 27 points from their opening ten league matches, matching their best-ever start to a Premier League season.

Arsenal supporters may have hoped for a more comfortable afternoon, but nobody will be complaining about the result. Champions are often defined not by their spectacular victories, but by their ability to find a way through matches like this one.

Posted in Match Report | 35 Drinks »

Tiger Taming at the Emirates

Nov 6th, 2026 by

The Dead Tiger, engraved by H.Merke after an original design by Captain T. Williamson

And so to the Stadium of Stone, where there be tigers, come Saturday afternoon.

Our visitors started the season burning bright on their return to the top flight, beating the Red Mancs and Coventry, but their symmetry has become less fearful. Last weekend’s 2-2 home draw with fellow returnees Ipswich was Hull City’s seventh successive league game without a win (five draws and two losses). After nine games, they sit in 11th on 11 points. That, though, is their second-best start to a PL campaign, and it easily defies the consensus among Predictathon players that the Tigers would soon return whence they came.

Our first encounter with Hull City came in the FA Cup First Round in January 1908. It had not been long since the Hull Daily Mail’s columnist, Athleo, had launched a campaign in 1905, urging the club’s fans to adopt the ‘battle-cry’ of ‘the Tigers’, inspired by the team’s amber-and-black striped shirts. 

A tiger did not appear on the club badge until 1947. There was no crest at all on Hull’s shirts until 1935, when a badge featuring the three crowns from Kingston upon Hull’s coat of arms was introduced as part of a switch to playing in the city’s civic colours, blue and white. The unpopular decision was reversed the following season.

Back to 1908. We drew 0-0 in Plumstead, with the First Division side (us) failing to convert multiple chances against Second Division visitors. In the replay, the Daily Mirror’s expectation that ‘the Arsenal can hardly play so badly as they did last Saturday’ proved wildly off the mark. We were mauled 4-1, having gone 3-0 behind within the first quarter of an hour. 

A historical footnote: that was Billy Garbutt’s final game for Woolwich Arsenal, after which he would go on to manage in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s. 

Garbutt’s death in 1964 passed almost unnoticed in England. In Italy, among the glowing tributes, was one from Vittorio Pozzo, who coached Italy’s winning World Cup teams in 1934 and 1938. Garbutt, he said, was ’the most important man in the history of Italian football’. 

Like Johnny Madden, mentioned by Trev in his excellent preview of our Slavia Prague game, Garbutt was a prophet without honour in his own country.

Occasional company

Saturday’s game will be Hull’s 200th Premier League game, but only its 11th against us. We beat them in seven of those, drew twice and lost once.

Matches between the two clubs have been relatively few and far between. Saturday’s will be the first since February 2017. The two clubs never met in the old First Division. In four Second Division matches between 1913 and 1915, we won two, drew one and lost one. 

Throw in nine FA Cup matches and three League Cup ties, and our overall record is 18 wins, five draws and three losses.

Sergej Jakirović

The tall, 49-year-old Sergej Jakirović is in his second season as head coach at Hull, having won league and cup titles in the Balkans, most recently in Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb. He arrived via Kayserispor in Turkey after a 9-2 Champions League thrashing by Bayern Munich cost him his job in Zagreb. 

As a player, he earned five caps as a central defender for Bosnia-Herzegovina and played for 20 clubs in Croatia, Bulgaria and Austria. Although born in Mostar, now in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he was raised in Metković, 40 kilometres up the road in what is now Croatia, where his father played for one of the town’s clubs.

In the Premier League, he has abandoned the 4-2-3-1, which often looked more like a 4-3-3 and won him promotion via the play-offs last season. Instead, he has adopted the more defensively solid 5-4-1, a realistic assessment of what a newly promoted club needs to survive in the Premier League — although he reverted to 4-3-3 in the second half of the Ipswich game after falling behind and says Hull won’t beat us by sitting back in a 5-4-1. 

His teams are known for disciplined, compact defensive organisation, comfort with the opposition having the majority of possession (they were 19th in the Championship for possession last season) and aggressive counter-pressing after losing the ball, a tactic employed against us with some success by Slavia Prague, Leeds and Brighton. The goals come from fast counter-attacks and set pieces.

Jakirović brought his coaching staff from Dinamo Zagreb and Kayserispor to drill his approach into his new charges. The club backed him with its recruitment, buying direct forwards who will run and shoot, wingers who will carry the ball upfield quickly, and defenders whose mentality is as important as their playing ability.

The opposition

Young Greece international Konstantinos Tzolakis, a €23 million summer signing from Olympiacos and the joint most expensive part of Hull’s €176 million rebuild for life in the Premier League, has started his career as a glove-butler in the top flight of English football in fine form.

In front of him will be three big, physical centre-backs, Semi Ajaya, once of this parish and who has since won 53 caps for Nigeria, the veteran Ireland international John Egan, and one of the two young centre-backs bought in the summer, 21-year-old Senegal international Nobel Mendy, who cost €23 million from Rayo Vallecano, and 18-year-old Lucas Harrington, a €15 million acquisition from KSE’s Colorado Rapids in the MLS.

To flank them, Jakirović will likely perm two from another one formerly of this parish, England U-21 right back, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, a summer arrival from Genoa (where Garbutt made his name), former England U-20 defender Ryan Giles, and club captain Lewie Coyle, who is Hull-born but was raised in Leeds’s youth system. Ex-Newcastle man Matt Targett, another summer arrival, has been kept out of the side by an ankle injury.

Yet another summer arrival, Tim Iroegbunam, the ex-Everton 23-year-old, is likely to be partnered in central midfield by Regan Slater, as Hidemasa Morita, who anchors Japan’s midfield and was signed from Sporting on a free in the summer, was injured in training midweek. Slater was bought from Sheffield United’s U-23s four and a half years ago.

Algeria international Mo Belloumi, who is the club’s leading goal scorer and assist-maker this season, will provide width on the right. On the left, Sweden international Elliot Stroud, signed from Mjällby in the summer for €2.5 million, has recently displaced Wales international Sorba Thomas, who arrived from Stoke in the summer for €8.8 million.

Up front, Oli McBurnie serves as the target for the long balls that spring Hull’s direct counter-attacks. Picked up on a free at the start of last season from Las Palmas, McBurnie brings more than 100 games of PL experience with Sheffield United and Swansea, and the mix of patience and efficiency with which he waited until the 95th minute of last season’s play-off final to score the only goal of the game — although, for Scotland, he is so patient that he has yet to score in 20 appearances.

For the bench, Jakirović has  Joe Gelhardt, who cost €7.6 million in the summer from Leeds, and another striker, 19-year-old Frenchman Robinio Vaz, who is on loan from AS Roma. Like Thomas, Vaz has been dropped to the bench of late, with Jakirović saying neither is fit enough to start. 

Mohamed-Ali Cho, bought from Nice for €15 million in the summer, has been providing fresh legs on the right wing. Former France U-21 international DM Lucas Gourna-Douath is also available after missing four games due to a calf injury. However, the go-to sub in central midfield, veteran Matt Crooks, is suspended after accumulating five yellow cards.

Defender Charlie Hughes, forward Ilyas Ansah and midfielder Eliot Matazo are all off-games.

The Arsenal

We return home after three away games in seven days, having shown the weariness of travellers in the second half in Prague midweek. Nonetheless, I doubt that Arteta will give Declan Rice an extra day off to unpack, even though this might be an ideal game for a Guimarães-MLS pairing. Thus:

Raya

Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori

Rice, Guimarães

Madueke, Ødegaard, Tzolis

Havertz

Like Daniel Farke at Leeds, Jakirović has drilled his outfit into a well-organised, high-intensity and physical side. He will likely copy Farke’s blueprint that caused us to huff and puff for two-thirds of the match against Leeds last month. 

We will start this game as heavy favourites.  It might not be a pretty watch for much of the time unless we can get an early goal, but we should run out at least 2-0 winners.

Enjoy the game, ‘Holics, near and far.

Posted in Match Preview | 26 Drinks »

A Tale of Two Halves

Nov 5th, 2026 by

Arsenal arrived in Prague to play Slavia on the heels of an impressive team defensive display Sunday last at Anfield, which brought us to a 1-0 victory. We are undefeated in this year’s league phase of the Champions League, with the only apology our 2-2 draw against Bayern. To say we arrived on a bit of a high might be incorrect, but I wouldn’t put it past our squad to feel like purring into Prague feeling something…asiprational (tipping hat to Trev).

While we ran out winners 2-1 and ascended the league phase table to 3rd (one of only 4 teams to remain unbeaten), it was such a game of two halves. In the first half we scored two, and could have run up towards a scoreline that resembled what Como did to Lens (9-1!), but our profligacy very nearly came back to haunt us as Slavia pulled a goal back late in the second half…

The First Half
In his preview Trev called the squad excepting Rice and Gyökeres started rather than MLS and Bruno. Arteta thus rang in 6 changes from who started at Anfield; I would have preferred it be 7 or 8 changes, with Rice and Gabriel starting from the bench, but those decisions why they pay Mikel the big bucks. Surprisingly, and frighteningly, Saliba made the bench. We started thusly:

Raya
White – Konsa – Gabriel – Hincapié
Zubimendi – Merino – Rice
Madueke – Gyökeres – Eze

And very quickly it was shown to be a good lineup. In the first few minutes we had a couple of attacks fizzle out, one for offside and one due to a slightly overhit cross cleared by Slavia’s defense. Then, after a break by Slavia Raya cleared the ball past midfield for Gyökeres to bring down, hold up, and in the same motion lace the ball upfield ahead of Madueke. Noni beat his defender to the ball, and after a couple of fine touches snaked a sharp shot through the legs of Slavia’s keeper Domchak for Arsenal’s first goal. It was outstanding work from back to front; kudos to Gyökeres for his awareness and skill to get the assist, and to Madueke for his control and shot placement.

Arsenal 1-0 Slavia (Madueke, 9)

We continued as we started, and as the half wore on we had half-chance after half-chance. On 24′ Merino headed over after good work again by Gyökeres; only three minutes later Merino would test the keeper after a lovely move involving Madueke feeding White, who cut back to Merino from the byline…only to have Domchak stick out a strong hand to block the goalbound shot. In other circumstances we could have been up 3-0 and away…

Arsenal were having their way with Slavia’s defense, but Slavia kept threatening to break. Our defense held, but one such foray led to a Slavia throw-in from the right side facing goal, about twelve yards from the corner flag. They played the near-post routine almost perfectly, and a Slavia player connected with the flick-on putting it just outside Raya’s post. It would have been a miracle goal, but it certainly served fair warning to our defense.

On 38′ Merino won the ball back in their half, feeding Rice to drive forward, finding Gyökeres. He played a 1-2 with Merino, then took three exquisite touches to sit Slavia’s defense and curl the ball into the far corner of Domchak’s net, off the post. A truly beautiful goal.

Arsenal 2-0 Slavia (Gyökeres, 38)

Fair play to Slavia, they didn’t let their spirits drop, though they were distinctly second best to our second goal, and beyond. Gabriel nearly made it 3 with a header saved by a Slavia defender, and we went into half time after a minute of stoppage time. We had something like 75% possession in the first half, and could easily have been up 5-0 on another day. Our defense showed the same energy and solidity it had showed at Anfield, and all we needed was to play the second half like the first to run out easy winners.

The Second Half
But of course, it being Arsenal, it didn’t work out that way.

Slavia made two changes, a defender and a forward, and within the first minute of the half Kubiak’s shot on target forced Raya to save low to his left. That should have been a warning to us, but again it went unheeded. We looked like we’d shifted down a gear, almost to a level of somnolence, and Slavia seemed to take heart from our torpor. The were first to balls in the second half that we were first to in the first and they won free kicks all over the pitch. Fortunately none of them led to anything other than poor attempts at goal, but they were picking up speed even as we were shedding ours.

On 62′ Arteta appeared to have enough of this. Mosquera came on for the yellow-card-burdened Konsa, and Tzolis replaced a very quiet Eze. The hope seemed to be that the subs would gee us up and bring us back into the game, which was beginning to pass us by. Rice earned a yellow card for kicking away the ball in annoyance at a soft foul called for his slight touch of Slavia’s masked man; I think that was the opportune moment to substitute either MLS or Bruno and give our man Declan a chance to rest. But no, he stayed on.

On 72′ Madueke nailed Domchak with a stinging shot to his chest, one that he knew little about. Another chance missed. And a couple minutes later Slavia threatened from a corner, and it led to two chances; the first Gabriel headed away, the second Raya blocked. In that passage of play Slavia had a penalty shout, but Merino’s aerial challenge was deemed legal.

Arteta’s next move to rouse his slumbering troops was to bring in Mø and Timber for Vic and White. Bravo to Victor for an excellent game in the first half, though he was as anonymous as the rest of the squad in the second. My only thought, at that time, was “No Injuries, Please”. After another round of Slavia substitutes they played in a right-sided cross that led to a goal-bound header past a beaten Timber. Raya tipped it onto his post, then used all of his hands and head to keep the ball from crossing the line as he gathered it into his control. The closest call yet!

Until the 90th minute. A Slavia throw-in led to a left-sided cross into the box; Timber and Gabriel marked the same man, getting in each other’s way. The ball bounced through to an unmarked Praguelodyte who laced it into the top of the net. There will need to be some discussion about this one…

Arsenal 2-1 Slavia (Nowak, 90)

And that was pretty much the end of the game, though some inability of the Arsenal defense to clear the ball led to a very last-second shot that was easily gathered by Raya. We’d made it through with another victory, though we lost the clean sheet. It was a game we should have had out of sight at the half, but a combination of good enough defense from Slavia and poor finishing from those who should finish better meant we were limited to our two goal advantage going into the second half.

And was a horrible second half it was. That may be an overstatement, but we looked slow, tired, and nowhere near the squad we’d looked in the first half. Were Slavia a better side they could have punished us; it’s our luck that we faced them tonight rather than our next Champions League opponents Dortmund, who are pushing to rise from 12th into the top 8 by the start of the knockout stages. That Dortmund team just today gave a very good Betis team their first loss.

Well, onwards. Rice needs a rest, and with Max’s 3-game ban in the league we’re thin beyond Madueke up front right. Victor had a man-of-the-match performance tonight; can he continue in such a vein of form in the league?Saliba is clearly ready to be involved (but please have him be “injured” through this coming Interlull!), and our defense as a whole looked good, regardless of the goal. We just looked tired. One more game before we break for two weeks, home against Hull. Can we win that and hope some of our internationals can catch some rest while away on duty? Newcastle away awaits us upon our return to league play, and then Dortmund and C115y* to round out November. Let us pray to Dennis that our tired legs see some healing and renewal in the meantime.

COYG!

Posted in Champions League, Match Report | 34 Drinks »

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