Goonerholics Forever

Tonight, we face Brighton & Hove Albion in the Third Round of the Carabao Cup (aka The League Cup to us oldies). Since the euphoria generated by the spirited style of our now customary victory at the Bus Stop in Fulham began slowly to dissipate, huddles of Gooners have been debating whether to potentially throw this tournament in the bin to allow our slim squad to sustain its hitherto remarkable charge for the Premiership title. 

There’s a strong lobby to rest our entire first XI, play the back-ups and some of the kids and see if they are good enough to dispose of Brighton but not really care if they don’t. This is based not only on the heavy schedule that our first teamers have just come through (with flying colours) but also on the fixture congestion to come in the new year if we continue to participate in this tournament. Thus, it is argued that we will have fewer mid-week commitments in the second half of the season and will be able to concentrate the energies of our first XI on the Holy Grail of the Premiership. It is not an unreasonable argument given our small squad and the predictable pressures to come in January through May. However, I suspect Mikel Arteta does not share this view.

Of course, in the Wenger years, the early rounds of this competition were used to test the kids, often with astounding success, and as the team progressed through each round more experience was added to match up against more challenging opponents. That approach did bring some limited success. During this era, I was lucky enough to attend three dispiriting finals. The first was against the despicable Portuguese’s Chavs in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff where we were done by two virtually identical Drogba goals after an encouraging opener by the enthusiastic young Theo Walcot. The second, back at the new Wembley, saw an injury ravaged Arsenal line up lose 2-1 to an uninspiring Birmingham City side with long-term rumoured transfer target, Obafemi Martens scoring the winner in the 89^th minute after that famous mix-up between Sczcęsny and Koscielny. We had been so dominant, I was optimistic that we could pull the fat out of the fire in the remaining 4 minutes of added time but it was not to be. The third Wenger final and the first named ‘Carabao’ was a predictable 3-0 thumping by an imperious Citeh outfit in Pep’s first final with Citeh. The gulf in quality was sickening. That overly personal reminiscence was to illustrate the fact that we have unfinished business in this competition.

We have long underperformed in this competition, probably often as a result of prioritising others.  We reached consecutive League Cup finals in 1968 and 1969, losing both – to (VERY) Dirty Leeds and Swindon Town respectively. The Guvna, Dave Faber, could provide a riveting eye-witness soliloquy on both those finals. We finally won the three handled pot in 1987 by beating Liverpool 2-1, after being 1-0 down, through two goals by Champagne Charlie Nicholas to give Gorgeous George his first trophy as Arsenal manager and returned to the final the next season only to lose 2-3 surprisingly to underdogs Luton Town, after being 2-1 up, goals by Hayes and Smith being insufficient given a penalty miss by Winterburn and defensive ineptitude by Caesar. That game was a sliding door moment for George who subsequently brought in Bould and Dixon to create the famous back four. We did win that pot once more, in 1993, 2-1 against Sheffield Wednesday (whom we also beat, after a replay, in that season’s FA Cup Final) with goals from Merson and Morrow after being 0-1 down. That final may be most notable for Tony Adams practising his future Strictly partner-lifting technique on Steve Morrow only to drop him and break his arm. His technique has clearly come on leaps and bounds since then though!

I expect Brighton to take this tournament seriously. They have never graced the final let alone won the competition but they are having a great start to the season, sitting in 6^th place 13 points behind the leaders (who could that be?). Their coach, Robert de Zerbi has said he is treating this match like a Premier League game and expects his players to do the same:

“It will be a test for many players, but when we wear our shirt we must play seriously and we must try to win.

“it’s a very important game. I can make some changes in the first 11 but, for me, the cup or a friendly is like a Premier League game. There’s not a big difference.

“It’s important to always win, but it’s most important to play seriously. If we want to prepare in the best way for the next game against Aston Villa, we have to play well tomorrow – 100%. The best way to arrive in the best condition next Sunday is to play well tomorrow.

“I want 11 players who show the same respect as in the last game against Wolverhampton Wanderers. When a player has that mentality and plays the same way in a Premier League, in a training session, this is the mentality for me.

“Every time you wear the shirt, you always give 100% – this is the first part of mentality. The second part is to play with bravery, courage and personality against teams, whether they are bottom or top of the table.”

Sentiments we can, in truth, all get behind. As many Gooners opine, we want to win every game and win every competition we enter. Tonight is no different.

I expect Mikel Arteta to treat this game as he did the Europa League group games, selecting his back-ups and leavening them with first choices who are selected on the basis of game time already accumulated with the likes of Saka and Martinelli playing only part of the match, if needed. Some kids may be on the bench but I don’t expect a different approach from the Europa League. We can deal with fixture congestion in 2023 in 2023. At this point in time we should try to stay in every competition. Who knows what the fall-out from Qatar will bring? Hence, I expect a team like:

Turner (if fit)

Cedric, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney

Ødegaard, Elneny, Sambi

Vieira, Nketiah, Nelson

After all, there’s only one further game to play until the despicable WC in Qatar interrupts the season and many players get a six-week period of R ‘n R with three friendlies to play whilst others are condemned to running around in a baking hot sand-pit for the aggrandisement of a venal collection of middle eastern potentates.

The Holic pound is still going to Ukraine but I predict 2-1 to the Arsenal.

Sadly, the game is not being broadcast live on television anywhere in the world so apparently there won’t even be streams. Those not going can listen to the ‘radio’ commentary on .com but we will have our own eye-witness reporter in attendance and his match report will be posted here tomorrow.

My favorite memory of the bus stop in Fulham is the vision of the former Chelsea captain executing the calamitous slip that allowed RVP to score his critical goal in Arsenal’s 3-5 win in October 2011.  I couldn’t find a picture of the exact moment he hit the turf but Terry’s face in this image taken a few seconds later pretty much tells the story. To adapt a phrase that basketball announcer Chick Hearn often shouted when his Los Angeles Lakers allowed the other side to score without resistance, Terry’s dive was a sterling example of “matador defense” — sweeping aside his cape to let the bull rush onward toward the goal. Still photography tells one story, but I thought you would enjoy watching the whole play one more time, so here’s where they’ve stashed in on the web.

The opposition

After last week’s home win against Nottingham Forest, Arsenal travel across the capital to the bus stop in Fulham, otherwise known as Stamford Bridge, where the ghost of Roman Abramovich hangs heavy, and I suspect will continue to do so for some time.  This year’s model though is American Todd Boehly who, together with co-owners Clearlake Capital Group, are rumored to be rich enough so that Chelsea should still be able to afford some very expensive players.  Right off the bat, to use either a baseball or a cricket phrase, Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel for no particularly good reason I can see, and brought in Graham Potter to manage but so far Chelsea are doing no better than hovering in the Europa League places.  It’s hard to say if the culture of Abramovich, who seemed to replace his manager every other Monday, is still hanging around too but it will be interesting to make a judgement for ourselves on that score.

This Sunday’s match has a different feel to it than other recent meetings of these two clubs, with Arsenal standing in a better position in the table, and with a younger and might I say, sexier set of players.  As reported by Simon Johnson in The Athletic, “the average age of Arsenal’s squad members who have played in the Premier League this season is 23.8, the lowest figure in the division. Chelsea’s is 26.5, the 11th highest… The youthfulness of Arsenal’s players suggests their emergence as one of the main contenders again isn’t temporary, that they will all get to play together for the long term. This is what Boehly-Clearlake want.”

Chelsea had conceded just twice in seven games (including European matches), having drawn their league games with Brentford and the Red Mancs, and defeated Aston Villa, Wolves and Crystal Palace before conceding four goals in last week’s loss at Brighton that featured two own goals.  Based on that evidence it would appear that Potter was able to tighten up their defence for a spell, but a screw managed to came loose again.  Chelsea conceded to the Seagulls as early as the 5th minute, and as late as second half injury time, but the one that appeared to polish them off may have been their second own goal, conceded damagingly just before halftime.

Chelsea played Champions League football at home on Wednesday, defeating Dinamo Zagreb 2-1, but had already won their group so may not have fully exerted themselves. In any case they will have enjoyed one more day of rest than Arsenal who defeated FC Zurich 1-0 in a match of actual meaning in UEFA’s lesser competition.  Against Zagreb, Chelsea fell behind early when their defence reacted poorly to a cross, and allowed their opponents to score on a close range header. Chelsea equalised when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang backheeled to Raheem Sterling who slotted in.  Chelsea debutant on-loan midfielder Denis Zakaria completed the scoring midway through the first half.  Full-back Ben Chilwell injured his hamstring late in injury time. 

One angle of viewing this game is as a reunion of Arsenal with Aubameyang, their former captain.  “What in the world is he doing at Chelsea” could be the words on the lips of many an Arsenal fan.  Chelsea signed him at the end of the transfer window to increase their goal threat, but Auba already seems to be dropping down in the Chelsea pecking order.  Most of us can attest that he has lost a step, but he also may be Potter’s odd man out as he was signed under the previous manager.  What’s more, we may not get a chance to see him because Auba featured in midweek, and he has started only three of the seven league games since he arrived back in London.  But the wily Mikel was not being fooled in his pre-match press conference: When asked about the threat he still poses aged 33, Arteta didn’t tempt fate when he said: “He’s very dangerous. You know, if Auba’s got something it’s the ability to put the ball in the back of the net and he’s going to be doing that until the day that he decides he’s had enough of football.”

But Arsenal must pay attention to a number of other new faces at the bus stop including left back Marc Cucurella, who was signed for big money from Brighton, and has been a constant in Potter’s team selection.  Potter had re-instated goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who had been thrown onto the scrap heap by Tuchel, but Kepa is currently injured so we can expect to see Edouard Mendy.  Other players on the Chelsea injured list include Ben Chilwell, who hurt his hamstring in midweek, N’golo Kante, Reece James, and newly signed central defender Wesley Fofana.  Chelsea have brought in to their attacking rotation 22 yearold Conor Gallagher and 21 year old Armando Broja, who enjoyed impressive loan spells last season at Crystal Palace and Southampton, respectively.  Both players featured in nearly all of Chelsea’s Champions League games (Gallagher with more minutes than Broja) and each has scored once in the Premier League.  But with both first choice fullbacks missing for Chelsea, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli will be hoping to take advantage down the wings.

The Arsenal

Bukayo Saka was injured early in last week’s win against Nottingham Forest, and as Bathgooner posted in the drinks, the only blemish on Arsenal’s day was how long it took to replace him after he was clearly hurt.   The upshot is that Saka is a doubt to be available to face Chelsea, but he was back in training on Wednesday, and featured as a substitute on Thursday so he seems to be alright.

To repeat TTG’s comment in the drinks after the Forest game, “We have beaten the Chavs on the last two visits to the Bus Stop. Let’s make it a hat-trick.”  And I didn’t get a chance to see Brighton-Chelsea but c100 reported that “Chelsea were woeful” so Arsenal must nip in the bud any improvement of their opponents’ form, and give a statement performance against a big club.

Here’s hoping that Arsenal will repeat their pattern of last week, when they followed a sleepy performance in the Europa League with a five-star bashing of Nottingham Forest in the league.  It would be beyond greedy to predict another 5-0 win but knowing that several players were rested in midweek I think Arsenal should have enough energy to nip the points in an exciting 3-2 victory, which would keep us top of the league.

The match kicks off at noon GMT, making for some awkward pre-game preparations for Gooners in the various time zones but no matter where you are watching, enjoy the game, ‘holics.

The treadmill turns again and exactly 100 hours after the final whistle blew on our 5-0 crushing of Nottingham Forest, we kick off again, this time in the Europa League against FC Zürich from Switzerland.

We need only to match whatever PSV Eindhoven achieve in the Arctic Circle against Bodø/Glimt to ensure finishing top of our group. Apart from the prestige and confidence that being group winners might lend us, that feat would also save us two extra games in the new year by avoiding the play off round of qualification into the round of 16. Group winners go straight into the Round of 16 draw while the 8 second placed teams will play off against the 8 teams who finished 3rd in their Champions League groups. There are likely to be some big names dropping down – Tottenham will not be amongst them after a smash and grab 2-1 win in Marseille against the run of play – and whilst it might be true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall, it seems better to avoid some of them at this juncture.

North Bank Ned wrote an excellent history of FC Zürich in his preview of the reverse fixture a month ago so, if that’s what you’re after, I would refer you to his piece in the archives.

So what of the Swiss? In our Europa League group the men from the mountains are rock bottom with no hope of ‘alp or rescue from this last round of fixtures. They sit seven points behind PSV, with a 2-1 home win against Bodø/Glimt their only source of points, and a further two points behind the Arsenal sitting proudly at the summit. In the Swiss Super League things appear no better as they have been on something of a Swiss roll down the table into tenth place, with six draws and seven losses from their thirteen games played so far. It’s to be hoped there will be no way off that slippery slope for them at the Emirates. The Swiss have so far conceded 15 goals in their five group matches, twice conceding 5 against PSV, so there must be a realistic possibility of an avalanche of strikes for us on Thursday night.

It’s usually so cold in the Swiss Alps that a violinist once noticed that he couldn’t keep his violin in tune, so he asked the conductor of his orchestra to help. “Take it to Opporknockety,” said the conductor. “He is a violin expert.” The violinist packed his things and made the trek to the village where the expert lived. Sure enough, Opporknockety fixed the problem and the violin sounded great. A few years later, the violinist noticed that his instrument was once again failing to stay in tune. The violinist said to his conductor, “I guess I’ll have to take it back to Opporknockety.” “No, you can’t, ” said the conductor,” “Opporknockety only tunes once.”

The teams I looked through the whole Zürich squad list and have to admit that I didn’t recognise a single name. I can’t find any news regarding injuries and suspensions for the Swiss team and, frankly, it would make no difference to me if I could.

On the other hand there is quite a bit of news concerning our own players. Mo Elneny has reportedly posted on Instagram that he is back in training and “ready to fight”. Oleksandr Zinchenko could also make a return – it’s hard to imagine a softer game for him to test his fitness and he is reportedly back in full training. Maybe Mikel Arteta could minimise the risk to those two by giving them 45 minutes each. Someone is going to have to fill the gap left by the absence of our Mr. Everpresent, Granit Xhaka, who will be serving a one match ban following his yellow card against PSV last week.

There doesn’t seem to be any solid information on Marquinhos, in which case Gabriel Martinelli may have to continue – a pity with Chelsea coming up on Sunday lunchtime. It seems unlikely that the manager would risk Gabriel Jesus but on the other hand – there’s always another hand in football management – a couple of nice easy goals would do his confidence the world of good. Reissue Nelson looks bound to continue after a fine performance on Sunday and will look to carry on slaloming his way past the defenders on our right wing. Matt Turner is given a chance of returning too, following his groin injury.

Bonus news for Gooners today is that Bakayo Saka suffered only bruising to his foot and ankle, and is already back in training.

And so my stab at a stronger line-up than would have been ideal right now is –

Turner

Tomiyasu — Holding — Gabriel — Tierney

Vieira — Lakonga — Zinchenko

Nelson — Nketiah — Martinelli

Subs most likely to be used – Elneny, Jesus, Marquinhos (if fit), Cedric (if it’s comfortable)

The Holic Pound

The odds are unsurprisingly heavily stacked in our favour for this game – typically at around 4/23 or 1/6 on an Arsenal win, around 43/5 or 9/1 against a draw, and 20/1 against a Zürich victory.

Kick off is on Thursday 3rd November at 20.00hrs UK time. Coverage on BT Sport.