Tomorrow we play the last game of a funny old season in a funny old game. Oddly, considering it is our worst league campaign for 25 years I find myself feeling quite chipper. We could send Watford down and win our 14th FA Cup in the next week – the latter would make me very happy whilst the former would be, well, funny. I will leave it to more capable hands to write a season review after the FA Cup final next week but after such a poor season we must I think take our chuckles where we may. As Mikel Arteta has already said even if we win the FA Cup this has not been an acceptable season for a club such as The Arsenal but a win today and a good performance to go with it would send us into the Cup Final next week in good heart. That game is the one we will remember in seasons to come not this one, which leads us rather cunningly into the thorny question of team selection.
Our best XI or not?
There has been much debate this week as to the number of eyes Mikel should keep on next week’s game when deciding the starting XI for today. To play our best XI or to clear the benches, that is the question. All options have some merit in my opinion and so I will back Mikel in whatever he decides. My best guess is he will steer a judicious middle course resting perhaps three or four but playing most of next week’s team. Without access to recent fitness reports though it is somewhat of a lottery guessing the starting XI this week and in the circumstances what follows is the team I would pick. The absence of Mus, Mari and Calum plus a seeming reluctance to play Papa somewhat limits the choice in the centre of defence and as a result I would go with a back four if only to give Tierney or Luiz a rest. In midfield I would perm two from the three of Dani, Lucas and Xhaka and give Joe Willock a start in front of them. Up front I would like to see a young front three with Eddie back in the centre, Nelson on the right and Saka on the left. Having said all that, though personally I would play them I suspect that Mikel may not start so many youngsters in potentially an uncompromising battle as Watford struggle to avoid the dreaded drop that the conduct of their players, and owners come to that, has so richly merited. My XI in other words would be brawn at the back, fleetness at the front. Hector, Keiran, Dani, Auba, Laca and Pepe in reserve. Papa, AMN and Macey to round off the bench.
Emi
Cedric Rob Luiz Kola
Xhaka Torreira
Nelson Willock Saka
Eddie
If I’ve got that lot right I will treat myself to a nice can of VAAM. I am sure you all know this but just in case – VAAM is a sports drink made from the larval saliva of Japanese giant hornets. I wonder who sat down and thought let’s see what hornet spew tastes like, certainly someone who marches to a whole different orchestra you’d think. Anyway, I digress, but actually I really am in cunning form today as that segues very nicely into the next segment.
Pest Control
I have no idea who is in charge at Watford currently, and I suspect I am not alone in that regard*. I do know they fired their manager, Nigel Pearson, a few days back. I have watched Watford several times this season and in some games I would certainly have questioned the attitude of their players if I had had the singular misfortune of caring one way or t’other. Annoyingly they tried quite hard against us in the second half of a 2-2 draw back in September but on the other hand they did rollover Liverpool 3-0 to our relief at the time. They recovered quite well from a shockingly bad first half of the season and then as I said they fired Pearson, who appeared to have rescued them from a large hole – no, not Watford itself, I mean their league position at the time – and to my mind that act of leadership richly deserves relegation but we will see on Sunday. As to our tactics for this one, Hornets, as we all know, are a pest that must be dealt with quickly and firmly, except that is for the Welbz Knee Hornet, which is unaccountably friendly and usually only stings by accident. It would be well advised to get out of it’s current home while it can. In particular the Giant Tubby Hornet has been in the news recently as its oafish behavior has been irritating several members of the Goonerverse. Fear not people, I have scoured the web and found that Japanese bees have solved this problem already and I pass on the scientific advice exactly as read “when the Tubby Hornet flies into the bees area they immediately form a tight cordon around it and rotate their wings extremely quickly until the steady build up of heat causes the less hardy hornet to implode from the excessive heat generated”. If during the game tomorrow you notice a cluster of Arsenal defenders flapping their arms very quickly around a tubby looking hornet Do Not Adjust Your Set it is simply nature taking it’s course. Brutal but effective apparently, something the mouthy Deeney should surely appreciate as he accidentally elbows one of our players in the head again and then talks about it afterwards whilst the referees and FA do nothing about his cheating. That I think is enough tactical analysis on Watford. We all know they aren’t very good, a smidgen worse than Aston Villa in fact, so that should be no problem then.
* in late news – it seems a bloke called Hayden Mullet is Interim Head Coach, I thought he was the wooden one in Star Wars but apparently not
The Holic Pound
The final punt of the Premier League season and as ever it was we punt to win. Although it may well be a tough attritional battle ending up as 1-0 to The Arsenal, I feel we will score early, they will cave and the sun will shine. The general vibe at Watford seems very negative just now and they lost 4-0 last time out – the same score at 35-1 represents good value today. If Auba should play he needs a hat-trick to catch up with another well known accidental elbow cheat for the Golden Boot – 20-1 but who knows if he will even play.
Finally, I wish a happy and safe game for all our players, it is always sad to see stories like the unfortunate Mustafi missing out on the big game (again after 2017!). Let’s hope for clean bills of health all round tomorrow. For the rest of us I wish an enjoyable afternoon – an Arsenal win, Watford down and Manure or Chavski to miss out on the CL works for me but as always each to his own.
Well done Matt! OK you’ve convinced me. £20 on 4-0 at 35-1 it is. £700 will come in handy.
Excellent, OM.
I look forward the Arsenal displaying their bee balls. How do you like those apian cojones?
Nice write up OM.
Very brave, C100. Following on from the Mess in the Midlands, not sure I’ll show such courage. Here’s to an injury free conclusion to a league season which has reminded me of some of the dark days of the 70s and 80s. At times it has seemed like we have been playing with a side displaying the combined talents of Mancini, Matthews and Caesar at the back and midfield of a disinterested Ball and a mostly drunk Hudson.
Roll on next season…….
Back four completed by Blockley.
My memory had blocked him out (see what I did, there?) but I have had a moment of clarity. The single worst Arsenal player I can remember having seen. Would have been at home climbing out of the clown car at Chipperfields Circus.
Blockley – the man we jettisoned Frank McLintock for !
Anyway back to tomorrow .A waspish OM has done an excellent job of increasing interest in a game where the only importance to me is in our squad avoiding injury . While I see your team logic Matt I would bring Sokratis in for his swansong in a back five and I’d keep Ceballos, Tierney , Aubameyang and Pepe well away from the pitch . Might be nice to see Smith debuting at some stage if not from the start
I have a feeling we will win as we are quite good at relegating teams but I would smile just as much if Palace can beat Tottenham .
On a separate point which I know I keep repeating we are very likely to sign a young winger, Fernandes, a client of Joorabchian and all of 17 years of age . He is likely to cost us about £14 m. Is that really a great use of the little money we have? We already have several wingers and Cristiano Ronaldos who he is compared to do not come along very often. If we end up signing , Willian , Coutinho and this geezer after bagging Cedric it will tell you exactly who is controlling our transfer activity
Hornet spew, larval saliva and a large hole on the one hand.
Pest control on the other.
I think I know who I want to win. No accidents please, Danny. 🙂
I don’t do Twitter but I know there’s been some upset about George Armstrong’s omission from BT’s Saka thing, so if someone would like to share this, it might slightly compensate.
It’s from Tiger 08/09/1973
https://ibb.co/CVw3x1g
Neat preview Matt with just a touch of the surreal and a hefty dose of optimism.
My hope is that we select a team such as you predict keeping our key players safe from the barges, elbows, kicks and stamps that are Watford’s stock in trade and that all those whom we risk tomorrow come through safely. The most important thing for me is that no-one who participates gets an injury that impairs their ability to participate and perform at their highest level in the cup final.
A win would be very nice and a boost for the team’s morale before the cup final though I would be astonished and rather worried if we won 4-0. Given our roller-coaster season I would be concerned by the possible effect of such a big win on this team’s psychological approach to the cup final. While I have faith that Mikel would, under these circumstances, do his best to keep the players grounded, on the basis of past performance I am concerned several might approach the cup final without the right work ethic . I would prefer that we go into the final after a close victory or even a draw knowing we have to work hard to get something out of the final. I want us to approach the final without any arrogance or complacency but rather with a desire to prove that last year’s Europa League final was an aberration and with the intent to show that this team is better than its league position.
COYG
Cynic @7. Nice clip. I’ve posted it on Twitter.
RIP Peter Green, giant of the British blues.
Still have Fleetwood Mac’s debut album, for which Peter Green wrote five of the 12 tracks. Only sorry I never heard him play with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Mayall couldn’t keep ’em, but he certainly could pick ’em: British 60’s blues royalty flowed through that band. Green was the one Mayall thought would be better than Clapton. RIP.
Thanks all, much appreciated and the
larval spits are on me!
@8 Bath
I see your point. We have dropped
15 points to the bottom 6 sides
this season. I didn’t say much after
the Villa game but that has to stop
next season.
NBN@11: one of my favorite Peter Green written tunes … https://youtu.be/kTvKaLW5bu8
Mick Taylor .. his solo at the end of “Time waits for no one” sounds fresh every time I listen to it …
thanks cynic,
reader A. Browne won a £1 postal
order for that submission.
I like all of that, Matt, but I’m concerned that it may take one of our players a little longer than one week of MA8’s coaching to master the ‘flap arms at high speed move’ resulting in some vertical take-offs at critical junctures in the game.
The slim chances of Euro qualification via the League evaporated completely after Tottnum and I would have been preparing the Cup team mentally and physically since them, not making them more ‘very tired and injecting them to be able to play’ as MA8 mentioned in a recent presser.
So, I wouldn’t play a single one of the Final starters and would go with your team, Matt with a couple of changes:
Macey,
Medley, Papa, Kolasinac,
Soares, Willock, Torreira, AMN
Ozil,
Nelson, Nketiah
A team of first team regulars, with the opportunity for two young players to deputise for recent injuries to Leno and Mustafi. Good enough to beat Watford and more likely to do so than some of the very tired, needle injected players who turned out at Villa.
Auba, Xhaka, Tierney, Dani and Luiz should be nowhere near the stadium. International Man of Mystery “Smith” on the other hand, should definitely get a late cameo. 🙂
I note we have withdrawn from the pursuit of Fernandes because we lack budget and he has signed another contract. Good sense prevails despite him possibly being the new Ronaldo
BtM,
Ozil in but no place for Guen?
An interesting team and I’d
like to see Medley and Macey.
And a farewell to Papa.
I suspect there’d be some whining
from Villa and Bournemouth.
That’s good news TTG, we really
don’t need any more promising
wingers.
Matt,
I think Guen is gone and currently in deep, deep freeze, otherwise I would have started him for Willock. I think Ozil is in the cold section of the fridge labelled “Use only in extreme or unimportant circumstances; like when you have a Cup Final worth millions coming up and/or you’re playing Watford in a game where the result doesn’t matter.” (The pictures from training show a smiling Ozil, training with the rest of the squad. Guen is probably over on some piece of Catalan training ground 🙂 ).
I would have started Rob for Medley until Mustafi was ruled out. Rob will start in the final.
Of-course, if Martinez starts v Watford and get’s injured a la Leno – we’ll get to see Matt Macey play in the Cup Final, so there is that.
I don’t think for one moment MA8 will play my team. That’s why he’ll be at the stadium today while I’ll be hunting for birdies.
And here was me thinking that Pepe is the new Ronaldo, TTG? He must be the new someone else then?
I believe Leno may be fit for Wembley and possibly a place on the bench
Btm
One area where we are relatively well-stocked is on the wings. To spend ( even if it is £14m not the £41m originally reported ) on a 17 year-old winger is speculation in the extreme .
Enjoy your birdie hunting – I assume its golf not ornithology ? 😃
My bird hunting days are many , many years behind me . My birdie hunting was even less successful
BtM,
Ozil 🙂
Though I suppose I shouldn’t
laugh as he is a very expensive
joke. Perhaps Real Madrid will
bale us out?
I don’t mind if Arteta doesn’t play my
team as at least I won’t have to drink
VAAM 🤢
Excellent Matt !
My views on selection are in the last bar – basically, this is all about The Arsenal. The other teams will have had 38 games to manage their seasons – it is not our responsibility to do anyone else favours at the risk of jeopardising our next campaign in any way.
And if it is about exterminating hornets, we should at least be playing our B(ee) team.
Nice stuff Matt
I would play our strongest 11. The side we want to put out next week. Win the game well and finish the season on a high.
Then the Lap of appreciation. There will be the same number present as there usually is???
Trev@25: Sting in the tail of that one.
Arsenal: Martinez, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Luiz, Tierney, Xhaka, Willock, Ceballos, Pepe, Aubameyang, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Sokratis, Cedric, Kolasinac, Torreira, Smith, Saka, Nelson, Nketiah
That’s way too strong a team for my liking . Should please Cynic and those who think being fair to Villa is more important than being fair to ourselves .
Not in favour
It’s about respecting the league and it’s really the Arsenal way to have that sort of integrity rather than be shithouses who look after our own interests.
Plus it will send Watford down and fuck ’em, frankly 🙂
I may be alone in this, but I don’t “get” Willock at all.
Heh, Blogs picked my team! 🙂
Hey, Arteta didn’t! 🙁 The lads are all needled up. That’s close to the Cup Final team (but with Bellerin in for AMN and Saka for Willock).
The cup final is a week away? Why would we not play our strongest team? Should be a good opportunity to get some game time before the final. Some Bly played 30 minutes at Villa?
Cynic – with you on Watford being a bunch of absolute cunts.
I only got 4 out of 11 in the team
selection – a new record for
forecasting incompetence?
Respecting the league or is using
a stronger team today just because
Mikel secretly hates Watford?
Come on the good guys
goddamn right that was a penalty.
auba! 1-0.
Well said Esso
When we’ve three people out of the Cup Final I will remember we’ve screwed ourselves the Arsenal way
I have absolutely no problem with VAR. it’s just the way it is run and the clowns that they get to run it.
Mike Dean just hated that VAR decision. 🤣🤣
Good start for Auba.
Now for 3 more.
hollow balls deeney.
Def penalty all the way…….Mike Dean gutted that VAR over-ruled him.
is dean the victim of a fungus on his face? what *is* that?
that was an ugly defensive sequence. what was kt3 thinking?
why is xhaka standing off letting the cross come in?
If you’re a defender at Arsenal, and you can’t get a game in this side then you should seriously consider a career change.
We just look so vulnerable at the back it’s unreal.
that was a nice little defensive sequence. then we back off back off back off corner.
kt3!!!
Kieran Tierney! Get in son!
that dipping cross by pepe was *nasty*.
20 minutes in and it’s fortunate
Watford can’t finish.
haha 2-0 against the run of
play – nicely placed Kieran
Lovely move for the Tierney goal but we have been so poor without the ball.
mikel looks PISSED with a 2-0 lead. get IN.
Mikel was doing the arm waving
thing at the drinks break!
He looked peeved
Rightly so.
GET IN!
auuuuuuuubaaaaaa!!!
what a hit!
Is my £700 coming in?
Matt might be right in his score prediction!
well in the way to c100’s poundage.
It’s all Auba Deeney!
I got the team wrong but at
least the Watford caving looks
on target
Nasty kick at Kieran.
matt if you get the score right, half a can of wasp spittle on the bar for your…pleasure.
Pffffft!
ball is in the hands of the keeper and it’s a penno? dean loving giving it. sorry c100!
Booger. Luiz owes me £700.
Brain fart from Holding.
and that’s on holding, terrible pass from the back intercepted.
Holding has been abysmal and Xhaka far too casual. Get them off.
Luiz yet again thrown under the bus. Dreadful from Holding.
holdings been mixed, but agree on xhaka.
Stupid Chaka talking himself into a yellow card. Have to hook him now or he might get banned for the final
still, 3-1 at the half, eh?
Tough luck Pepe. Typical Watford challenge.
4 minute, o fungal wonder? more like 6.
Flapping arms at high speed on the couch, apparently to reasonable effect so far.
Dean blatantly overlooked Dawson’s obvious penalty on Lacazette. Of course.
Well 3-1 is ok but that was
a stupid goal to give away.
I hope to see KT, Xhaka and
Laca subbed at half time.
That’s enough for integrity
Xhaka and anybody else who got a yellow card must be substituted to avoid suspension for the cup final, no?
nbc showing mancs leicester on our channel. bastards.
COYG
and come on BamBam
Go get that boot!
a brace of braces, please, auba.
now it’s back on. whew.
Only Xhaka so far on a yellow.
Actually he should be hooked for
his 1st half anyway
dawson should be on a yellow, then.
More bad defending.
From us that is not the Dawson
one.
laca out for kola. joe out for eddie.
Nice effort from AMN
Save Martinez!
great save emi!
sigh. well, good for danny. COYG!!
FFS
Well that was dozy by Luis
Shambles Arsenal. Shambles.
time for a roasting by mikel. it should never be this close.
If we don’t win this we need
shooting.
Certainly our confidence will be
shot anyway
aside from the potential for new tv ad revenue, why were water breaks decided upon?
lt11 and reiss on for dani and pepe.
why yellow, o fungus face?
SAVE!
Because it is searingly hot in England in July
get. another. goal. arsenal. brilliant save emi.
typical dry english humor, c100?
should have been 4 there, le arse.
maybe they should hand out orange sections, then.
Nketiah has just lost his Cup Final possibilities for me. Strikers who don’t want goals are no use.
nice work, reiss.
no yellow for the trip on reiss?
Just checked the score enjoying the Slovakian warm weather hows it looking pitch side?
dean dying to give them a point.
poor that one, rob.
Deeney misses a sitter. Lack of cohones
It’s looking decidedly iffy ATG.
We cling.
Badly.
we send those fuckers down!!
Never in doubt
The worst game I have seen Holding play. I hope he, or Papa, does better next week. Other than that, what c100 said at 115. 😉
Cheers OS
Looks like they are on their way down 👇
Terrible performance but cheerio to Deeney.
Play like that next week and we’ll get hammered.
Xhaka… anyone notice that almost every pass he gave Tierney in the second half was hammered at him and a foot or two away from him? That’s the sort of thing you do if you’re trying to make someone look bad.
A win but poor performance. Ceballos our best player. Good performances from Tierney, Martinez and PEA. The rest a rage at best. Holding looked a fish out of water. Xhaka looked very Xhaka.
Need a Citeh performance next week, not another one of those.
We played well within ourselves and tentative in challenges, as expected. Will be good experience to avoid any complacency before the final.
A little bit more composure in the final third in the last 15 minutes and Auba would have gotten his hat trick.
Liked how Reiss played after coming in. Next season is key for him, important to stay injury free.
Now we know why Arteta plays 3 at the back with these CBs. Diabolical performance. Against a decent forward line we would have lost this game. What’s Sokratis done wrong that Holding is selected over him and Kolasinac is subbed on before him? We need FAR better performances from most next Saturday.
Exceptions to the shitshow were Martinez, AMN, Tierney, Ceballos, Willock, PEA and Nelson.
Fabianski at least somewhat at fault on the Grealish goal that kept Villa up. Looked like if he had stood his ground Eddie Howe would have been very happy at Bournemouth
Another superb game from Martinez. Picking the number one for September 12 could be rather difficult.
Agreed about Martinez, he saved us from great embarrassment. What an upgrade on Fabianski as backup keeper, and really pushing Leno for #1.
Could not watch the match but was relieved to see we won 3-2. Not that the result helps and I dont know how they played. All that matters now is how we play in the Cup final.
Well we won and they are down
so I suppose all’s well that ends
well
Part of the embarrassment we were saved was finishing lower in the league table than Sheffield United and Burnley, which we would have done with the two goals Watford almost scored but for great saves.
Chelsea and ManU celebrating top 4 position at the end of the season as if they won a trophy. Good for them.
I am sure no part of their fan base will abuse the managers or fly banners for the achievement.
You mean 4th isn’t a trophy?
Has to be a back three for the final and probably next season. Looked much more porous with a back four. Early punt at the CF team
Martinez
Bellerin
Holding
Luiz
Tierney
Saka
Xhaka
Ceballos
Pepe
Lacazette
Auba
I would swap Nelson for Pepe but Arteta won’t.
I think we will want to have a back four in a lot of games next season. Saliba + one other. The key to that is a proper defensive midfielder. Torreira can’t be faulted for effort but he is FAR too lightweight for the PL. A proper CB partnership plus a proper DMFer allows more creativity in MF. I’d try to keep Ceballos for the box-to-box role (I agree with Steve he was again our best player) with Willock growing into the role and I’d spend all the money we can generate from selling Sokratis, Kolasinac, Elneny and Özil (Half-a-Crown and a packet of jelly babies) on the best DMFer and creative MFer I could afford. I’d keep all our kids and give them lots of game time. They are all good and will all get better.
I would play Nelson from the start in the final too. Looked hot when he came on today.
Good Ebening and Exactly, Dr F.
That’s the obvious team, C100 and I’m sure they’ll all be much better for their highly valuable outing today. I didn’t see the game and judging by the comments, fresh air, green grass and sunshine were a better choice. Looks like Holding didn’t inspire? Maybe he’s opened the door for Sokratis. Who’d have guessed we’d ever miss Mustafi?
Countryman @130: Giroud is enjoying sort of a golden autumn to his career, scored another excellent goal today. Given the way he attacks the near post from his right side Tierney may find it physically difficult against him especially in the air. Maybe Tierney as a wing back and some surprise in back three? With Saka on the bench.
Our collective defending especially winning ball in the midfield will be so important.
Rob did struggle today but it is
too late to parachute Papa in.
Dr F – I fear the surprise in the
back 3 would be Kola.
Also I don’t think we can expect
Saliba to make an instant impact
next season, it will take a season
to get used to the PL.
Dr F. Giroud was cruelly underrated for us. Probably because he had a dry spell in the Leicester season. But he’s been critical for Chelsea. Remember Giroud to Ramsey led to match winners in two finals. I think Tierney would block him off on the ground. Not sure we have anyone who can challenge him in the air. I certainly do not want Kolasinic on the pitch.
Bath, Nelson (and several others) should have started today. Pepe is a better player with Bellerin supporting him and I think that combo will start at Wembley.
Rob himself is something of a parachute-in, Matt. Check out how few games he’s started. Giroud would bully him and I think Arteta will look to Luiz to counter that threat. The Greek Brick Shithouse might do OK against Ollie – but he can’t play the passing across the back game and is as rusty as a rusty bucket.
Scenes from the Villa dressing room! They’ve pinched “Sweet Caroline!” I’m astonished.
@136 C100, had we had Auba in that season, we’d have won the League not Leicester. I loved Ollie but he wasn’t/isn’t the predator that Pierre-Emerick is.
And that’s a good thing, it means we’ll have the most dangerous striker on the field in our team on Saturday.
Maybe a wee bit of a pity that he’s been played in so many games and some tiredness is evident in his play. But still.
Like many others I’ve pinched myself before saying we really miss Mustafi at the back.
Next Saturday I’d bring Mertesacker out of retirement . He did a wonderful job last time.😃
Seriously though the only thing we can do next week is to play three at the back. It suits Holding better and it certainly suits Luiz as we saw today. I think we need to think through our CB options next season . Mari and Saliba will come into the reckoning but we did not sign Tierney as a CB and we may need one more . I’d probably ship out Rob or Sokratis. Both may go ..
Players who can cover at either full-back or centre back like Sarr or Disasi are probably attractive with our reduced budget .
Next week I wouldn’t rule out AMN at LWB but he had a bit of a mare in Baku .
Xhaka plays much better in a three but I maintain that this flash of recent good form is solely that. He is not good enough, mobile enough, defensively able enough , offensively able enough and mentally not mature enough to be a long- term success in midfield. We’ve never achieved CL football in the league since he joined. Go figure. I agree re Torreira he is not suited to English football . I missed the Nelson cameo but I agree that Pepe will start. If we can beat Citeh at Wembley we can certainly beat Chelsea ….but they will be obvious favourites .
Countryman/BtM: The best part of Giroud’s game has always been the hold-up and the link-up play. Even though he scored a lot of good and some great goals for us, he formed many effective partnerships… with Poldi in the early days, with Rambo, with Ozil, Santi, TR7, Theo … in his last couple of years we won a lot of points by making him the target to hold up and play off and then throw the kitchen sink around him with all our midfield and attack joining in.
Both him and Pulisic are in good form and Mikel needs to figure out a strategy. May be just play Papa, play safe and use Xhaka as the extra passer from the back and Laca more as a false nine and dropping deeper.
I’m not suggesting that Auba isn’t better than Giroud. I’m just recognising how good he was, at hold up play, assists and goals. His contribution at the near post at corners was outstanding ( as it has been for Chelsea). The question isn’t Auba or Giroud. It’s Giroud or Lacazette. Much as I love Laca I would rather see Giroud there, playing with Auba on the left.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist….or I wasn’t until 8 saw this.
This article suggests infamy….they’ve all got it in for me or rather us .
Hard not to be pissed off by this analysis
http://dailycannon.com/2020/07/arsenal-get-battered-by-referees-liverpool-and-leicester-dont-the-stats/
Game after game you see the opposition getting away with fouls that get our players carded.
So in the end we are eighth. Three points behind Sp*rs and Wolves. If we had beaten Tottenham and Villa we’d be sixth, but if my Aunt had balls she’d be my Uncle. I think every team ahead of us has played better football and played more consistently. So no complaints.
Fouls per Yellow Card is a very interesting statistic, TTG. Leicester’s rate is more than twice that of Arsenal’s. Only Bournemouth got a yellow card after fewer fouls on average than did Arsenal, who topped the league in yellow cards total. What about fucking Burnley, or a host of other clubs whose chief method of operation is rotational fouling?
We ended up 43 points off top, 10 off a CL spot, three and goal difference off the Europa League but only 22 above the drop zone. Seem about right?
How they contrived to introduce VAR, water breaks, and semi-limitless substitutions in the same season beggars belief, but it has produced an incredibly disjointed and nearly unrecognisable game.
Ned, I don’t know how you expect me to answer the question if people accept the tired old maxim “the table never lies” but we are a club teetering between mid-table mediocrity and challenging for the Europa League places. I might even call us the new Everton, but Everton have truly staked a claim to that status whereas we have only arrived at it and will hopefully be making a swift upward departure from it starting in a few weeks’ time.
Pleasant mid afternoon dog walk drink using the free college WiFi. What could be better? The same thing next week after the sinking of the good ship Chavski.
Mustafi injury must be worse than previously thought if we are considering buying another defender.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-mustafi-arteta-transfer-window-a4508966.html
pulled the tendon off the bone. ouch. i did that with my bicep, pulling it off the radial tuberosity, and it was a year before i could use my arm properly after the surgery. granted, he’s in much better shape than i was (ever!), and has top-notch physios to attend to his every need…but we’re probably talking christmas before he’s back to playing regularly.
that’s a bummer.
btw, matt, great preview, and i though we should have hit your mark, making c100 at happy lad. alas, the only happiness is sending hollow-balls deeney and his mangy gang (excepting danny, of course) down.
Thanks scruz, it did look on for
a bit but our usual sloppy instincts
kicked in.
Wasn’t Mus injured when Sterling
deliberately fell on him?
Shame for him but hopefully Rob
has got a poor game out of his
system.
it was indeed sterling’s purposeful landing that did the damage.
fingers crossed holding has gotten it cleared!
I am now waiting to hear in the media how Sterling is the real victim in all this.
Great link TTG@143. An article that provides the data that confirm that I am not paranoid and that my suspicion was accurate that we are frequently held to a different standard than the opposition when it comes to fouls and cards.
CER @155, heh!
We have plenty of CBs. If Arteta says he has to buy to cover Mustafi’s injury, it tells you all you need to know about what he thinks of the back-ups.
it does Ned. I was wondering if
we didn’t already have a deal
arranged for Papa and he is only
to play in an emergency.
Though MA is suitably vague in
that article
Cup half full time:
Although it was our worst league finish since 1995, only Man Utd has finished above eighth every season during that time.
Clubs whose worst season since 1995 was an eighth-placed finish or below:
Brighton & Hove Albion (barely counts as it has been in the Premiership for only a handful of season, unlike the ever-present quartet below)
Chelsea
Everton
Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur
Clubs with a seriously bad finish, ie, relegation, since 1995:
Aston Villa
Barnsley
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Blackpool
Bolton Wanderers
Bournemouth
Bradford City
Burnley
Cardiff City
Charlton Athletic
Coventry City
Crystal Palace
Derby County
Fulham
Huddersfield Town
Hull City
Ipswich Town
Leeds United
Leicester City
Manchester City
Middlesborough
Newcastle United
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest
Portsmouth
QPR
Reading
Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday
Southampton
Stoke City
Sunderland
Swansea City
Watford
WBA
West Ham United
Wigan Athletic
Wimbledon
Wolverhampton Wanderers
OM@159: Maybe, but Papa has been an ever-present on the bench. You’d have thought even that would have been off-limits if he was being shielded from possible injury pre-sale, and one of the U-23 CBs who have been training with the first-team, such as Medley or Clarke, included on the bench.
Holding has played pretty well when called on, although the Watford game was probably his poorest.
ned@160 you got me thinking (scary stuff!). here’s the list of clubs with relegation since 1995, and where they will be in 20-21’s season. noted is their last time in the premier league, and whether or not this year has seen them promoted to, or relegated to, their 20-21 league. for premier league teams there’s a “since” year, meaning they’ve been up continuously since that season.
—–
Premier League
Aston Villa – (since 19-20)
Sheffield United – (since 19-20)
Wolverhampton Wanderers – (since 18-19)
Newcastle United – (since 17-18)
WBA – Promoted to (17-18)
Burnley – (since 16-17)
Leicester City – (since 14-15)
Crystal Palace – (since 13-14)
Southampton – (since 12-13)
West Ham United – (since 12-13)
Leeds United – Promoted to (03-04)
Manchester City – (since 02-03)
—–
Championship
Bournemouth – Relegated to (19-20)
Norwich City – Relegated to (19-20)
Watford – Relegated to (19-20)
Huddersfield Town – (18-19)
Cardiff City – (might be promoted to EPL pending playoff, playing Fulham 7/27) (17-18)
Stoke City – (17-18)
Swansea City – (might be promoted to EPL pending playoff, beat Brentford, plays winner of Cardiff City/Fulham 8/4) (17-18)
Middlesborough – (16-17)
QPR – (14-15)
Fulham – (might be promoted to EPL pending playoff, playing Cardiff City 7/27) (13-14)
Reading – (12-13)
Blackburn Rovers – (11-12)
Birmingham City – (10-11)
Derby County – (07-08)
Sheffield Wednesday – (99-00)
Nottingham Forest – (98-99)
Barnsley – (97-98)
—–
League One
Hull City – Relegated to (16-17)
Sunderland – (16-17)
Wigan Athletic – Relegated to (12-13)
Blackpool – (10-11)
Portsmouth – (09-10)
Charlton Athletic – Relegated to (06-07)
Ipswich Town – (01-02)
Coventry City – Promoted to (00-01)
Wimbledon – (as MK Dons)(99-00)
—–
League Two
Bolton Wanderers – Relegated to (11-12)
Bradford City – (00-01)
i must say, i can’t feel sad about bolton 🙂
My sense is that Arteta is very keen on getting a left sided centre back in a three that is left-footed .This is because of the need to build from the back. That is why Kola is preferred to Sokratis , Tierney played there at Wembley and Mari was signed .Given that Luiz is significantly better in a three it suggests that it will be Holding / Luiz/ Tierney at Wembley with Sokratis on the bench .
I don’t think Lampard is going to have much difficulty in guessing our team…but maybe Arteta will tweak the roles as he did in the semi and use Tierney in different roles offensively and defensively .At the moment the only selection dilemma that I can see is whether AMN or Saka starts at LWB
Can’t feel bad about Bolton either Scruz, even without Allardyce. Can’t feel bad about Hull either.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>