Feed on
Posts
Comments

The Rise of the Villans

Dec 8th, 2023 by

Arsenal travel North and West from London to the heart of Birmingham to meet Aston Villa for a Saturday early evening kickoff at Villa Park. If you weren’t aware, Arsenal top the Premier League table, having won four of our last 5 (the slip at Newcastle being our last reverse) in the League, and 9 of our last 10 games overall. We sit four points clear of our opponents, making this one of our two most important fixtures before we usher in 2024.

Villa are, perhaps, a surprise member of the top four, two points ahead of the Al-Citeh Oilers and two behind Liverpool’s mugsmashers (™Arseblog). Having dispatched the Oilers with a fine attacking display in this round of midweek games (outshooting them 22 to 2 in their 1-0 victory), they will be coming home flying confidently, unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League games following their 0-3 defeat at Anfield in early September. They carry a 14-game home winning streak into the match, having last been beaten at home in the league by…Arsenal, in February of this year. That was the game with the delicious Emi Martinez own goal from a Jorginho thunderbolt, then the Martinelli goal into the empty net after Emi came forward (some say against his manager’s wishes) for a Villa corner. Finally, they carry into the game the third best record for the year 2023, behind Al-Citeh and Arsenal.

Martinez is not the only person who will be on the pitch, or aside it, who will feel keenly that beating Arsenal will show something they have had to prove. This will be only the fourth game in which Unai Emery, Villa’s thus far successful manager, has met his opposite number and erstwhile successor (not to discount Freddie’s tenure). They have split honors even across the three games, and Emery will be keen to bring his Villans to even higher heights with a victory that will bring them closer to the top of the table. Our Mikel will seek to disrupt those plans, in hopes that Arsenal will not only remain top of the table, but (depending upon other results) perhaps extend our lead. Of course, he will be doing this from the Director’s box, having been absurdly given his third yellow card of the season by the local representative of the Celebration Police after Rice Rice Baby’s game-winning header in the 97th minute at Kenilworth Park on Tuesday.

Aston Villa

Villa will arrive home having a day’s less rest than Arsenal, and carrying three long-term injuries (Buendia, Mings, and Traore). Otherwise Emery has every one fit and can start his usual 4-4-2, with leading scorer Watkins paired with Zaniolo up front, a midfield of McGinn, Luiz, Tielemans, and Bailey, ahead of a defense made up of Digne and Konsa at the corners, with Torres and Carlos in the middle ahead of the aforementioned Emi. They tend to play a high line as a result of pushing up one or the other of their fullbacks into midfield, and hopefully that’s something we can exploit with our one-touch play. They score goals, but they also give them up; we’ve scored one less than they have in the League, but our fine defense has let in five fewer.

The Arsenal

We come to the game missing yet another defender to injury; Tomiyasu did his calf and is now out into January. We’re light in midfield, given Vieira and ESR’s absences, and in spite of how well Rice is playing wouldn’t it be nice to have a Partey holding the line ahead of the defense. And as for goalkeeper, I have to believe Raya will get the nod, even though I think it continues the injustice being done to Ramsdale. But Mikel is in a pickel: select Raya, who certainly didn’t have a confidence-building game at Luton Tuesday, or Ramsdale, whose game at Brentford was less than stellar for a half, and whose confidence has been shaken to bits by being benched in such a manner?

I expect we’ll line up like so:

Raya

White — Saliba — Gabriel — Zinchenko

Ødegaard — Rice — Havertz

Saka — Jesús — Martinelli

One adjustment I could see to this is Trossard for Havertz, but given the big German’s three goals from his last four I imagine he’ll get the start. Trossard coming in and running late at a tired Villa defense is enough to bring the glimmer of joy to my jaded heart. I could also see starting with Kiwior again, in hopes we can secure the game then bring on Zinchenko as at Luton to keep on the pressure and mop up with control.

The Holic Pound

There’s not too much there until you get up to Arsenal 3-0 Villa, which can be had at 20s. If you believe Luton’s successes could be a model for Villa to follow, Arsenal 3-2 Villa should be available at 25/1.

Good luck to the travelling faithful making their way up to Birmingham on Saturday, I expect to hear your voices all the way here in California. Let’s do this! COYG!

Posted in Match Preview | 61 Drinks »

Rice pops up with a crispy

Dec 6th, 2023 by

The first snow of the season made conditions a tad treacherous in these parts so a few hours before the game I was unsure whether to drive across the river to watch Luton v Arsenal at the pub, or stay home to watch. When I got behind schedule playing with my dog in the snow I ended up staying home, thankfully as it turned out because this game was so chaotic I didn’t need additional distractions to be able to describe it coherently. Arsenal’s starting XI differed from North Bank Ned’s predicted team at left back where Kiwior took the place of Zinchenko and at striker where Jesús was selected rather than Nketiah, but it contained two additional changes compared to Saturday’s team against Wolves, namely White and Havertz in for Tomiyasu and Trossard:

Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior
Ødegaard, Rice, Havertz
Saka, Jesús, Martinelli

The referee, Samuel Barrott, had never refereed an Arsenal game before this one.  Luton’s team included four changes from Saturday’s team that lost at Brentford, as follows: Kaminski, Mengi, Osho, Bell, Kaboré, Mpanzu, Barkley, Doughty, Brown, Townsend, Adebayo. The old-timey atmosphere of Kenilworth Road came into play in the tunnel before the game, where there appeared to be just about enough head room preventing the players from the need to squat to avoid grazing their heads on the ceiling, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the taller ones grazed a hair or two.

After four minutes of constant Arsenal possession the first incident of note occurred when Martinelli went down with a back injury after he was pushed by a Luton defender.  On nine minutes Saka suffered a similar painful reducer of a foul on the right wing.  Gabriel was the next Arsenal player to be on the end of a poor foul on 16 minutes, in what was shaping up to be a disjointed and formless first twenty minutes.  But just then a poor back pass forced the Luton keeper to put the ball out for a quick throw by Jesús to Saka, our 22 year old who was making his 200th Arsenal appearance at such a young age. He passed to Martinelli who swept it inside the left post for Luton 0 – Arsenal 1.

Jesús sent a right footed effort straight at the keeper from a Havertz pass after the German controlled a high ball near the top of the box, but Luton broke quickly and won a corner on 25 minutes. The left footed inswinger was headed into the net by the unmarked Osho who had never before scored in the Premier League as the Arsenal defense stood flat-footed.  Luton 1 – Arsenal 1. How Arsenal had allowed Luton back into the game so quickly and with such little fuss did occur to me, but worse defending was yet to come. The fans went crazy at this point, and the Luton players visibly raised their game putting pressure on Arsenal in their own half.

Arsenal countered as Martinelli’s quick left footed shot drew a save from the keeper at the near post, after the Brazilian was fed by his countryman Jesús. Two minutes later Jesús fizzed a near post shot that was pushed out for a corner that Arsenal squandered. A long diagonal ball by Rice to Saka led to Bukayo’s left footed drive that the keeper pushed out for another corner that came to nought as Luton capably handled the high ball.

On 43 minutes Barkley picked up a yellow card for his foul on Martinelli, one minute before a lovely 1-2-3 by Saka-White-Jesús led to the latter’s powerful header that made it Luton 1 – Arsenal 2.  White’s lofted cross was the kind of ball strikers must imagine in their dreams, and Jesús didn’t disappoint with the finish.  Jesús picked up a yellow card a minute later, but the half ended after five minutes of extra time.

Halftime: Luton 1 – Arsenal 2

The second half began with no personnel changes on either side. Luton won a corner on 48 minutes, and Adebayo outjumped Raya to score a header from another left footed inswinger.  Luton 2 – Arsenal 2. Raya was too slow to the ball to be sure, but where was the Arsenal defense and why were loose players allowed to go unchallenged so close to the Arsenal goal? It looks like the players should look forward to a few long hours on the training ground to work on defending corners.

A penalty shout for an edge-of-the-box challenge by Townsend on Kiwior was waved away before Barkley and Townsend exchanged passes in the Arsenal half and Barkley sent a fierce drive under the helpless Raya, who was unable to stop a shot to the center of the goal. Luton 3 – Arsenal 2. Just a few moments later in this crazy back-and-forth game, Havertz levelled for Arsenal after a drop-off from Jesús who had controlled a high ball on the left.  Luton 3 – Arsenal 3.

Arteta sent on Zinchenko to replace Kiwior and Trossard to replace Martinelli. In the remainder of the second half Zinchenko’s ball control skills seemed to lend the Arsenal midfield a bit more control of proceedings but the changes seemed to do little to increasing the team’s goal threat.

Arsenal won a series of second half corners but were unable to manufacture many decent chances against the packed Luton defense. A decent penalty shout for a foul on Saka was denied, as was an obvious shirt pull on Gabriel in the box moments before. Trossard set up Havertz for a header in the 86th minute but the German couldn’t direct it with enough power and the keeper tipped it over.  Trossard sent a drive wide from the resulting corner as the seconds counted down.

Just when it looked like Arsenal might have used up all their tricks, Zinchenko passed back to Ødegaard who sent a ball into the box where it was met by Rice who headed it into corner of the net for Luton 3 – Arsenal 4, which is how the game ended seconds later. It was not a scenario that anyone could have predicted, or a performance that felt like the way Arsenal should have handled a relegation candidate, but a come-from-behind three points on the road is always a good thing.  When your goalkeeper gives up two dodgy goals, as Raya did, to be able to come back from such adversity tells me the team has great personality, and it should put them in good stead for the bigger challenges to follow. There is bound to be an even louder call for the reinstatement of Ramsdale after Raya’s pair of howlers, and Mikel Arteta was asked about the implications of Raya’s errors in his post-match presser.  Quite rightly, he completely ignored the question, saying instead “I am so happy for the team.”  Taking a cue from the gaffer, all I can add is that those three points must give the whole team a huge lift as they head back to the training ground to prepare for Aston Villa away on Saturday.

Posted in Match Report | 31 Drinks »

No time for cock-ups at the Keny

Dec 4th, 2023 by

And so rapidly to Kenilworth Road, Luton, for a Tuesday evening game under the lights. We shall be looking to avoid back-to-back defeats there for the first time since 1958 and searching for our first win at ‘the Keny’ after six draws and four defeats since February 1986. 

The two teams last met in the BPE (Before the Premiership Era). On Boxing Day 1991, Mick Harford, Luton’s sometime manager and now chief recruitment officer, beat David Seaman 10 mins from time to give the hosts, then at the foot of the old 22-club First Division, a 1-0 win. 

Luton would clamber to the giddy heights of 20th but come up two points short of securing a place in the inaugural Premier League the following season. Thus, the Hatters ended ten seasons in the top flight, which included winning the League Cup in 1988, its sole major honour. I won’t need to remind anyone here whom they beat or how.

A river runs through it 

Lygetun (likely pronounced Lewg’tun) is one of the earliest known transcriptions of the town’s name. Old English recorded in the 9th century, it means ‘a village by the River Lea’, which rises as Chilterns’ chalk streams in modern-day Luton’s outskirts. Its roots are more likely Brythonic than Anglo-Saxon. The Saxons often adopted Celtic toponyms with religious connections. Scholars think the river’s name derives from the Celtic god, Lugus, sometimes depicted as three-faced and three-phallused.

Lugus was sacred to shoemakers and not, surprisingly, multitasking lotharios. Nonetheless, he got about a bit. He also gave his name to Lyon — a contraction of the Gaulish Lugudunon — and many other places in Europe where Celts once ruled, including Carlisle, known to Britons as Luguwalion. Some authorities speculate that Irish leprechauns also derive their name from Lugus. Are those three shillelaghs, or are you just pleased to see us?

But we digress.

The Domesday Book records the place as Loitone, and by the time the football club was founded in 1885, Luton was famous for its millinery. Hence ‘the Hatters’. It would also become known for making motor vehicles. The Vauxhall works opened in 1905, the same year the team moved into Kenilworth Road. The ground has outlasted the factory, which closed in 2002. 

The Keny

Plans to relocate from the cramped, antiquated ground — whose Oak Road entrances is, famously, through a terraced house and over its garden — have been around since at least the mid-1950s. A move to Milton Keynes was considered in the 1980s, almost two decades before the MK Dons wombled in from Wimbledon.

The club spent £13 million bringing the Keny up to Premier League requirements after winning promotion via a playoff penalty shoot-out last season. Yet, it will finally be moving. It has outlined planning permission for a 17,500-seat stadium, expandable to 23,000, on a 20-acre site at Power Court next to the railway station in central Luton. 

The target completion date for construction is 2026, so the 11,600-seat Kenilworth Road is in its sunset years. Another intimate old-school ground will fade into history, along with Woodbines and cloth caps. Given our dismal record there, Played 21, Won 6, Drawn 8, Lost 7, that can’t come too soon.

Up and down

We first played Luton in October 1897 and won all six games during Luton’s three-year sojourn in the old Football League Division Two before financial difficulties forced them to drop to the Southern League. We beat them four times in the FA Cup before the next league encounter on their first arrival in the First Division in October 1955 (they had returned to the Football League in 1920). 

However, we would win only five of the ten league games before Luton was relegated in 1960 despite reaching the FA Cup Final the season before. They had lost to Nottingham Forest in a final in which Forest’s Roy Dwight, Elton John’s cousin, scored and broke his leg.  

Two more demotions within five years dropped Luton into the old Fourth Division for the 1965-66 season. The climb back to the top flight was relatively rapid, returning in 1974-75. However, they went straight back down despite beating us at home and drawing at Highbury. Oh, that Luton had won and not drawn their final game of the season. That would have relegated the neighbours and the mob at the Bus Stop, not just the latter.

We were scarcely more dominant during Luton’s next spell in the top flight, 1982-1992, winning 11 of 20 league matches, with, as mentioned above, no wins in the final ten encounters.

The Opposition

Every entrant in the GHF Predictathon has Luton pegged for an immediate return to the Championship. Most predict a last-place finish. That Luton goes into Tuesday evening’s game two points and a place clear of the drop zone is a tribute to the battling spirit that manager Rob Edwards has instilled into his charges. Since the opening two league games, they have lost only twice by two goals or more, including Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Brentford, and should probably have got at least a point out of the games lost 1-0 to Burnley and the neighbours and more than a point from a 1-1 draw with Wolves.

Edwards played his favoured 3-4-1-2 for most of last season in the Championship, switching to 3-5-2 for the final games and playoffs. This season, he started with 3-5-2 but then tried a back four and a back five before reverting to something close to last season’s successful formula, a. 3-4-2-1 that got him points at home to Liverpool and Crystal Palace. 

He will undoubtedly flood the midfield against us to constrain space and double up on Saka and Martinelli. Given that Edwards has nine injuries to contend with and centre backs captain Tom Lockyer and Teden Mengi face late fitness tests, predicting his lineup would be a fool’s errand. Whoever plays will be urged on by raucous home support.

French-Polish goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, at 2.9 million euros, and midfielder Ross Barkley, who arrived on a free from Nice, have been Edwards’s standout bargain buys so far of the baker’s dozen of new players brought in at similar prices to bolster the squad for the Premiership. However, few save for Barkley, Zimbabwean international Marvelous Nakamba, whose last season’s loan from Aston Villa was made permanent in the summer, and Andros Townsend, picked up after being released by Everton, had Premiership experience. 

Kaminski has been playing well enough to earn a call-up to the Belgium national squad, while Barkley has added 240 Premiership games’ worth of experience to stabilise the midfield since his return from injury. Nakamba has earned good reviews at DM, but was crocked during he the last interlull, and will likely miss the game. Our own Sami Lokonga definitely will. While ineligible against his parent club, he is also recovering from a thigh injury that limited him to two appearances in mid-September.

As in the Championship last season, goals are a problem for Edwards’s side, just 13 in 14 games. Only the hapless Sheffield United has fewer. Luton ranks last in shots per 90 mins in the Premiership (2.36) and last in shots on target (21%). The second-lowest conversion ratio, 7%, compounds those shortcomings. Carlton Morris, a £2 million pick-up from Barnsley in the summer of 2022 and who netted 20 times in the Championship last season, is the top-scorer this term with three and top-assister with two, but has not scored since September. One-half of Luton’s goals have come from set pieces.

The Arsenal

We arrive at Kenilworth Road after a curate’s egg of a performance against Wolves. With a potentially tricky trip to Villa Park next Saturday, Arteta might rest Jesus, Trossard and Tomiyasu — the last by necessity after picking up an injury against Wolves. With Tomi facing a late fitness test, I will hazard as the starting XI:

Raya

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko

Ødegaard, Rice, Havertz

Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli

Counting on the form book to count for little after three decades (only Cedric and Jorginho in our squad were born when the two sides last met, with Jorginho only six days old) and given the gap in quality between the two sides, it will be hugely disappointing if we don’t leave Kenilworth Road as we arrived, as league leaders, albeit after a scrappy 2-0 win.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.

Posted in Club History, Match Preview | 52 Drinks »

Arsenal go four points clear at the top and start to create unreasonable expectations

Dec 2nd, 2023 by

The pre-match festivities

What constitutes a perfect football day? I often ask myself this, particularly as I’ve had a lot of excellent outings over the past few years since I engaged with the Goonerholic fraternity. Even if you aren’t a particularly sociable person (and most Holics I’ve encountered seem to be very sociable) there is something very enjoyable about breaking bread pre-match with Arsenal-supporting friends, and today was no exception. Btm, C100 and I, together with Countryman Junior and an old footballing colleague of mine from Kent, met in the most nicely appointed Ecuadorean restaurant in North London (that I know of) and enjoyed an excellent and quite original meal (unless you eat in Ecuadorean restaurants regularly). While eating we speculated on whether we could continue our excellent form from Wednesday, whether Kai Havertz would continue his improvement in form so clearly in evidence in Europe, and whether the team would bear much relation to the one that started on Wednesday.

The answers were in order yes (to start with), no (because he didn’t start), and yes (the team barring Havertz who was replaced in the starting eleven by Trossard was identical to the one that started against Lens). On a bitterly cold afternoon I had the great pleasure of sitting next to a young man called Freddie who was making his first trip to see us in the flesh. As Freddie came from Perth in Western Australia it was quite a  day for him. He sang North London Forever with a tear in his eye, marvelled that he was sitting next to someone who paid his first visit to Arsenal over 62 years aago and thrilled to an early attacking performance that was entirely in sync with the way we started against Lens.

He did not have long to wait to see his first Arsenal goal. Bukayo Saka wriggled through a number of challenges including the last from Craig Dawson that was extremely flaccid and turned the ball into the left-hand corner. An annoying, and what we deemed a totally unnecessary, VAR check took some of the gloss off the goal, as is so often the case nowadays.

Arsenal 1 Wolves 0 – Saka 6 mins

Our control of the game was almost total, and we extended our lead with a beautifully worked goal 7 minutes later. Jesús and Zinchenko played an excellent one-two in the inside left channel, and our Ukrainian cut the ball back to an unmarked Ødegaard to finish emphatically.

Arsenal 2 Wolves 0- Ødegaard 13 minutes

Freddie was in seventh heaven and most of the rest of us sat back expecting another first half obliteration of the opposition. I thought we were actually playing better than against Lens in that first period. Trossard was lively in a midfield role, Saka and Martinelli had more space than in recent weeks and most importantly Ødegaard seemed to be back to his very best form after a recent blip. We had almost nothing to do in defence and Declan Rice was utterly imperious as ever. Martinelli slid through the Wolves defence but pushed his shot against the post, Trossard was foiled by Sa (who then had to leave the field with an injury sustained during the scoring of our second goal), and Jesús skied a close range chance at the far post after a cross dropped to him.

Wolves had a little more of the play as the half progressed with a couple of late free kicks but at half-time the chatter on the concourse outside Gate 100 was that we had played well but were letting them off lightly.

Half-time Arsenal 2 Wolves 0

We began the second half very positively, and I thought Jesús was held back (subtly) by a Wolves defender to prevent him reaching a low Saka cross.

Around the hour mark our play began to betray the fact that we played on Wednesday with these personnel, and our play lacked the penetration we had exhibited in the first half. We began to freshen the mix with Havertz joining the fray, Tomayisu going off injured to be replaced by White, and Jorginho and Kiwior coming on with Nketiah replacing Jesús (who my neighbour detected had a possible groin injury — watch this space).

Raya had made two decent saves from Cunha, and Wolves began to play with more pace and determination. Our goal was rarely threatened until sloppiness from Zinchenko gifted possession to Cunha, who produced a fierce drive past Raya’s right hand.

Arsenal 2 Wolves 1 – Cunha 86 minutes

While we didn’t descend into panic mode we were now fighting to hold onto a lead we had compiled effortlessly in the first half. What we needed was to regain the initiative and gain a third goal. Ødegaard almost achieved this with a beautiful flick to Nketiah but Eddie’s shot rebounded off the post and out.

The game ended uneventfully, and we recorded another three points that put us four points ahead of the best club side in world football.

Full time Arsenal 2 Wolves 1

A spectator behind me leaned forward to commiserate with Freddie about ‘coming all this way to watch this crap’. Freddie, far from thinking this was still revelling in watching a dream come true. I felt it necessary to ask the friend behind if he really though that ‘crap’ was an operative term for football that for most of the game was on a level to which few sides can aspire. To his credit he rode back on his criticism explaining that he was frustrated by our failure to kick on in the game, and I later had a similar conversation on the train with another disappointed Gooner.

Maybe I have been around too long but every season contains games where your team underperforms, and the underperformance today was relatively marginal and partly explained by Wednesday’s exertions. Some of our early football was brilliant and very easy on the eye. We are truly lucky to be able to watch a team of this quality; this good fortune seemed lost in a large part of those in attendance today. Arsenal fans used to have a keen sense of entitlement largely fostered by the continuing excellence of Wenger’s teams though our fall-off in recent years should have reminded us that to reach – and stay – at the summit of English football is no easy task.

I thought Ødegaard was sublime today, Rice was his usual excellent self, Saka and Martinelli always looked dangerous, and Tomayisu really is an admirable player. My main reservation is that Zinchenko commits too many defensive errors; I’d like to see him further forward in midfield, if he plays at all, with White, Tomayisu, and Kiwior starting in the full back positions. But please Gooners, enjoy what is being provided. These are potentially special times. Don’t tarnish them with ridiculous expectations!

Posted in Fan Experience, Match Report | 43 Drinks »

Of Love and Strife

Dec 1st, 2023 by

Arsenal players celebrate Arsenal’s Norwegian midfielder #08 Martin Odegaard scoring their fifth goal during the UEFA Champions League Group B football match between Arsenal and RC Lens at the Arsenal Stadium in north London on November 29, 2023. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

Philotes and Neikos, love and strife, are the two forces – in the cosmogony of Empedocles – that are continuously forming diversity, harmony (and disharmony) of all forms, out of the four eternal elements of fire, air, water, and earth that pervade our universe. Like a few other original such ideas from ancient Greece – from Anaximander to Democritus – that still resonate within our modern scientific worldview, this version of the universe is not completely dissimilar to the Standard Model of fundamental forces and elementary particles interacting to form all matter and energy.

Love and strife, one can also say, are the two primary psychic forces shaping the world of football, giving births to moments of such intense elation or despondency that if we were to wander into the land of memories, those moments stand out as guideposts of our lives lived in what may feel like someone else’s elusive past. Football is not so much escapism from life but a distilled, miniaturized but maybe for that reason also a more tangible version of life itself.   

As Arsenal walk into this weekend sitting proudly at top of the EPL – and already qualified, with a game to spare, as the group winner in their return to the most prestigious of the European competitions – the love in and around the team is palpable. Smiles and praises and good vibes. I don’t know about others, but not for a moment I am taking any of these for granted. The current upward trajectory has been achieved neither by accident, nor by profligate megalomania, but strategy, discipline, hard work and patience supported ably by leadership and judicious usage of financial prowess. And some dose of good fortune, for nothing is ever successful without that.

Looking back just half a decade – when our opponents of this Saturday had returned back to the Premier League after six years of absence – reinforces the well-known adage about things changing very fast in football. In 2018 strife was all around Arsenal, the clouds of despondency looming over the club and its fractured angst-ridden fanbase. We drew our home match 1-1, before losing away at Wolves 1-3, one among a series of listless, rudderless performances that more or less guaranteed that we won’t finish in the top four, and was really the beginning of the end of the short-lived Unai Emery era.   Since then the head-to-head results have started to improve in our favor: 1-1 (home), 2-0 (away);  1-2 (home), 1-2 (away); 1-0 (away), 2-1(home); 2-0 (away), 5-0 (home).

While our managerial reign was handed to Arteta after Emery – with the invincible Freddie Ljungberg temporarily stabilizing the team for a few matches in between – and the Arsenal ex-captain of death stares, immaculate hair, and press conferences that are an enigmatic cocktail of mischief, misdirection and authenticity rapidly established himself as the football brain that he was always known to be in the inner circle of friends and colleagues, Wolverhampton Wanderers went through a few managerial rotations. They were noticeably successful for a mid-tier squad – but never getting close to any of the peak years in their long history – and sometimes playing attractive football, often on the strengths of the various Portuguese internationals that dominated their squad upon their return to the top tier.  They also had a pragmatic and enterprising Portuguese manager who was doing well for himself before he was lured away to a club well known for destroying the reputation of talented managers.

Their current manager, the Englishman Gary O’Neil, too demonstrates such a combination of pragmatism and enterprise. After taking over the responsibilities just before the season started, he brought in tactical variations and intensity that has served Wolves well. Their current 12th position in the league doesn’t truly tell the full story, they can consider themselves unfortunate to have lost out on otherwise well-deserved points by the vagaries of VAR. In that arena at least they are Arsenal’s fellow sufferers.  O’Neil has used multiple formations in the season so far, but mostly either a 3-4-3 or variations of 4–4-2 in 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1, sometimes even switching between formations in a game. In Joan Gomes and Mario Lemina (who I think is disqualified for this match because of yellow cards) they have two highly competent footballers in the midfield. In Nelson Samedo, Cunha, Neto and Ait-Nouri they have fast ball carriers that can hurt any opposition in counter attacks, and a very good finisher in Hwang.

Even though most teams come to Emirates nowadays planning to sit in deep low blocks, hoping to deprive our frontline any space and time on the ball in the final third, Wolves are likely to try to draw us in with an eye on launching rapid counter-attacks. Our defense has been mostly imperious this season, and Saliba-Gabriel will need to play at their very best to keep our run of clean sheets going.     

Our front started for the first time together against Lens at home last Wednesday, and ably supported by Rice-Tomiyasu-Zinchenko they eviscerated the opposition defense in moments of collective and individual brilliance. Havertz especially looked like someone that has started to figure out how to play with his new teammates, and stay in tune with their tireless positivity. Given our first half performance in the midweek, Mikel will be tempted to start the same eleven this weekend and I think that would be the best option.

Raya
Tomiyasu – Saliba – Gabriel – Zinchenko
Ødegaard – Rice – Havertz
Saka – Jesus – Martinelli

Enjoy the game everyone. We should win, but I don’t think for a
moment it will be anywhere as easy as our last season’s home victory
against them. A hard-fought but assured 2-0 will do.

Come on Arsenal!

Posted in Match Preview | 34 Drinks »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »