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The Palace Poser: Are We In It To Win It?

Dec 17th, 2024 by

And so to the Stadium of Stone for a quarter-final encounter with Crystal Palace in the current iteration of the Milk/Littlewoods/Rumbelows/Coca-Cola/Worthington/Carling/Capital One/Carabao Cup.

A league cup tie with Palace with a league game to come a few days later? It must be 1970. 

On October 28th that year, we drew 0-0 at Selhurst Park in the Round of Sixteen in what was our fourth-ever game against Palace (they had only been promoted to the old First Division for the first time the previous season and the only other fixture had been an FA Cup tie in 1934). However, we lost the replay 2-0 at Highbury on November 9th, a shock made the worse as it was our first home defeat in 22 games. Five days later, we drew 1-1 in the league at Highbury.

Venerable ‘holics may have been at some or all of those games more than half a century ago. By most accounts, the League Cup loss was the most frustrating because we dominated the game but could not find a goal (does this sound familiar?). Palace had a half-chance and a dodgy penalty. They scored both. 

Gerry Queen, a Glaswegian of modest playing achievement in his homeland and England but who subsequently found success coaching in the southern United States, converted the half chance, a tap-in after Bob Wilson had made a fine save from Jim Scott. The penalty came after Queen clattered Wilson for the nth time. There were some handbags involving John Roberts, for which referee Norman Burtenshaw chose to penalise the Welshman and ignore the initial foul on Wilson (plus ça change!). Bobby Tambling stuck home the spot kick.

‘Arsenal ran themselves to the edge of exhaustion in a bid to break down the Palace defence,’ wrote Norman Giller in the Daily Express. ‘But their scoring chances disappeared in a maze of their own making.’ 

The league game was wash, rinse, repeat. Raddy scored after 16 minutes. Palace got a smash-and-grab equaliser almost immediately. They then held out for the draw despite our constant pressure. ‘It wasn’t Arsenal’s day,’ wrote Danny Blanchflower in the Sunday Express uncharacteristically prosaically. This is all starting to sound horribly contemporary. 

In those days, Palace wore claret shirts with thin, blue vertical stripes and white shorts and were nicknamed ‘The Glaziers’. The following season, they switched to an Ajax-like all-white strip with a broad stripe down the middle of the shirt, but in Palace’s case, the stripe was half blue and half red. Since you ask, Ajax’s design came about when the club was first promoted to the Dutch top flight. The league had a rule that no two clubs could have the same strip, so Ajax had to find an alternative to their red and white stripes.

Palace’s sartorial Dutch dalliance would be short-lived. With the arrival of the colourful, fedora-wearing, cigar-chomping Big Mal Allison as manager in 1973, they changed strip again to red and blue stripes with blue shorts. They also became The Eagles (not the Hotel California kind, obviously).

The opposition

This is Palace’s twelfth consecutive season in the Premier League, never finishing higher than tenth (last season and 2014-15) or lower than 15th (2015-16), coincidentally the position they now occupy.

Oliver Glasner replaced Woy in the Palace dugout in February. Hodgson had been drafted in for a second stint in charge after Palace sacked our very own Paddy Vieira, who had succeeded Woy at the end of his first stint. The Austrian arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt (also nicknamed the Eagles, as it happens) and justified his reputation for revitalising struggling sides. Six wins in their final seven games took Palace to their best-ever Premier League points haul.

This season has been more arduous going. Glasner’s switch to a back three from Hodgson’s favoured back four has been hampered by injuries and a disciplinary freezing out of Capitola Rob, who now trains with the Under-21s. However, he might struggle to break into a back line of Marc Guehi, Trevor Chalobah and Maxence Lacroix, a summer arrival from Wolfsburg. 

They line up in front of Dean Henderson, preferred to another of our old boys, Matt Turner. Starlet DM Adam Wharton may be back after a groin problem, while Cheick Doucoure has also been working his way back from injury. Tyrick Mitchell, Jefferson Lerma, Will Hughes and Colombian international Daniel Munoz have been manning the midfield in their absence. However, Munoz misses this match because of suspension. Nathaniel Clyne or Jeffrey Schlupp will replace him.

The stardust in Glasner’s preferred  3-4-2-1 is in attack: Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Phiippe Mateta. The late blossoming Frenchman is the top scorer this season with four, despite platooning with another of our old boys, Eddie Nketiah, who is also working his way back from injury.

I expect Glasner to play as strong a side as he has available. The League Cup may be Palace’s best chance of silverware this season. They have beaten Norwich, QPR and Villa so far. In the last round at Villa Park, Glasner fielded a full-strength team against a Villa side that was also pretty near full-strength. Goals from Eze and Japanese international midfielder Daichi Kamada, who had played for Glasner at Frankfurt, put Palace into the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-12 season. Although Villa dominated possession, Palace comfortably contained them, wherein lies a warning for us.

Palace’s weekend victory at Brighton means they have lost only once in their past eight league matches. They are starting to climb clear of the relegation zone as their injury list clears. That will boost their confidence for Wednesday evening.

The Arsenal

Arteta has a selection dilemma. He needs to revitalise a team that spent 90 minutes on Saturday banging its head against the brick wall that is a Sean Dyche defence. Given the attacking talent at their disposal, I don’t expect Palace to be as defensively obdurate, but I do expect them to play a counter-attacking game. At the same time, Arteta needs to rest and rotate ahead of the helter-skelter of league fixtures over the holiday period, when we cannot afford to drop more points.

I write this before getting Arteta’s pre-match injury update, but I assume neither Zinchenko nor Calafirori will be fit enough to start. Regardless of whether Rice is or not, resting him seems essential. We won’t win anything if he cannot last more than 60 minutes in games. 

If the past is prologue, Arteta will load the team with the lesser played and stack the bench with thoroughbreds in case the cavalry is needed late on. Nonetheless, Palace’s attacking prowess probably predicates a strong defence. Neither Saliba nor Gabriel will be rested unless injury necessitates it. Kiwior would then come in. Of the youngsters, Josh Nichols, Josh Robinson, Ayden Heaven and Zane Monlouis played for the U-21s in Sunderland on Monday, suggesting they won’t be involved against Palace. Setford, who will be needed as Neto is cup-tied, didn’t travel north. Thus:

Setford

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel/Kiwior, MLS

Nwaneri, Jorghino, Merino

Sterling, Jesus, Trossard.

In other circumstances, playing a predominantly second string and bowing out of the competition ahead of a busy holiday run of games would not be the worst outcome. That said, we could use a win. No team wants to get into a rut of not winning. Plus, a win brings a semi-final, and the opportunity for silverware draws closer. Winning something, even the League Cup, would do this team a power of good.

I’d be happy to scrape through 2-1. Unlike in 1970, there will be no replay; if the scores are level after 90 minutes, it will be straight to penalties.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.

Posted in Match Preview | 34 Drinks »

We Huffed and We Puffed, But We Blew Nothing Down

Dec 14th, 2024 by

Pre-match optimism was boosted by the news that Gabriel was fit enough to start and that MLS had been rewarded for his superb performance against Monaco with another start. Thus, arguably barring Calafiori who remains crocked, Mikel Arteta was able to select his strongest starting XI with the midfield that he implied yesterday he has wanted to start all season:

Raya

Timber Saliba Gabriel Lewis-Skelly

Ødegaard Rice Merino

Saka Havertz Martinelli

In the first minutes of the game Everton had their first and practically their last attempt on goal which was aborted by a superb block by Gabriel as Doucoure was about to shoot. The rest of the half followed a familiar pattern. Ten Arsenal players were persistently camped in the Everton half with Saliba playing ‘sweeper’ in the centre circle and he elegantly hoovered up all Everton’s occasional punts towards Calvert-Lewin. Meanwhile MLS played across the midfield, confidently receiving and redistributing the ball under pressure, playing a couple of lovely balls in behind for Martinelli, even popping up in the ‘inside right’ position occasionally and memorably producing the worst foul throw I’ve seen in a very long time.

Our attacking efforts largely consisted of balls wide to Saka and Ødegaard on the right or to Martinelli and Merino on the left. Most efforts came to nought through failing to beat the double team facing them, misdirecting the cross into the hands of Pickford or onto the heads or feet of Everton’s massed ranks or being forced to recycle the ball. The familiar arc d’ennui was the predominant feature of the half.

However there were some brief moments of hope with Ødegaard to the fore. First, he fired a cross from Merino over the bar, later skipping across the front of the defence, he found a gap and fired a shot past Pickford’s left post, then, after Saka had danced past two defenders on the right and cut the ball back beautifully to the penalty spot, he shot at goal only for Pickford to pull off a fine save. As the half drew to a close a nice ball from Havertz found Martinelli darting behind the defensive line but his shot from a tight angle was blocked by Pickford.

Half Time: Arsenal 0 Everton 0

Arsenal started the second half as if they really meant business. A cross from Ødegaard was nodded down by Merino (probably via his or a defender’s shoulder) to Saka at the edge of the six-yard box whose firm low shot was unfortunately deflected wide by Pickford. From the resulting corner, Saliba, unmarked, met the cross with a powerful header that sadly went straight to Pickford.

We continued to camp in Everton’s half, their attempts to get out remained derisory and I don’t think Raya had a save to make all game. His most strenuous effort was to prevent a deflected long distance shot going out for a corner so that he could launch another attack as the clock ran down while Everton made a late attempt to get something more from the game with a surge forward in its dying embers. No doubt, this late surge was Dyche’s fiendish strategy against a team that had played a challenging game three days earlier whilst his muppets were relaxing on their couches for a week. Everton came for a point, showed no greater ambition until the end, spent much of the game time wasting from the very beginning and demonstrated that execrable combination of muscular over strenuous challenges and acute vestibular instability whenever they were themselves challenged.

Our contribution to the second half was more of what we had seen in the first. There was some nice interplay at the edge of the box that almost set Havertz free in front of goal but the ball seemed to stick under his feet and was cleared. There were multiple mishit crosses that flew over heads and a few blocked shots but the Everton defence stood firm.

On 60 minutes, Jorginho replaced Rice and Nwaneri surprisingly replaced Ødegaard. In his post match presser Arteta said that Rice had felt something and the latter was to change the rhythm of the game. Apart from an exciting crossfield run by Nwaneri, neither substitute improved our end product. Shortly thereafter Jesùs replaced Merino with Havertz drifting into his position, Partey replaced Lewis-Skelly, moving to right back with Timber switching to the left and Trossard replaced Martinelli. None of these changes added significantly to proceedings.

There were a few more ‘stramashes’ (copyright of the legendary Arthur Montford, sometime Rector of Glasgow University, no less) in the Everton box but it increasingly looked as if we could have played another three hours and still not got the ball into the Everton net. We tried very hard but Everton stood firm and we must, between gritted teeth, give credit to their defensive coach for their organisation and their 11 men behind the ball for delivering their point.

The massive positive from this game was that we did not, as often in the past, get suckered by a break away goal. Saliba in particular, as Gabriel was often in the ‘inside left’ position contributing to the attack, was masterful at hoovering up Everton’s long balls, regularly beating a runner with a feint and turning to initiate another attack. The other positives were another good performance by MLS (bar that throw!) and our determination to keep attacking right to the end.

The negatives were clearly our failure to score, a generally ponderous build-up with pedestrian rather than swift movement of the ball and the tendency of both wingers, but especially Martinelli, to slow down on receipt of the ball so as to engage in a set piece dribble with a facing defender (or two) allowing the whole Everton defence to get organised. Whether the latter was the cause of the former, I am not qualified to judge.

Do we need to buy in January? I would say so. While our bench looked strong, there was no-one there capable of changing the pattern of the game and I would agree with Mike McDonald’s midweek piece, that if we want to win this league this season, we need to act in January and bring in either an established striker and/or a fleet-footed winger who can also play through the middle. Easier said, of course, than done.

In summary, a gold star for effort but no cigar.

Onwards, gentlemen!

Posted in Match Report | 27 Drinks »

Arsenal Face ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Contest with Relegation-Threatened Everton 

Dec 13th, 2024 by

The Whackable Opposition

After 14 games played, Everton, the Gunners’ Saturday midafternoon opponents at the Emirates, occupy 15th in the league table with 14 points, having played one game fewer than their nearest rivals.  The bad news for the Toffees is that their game in hand is against Liverpool after last Saturday’s scheduled ultimate league Merseyside derby at Goodison Park was postponed due to bad weather.  But in their last ten league matches Everton have lost only twice, by 0-1 at Southampton and 0-4 at Manchester United.  In that stretch Everton won three games, defeating Ipswich, Crystal Palace and Wolves; but stabilized the ship a bit by drawing five times after losing their first four league matches to Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Tottenham and Brighton.

Everton have flirted dangerously close to relegation for the last few seasons at a time in their history when they no doubt would have hoped for much better results.  The club has been building a new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock on the Liverpool waterfront which is planned to become the heart of the area’s redevelopment.  Once the stadium opens next year, it will be the eighth largest stadium in England, a host venue for the 2028 Euros, and, as Everton must hope, their new Premier League home assuming they haven’t been relegated in the meantime.  Toffees team news ahead of Saturday’s postponed match was that Sean Dyche, their manager whose features bear an uncanny resemblance to the scurrying rodent pictured above, had no fresh injury concerns.

Arsenal XI

After Wednesday’s 3-0 Champions League clean sheet victory against Monaco, Mikel Arteta is likely to pick a similar team while attempting to ensure that the team has fresh legs, and that the makeshift back four maintains a modicum of continuity, so Trossard for Martinelli on the left and Timber for Lewis-Skelly at fullback are the most straightforward of any changes he is likely to make.  I’m predicting that Arteta will pick a team resembling this one:

Raya

Partey  Saliba  Kiwior  Timber

Ødegaard  Rice  Merino

Saka  Havertz  Trossard

In his post-Monaco press comments, Mikel Arteta was pleased that his squad rotation, including four changes from last Sunday’s draw at Fulham where Jorginho started in midfield, was repaid with some big performances. El jefe said he was “very happy – it’s always very difficult to win in the Champions League… 3-0 and a clean sheet puts us in a really good position in the group. I’m really pleased as well to see some players that haven’t played that much – Myles (Lewis-Skelly) coming in and having his debut in the Champions League at 18 years old and performing the way he did, it was great… He played with a lot of personality, a lot of courage and competed really well in the game.”

If Lewis-Skelly or Nwaneri make another appearance against the Toffees it would be great but I expect that we will be more likely to see them appear off the bench in the second half.  Another youngster who had a big game on Wednesday was usual suspect Bukayo Saka who notched two goals and an assist to boost him to 21 goal involvements this season.  Seeing as how the team has struggled to score from open play this season, Saka’s attacking threat has been the team’s biggest weapon.  Based on my detailed analysis of our recent games, I’m backing the Gunners to win this one by 2-0 or better with one goal scored by our Star Boy from open play, and another one scored by one of our defenders on a corner kick.

Wherever you are watching the match, ‘holics, have a good one and if the opportunity arises, be sure that you effectively whack any moles that appear in your vicinity.

Posted in Match Preview | 35 Drinks »

Arsenal Show Their Squad Strength as They Go Up to Third in the Rankings

Dec 12th, 2024 by

Arsenal ultimately eased past Monaco with a 3-0 victory in a game where they gave an uneven performance but also showed the strength of their squad. Monaco were one place behind us at the start of the game. We began the game with four changes from Fulham on Sunday. Miles Lewis Skelly came in (to great effect) at left back. Jesùs, C100’s favourite player, led the attack with Saka and Martinelli wide.

Monaco began the game confidently going forward but at the same time looked extraordinarily brittle in defence and Arsenal opened them up at will in the first period. Jesus was set up twice (once by a quite stunning through ball from Kiwior) and saw the goalkeeper block both efforts. Ødegaard curled a shot wide of the left post and then later in the half took the ball unopposed from the halfway line only to slide the ball wide of the right post. Martinelli missed a very decent chance while flagged offside (he wasn’t) but we went to half-time ahead because of a beautifully worked move in the 34th minute.

A flowing move across the pitch saw the ball switched left to Lewis Skelly. He turned out of a strong challenge and threaded the ball beautifully to Jesùs who slid an excellent ball across the 6-yard box to Saka who passed it in at the far post with his right foot. 

Arsenal 1 Monaco 0 – Saka, 34 

We went to the interval in the lead on merit but the feeling in the ground was that we had been incredibly profligate in front of goal. We were also the beneficiaries of a piece of lenient officiating  from the Italian referee who declined to give Martinelli a second yellow for an ill-judged trip when he was already on a yellow just before half-time. A PGMOL referee would  almost certainly have punished the offence with a second yellow.

Half-time Arsenal 1 Monaco 0 

It was noticeable tonight that the two overriding observations about Arsenal this season did not hold true. We were more creative on our left side than our right, playing a lot more down the left especially in the second half when Saka was isolated in a small segment in the right side trying to take down long passes from Raya under pressure with little space to work in. 

We also had very little set piece activity (I can only recall two corners) and it was interesting that when we took the kicks Monaco kept several players upfield thus diluting our numbers in the box. Just before our second corner, Arteta called over Jorginho and it looked as if he wanted Arsenal to flood the box but Jorginho could not get the defenders to venture forward! 

The second half was more of a struggle and the first part was rather scrappy. Monaco missed a decent headed chance and Embolo then smashed a very presentable chance wide. Arteta then made some key changes at 63 minutes, bringing on Trossard, Jorginho (for Rice who was excellent in an understated way), Timber for the hugely promising MLS and eventually Jesùs was replaced by Havertz. To me the game changed from that moment. Havertz provided us with a skilful mobile platform upfront, dropping into midfield to great effect. Eventually he forced the vital second goal which we needed having soaked up quite a lot of pressure from the Monegasques.

Monaco over-elaborated in their own box putting the keeper under huge pressure. Majecki was closed down by Havertz at incredible speed and the ball fell to Saka who turned it home. 

Arsenal 2 Monaco 0 – Saka 78 

Saka returned the compliment with two minutes to go turning the ball in from the right for Havertz to finish at the near post (though UEFA have now declared it an O.G.).

Arsenal 3 Monaco 0 – Havertz 88

Saka is a remarkably efficient player. This was far from his peak performance but he still scored two goals and laid on an assist. He is an incredibly productive asset and a very precious part of this Arsenal team – as if we didn’t know this already!

So, what conclusions might we draw from the match and our progression through the group stage so far? This was a shadow defence although Saliba and Kiwior were solid and decisive apart from one piece of early hesitancy from the Pole. Partey was extremely erratic with his distribution – an odd trait in a full back who normally strives to look after the ball so well in midfield. I was impressed by Merino but Jesùs, Martinelli and even Ødegaard are showing signs of fatal under-confidence in front of goal. 

We looked a much better team with Havertz upfront and his flexibility and intelligence underscore Mike McDonald’s contention that he can co-exist with a top striker (who he believes should be Gyokeres) in a more potent attacking line-up. It is worth noting that a slick finish by Sturm Graz was provided yesterday by Mika Biereth formerly of this parish who Edu sold  for £4million in the summer. He looks a much more dangerous striker than Jesùs. We have a super and flexible attacking unit but we need more killer instinct. Our first half profligacy could have cost us dear. However, as it now stands we have an excellent chance of finishing in the top 8. 

Posted in Match Report | 26 Drinks »

Voulez Vous Chanter Avec Moi, Ce Soir?

Dec 10th, 2024 by

Wednesday evening sees Arsenal at home to AS Monaco for the sixth game of this season’s Champions League.

Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco, is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation and they have their training facility in la Turbie in France. AS Monaco FC was founded on 1 August 1920 as a unification of numerous local clubs based in France and the principality. Then, the multiple sports club of the Association Sportive de Monaco was founded on 23rd August 1924. AS Monaco FC was then absorbed by the latter and became the football section of the enlarged Monegasque sporting club. 

During its history AS Monaco has developed a bit of a habit of firing and losing managers only to recall them to try to rediscover better but maybe unappreciated earlier times. The history is complicated so what follows is a very potted version of it.

The club spent its early years between the amateur and lower professional French leagues before enjoying its first period of top flight success in the early 1960s when coach Lucien Leduc led the club to its first professional trophy, the Coupe de France. In the following year they won the French Championship for the first time in their history and qualified for the European Cup. The same coach led the club to its first League and Cup Double in 1963 after which he departed and Monaco spent the next decade or so alternating between the first and second divisions. 

Leduc returned in 1977 winning them immediate promotion back to the first division and the French Championship the following year. The 80s saw a steady stream of trophies before the next barren spell held through the 90s until the arrival of one Arsene Wenger who won them the title in his first season (in 1988).

Wenger’s reign saw the club enjoy one of its most successful periods, with signings like George Weah, Glenn Hoddle, Jürgen Klinsmann, and Youri Djorkaeff. Youth team policies produced future World Cup winners Emmanuel Petit, Lilian Thuram and Thierry Henry. It all sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? Wenger established Monaco as one of the top three clubs in French football as they won a Coupe de France and reached the final of the 1992 European Cup Winners Cup and the semi-finals of the 1994 Champions League.

Despite his success, things did not end pleasantly for Arsene at Monaco. It emerged that Marseille had been involved in match fixing, as Wenger had long suspected, and the Monaco board blocked him from discussing the vacant manager’s job at Bayern Munich and so, in 1994, he left.

Monaco went on to record two further league championships under Jean Tigana in 1997 and Claude Puel in 2000. However, the club had got itself into a financial mess and in 2003 they were relegated to Ligue 2 by the French Professional League for amassing a €50 million debt. So there’s hope yet that Man City are about to suffer the same fate.

They did achieve success again in the 2000s but amidst a certain amount of turmoil and many changes of manager. The current version of AS Monaco was “reborn”, as they refer to it, in 2011 when 66% of the club was purchased by Russian oligarch and billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, becoming one of Europe’s biggest spenders on players like Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez. Like us, they have never won the Champions League but they did beat us in the Round of 16 in the 2013-14 season. Didier Deschamps, Philipe Clement, Claudio Ranieri and even Thierry Henry – briefly in 2018 – have featured, among others, as managers in their very up and down history. The current incumbent is former Bundesliga coach Adi Hütter who was appointed in July 2023 and guided them to a runner-up finish in his first season.

After the weekend’s matches when they beat Toulouse by 2- 0 – not a huge score but it’s better to win than ‘Toulouse’ – AS Monaco sit second in Ligue 1 and are one place behind us in the ever changing Champions League table. Their Champions League results have been a mixed bag, actually beating Barcelona away from home and a name I assume from the badge that translates to Red Star (Belgrade) but losing some others which were probably easier on paper. But as we know ……..A face you might recognise – or not, maybe – in their squad is Folarin Balogun who left Arsenal for Monaco in August 2023 for a fee of €40 million. He felt he deserved a starting place for Arsenal having achieved nothing at the highest level, although in his own mind he appeared to have already won the Balogun D’Or. His availability is uncertain as he is still troubled by a shoulder injury incurred earlier in the season.

The Arsenal
During the years of the Wenger – Ferguson rivalry I used to dream of Man Utd descending into the mess that they have now become. We have just beaten them for the fourth time in succession but the media continue to snipe. We won with two goals from a seemingly unstoppable corner routine after their defensive low block left no space to play through in the first half. Did we over celebrate – were we arrogant and under celebrated – did the manager get too excited and run on the pitch? No, none of those. We are apparently just Stoke, a team of six foot plus giants who can only bully teams at set pieces.

Arteta’s reaction? To paraphrase slightly, “Good ! I’m happy to be compared with them doing that because they were very good at it. We want to be the kings of everything! Beautiful goals. Scrappy goals. Flowing goals. Quick breaks, long slow breaks. Set pieces. Best crowd, best atmosphere. Best coaches. Everything.”

What an answer ! Not an answer inviting derision like “we ARE the kings of everything “ but “we WANT TO BE”, and who doesn’t want that for their club? The club are seemingly trying to help to build the atmosphere in the stadium by fading the music to North London Forever to encourage the crowd to sing up on their own, so let’s have a massive rendition of Louis Dunford’s anthem to drown out the Edith Piafftts, Charles Aznovoices and Lady Marmalades in the away section.

The team Last December Mikel Arteta took the squad to Dubai for some winter sun and training that turned out to be transformative for the team’s form. This season there is no time for such a break but the players will be taking a break from travelling at least. In fact, between returning from Lisbon at the end of November and visiting Wolves in late January, the team will have travelled fewer than 200 miles for 14 fixtures. Hopefully that will give us a bit of advantage over our title rivals who all have far greater distances to cover over the same period including, for Chelsea, an eight hour flight across five time zones to the south-eastern corner of Kazakhstan.

As we seem to be picking up injuries to defenders on a weekly basis the back half of the team is hard to predict but we will hopefully see the return of Gabriel and Calafiori. Saka seems undroppable and Ødegaard appeared to be okay despite his early withdrawal on Sunday, so: 

Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Partey, Odegaard, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli. 

The Holic pound
Paddy Power are offering odds of 1/4 Arsenal win; 9/2 the draw; 9/1 Monaco win. More enticing maybe is a 2-0 Arsenal win at 5/1 or a 3-0 win at 7/1.

Kick off is at 20.00 UK time with TV coverage on TNT. I will leave you with very best wishes for a successful, enjoyable Wednesday evening and a Monaco kiss. That’s similar to a French kiss but a bit further south. 😉

Posted in Match Preview | 64 Drinks »

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