{"id":523,"date":"2020-03-10T05:21:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T05:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=523"},"modified":"2020-05-30T14:38:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T13:38:30","slug":"mikels-men-to-mash-the-oil-magnates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=523","title":{"rendered":"Mikel’s men to mash the oil magnates?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The past, and the future. Image courtesy of Getty Images.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Last week, while idly pondering Manchester City\u2019s stadium name, I discovered that Etihad is only the second-largest airline in the UAE, trailing Emirates, the leader.  What with Arsenal having named their stadium Emirates and signed a long-term \u201cFly Emirates\u201d shirt sponsorship, some people might think Arsenal should be able to get better commercial deals than City, seeing as Emirates must have plenty of money to spend, but I will leave that point for others to determine.  In any case, Manchester City sport a much larger transfer budget than Arsenal, who never seem to be pursuing the same players as City in the transfer market, at least not in my reading of the headlines over the dozen years since they were purchased by Sheik Mansour of the Abu Dhabi royal family.  None of this is to say Arsenal cannot compete with their oil-rich rivals, or even to defy the odds and come up with a win on any particular occasion, but let\u2019s just say the scales are tilted against them.  But enough of the grim reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday evening Mikel Arteta returns to the Etihad, the site of his top-level coaching apprenticeship of three and a half seasons under Pep Guardiola, to lead Arsenal into a battle that most observers will give him little chance of winning against the two-time defending Premier League champions.  Guardiola will do his best to give his protege another coaching lesson, but this time not a friendly one.  Pep was not only Arteta\u2019s mentor but gave him his first chance to coach at a big club, albeit in an assistant role.  Arteta was Guardiola\u2019s right-hand man during City\u2019s 2017\/18 and 2018\/19 Premier League title-winning seasons so this match; being the first time Arteta faces his old employers since he left to become coach of Arsenal, it should be an emotional and memorable occasion for the two men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\n last played Saturday at home when they saw off West Ham by 1-0.  Their \nopponents will be playing on a day\u2019s less rest, last having played \nSunday at Old Trafford when they lost by two goals and were unable to \nscore.  Arsenal next play Saturday away at Brighton while the Citizens \nhost Burnley the same day, so on Wednesday both clubs will be playing \ntheir second of three games within a week, and the managers will need to\n consider the fatigue factor in their team selection and substitution \ndecisions.  Arsenal currently sit ninth in the table, trailing \nManchester City in second spot by 17 points.  The positive spin is that \nCity lag league leaders Liverpool by an even larger margin of 25 points,\n which made me feel much better until I realised Liverpool have \ncollected more than twice as many points as Arsenal, but Liverpool will \nnot be the opponents at hand in any case.  Despite their recent decline \nCity are still more than capable of outclassing any opposition, \nparticularly when playing at home.  In their last four league \nencounters, City have outscored Arsenal by 11 goals to one, and by five \ngoals to nil at the Etihad, so Mikel will need to come up with a better \ngame plan than his two predecessors were able to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\n was some fairly egregious last-minute rescheduling of this fixture, \nwhich was postponed from the weekend before last when City defeated \nAston Villa in the Carabao Cup final, and Arsenal dispatched Portsmouth \nin the FA Cup.  The Premier League announced the new date just seven \ndays ago, presenting considerable added difficulty for teams and fans \nwho will have had to readjust their travel schedules.  Arsenal \nannounced: \u201cThe game will be played next Wednesday to avoid potential \nfixture congestion for both teams towards the end of the season.  We are\n pleased to confirm that the club is subsidising coach travel to\/from \nManchester for this match.\u201d  Hopefully, more than just a few traveling \nGooners will be able to take advantage of the travel subsidy, hastily \nrearrange their plans, attend the match, and see a performance that \njustifies all their effort.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pending\n appeal Manchester City are banned from European competition for two \nyears because of financial shenanigans, so the race is on for fifth \nplace, the final Europa League spot, and despite all odds Arsenal are \nstill in the hunt.  Will Guardiola be able to motivate his players to \nexpend maximum effort when there is relatively little of tangible \nmeaning left to play for?  Having just lost the Manchester derby, the \nair seems to be coming out of City\u2019s sails a bit, so it might not make a\n great deal of difference to some of them whether they finish in second \nor third place, but there is no way to know for sure until the game is \nplayed.  But young players like Phil Foden must have greater motivation \ncompared to older teammates like David Silva.  City are still in the \nChampions League and the FA Cup but their season has an air of \ndisappointment about it.  This week Raheem Sterling was quoted in the \npress saying the players have been \u201cslacking\u201d which could be a rallying \ncry, a call for help, or both at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City\n have suffered the loss to injury of central defender Aymeric Laporte \nfor much of the season.  Last year Laporte looked capable of becoming \nVincent Kompany\u2019s successor in the heart of defence when the club\u2019s long\n time captain returned to Belgium.  But Laporte was injured in August \nand missed the next five months.  He played in three of City\u2019s last four\n league games but has not yet played 90 minutes so their defence is \nstill in a relatively unstable situation, and the team news says Laporte\n will not play on Wednesday.  Most of the season Laporte\u2019s position was \nfilled by 34 year old defensive midfielder Fernandinho who did a decent \njob but apparently not quite good enough to keep City in the Premier \nLeague title race.  Nicolas Otamendi at centre back and Kyle Walker at \nright back have been near certainties in the team but Benjamin Mendy and\n Oleksandr Zinchenko have shared the left back position.  City\u2019s \nmidfield foursome has been stable with Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri, Ilkay \nGundogan and Bernardo Silva starting most Premier League games.  David \nSilva has played a significant number of minutes but fewer than last \nyear as he winds his career down, and Riyad Mahrez has featured on the \nwing more often than last season.  Sergio Ag\u00fcero has played less often \nas he and Gabriel Jesus have shared time at the main striker position.  \nSpeedy Raheem Sterling has played more minutes than any other player \nexcepting De Bruyne and their dependable goalkeeper Ederson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team selection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the Hammers Bernd Leno was most observers\u2019 Man of the Match, and he will surely keep his place in the Arsenal goal.  The back four must feature David Luiz, who has so much experience against big teams on big occasions, but Arteta has an interesting decision as to Luiz\u2019 centre-back partner between Pablo Mar\u00ed, who played calmly and effectively against Portsmouth and West Ham earlier in the week, and Shkodran Mustafi, who returned to full training last Thursday after his 2020 resurrection as Luiz\u2019 regular partner was interrupted by injury.  Hector Bellerin and Bukayo Saka should be the fullbacks assuming both are fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under three managers Granit Xhaka has been one of the only constants in the Arsenal team, despite my protestations, and I see no likelihood the Swiss will be left out of this one.  Dani Ceballos is in an excellent run of form and it would be a shame to rest him now, but it would be great to see Joe Willock get a chance in the advanced midfield role filled since Arteta\u2019s appointment by Mesut \u00d6zil.  The timing of this match, given the number of games \u00d6zil has played in a brief period, suggest there could be an opening for the young man.  Reiss Nelson impressed in his 30 minute cameo against West Ham in place of the frustrated Nicolas Pepe, and it would be refreshing to see Nelson play there from the start at the Etihad.  Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, who scored in his last two substitute appearances, should take their places in the remaining attacking positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\n will concede in this game, I don\u2019t think there is any way around it.  \nIf we can avoid conceding two goals we will be doing well considering \nall the creative players and finishers at Manchester City’s disposal.  \nBut I don\u2019t think we will manage quite that well defensively, which is \nwhy I\u2019m going for a scoreline of 2-3 with Gabriel De Jesus to score \nfirst and Sterling second, but Auba to go bang bang bang in a scorching \nsecond half salvo.  Quite enough to cure your halftime blues, I would \nthink!  Come on Arsenal, let\u2019s see you hang with the big boys.  Have a \ngood one, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, while idly pondering Manchester City\u2019s stadium name, I discovered that Etihad is only the second-largest airline in the UAE, trailing Emirates, the leader.  What with Arsenal having named their stadium Emirates and signed a long-term \u201cFly Emirates\u201d shirt sponsorship, some people might think Arsenal should be able to get better commercial deals than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}