{"id":6023,"date":"2022-04-19T09:47:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T08:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2022-04-21T12:26:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T11:26:03","slug":"ch-ch-changes-at-ch-ch-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6023","title":{"rendered":"Ch-Ch-Changes at Ch-Ch-Chelsea \u2026.."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As The Arsenal were winning their first League and FA Cup Double in 1971, David Bowie was putting the finishing touches to his song \u201cChanges\u201d. 
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The last time Arsenal completed the Double was, of course, in May 2002. Fifteen months later, in August 2003, vice chairman David Dein surveyed the football landscape and made the now famous observation, \u201cRoman Abramovich has parked his Russian tank in our front garden and is firing \u00a350 notes at us.\u201d 
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In 2003 the Arsenal vice chairman was in Monaco for the Champions League draw where the Invincibles eventually drew Internazionale, Dynamo Kiev and Lokomotiv Moscow – a draw to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, when viewed now, 19 years later. Arsenal at that time were rated 5th in Europe and things badly needed to change for Chelsea if they were to challenge for top trophies and become London\u2019s, let alone England\u2019s, top side.
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Well, change things did. The Dein Prophesy – if only Ludlum had been on the ball, so to speak – came horribly true, as Chelsea bought trophy after trophy, and skewed genuine competition with their oligarch\u2019s ill-gotten roubles. About \u00a32.1 billion pounds worth to January 2022.
And now things must change again. It turns out that the tank built by the steel of Roman Abramovich was not only firing \u00a350 notes at Highbury, N5, but was also being readied to fire shells, at the command of his friend Vladimir Putin in Moscow, at cities across the peaceful country of Ukraine, ironically the home of Dynamo Kiev, the other team from that Champions League draw of 2003. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of his ties to the Russian President, Abramovich has now been sanctioned by the UK government to the extent that his businesses are no longer allowed to operate here and Chelsea must be sold without profit to the owner. As ownership changes again, just as David Dein claimed in 2003 that Arsenal had a squad good enough to challenge in Europe, we might be seeing the beginning of an era where that will again be the case.
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The Raine Group, an American merchant bank, are handling the sale of the club, and Abramovich will have the final say on to whom, although he cannot receive any of the money himself. However, Chelsea being Chelsea and a Russian oligarch being involved, things are already getting even more complicated. Due to the current complex standing of the club, I began this preview very early with a view to tracking events leading up to our kick off. The Raine Group apparently have had previous dealings with the American Ricketts family and there is\/was concern amongst the other bidders that the latter are\/were being given unfairly advantageous information about the sale. Chelsea fans are also seemingly worried about the Ricketts family taking over, as the founder of their wealth has a history of making Islamophobic remarks in a number of emails in 2019. Could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire – what a shame !
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Update: The Ricketts led consortium have now withdrawn from the bidding process and will not submit a final bid due to \u201cunusual dynamics around the sales process.\u201d Make of that what you will.
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The eventual proceeds from the sale will go to \u201can entity\u201d from where they will be distributed to a mixture of government, the Premier League and who knows where – it\u2019s not really clear from what I can discover. Maybe there is someone reading this who can explain better than I ? In any event, until a new owner or owners are in place, Chelsea cannot buy or sell players, cannot offer new contracts, cannot sell club merchandise or any new tickets for games. As a result there could be some unaccustomed gaps in the crowd for our visit, although probably not to the extent that it will affect the home side. Sadly!
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So where does David Bowie\u2019s song come into all this \u2026? Some claimed that Bowie was a Chelsea fan, something that is honestly unclear, but The Bowie Prophesy – ok, leave it – as things began to change for Arsenal in 1971, makes interesting reading as things change again for Chelsea in 2022. The song is thought to have been about growing up and considering the various personalities he created as he grew older. There is though an irresistible connection to Chelsea\u2019s oligarch owner in the lyrics as they relate today back to our fateful Champions League draw in 2003 – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turn and face the strange<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch-ch changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s gonna have to be a different man\u2026\u2026
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But still the days seem the same<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these children that you spit on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they try to change their worlds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are immune to your consultations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re quite aware of what they\u2019re going through<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turn and face the strange
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One of the few things that is certain about Chelsea is that without Abramovich\u2019s ill gotten money they would never have challenged the Arsenal as London\u2019s or anyone else\u2019s top club. The head to head league stats show that of 169 meetings between the clubs, Arsenal W65, D50, L54. Prior to the arrival of Abramovich in 2003, Chelsea wins in the league were a relative rarity apart from in the 1960s when they definitely had the upper hand. Only in the 2005-6 season, as the roubles began to tell, did they gain superiority over us. The other factor was that Jos\u00e9 Mourinho used the Russian riches to buy the best big, physical talent around at exactly the time Arsene Wenger was assembling his team of very young, smaller, Barcelona style, technical players in the new incarnation of Wenger Ball, and that physical superiority counted heavily against a young Arsenal side.
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As I began writing this preview Chelsea had surrendered a 1-0 lead at home to Brentford to eventually lose 1-4 to their newly promoted West London rivals. They then went on to exit the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid, and the hope was that that kind of on-field collapse would continue as the team seized up in the confusion surrounding the club. Unfortunately they have since just won their FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace, and beaten Southampton 6-0 at St Mary\u2019s, where we, of course, came undone on Saturday to lose our third Premier League game on the trot since our 1-0 win at Aston Villa. That was our fifth consecutive away win in the league and had begun to convince us that Arteta\u2019s Arsenal are showing signs of being made of the kind of stuff needed to once again stand up to the likes of Chelsea. 
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Some, not all it must be said, were optimistically looking at Chelsea\u2019s third position in the league as our finishing target, as we seemed to have found a good level of consistency. How quickly things can ch-ch-change again. We have to hope that our current form is a blip, albeit an injury induced one, as Mikel Arteta must reconsider our limited attacking options as we now fight to get back into fourth place.
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The Teams<\/strong>
Mateo Kovacic is a big doubt for Chelsea, having been withdrawn after 26 minutes against Palace on Sunday. Other than that Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi seem to be their only concerns, unless you count Ross Barkley who still apparently plays for them. Yes, I\u2019d completely forgotten too.
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As we know only too well, we are in a bit of a fix at the moment. Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey are out for the rest of the season, while Takehiro Tomiyasu\u2019s absence looks set to continue. Alexandre Lacazette may or may not be available after testing positive for Covid-19 at the weekend. Mikel Arteta seems to want to stick with a back four, so the selection decisions would seem to be in the attacking half of the team. Eddie Nketiah could hardly have looked less effective at Southampton, and Lacazette has been out of sorts for weeks. My own choice, depending on whether Arteta trusts Tavares for this one would be:
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Ramsdale; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tavares\/ Saka; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xhaka, Odegaard, Lokonga; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Saka\/ Pepe.
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If Arteta opts for a back three, I would go for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White, Holding, Gabriel; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cedric, Odegaard, Xhaka, Lokonga; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Saka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic Pound<\/strong>
Not surprisingly, given recent form, Chelsea are quoted around evens or slight odds on to win this one. Arsenal to win is 16\/5 with Betfair, with 5\/2 for the draw. The same company are offering 11\/1 for a 0-1 Arsenal win, or 16\/1 for a 2-2 draw. William Hill will give you 45\/1 on an Arsenal 2-3 victory. 
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The match is on Wednesday 20th April, kick off at 19.45 UK time, and is on Sky Sports TV. Referee is Jonathan Moss, Fourth official is Andy Madley and Chelsea Insurance, sorry, VAR cross hairs of whatever required thickness to rule out Arsenal goals, will be provided by Darren England.
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And finally, can you name three English football clubs whose names contain swear words \u2026? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer: Arsenal, Scunthorpe and F***ing Chelsea \ud83d\ude0f
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Enjoy the game, Holics \ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As The Arsenal were winning their first League and FA Cup Double in 1971, David Bowie was putting the finishing touches to his song \u201cChanges\u201d.  The last time Arsenal completed the Double was, of course, in May 2002. Fifteen months later, in August 2003, vice chairman David Dein surveyed the football landscape and made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6037,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions\/6037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}