It remains a source of disappointment and no little anguish that for a club of our history, stature and success in English football our records in European competitions don’t do justice to the various wonderful teams we have had in our history. This is most relevant, and painfully so, to the few magnificent teams that one Arsène Wenger had assembled especially in the first decade of his remarkable tenure. The most painful to revisit of those failures would have been the 2006 Champions League final loss, but personally for me the peerless team of 2003-2004 season not winning the Champions League remains the biggest what-if of those years.
The Europa league, however underwhelming it might be compared to the prestigious billing of its wealthier cousin, is definitely an opportunity to improve upon that record. Our last European success came in UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 93-94, when a solitary goal from Alan Smith and a typical rearguard action from the much-vaunted George Graham defense saw us victorious against a free-flowing charismatic Parma side. Since then the Cup Winners’ Cup has been discontinued and merged into what used to be the UEFA Cup, which then later mutated into today’s version of Europa League.
Winning the Europa League of course is also another avenue of getting back into the Champions League where we used to be a permanent presence for two decades, even after we stopped being the very best in the premier league, even when our best players were leaving for greener pastures without being immediately replaced by expensive buys. The last few years of doldrums and chaos may have made us forget the relative serenity of those times – at least relative serenity to some of us who acknowledged that achievement without losing appetite for greater ones – but with the signs of visible progress being made under our new manager and what appears to be enthusiastic backing of his squad building exercise by the hierarchy there is hope that at minimum we will recapture that degree of consistency and then move on to the next level.
This will be our fourth consecutive year in this second tier of European club competitions. We lost in the semi-final to Atletico Madrid in Arsène’s last season, 2017-18. Europa League specialist Unai Emery – with four titles with Sevilla – then took us to the finals in 2018-19 despite abysmal domestic form in the second half of the season, relying significantly on the individual brilliance of Aubameyang and Lacazette and their mutual understanding in the attacking third, but structural chaos and the lack of self-confidence in the team eventually caught up with them to underperform and capitulate in the final. In last season’s Europa League group stage the Arsenal team, comprising a handful of youngsters, occasionally thrilled us with some free-flowing high scoring football that stood in stark contrast to the team’s turgid performance in the league and rapidly worsening results that eventually brought an end to the short-lived Emery era. The superb Bukayo Saka especially caught the eye, and while he was a far from unknown entity among Arsenal fan base given his glowing reputation from the Arsenal youth set-up his partner in excellence in those matches — a teenager brought in from the fourth tier of Brazilian football — was an equal source of joy and given his anonymity until then also a cause for pleasant surprise. Gabriel Martinelli unfortunately has been sidetracked since the post-pandemic reopening because of an injury sustained in training and subsequent surgery, we can but hope for his prompt return to the team.
We lost, somewhat unexpectedly, in the round of 32 last season to Olympiacos based on away goals rule despite a magnificent overhead kick goal from Aubameyang at home. The loss came a little before the pandemic enforced halt to the season, and once the season resumed we increasingly morphed into a much more tactically astute and structurally organized team that relied as much on its defensive resilience and tactical maturity as on the excellence of its goal scorers to arrest the slide in the league and against all odds to win the FA Cup. The kind of last minute loss we had suffered at the hands of Olympiacos in February we can safely say will be an extreme rarity going forward while Mikel is in charge.
So, while the PL remains the primary priority, Europa is not a competition that we will take lightly. Thankfully the group we are in helps the team to avoid the rigors of travels to far-flung corners of the Balkans or what is essentially almost Central Asia. Our away journeys will be limited to a few hours of flights to Austria, Norway and Ireland. The first of those journeys will be to play against one of the mainstays of Austrian football for the last hundred plus years and the most successful team in the Austrian Bundesliga with 32 titles – SK Rapid Wien, or Sportklub Rapid Wien, or Rapid Wien, or Rapid Vienna …
However their last league win was in 2007-2008, since then the titles have been won mostly by the local nuveau riche RB Salzburg, and one apiece by the surprising Sturm of Graz (similar to Leicester winning the PL) and Rapid’s Vienna derby competitors Austria Wien.
While writing this review I was hoping to find some morsel of historical rumors tying Rapid Wien even remotely to the one of the many luminaries that brightened the glorious cultural and intellectual atmosphere of fin de siècle Vienna. Maybe it was Freud who turned one of the early stars of the Rapid Wien team towards football from his previous boring existence of a banker’s son? Maybe Schoenberg whistled out a tune in café – before serialism stole his soul — which became the melody for the team chant? Maybe Robert Musil, already a sportsman and a military graduate, played a few matches with the Rapid Wien team while studying at the local University? :–)
Still certain of the fact that if I really look for such connections I will definitely find them, I decided to save myself from such troubles and save you all from reading a prolonged panegyric on one of the most influential “time-in-place” of modern European civilization. Yes, you are welcome. :–)
So, forgetting the city, and focusing purely on the club: in the current season Rapid Wien is in the second position in the Austrian league now, two points behind the Salzburg after four matches. They started the season with a 4-1 home victory, followed by an 1-1 away draw at Graz, an 1-2 away victory and a 3-0 home victory against LASK, who are also in the Europa league this year.
Rapid’s current squad primarily consists of Austrian footballers, with one player each from Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Bosnia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Japan and North Macedonia. There are no popular names known across Europe. The overall quality in Austrian Bundesliga is a few levels below the more prestigious leagues in the neighboring Germany and Italy. The peak of Austrian football was most likely in the inter-war years when Rapid Wien even won the German league in 1941 where the top Austrian teams were playing following the annexation of Austria to Germany. Since the war they have had great success in the resumed Austrian league, and a few memorable seasons in the European competitions including couple of final losses at the Cup Winners’ Cup, one of them being against Everton in 1985.
Similar to Arsenal, Rapid now are managed by one of their very own, an Austrian international and one of the most popular players in Rapid’s history. Dietmar Kühbauer has been the manager of Rapid since 2018. He sets up his team mostly in 3-5-2, and his next preferred formation is 4-2-3-1, sometimes switching between formations within the game. He also prefers his team to play out from the back, and while attacking Rapid often overloads the final third with five players joining in, two players sitting in the middle to recirculate ball and three-man defense staying up high.
For a detailed tactical analysis of our opposition on Thursday, I recommend https://totalfootballanalysis.com/head-coach-analysis/dietmar-kuhbauer-rapid-wien-2019-20-tactical-analysis-tactics .
Playing at home, I think they will retain their attacking style but most likely will be a bit more cautious about maintaining the high defensive line. Arteta has slowly started to morph his team towards a more possession-centric football and I am guessing he will like to continue to hone the 4-3-3 (or more likely the 4-2-3-1 variation) system, using counter-attack after drawing the opponents in, as much as the patient build-up play from the back through the lines, as two alternative tactics for reaching their goalmouth.
Looking at the injury news on the club website, Holding will be out until the next interlull. But Mustafi is back whereas Mari and Chambers are still working back to full fitness. There are some niggles being reported for Willian and Ceballos as well. Given the importance of our weekend match against Leicester – a solid six-pointer as they say – I think Arteta will not risk starting with any of Aubameyang, Gabriel (who has been playing nonstop), Pepe (especially given Willian’s injury), Bellerin or Kieran.
This may also not be the match for our new Icelandic goalkeeper to earn his debut given that any mistake by him will become amplified especially if we end up not winning, maybe a match at home towards the later days of the group stage after we are somewhat comfortably placed at the top will be a game where he takes the field. However, I think we will see Partey earning his first start-up and if the team is comfortably poised withdrawn early to keep him ready for the weekend.
Mikel will also need to find a place in the team for Nelson, Joe, and AMN. Whether he starts with Eddie or Lacazette upfront will definitely tell us who will start in the weekend. I think Ainsley may get a chance in his preferred right-sided winger/midfielder role, often cutting in and allowing Cedric to drive and cross which is his best quality.
My predicted line-up:
Leno
Soares – Mustafi – Luiz – Kolasinac
Elneny – Partey
AMN – Willock – Reiss
Eddie
We will have Xhaka, ESR, Lacazette, Saka, Pepe and Kieran on the bench, in addition to Rúnarsson as the back-up goalkeeper.
Starting the tournament with an away victory against what will be the toughest opposition in the group will be most welcome, and it will also help us with regaining any confidence lost in the last weekend’s narrow defeat. My prediction is a hard-fought 3-1 win, with goals coming from Eddie, Reiss and Joe.
Happy viewing everyone!
What a great preview! You wear your learning lightly Dr F, but first you give us four opponents, not one, then tease us with a thumbnail of the intellectual powerhouse that was Vienna before a very thorough analysis of our opponents. Brilliant! Folks don’t forget it’s an early kick off, 5.55 UK time.
Thanks Dr F, up to your usual
high standard with a dash of
mercy throw in.
You also resisted the “Arsenal should
waltz this one” pun which shows a
touch of class 😃
The team looks about right though it
might be too soon for Mus to start.
The score? I think The Arsenal will
leave the Viennese in a whirl – 5-1.
I wonder how “loyal” Mesut Ozil would have been if his contract offer had been £150k a week less than the one he signed?
I signed for you so I deserve to play no matter how shit I’ve been might have cut it with Wenger, but not with anyone else.
Worst signing ever.
A lovely taste of Vienna to accompany my Sacher Torte und Mocha. Wie herrlich! Vielen dank, Herr Doktor.
I would hope that Aubameyang and Saka will at least be on the bench to add further firepower and creativity if that proves necessary. It’s difficult to judge where this squad stands against a team in a relatively minor league (which of itself says something about our decline) but we must hope for a good result. I suspect the Austrians will be our stiffest opponent.
Somebody at The Athletic reads this blog. Following my comments in my match report vs Manchester City on the fact that we never seem to score from free kicks comes this (sorry ££)
https://theathletic.com/2147209/2020/10/22/luiz-arsenal-free-kicks-problem/?source=user_shared_article
Thanks Dr. F. Entertaining and comprehensive preview. I have enjoyed watching Arsenal playing in the Europa League as a relative big fish in a smaller pond, and Vienna brings its own novelties and challenges. I like your scenario for Partey’s slow integration into the team leaving the possibility of his playing 90 minutes against Leicester after taking care of Vienna in 45. COYG
Cheers Dr F!
Dr.F,
You’ve have set the game up beautifully and I’ve learnt a lot about Austrian football.
I saw us beat Sturm Graz in the early 70s in the Fairs Cup and we thrashed Austria Wien in the old European Cup 6-1 at home….but we lost away !
Having been to Vienna fairly recently I have to say it is a city that I can’t imagine embracing football . Mozart , Opera, Lippizaner Stallions and schnitzel yes but football ..not really .
But we need to get our mindset right . We must play Runarsson soon and I’d blood him today . I think we will be something like ;
Runarsson
Soares Mustafi Luiz Kolasinac AMN
Elneny Partey
Nelson ESR ( Willock) Pepe
Nketiah
I’d put a strong bench out but that’s a strong side and I think it will triumph 2-0
That IS a strong side TTG. You’ve sneaked in an extra player!
And two extra players if you count (Willock). The refs must be relatively alert to the possibility of one extra player but probably lack experience in spotting two extras. Reason to try it? 🤣
Surprisingly it looks like the game will be on live tv on one of my cable package’s Spanish language channels so no cable-ish complications or stream searching anticipated. The way things ought to be. The only remaining mystery is whether the pre-match analysis will include Thomas Partey’s technique of sipping café viennois.
That IS a strong side TTG. You’ve sneaked in an extra player!
Mr. Picky !😀😀😀
Oh are we confined to 11 then !? Thanks for pointing out the omission. I blame Mrs TTG who needed some computer support ( blind leading blind) while I was preparing this . I suspect if we did go with five at the back ESR will miss out
Arsenal: Leno, Cedric, Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac, Saka, Partey, Elneny, Pepe, Nketiah, Lacazette
Subs: Runarsson, Bellerin, Tierney, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Nelson, Willock, Xhaka, Aubameyang
Picking up an obscure Europa League thread of a few months ago about Greek and Cypriot football, another of today’s games is between PAOK Salonika, the 2nd placed club in the Greek League position when I wrote the Olympiakos preview, and their Cypriot opponents Omonia Nicosia, whose formation as a club is described thusly in Wikipedia:
“Creation and early years (1948–1953)
On 23 May 1948, the governing board of APOEL football club sent a telegram to the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics (stating) its wish for what it described as the “communist mutiny” to be ended. Club players considering this action as a specifically political comment on the Greek Civil War distanced themselves from the board and were duly expelled from APOEL. On 4 June 1948, Dr. Mattheos Papapetrou organized a meeting in Nicosia that led to the creation of Omonia. Many players expelled from APOEL were present at the meeting and joined the new club. Along with other left-wing teams such as Nea Salamina, Alki Larnaca and Orfeas Nicosia, Omonia helped create in December 1948 the Cyprus Amateur Football Federation.”
The connections between politics and football seen again.
That’s an extremely strong line-up. Reiss and Willock may be wondering why can’t they start this one.
Good shout on the defence and midfield
Dr F. It is a strong side but winning the
first one away in the group is very
useful. Hopefully game time for
Reiss and Joe W is not far away.
Arsenal: Leno, David Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac, Cédric Soares, Elneny, Partey, Saka, Pepe, Lacazette (c), Nketiah
Substitutes: Macey, Rúnarsson, Bellerin, Mustafi, Tierney, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Willock, Nelson, Aubameyang
Strong team, big game approach.
Missed you there, Esso. Same team at least. I think. 🙂
This is technically our hardest game of the group, so I’m happy to see a strong side.
Cheers Dr F !
Classy to resist puns about waltzing this one ? Pffttt – a few dance puns would be fun, if not strictly necessary. I didn’t notice any while having a quick whirl through the drinks.
I don’t find the strong lineup a surprise at all, personally. Arteta rightly, and as the preview even mentioned, takes the competition seriously. It is a route back to the Champions League for the winners and we shouldn’t be expecting tonight’s opponents tirol over. We will have to compose ourselves, play with confidence, no haydn on the pitch and come away with a solid victory if we are to avoid flying home with a case of post traumatic strauss disorder.
Thank you – 2-0 to The Arsenal.
Tirol or not Tirol, that is the question Trev. 🤣🤣🤣
i’m afreud you’re being pessimistic on the shoreline, trev. would you like to talk about it?
V I E N N A, scruz. – they’re capital letters 😆
2,000 fans in the stadium providing a modicum of atmosphere
you’re gonna fin my siècle, trav?
already they’re slowing down the game. that’s a strategy, i guess.
Professional foul by Cedric. Good thing.
not even close to hand ball by saka
nice ball from eddie to saka.
Luiz a fingertip away from scoring there
great ball from cedric, and header from luiz. even better save by wien’s keeper.
Great header from distance though.
wow, some save by leno!
they’re getting at us right down the middle. unsettling.
not so sure of eddie on the left. rather him central with laca dropping deeper, and saka our left.
Not quite sure why we have two goalies on the bench?
yellow? for what?
Would it be Viennese manners to grind them into schnitzel on their own ground?
Partey is the mutts . See how much quicker we move the ball with him in midfield compared to ykw
well played tp18.
I think I’m in love . He defends as well.
But he does get booked a lot. Harsh booking though
We might want Thomas for the second half. Great intervention to stop a likely goal but cheap yellow card for swinging elbow in normal running motion.
Card happy ref and he has already booked three of our players.
Is this guy the Euro version of Mike Dean. Keeps on showing yellows at inappropriate moments
Saka is down. He could have been rested and kept fresh for Leicester. Hind sight….
Bt8
The ref is a Wiener.
This lot are quite good . We can’t relax against them . We do need more creativity again though .
Even against this average Vienna side we look laboured. No sparkle in our attack.
eddie really isn’t good on the left.
put reiss there.
Ref and officials are diabolical .
We aren’t making five at the back work . We don’t get any width because the wing backs don’t run beyond and we are short of creativity and bodies in central midfield . Luiz and Gabriel have been excellent as has Partey but we need to be more incisive. Let’s hope they can’t live at the pace
Gabriel, Luiz and Partey form a formidable triangle at the back. They are not scoring on a corner. Auba for Eddie on the left?
Because we are so deep I’m seeing this more as a five than a four at the back . It is fairly fluid in transition but I agree Nketiah is not a left-winger
bt8, keep auba on the bench for laca. reiss or joe for eddie.
At least the ref doesn’t look as much of a cunt as Dean.
yeesh.
Shit play by Leno. 1-0.
One for the playing out from the back fans? Utterly unnecessary
WTF, Leno?
This is an awful performance so far
We don’t have a good playmaker. Ceballos would have probably made a difference.
Luiz!!!!
nice, david.
Gooooool del Arsenal!!!
Turn the sound up Scruz. 🙂
Much better during the last fifteen minutes.
Leno commits his third howler of the match. Lucky to get away.
That is three huge mistakes by Leno. WTF. wTF. WTF.
breakthrough!
Auba off Bellerin cross. What a pre assist by Elneny.
Who needs a playmaker. We’ve got Elneny.
Laboured away win but job done. Need to improve a lot if we are to get anywhere, especially, in the league.
El partido no da para más. In case you we were wondering.😀
Elneny was one of the positives, Bt8 but we definitely need a good creative midfielder if we are to avoid shit shows like today’s.
great goals, terrible first half. eddie not a left forward. leno can’t gaff about like that. partey looks like he is going to fit right in.
Let us hope that that is all the playing-out-from-the-back howlers got out of the way for the season.
That game falls into the category of winning when you don’t play well. That said, they did’t create too many chances that weren’t given to them on a plate.
Ned
You sum up perfectly . They created nothing today unless we created it for them by fannying around .At least we had options off the bench but Cedric …a four year contract ?
Very good debut by Partey
Seriously what we’ve done with Cedric is like paying Stephan Lichtsteiner top dollar. On a four year contract.
Ceballos could have helped us look better but one of the positives is he will be well rested for Leicester. Auba made a big difference in a few minutes and kept the goal stream flowing. Partey’s 90 minutes all positive too as he’s not going to be feeling tired on his home debut. Wish the fans could be there to greet him.
A few sweepings from The Telegraph’s latest article on the Super League.
The plan is Real’s president Perez’s. Never a good start when it comes to passing smell tests.
The plan may fall foul of EU competition law, and the terms of an agreement between the EU and UEFA. I am not sure how much water those arguments will hold when push comes to shove. However, there is a legal challenge to basketball’s breakaway European super league, an 18-team league in which 11 clubs have ‘long-term licences’ (ie, are guaranteed a place in the league) and which from this season became a fully closed league, cutting off access through domestic leagues. If that challenge succeeds it might set a precedent that would at least require football’s super league to allow some sort of promotion and relegation mechanism.
I await the measured analysis that we specialise in , in our reports. Sometimes you can be in or very close to a game and usually one overreacts to the bad and thisvtempers tye good .
It’s been a stop-start season and we’ve already played the two best sides in the league away , there have been two international breaks ( as many internationals as we’ve played league games) and the transfer window extended almost a month into the season .
I’ve got concerns –
– our football is quite dull and lacking creativity
– we look a lot less secure with Leno rather than Martinez
– we fanny around at the back with a goalie who can be nervy in possession
– several players don’t obviously fit in – eg, Pepe, Willian , Nketiah and Lacazette
– we weren’t able to sell effectively in the transfer window. Was that a Covid or an Edu issue?
But all teams have issues . On the plus side
Partey looks brilliant
Gabriel looks a top centre back
Saka is an immense talent
Aubameyang is a match-winner
Tierney is a top defender
We’ve played eight won six. Only two of them were at home . Tge two defeats were narrow losses to top teams
That’s not too bad but we are going to be lucky to make the top four as things stand .
I cannot believe that the basketball super league could be used as a precedent for European football. Is a century and a half of historical precedent to be ignored, merit based promotion and relegation being one of the pillars of this precedent?
What’s the basketball super league? It has not impinged on my consciousness. There again, despite playing the game at school and attending several NBA games it is seventh or eighth on my list of favourite sports.
Patience, TTG, patience. Much will be revealed in the games against Leicester and Manchester United.
I dunno, c100, so tried to find out more. The FIBA website is quite vague on this subject, but they do have a countdown clock that says in 74 days something big is gonna happen. Not sure if this is illuminating at all, either in a good way or a bad way, but that’s what I can tell you. Maybe Ned has been following it and can give some more background.
Re: KSB @70. You won’t get any argument from me. We do need another creative player in the center of the park, and Elneny is not it despite having a very good game today against competition of lower quality than, say, Premier League. Even Ceballos has not proved himself to be up to the creative standard we need to excel, that is if we are able to keep him for the long term. Eden Hazard, or a younger version of him, is about what I had in mind. 😉
Guillem Balague comments on the Ozil situation:
“I find the suggestion that Ozil has been moved aside for his political stance an intentional distraction and very convenient. He has played and has been called up since he made his comments on China and the Uighur Muslims. You have to look at the bigger picture.
“Why have the last two managers struggled to find a way to fit him in? He is talented, no doubt, but talent is not enough in the elite.
“You have to be committed, interested, follow instructions on the pitch, work hard in training and in the games, with and without the ball, have faith in the group and in the leader… all that is necessary.
“It is very easy to influence Arsenal fans by suggesting there is a hidden agenda here, but why would two managers go against doing the best for their own teams by leaving Ozil out?
“Would it be by any chance that they needed to bring some standards which Ozil did not match? I have the impression Ozil should look at the mirror himself and be honest with what he sees.
“Ozil is not able to impact games on a regular basis and now the manager feels that it is best for the group to leave him out of the Premier League and Europa League squad.”
A wins a win I suppose.
Hopefully no knocks and on
to the Leicester game.
Overall I’m afraid it meant nothing
to me, oh Vienna.
I just watched the match. We sold the wrong goalkeeper. That is all.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>