Editor’s note: due to some geeing-up of the Goonerholicsforever populace by North Bank Ned, we’ve topped the £1000 pound mark in donations for this year’s Predictathon. We’ve gotten to £1055 from 25 donations, plus another £128.75 for “gift aid” from the donors. Well done to all who’ve donated, as TTG’s drink in a couple of posts back shared, Willow are very pleased. We’ve re-posted his note in the first drink below. And Week 4’s Predictathon update is now in the usual place at the tab above…
Our beloved Arsenal head to the heart of Suffolk on Tuesday to take on Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup 3d round. It’s an evening game at Portman Road, so if our travelling fans squint (perhaps after a few pints of Tolly Rodger) they might see the ghosts of Ipswich past emerging from the twilight mist…
The Tractor Boys have a varied history of success since the club of amateurs began kicking around the leather in the late 1870s. They won a number of championships in the Southern Amateur League, including 3 in 5 years at the same time Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal were dominating Division 1. Having waited more then 50 years to join the ranks of professionals, did so in 1936, promptly winning the Southern League trophy and finishing runners-up the following year, for which they were elected to the Football League’s Third Division South in 1938.
With only marginal success after World War 2 they managed to hire Sir Alf Ramsey in the mid-1950s after he completed his playing career for the scum up the road. Notwithstanding that taint, he brought immediate success to the Blues, winning promotion from the Third to the Second to the First Division in 1961. And then he won the First Division Championship at the first time of asking, dethroning that mob from Middlesex. That’s a note to spear wrongfully audacious Spurs fans with, if you like…Ipswich has a more recent First Division championship than they do! Sir Alf left the club to pursue a greater dream with the England national team.
They stayed in the top league for most of the 70s into the 80s under Sir Robert Robson, winning the FA Cup and UEFA Cup as well as finishing runners-up two seasons running in 1981 to 1982. It took four years after Sir Robert left for Ipswich to slide into the Second Division; they’ve largely stayed there since, with a few years back in the First Division, and a couple down in the Third. They were bought by the US investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited in 2021, and after a couple of indifferent seasons were promoted to the Championship, and the next year to the Premier League. They went straight back down only to come straight back up for this season.
Ipswich Town
The club have brought Strasbourg’s Gary O’Neil in as manager to see if he can get this tractor running well and remain in the Prem. So far, so good, as they sit in 10th place after the first four rounds. They score about as freely as Arsenal do, with their latest success against Palace coming with a last-minute winner. They are coming into this game with no one on the treatment table, so their players will be competing among themselves for a place in the squad. One player we can expect to see is ex-Arsenal “star of the future” Chuba Akpom on the bench, if not in the starting lineup; he signed permanently for Ipswich after spending a decent season there last year on loan from Ajax. Can you believe he’s now 30?
While their 10th place position is the envy of teams like United, Villa, and Spurs, their defense is not…even United put five past them! Tied for second-worst tally in the league with Coventry on 10 concessions, it is possible O’Neil will stray from his usual back four of Davis, Greaves, Diop and O’Shea in front of Scherpen in goal. In their Carabao Cup second round win over Leicester he rang in three changes in defense and a different ‘keeper, so he has priors for fielding a “cup team”. His defensive midfield pair usually is two of three from Palacios, Lukic, and Nuñez, though the same calculus applies to the cup as with the defense. In short, I have no clue what sort of team O’Neil is going to field.
The Arsenal
Did you know that we come in to this game on the back of six straight victories in all competitions? Just kidding, of course you do. We sit top of the league, with one of the better goalscoring tallies and the meanest defense. And we have only scored one set-piece goal all year, Saka’s penalty this past Saturday at the Stadium of Light! Where have you gone, Mr. Jover?
With White hobbling off at halftime on Saturday, and Mosquera not in the squad since his own hobbling exit at Villa Park two weeks ago, Timber is seemingly our only option at right back. There are rumors that Mosquera could be back, and Arteta has the option of blooding Salmon, from the bench or from the start. He and Dowman both trained with the first team today, according to Jeorge Bird (the expectation being they won’t play in tomorrow’s EFL Trophy tilt against Leyton Orient). Saliba is still out until December, leaving two of Konsa, Gabriel, Salmon, and Calafiori to fill our central defense. I’d start Konsa and Salmon, regardless of footedness, and leave Gabriel on the bench with Calafiori, so starting Hincapié on the left. While the approaching three-week interlull gives Arteta a little bit of freedom to mix and match through the game, but we certainly don’t want any further injuries to our defensive corps.
We have no injuries to our usual midfield sextet, though I have to believe Ødegaard, Rice, and Lewis-Skelly will start on the bench. Depending on where the boss can see Dowman playing Zubimendi, Merino, and Dowman in the midfield would be a treat to see feeding a front three of Eze, Gyökeres, and Madueke, leaving Saka to join the benchwarmers. Otherwise, Tzolis on the left, Eze in midfield, and Dowman on the right with Madueke on the bench feels right. In spite of his heroics against Sunderland, and much as I consider his keeping suspect, I’m guessing Kepa will start in goal.
So I will plump for this lineup to start:
Kepa
Timber — Konsa — Salmon — Hincapié
Zubimendi — Eze — Merino
Dowman — Gyökeres — Tzolis
While I expect an Arsenal win, I can’t tell if it will be a tight one, or if we’ll really get our juices flowing against a relatively poor defense. I mean, if United can put five past them, why can’t we? I do expect, regardless of whom Arteta starts, that our defense will be able to do enough to keep their goals scored to one or none. To that end, a 3-1 Arsenal victory gets you 10/1. However, if you have a gut feeling that our injuries in defense and changed team will mean Ipswich might score two, you can get 25/1 on Arsenal 3-2 Ipswich, and you can double that to 50/1 if we replicate the United 5-2 score!
Regardless of the actual score, an Arsenal win with no further injuries will do me just fine, and I hope the travelling fans have a safe and enjoyable time. Watch out for what comes out of the mist at Portman Road, though…and hoist a Tolly Rodger to our success!
COYG!
We have received a very grateful note of thanks from Willow for our Predictathon contributions. Attached below
Hi TTG,
I hope you’re well and you’ve had a good week so far!
I wanted to get in-touch to say a huge thank you for the kind support that GHF have shown Willow once again this year with the Predictathon competition. To date, we have received a whopping £867 from this season’s competition which we’re hugely thankful for.
This donation will help to make a big difference to the lives of seriously ill young adults across the UK. To put it into perspective, £867 could fund:
A Special Treat box for 18 of our beneficiaries who are receiving treatment at home or are spending long periods of time in hospital.
A luxury hotel break for 2 families going through the toughest of times
A ticket for a top London attraction such as a theatre show or the London eye for 10 seriously ill young adults.
We’re so grateful to all the kind GHF members for their kindness and support of Willow. Thank you so much.
Kind Regards,
Harry Folgate
Senior Fund Raiser
Willow
A most enjoyable and informative preview scruz with clear evidence of a return to top literary form. However I must disagree with your selection. I don’t want to see Timber on the field unless we are forced to send her m on from the bench as an emergency replacement! Nor do I want to see Calafiori start. These guys, along with Raya, Rice, Ødegaard, Saka, Havertz and Tzolis must be wrapped in cotton wool! How about:
Kepa;
Salmon, Konsa, Hincapié, MLS;
Guimarães, Zubimendi, Merino;
Madueke, Gyǒkeres, Eze.
There’s enough talent in there to give the Tractor Boys a game. 3-1 to the Arsenal feels about right.
Good news on the Willow total. Well done Holics.
A belated harken back to the previous drinks first as I was too slow
for our fixture list walkway….
@9 yes, quite agree Ned both on the rules and on ronay…l.
@11 a fine disemboweling Bath 😃 though I quite like the Guardian myself
Sam Dean and Adrian Clarke were both right, this team can win in so many
different ways and one of them is standing toe to toe
@18:C100 thanks for the away day report, I’m glad you survived the
potentially precipitous drop and have an easier jaunt tonight
An excellent and much appreciated preview, thanks scruz.
That early eighties Ipswich side really should have won the
league I thought, they had some very players but sold too
many of them in the end.
I watched a bit of the Ipswich Palace game and thought Ipswich
were a bit lucky really, not sure they are any better than the
last time they came up. Anyway, I expect Akpom will start and
it will be nice to see him again.
As for the team, who knows but depends a bit on whether
Mosquera is available but my own guess would be
Kepa
Salmon Mosquera / Konsa Gabriel Hincapie
Zubimendi Guimaraes / MLS
Dowman Eze Madueke
Gyokeres
I think the starting XI tonight will also give some guide to
the XI that starts a potentially tough trip to Brighton, which
we could have done without after a run of three away games.
A hugely enjoyable read, Scruz, that sets up the game nicely. Devilishly difficult to predict the team. Arteta will have to balance the need to give our less-used players more minutes with not disrupting the balance and shape of the team so the winning momentum can be sustained.
Many thanks to all Predictathon players for achieving the £1,000 donation target, and especially those who rallied to the cause at the end. You will have made a difference to some young adults’ lives, as Willow’s Harry Folgate outlines above.
And as the Editors mention above, the latest leaderboard has been posted. We have our fourth front-runner in as many matchweeks and an uncommonly high number of players beating the Crowd. Is one of them you? You know where to find out…
@1 GHF
Khm…. It’s somehow incomfortable talking aboug it here but I just added a small amount.
But I was not able to find (and join to) the GHF team on the Willow site.
Do you have suggestion or how to for the next time?
COYG
Cheers Scruz,
Excellent very enjoyable read. I hope Gyokeres will find his goalscoring shoes.
COYG
Cheers scruz. Your last paragraph is all it is about for me.
I’d rather have Meslier because we know Kepa is shit, while I only have doubts about Meslier for now….
I suspect it will be a tough match either way if we do wholesale changes. Unless Ipswich’s focus remains exclusively on the League without ‘Cup’ suffixed to it.
I’ve walked past Portman Road a few times when staying there for work, but never been in.
Looks like Ed Sheeran is in the US so won’t gee the crowds up. The twat.
Many thanks for the Predictathon Ned. However, on a point of order, describing the football team who play at the City ground in West Bridgeford as Notts Forest would be enough to earn you a disembowelling in that vicinity. That team are Nottingham Forest. Their local rivals, just a mile away over the bridge, are Notts County. Mix up the two at your peril.
Many thanks for an excellent preview Scruz. It’s the league cup so who knows what the team will be! However I enjoy these early rounds and hope to see Dowman and Salmon both start.
Ollie @8. Portman Road is a fine little ground. However last time I was there, pre game music was mainly Ed Sheeran ( he is a substantial donor and it is his boyhood club). I had planned to spend longer in the bar to avoid this (the beer is also good and inexpensive for a Premier League team) but his latest faux pas may even have rendered him persona non grata in Suffolk. I doubt it though.
Two nil to the Arsenal.
Firstly well done to everyone who contributed to Willow via the Predictathon . Las just go to the GHF blog. On the right is a button marked ‘ DONATE’ next to the Willow tab
Press that and it will take you through the donation
Process . We run a continuous donation to Williw and any contribution would swell the total. They can be made anonymously.
Scruz,
Super preview. I quite like Ed Sheeran despite his being a ginger. I quite like Ipswich and remember the 1978 Cup Final when they cuffed us when we had loads of injuries that we hadn’t admitted to .
I hope our team is
Kepa
Salmon Mosquera Hincapie MLS
Bruno Zubi Merino
Dowman Eze
Gyokeres
That’s good enough to beat them 2-0
Earplugs, C100. ;-D. Safe short travels.
C100@9: ever keen to avoid a disemboweling, I acknowledge the error of my ways.
Great stuff, scruz – even if it made me feel about a hundred years old !
I’m with Ollie on keepers – rather give Meslier a chance to rediscover what was some very good form with Leeds. Kepa is a liability. In the words of Peter Ustinov – since we’re going back in time – Kepa sets himself extremely low standards which he unfortunately fails to live up to.
Cheers Scruz!
Ipswich rotated the fuck out of their first team in the last round. Be interesting to see what they do tonight.
I’m sure he will go with Kepa tonight
Excellent preview, Scruz. I’m struggling to keep up.
The hopes of many of us have been met in Mikel’s team for tonight. Strong bench if needed. Hopefully not.
Arsenal: Arrizabalaga, Gabriel, Salmon, Lewis-Skelly, Zubimendi, Merino, Guimaraes, Madueke, Dowman, Eze, Gyokeres
Subs: Meslier, Konsa, Calafiori, Ibrahim, Julienne, Tzolis, Saka, Odegaard, Havertz
Is that a back three?
Surely not. Zubi or Merino in the back four?
Thanks for a great preview Scuz. Good opposer for some of the squad to get useful minutes in their legs. Interesting selection – is a back 3 or 4, time will shortly tell. Hopefully a less physical battle tonight and a comfortable excursion for all.
CORRR
Well that all worked out er well, hopefully no injuries.
Lots of nice things to see and I couldn’t begrudge Chuba
A fun, stress free game. And all just 90 minutes from home. Lovely. Dowman superb. Salmon very good.
A very stress free evening with some super performances by our youngsters . I’m not sure whether we’ve integrated Eze into our style- he is nowhere near as effective as he was at Palace . As for Victor we really do need to talk about whether he can fit into our style of play.
On a dominant night he had a handful of touches and very little in the way of xG . A top striker coukd have profited from Madueke’s excellent work at least twice tonight
Nightmare journey with the Eastbound carriageway of the M25 being shut, meaning our coach had huge difficulties getting to us. There then followed a 3 hour coach journey, meaning I couldn’t meet up in the bar with C100. Lots of people had travel difficulties apparently, and at half time there were complaints about dangerous overcrowding further down the stands as people arrived late and the incredibly narrow walkways from the turnstiles struggled to cope.
Great atmosphere with next to no sound coming from the Tractor Boys. Funniest song: after going 4-0 up and telling them they were Tottenham in disguise, they pulled one back and were immediately serenaded with “ You’re not Tottenham in disguise”!
Journey back much better and beddy-byes at 1 am.
I just noticed scruz’s 3-2 and 5-2 forecasts for the score…….
I thought Mikel was both sensible and positive about Max afterwards.
I was doing a daily Arsenal quiz today and the question today was to name
the 10 youngest players to play for Arsenal in the Premier League…….
Starting very young isn’t a guarantee of success but not a bad indicator
looking at the names, Gavin McGowan was the only one I struggled
to remember and who unfortunately seems to have had a career blighted by
injury.
A link to the answers just in case you were wondering
https://topclubten.com/arsenal
Matt
In the 92/93 season we did incedibly well in the domestic cups ( winning both of them- I don’t think that has been done before) but getting into major fixture congestion as a result. This led to us playing shadow teams ( we played a NLD with a very rotated team and lost ) and Gavin McGowan was one of the lads we blooded. I think he was a midfield player from memory . Paul Dickov was the one that looked very useful . Gavin only played a few games and sadly succumbed to injury
Thanks TTG, I remember the cups well as they were the last ones I got to attend before I headed off to Japan. Dickov too, he was prolific in the rezzies from memory but never really trained on I thought, a decent career of course but not quite the anticipated heights.
Your memory is far superior to mine on McGowan, now that you’ve reminded me I do vaguely recall and was wondering if we pressed him into service as an emergency full-back…….
Very interesting piece on SheWore about the “wonder kid” JJ Gabriel and why we shouldn’t touch him with a barge pole.
Matt,
I think we did use him there . We had a series of pretty meaningless home games and he came in there . We had lads like Mark Flatts and Neil Heaney playing then and Scott Marshall at centre back . It was George deploying squad rotation to win Cups rather than leagues
@30 yes, our league form was just dire that season considering
the players we had. We were a tough watch but I suppose the
Cup Winners Cup came out of the two cup successes so GG
probably made the right call in hindsight.
Willow are absolutely delighted with our fundraising efforts on the Predictathon. I attach their latest communication. We have arranged for our winner to receive personal congratulations from David Seaman!
Hi Peter,
Wow! That’s an absolutely brilliant figure to have raised from the competition this season.
Thank you so much for your really kind support of Willow. No problem. At the end of the season, please let me know who the winner is and we can either get David to write to them or we can get him to send them a video message.
We’re so grateful for your continued support and these funds will make such a big difference to us.
Kind Regards,
Harry Folgate
Senior Community Fundraising Officer
Willow – Special Days for seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds
Gate House, Fretherne Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL8 6NS
DDI: 01707 937444 Ext 8880
willowfoundation.org.uk
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