Arsenal Go For Their Elevenses

Arsenal went to Sporting Lisbon last night looking for their eleventh win in a row in all competitions. This was the third game in their Europa League group and the other two games came during that run which meant we had a 100% record. Sporting had won their opening two games too which gave an added edge to the game with the winners becoming favourites to win the group.

The Europa League might be European football’s secondary competition, but Porto had only lost once at home in almost two years and the team that beat them was Barcelona. They were more than capable of giving a rotated Arsenal team a tough ride if we weren’t up to the task in hand. While winning wasn’t ultra important in the group the chance to keep our winning streak going was one we didn’t want to give up on.

Unai Emery made six changes to the starting 11 that came from behind to win 3-1 at home to Everton on Monday night. Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Mohamed Elneny, Aaron Ramsey, Matteo Guendouzi, Danny Welbeck and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came into the team with Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette making way. Granit Xhaka continued in the left back role that he played in for the last 20 minutes on Monday night while Stephan Lichsteiner switched to right back as Rob Holding kept his place yet again. Xhaka switching to left back meant we saw a combination of Guendouzi and Elneny in midfield and it’s still a combination which fails to convince me.

Guendouzi is making so much progress since joining us in the summer that it’s a joy to watch him, but it’s hard to see where Elneny is going at the club. He’s not the most spectacular player and he looks a fair way short of the level of Guendouzi never mind Torreira. It can’t be easy for him and our squad needs the depth he offers, but I can’t see us controlling a game with him in the team.

The first half wasn’t much to write home about with very little happening at either end, but Arsenal picked up the pace after the break. They dominated that second half and that domination only increased when Torreira came on for Elneny around the hour mark. His ability to control a game and drive the team forward is a joy to watch and he looks more and more like the player we have needed for years with each passing game.

In that second half Aubameyang had a couple of one on ones with the keeper after we found good passes in behind them, but he couldn’t make either chance pay. The first was wide on the right of the goal and he probably should have gone for the far post, but went on the near side. He got in on the left the next time and had to go with his left foot which meant he couldn’t do an “Henry” into the far corner and the keeper made a good save from an attempted clip over him. Maybe he wasn’t as spectacular as he was when he came off the bench on Monday night, but then again he didn’t have Ozil to pull the strings.

When the goal came it was Welbeck who got it after he took advantage of a slip from the Sporting central defender to finish crisply through the keeper’s legs. He had an earlier effort disallowed after he was rather harshly adjudged to have push a defender before an excellent header back across the keeper in the top corner. He has only had a bit part to play with Aubameyang and Lacazette ahead of him, but he has done very well and has five goals already from his limited chances.

All in all it wasn’t exactly a game to write home about, but it was a job well done in a stadium where away teams simply don’t win. It’s kept our incredible winning streak going and can only help to strengthen the belief and confidence in the team as well as letting the first choice players know they need to keep looking over their shoulders with others looking to take their places in the team. As I said in my preview the game away to Palace on Sunday is far more important, but it’s nice to be going into that game on the back of 11 consecutive wins and a clean sheet too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Looking For 11 In A Row At Sporting

The wins keep coming for Arsenal with the 3-1 win against Leicester making it 10 in a row in all competitions. Goals have been pretty easy to come by too with a minimum of two per game since the opening game blank against City. Only City have scored more goals in the Premier League with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang already getting 10 league games between them.

It’s been an enjoyable ride for the last 10 games and long may it continue, but it will of course come to an end at some stage. All 10 games were games we would have been expected to win, but we all know there’s quite often a big difference between expectations and reality. We may have rode our luck at times in some of those games, but it has been great to watch at times. We have some great attacking players at the club and it seems Unai Emery is coming closer to getting the best out of them as each game passes. 

Most of those attacking players won’t be on from the start tonight though as the manager rotates the team. So far that rotation has worked well with victories at home to Vorskla and away to Qarabag, but Sporting should be stronger opposition in this game. As it stands it looks like the group is between the two of us with six points to both teams after their opening two games.

As I’ve said before this stage of the Europa League is all about doing enough to qualify for the knockout stages without hampering our chances in the Premier League. The two wins under our belt have given us some breathing space and a defeat tonight wouldn’t really harm our chances. Of course I want the winning streak to continue and Arsenal to win every game they ever play, but three points on Sunday at Palace are more important than three points tonight. We have some tough league games coming up and the more points in the bag before those games the better.

I would imagine we will see Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Mohamed Elneny, Danny Welbeck, Aaron Ramsey, Matteo Guendouzi and Emile Smith-Rowe in from the start and possibly a couple of others too. Both Sokratis and Ramsey in particular will feel they should be in the first choice team and hopefully they will get the chance to impress tonight. Young Smith-Rowe has looked good when his chances have come along too and let’s hope he can continue his progress.

Yet again we will have a strong bench tonight in case the boss needs to change something during the game. One of the criticisms of Arsene Wenger before the end of his reign was the weakness of the bench when we played cup games. That was highlighted by our inability to bring in players to change the game when Forest put us out of the FA Cup in January. 

There’s still a lot to be done of course and the defence in particular seems to be learning very slowly. It’s not helped by the litany of defensive injuries we have had, but most of those players are very close to a return. It will be good to see Laurent Koscielny back in the team and hopefully he can adjust to the new manager’s style very quickly.

Sporting play in a much stronger league than either of our previous opponents and they’re just outside the top four in the Portuguese league. Like most teams from Portugal they know how to play football and they will ask questions of our defence tonight. Even with our team rotation we have the players to ask questions of them too and those players have performed well in the Europa League and Carabao Cup so far. Hopefully they can do enough again tonight to make it 11 wins in a row in all competitions.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal's Europa League Trip To Qarabag Previewed

Tonight is Thursday night and we all know what that means. Unfortunately it means Europa League football for Arsenal for the second season in a row as we look to progress from our group and maybe do better than last season when we lost the semi final to Atletico Madrid. It’s a poor imitation of the Champions League, but with the winners qualifying for next season’s Champions League it’s a competition we have to take a real interest in.

It doesn’t help when you have to make the long journey to Azerbaijan and then try to get back in plenty of time to prepare for a Premier League game away to Fulham on Sunday. At least there will be no real travel involved in the game at Fulham, but such a long midweek journey can be energy sapping. I have no doubt Unai Emery will rotate his players as much as he can to try to insure victory in both games.

The injury to Petr Cech last weekend means we should get to see a fair bit of Bernd Leno and get to judge how well we spent all that money on him in the summer. He fits the bill in terms of how the manager wants to play the ball out from the back and it’s a matter of how his other attributes fit. Cech has looked very good in all aspects of his game this season except with the ball at his feet and Leno needs to improve from what we have seen so far if he’s going to keep his place in the team.

In defence we should see Stephan Lichsteiner play again and there’s a possibility of the fit again Sead Kolasinac playing at left back. Rob Holding has impressed in the last two games, but I think he will play as it gives him another opportunity to show the manager what he can do. With Sokratis Papastathopoulos recovered from his injury I think it’s 50/50 between him and Shkodran Mustafi as to who plays with Holding.

In midfield there should be outings for Mohamed Elneny and Matteo Guendouzi while I would expect Danny Welbeck to lead the line. I would be very surprised if Alex Iwobi didn’t play and we should see Emile Smith Rowe in the team too with the final spot probably going to Joe Willock. Neither Aaron Ramsey or Henrikh Mkhitaryan have travelled for the game for very different reasons.

Ramsey is staying behind as his wife is due to give birth and I imagine he didn’t want to be thousands of kilometers away if the event was to occur. The chances are he wouldn’t have played although the absence of Mkhitaryan might have meant he had a role to play. The less said about the Mkhitaryan situation the better, but the club have said he has stayed behind with a “cold”.

The comments of the Qarabag manager have hardly helped the situation, but how UEFA can allow teams to play in their competitions when opposition players can’t get a visa to play in their country is beyond me. It’s not as if Mkhitaryan is a Serge Aurier with a criminal record who can’t get his visa. The official line is he’s not well though and we have little choice other than to believe it despite doubting it to the extreme.

The 4-2 win in our first group game has put us in a healthy position in our group and three points against Qarabag would put us in a great position. For me the group stages are all about qualifying for the knockout stages while getting a chance to rest most of the players who will be playing in the league. The teams playing in the Champions League can’t afford to do that and it possibly gives Arsenal a chance to make up some ground in the league.

Qarabag have done reasonably well in European competitions in recent seasons and they certainly won’t be a pushover. The manager will have a strong bench to draw on if needs be and that’s something his predecessor didn’t do in the Europa League group stages. Emery has won this competition three times before and I have no doubt he will have at least one eye on the possibility of winning it again.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Danny Welbeck, but he has done very well with the limited chances he has got so far this season. It would be interesting to see how Welbeck might progress if he could manage a prolonged period without an injury, but he has spent most of his time at the club on the treatment table. A goal from him would make him our leading scorer so far this season and that’s not too shabby for a player who is clearly seen as back up.

As always in Europa League games the priority is getting all the players home fit and safe and raring to go on Sunday. Three points would be an added bonus and it’s something we can certainly do despite resting up to 10 of the players who beat Watford last Saturday.

For those of you looking to have a flutter on the game you can get a boosted price of 10/1 for Arsenal to win when you sign up to Bookee and place a bet. It sounds like a very good price to me and well worth considering.

Positive Signs As Arsenal Beat Brentford

Arsenal kept their winning streak going last night as they won 3-1 at home to Brentford to progress to the last 16 of the Carabao Cup. Unai Emery was able to make nine changes from the team that won 2-0 on Sunday against Everton without seeming to affect the way the team played. The only changes he didn’t make were Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal who had to play with no alternatives to them due to injuries.

Thankfully it looks like the injury situation could be sorting itself out with Sokratis Papastathopoulos available for the game against Watford on Saturday and Sead Kolasinac on the bench last night. We should see both Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Konstantinos Mavropanos back in the fold quite soon too with Laurent Koscielny hopefully following in early November. All of those players returning and the form of some of the players who are getting a game in the Europa League and Carabao Cup should give the manager a few selection headaches, but I can’t see him worrying about it too much.

On the bad news front it is being reported almost everywhere that there is no longer a contract on the table for Aaron Ramsey and he will be a free agent next summer. Hopefully the club intend to do everything they can to keep him, but they might have to consider selling him on the cheap in the January transfer window if he still won’t sign up. It won’t be easy to convince him to leave in January knowing he can go for free in the summer and command a huge signing on fee.

The manager has to decide whether he sticks with a player who looks determined to leave or he goes with those who want to play for the team. Both Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan played well last night and could possibly fill the role Ramsey fills at the moment and Emile Smith-Rowe has to be a consideration for back up in that role too. Ideally I would like Ramsey to stay, but if he is determined to leave then the manager has to contemplate whether his heart is in it or not.

For a change in recent games last night we were very impressive in the first half and fell away after the break. Brentford are a good team and when they pulled a goal back they sensed nervousness in us, but they never really capitalised on it. The late introduction of Alexandre Lacazette, Lucas Torreira and Ramsey helped us to see the game out with Lacazette adding a late goal to the brace Danny Welbeck got in the first half.

We’re through to the last 16 with teams like City, Chelsea and Spurs through too and the draw takes place at the usual time of 9pm on Saturday night. I can only imagine that time is to suit the sponsors of the competition, but I certainly won’t be glued to the TV or radio waiting for our next opponent. As good as it was to win last night it was only in the Carabao Cup and it’s of very little importance in the grand scheme of things.

The game against Watford on Saturday is far more important and keeping that winning streak going is of utmost importance. They have started the season well and they’re a point ahead of us, but we could make up some real ground on the pacesetters with Chelsea and Liverpool playing each other on Saturday evening. Hopefully we can get those three points against Watford and continue our progress.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Brentford: Carabao Cup Preview

The 2-0 win against Everton on Sunday made it five wins in a row in all competitions for Arsenal and four of those were in the league. I’ve always thought you need to average two points per game to have any chance of making an impact in the league and we’re on that average with a good run of games coming up. We had a great home record last season, but we struggled away from home against almost every single team in the league. Two away wins from three games so far is very encouraging with the only defeat coming away to unbeaten Chelsea.

It’s the Carabao Cup for us tonight when Brentford come calling and it’s a competition we reached the final in last season. The less said about that final the better though and it will be interesting to see Unai Emery's take on the lesser of the three domestic trophies we play for. Arsene Wenger used the competition to blood young players for many seasons and gradually strengthened the team as we progressed through the rounds. He never managed to win it though with defeats to Chelsea, Birmingham and City in the final during his reign.

The new man might just be tempted to give it a shot and he certainly played a stronger team than his predecessor would have done in our first Europa League group game last week. He has a great track record in winning trophies and I have no doubt he would love to get first trophy at Arsenal as quickly as possible regardless of the perceived value of the competition. The Premier League has to be our first priority, but trips to Wembley for cup finals are usually a pleasant sideshow.

I would expect a fairly similar team to the one which played last Thursday night, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Alexander Lacazette was the man leading the line this time with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the bench. Maybe Matteo Guendouzi might start in midfield with Lucas Torreira now looking like the man to anchor the midfield of our first choice 11 and we should see Stephan Lichsteiner, Bernd Leno, Mohamed Elneny and Danny Welbeck play from the start too. With doubts over the fitness of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sokratis Papastathopoulos I would expect both of them to sit the game out which would see Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal in defence and probably Emile Smith-Rowe play in an attacking role. The manager might opt for a slightly less experienced line up and I for one wouldn’t be averse to see Eddie Nketiah and one or two others get a run out from the start or at some stage during the game.

It’s certainly a fairly strong team and which would probably be expected to progress, but you can never take these games for granted as Derby showed us against United last night. Brentford have started the season very well and from the little I have seen of them they play some good football. They will ask plenty of questions of us and the players will have to be on the ball from the start.

We have looked far from at the races in the first half of games in particular this season, but the manager is adept at finding ways to adjust our style and performance. Progression to the next round would be nice and so would making it six wins in a row in all competitions, but ultimately the Carabao Cup is of little importance until we reach a stage where we can smell the chance of a trophy. If we’re going to play a strongish team in the Europa League then it could be at the cost of progress in the Carabao Cup and that would be understandable. 

Of course I want us to win tonight, but the result is not going to make a whole lot of difference to a season which is starting to show a little promise at this stage. Hopefully we’ll win well with the youngsters and fringe players making an impression and none of the players we depend on in our strongest team picking up any knocks. We have some momentum in the Premier League and that’s what has to be of upmost importance to us right now.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v FC Vorskla: Europa League Preview

With three Premier League wins in a row behind them Arsenal make the jaunt into Europa League football again tonight when FC Vorskla come to the Emirates Stadium. I can’t profess to knowing too much about tonight’s opponents and no team can be taken too lightly in European football as City learned to their expense last night. Whatever our opponents might be like we are again one of the favourites to win the trophy and we have a manager who knows what it takes to do it.

Arsene Wenger used the group stages to blood young players and give game time to those more senior players who weren’t getting it last season. I expect Unai Emery to do exactly the same this season with the team gradually improving as we go further into the competition. He has plenty of good players on the bench at the moment and he should add them to a few youngsters who could do with a game too.

We can expect to see Bernd Leno make his debut in goal after we spent so much money on him in the summer and I'm looking forward to seeing how he copes with how the manager wants the team to play. Petr Cech is struggling with the ball at his feet at times, but it seems we bought Leno because of his ability to use his feet among other things. If it goes well for him tonight I still don't expect him to dislodge Cech for a while yet, but the day must surely be coming.

In defence injuries mean we might have to play Nacho Monreal and one of either Shokdran Mustafi or Sokratis Papastathopoulos alongside Rob Holding and Stephan Lichsteiner who will be making his full debut tonight. Lichsteiner is a very strong defender who would get in a lot of Premier League teams, but Hector Bellerin will probably keep his place due to his youth and his attacking ability. It's good to know we have a player of Lichsteiner's quality available if Bellerin is injured or has problems with his form.

In midfield we should get to see the full debut of Lucas Torreira and he's a player who must be chomping at the bit for his first start. He has been very impressive in his substitute appearances so far and he has to make a first team place his own very soon for the good of the team. As much as I like Matteo Guendouzi I think Torreria has the ability to drive the team forward from midfield and he is exactly what we need in the team at the moment.

We should also see Mohamed Elneny get his first chance to show what he can do this season while Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will probably play too as they didn't start at Newcastle last Saturday. It looks like a pretty strong midfield to me and certainly one which should be able to dominate the game. I wouldn't be surprised if Torreira doesn't last the 90 minutes with Sunday's game against Everton on the manager's mind.

That should leave Danny Welbeck to lead the line with Emile Smith-Rowe playing somewhere between the midfield and attack unless the manager decides to pick Eddie Nketiah instead. I'm a big fan of Nketiah and I think he has a very exciting future in the game, but it's very hard for a young player to break into a team with strikers like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette ahead of him. I'm a big fan of Smith-Rowe too and from what we have seen before I don't think either player would be overawed tonight.

Hopefully we can get the campaign off to a good start in front of a fairly good crowd, but the Europa League group stages are hardly the things dreams are made of. We need to get back to the main table of the Champions League as soon as possible for the good of the club and for the money it brings in which cannot be overstated. It's much easier to attract top class players to the club with the promise of Champions League football and the longer we're out of it the harder it will become to get back in. One way to do it is to win the Europa League of course and we most certainly have a manager who knows how to do just that.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Which Arsenal Players Are On Their Way Out

Unai Emery has already brought five new players into the Arsenal squad this summer and he’s going to have to offload a few of the players he has to cover at least some of their transfer fees and wages as well as keeping the squad at a workable size. Of course Jack Wilshere has already left to join West Ham as he decided the new manager wasn’t going to give him as much game time as he wanted. We didn’t get a fee for Wilshere though as he was at the end of his contract and I would imagine any new purchases will have to be funded by players leaving.

We also saw the departure of Jeff Reine-Adelaide to Angers today, but he can hardly be considered a loss from the first team squad. He was a player with a lot of promise a few seasons ago, but we rarely got to see what he could do mainly because of a series of injuries. It’s hard to know how he will fare, but you have to at least wish him well for the future.

If the rumours are to be believed there are a few more players who the manager considers to be surplus to requirements and he is currently listening to offers for some of them. With so many defensive players already arriving it would surely be safe to assume we will be seeing the back of one or two of the defenders we have. Shkodran Mustafi had a fairly torrid time last season and the influx of central defenders could well see him on his way, but the ongoing injury to Laurent Koscielny might mean he stays put.

There has also been plenty of talk of Nacho Monreal retuning to Spain, but the manager seems reluctant to sell a player who was our most consistent defender last season. If Sead Kolasinac can make the left back berth his own it could see the departure of Monreal, but I think we will keep him for this season at least. Besides those two I can’t see any other possibilities for defenders leaving and I would even be surprised if either of them were sold.

The arrival of Bernd Leno has left us top heavy with goalkeepers though and I would be surprised if we didn’t sell at least one of them. Petr Cech has been linked with a return to Chelsea, but they opted to sign Rob Green instead while David Ospina is as always being linked with most of the clubs in Turkey. I think we need to sell at least one of them and given the choice I would opt to sell Ospina before Cech.

Of course the contract negotiations with Aaron Ramsey are still ongoing and getting him to extend his contract could be our best piece of business this summer. With the transfer window closing in two weeks we need to tie him down as quickly as possible or we will have to spend big to replace him in the current market. We just cannot allow him to run his contract down like both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil did last season.

With Granit Xhaka due back from his World Cup duties soon there has been some speculation that he might be surplus to requirements. It’s something I can’t see myself and I would be very surprised if he isn’t a big part in Emery’s plans for now and the future too. He has his detractors and he hasn’t always been at his best for us, but I think he’s a player with an awful lot to offer.

Lucas Perez is yet another player who’s future could be uncertain, but the early signs are the boss is prepared to give him a chance. He was certainly persona non grata last season, but the new regime seems prepared to let him prove his worth. The sales of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott in January and the possible sale of Danny Welbeck must surely keep a place open for another attacking player in the squad and Perez could be that player.

Welbeck is probably the last player who the boss is looking at offloading this summer and it wouldn’t surprise if he was sold. I don’t think he’s quite up to the level we want to play at and it would make sense to cash in on one of the rare occasions when he is actually fit. We’ll probably have to wait for him to come back from his World Cup duties before anything happens, but he certainly has to be a candidate for the exit door in the next two weeks.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Update As The World Cup Gets Real

When the World Cup started Arsenal were represented by nine of their players at the tournament and now with half of the 32 teams on their way home that figure has been cut to five players. The four players on their way home all managed to see some action with varying degrees of success, but at least they will be available to play for Arsenal sooner than the players still caught up in the tournament.

The big surprise among the players on their way home is Mesut Ozil as the reigning champions exited at the group stages for the third World Cup in a row. Germany picked Ozil from the start against South Korea and he created enough chances to win the game for them, but their 2-0 defeat saw them finish last in their group. As usual the Ozil haters were out in force blaming him for the failure of his country and just about anything else you care to think of. For me I think their demise was probably down to a little bit of over confidence and the lack of a striker to put away all the chances they (and Ozil in particular) made.

Joel Campbell will join Ozil on a beach somewhere no doubt and he managed to get his first start of the World Cup as Costa Rica managed their first point in a 2-2 draw with Switzerland. He actually had a very good game from what I saw and he had s huge part to play in both of their goals. He probably won’t be an Arsenal player next season, but his performance against Switzerland should at least mean sone interest is shown in him by other clubs.

Both Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi are on their respective ways home too as their countries bowed out at the group stages. Egypt lost all three of their games with Elneny playing all of those games, but it’s probably a tournament they would prefer to forget. Nigeria lost two of their three games, but it took a very late winner from Argentina to see them off on their merry way. Iwobi didn’t see an awful lot of game time after starting their first game and failing to impress.

We still have the Swiss pair of Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichsteiner involved as their country face Sweden in the last 16 on Tuesday, but they will have to do so without Lichsteiner as he got his second yellow in that game against Costa Rica and has to serve a one game suspension. He set up their first goal in that game and Xhaka played quite well too. Lichsteiner will be hoping the team can progress to the quarter finals so he can come in again and share in some of the glory.

David Ospina gets the thrill of playing against an England team which will see Danny Welbeck on the bench once more although he did manage a few minutes off the bench in their last group game. The defeat against Belgium sees England in the supposed easier half of the draw, but they will have to get past a Colombian team who have won their last two games without conceding a goal and only lost their opening game because they had to play for 87 minutes with 10 men. I’m not saying Colombia are favourites, but England could underestimate them at their peril.

As Arsenal fans we all know Ospina’s weaknesses and England would do well to try to exploit them. They have been very good at set pieces so far and I expect the ball to be put right in on top of Ospina at every chance. I also expect to see him go down injured on at least three occasions and who knows he might actually be injured on one of those occasions.

The final Arsenal player is Nacho Monreal who looks highly unlikely to get a game at all unless someone else is injured or suspended. As I write this Spain have just gone out on penalties in their round of 16 game with Russia and yet again Nacho is on the bench watching.

It does look like we will have a few players in  the quarter finals, but maybe only because England are playing  Colombia and we are guaranteed at least one player in the last eight.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Latest Arsenal World Cup Update

The World Cup continues apace and the Arsenal players at it are continuing to make very little impact. Of the nine players who are there to represent their countries only four started in the second round of games after five of them had started in the first round.

The first Arsenal player to make a real impact was Granit Xhaka when he scored a fantastic equaliser to get Switzerland back into the game against Serbia. A late Xherdan Shaqiri goal gave them the three points and they will qualify for the knockout stages once they don’t lose to Costa Rica. They could even win the group if they can outdo Brazil’s result against Serbia, but I’m sure they’ll be happy enough once they progress. Xhaka nearly got himself in trouble with FIFA for his goal celebration, but they decided not to press charges for him, Shaqiri and Stephan Lichsteiner.

Xhaka was joined in that Swiss team by Lichsteiner for that game and the more I see him the more I like him. He looks like he has the mentality we seem to be lacking and hopefully some of that can rub off on his new team mates next season. 

David Ospina kept a clean sheet for Colombia as they bounced back from their defeat against Japan with a convincing 3-0 win against Poland. He played his part in that victory with some good saves and he even managed to go down injured three times during the game as per usual. Colombia will have to beat Senegal in their final group game to progress, but they have every chance of doing so if they play like they did against Poland.

The last Arsenal player to get a game from the start was Mohamed Elneny and he has played his third game as I write this. Unfortunately Egypt lost all three games to finish last in their group and the tournament is over for them despite having Mohamed Salah among their ranks. On the plus side from an Arsenal perspective at least Elneny will have some down time before he’s back to pre season training.

The tale of the rest of the players doesn’t play too well with Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck still to kick a ball for Spain and England respectively even though both of their countries have progressed to the next round. 

Mesut Ozil didn’t play for Germany as they managed to bring themselves back from the brink of elimination with a 2-1 win against Sweden and a victory over South Korea should be enough to make the last 16 for them. It doesn’t look like it was injury which kept Ozil out, but you can’t be sure and I would be very surprised if we don’t see him back in the German team before too long.

Alex Iwobi came off the bench very late on as Nigeria beat Iceland 2-1 to boost their chances of progression. They should make the last 16 if they don’t lose to underperforming Argentina, but that still won’t be an easy task. Iwobi will find it hard to get into the team if they continue to perform like they did against Iceland, but he might still have a part to play too.

Finally Joel Campbell didn’t see any action as Costa Rica went down very late on to Brazil. They’re out of the tournament and they won’t find it easy to get anything from a Switzerland team looking for a result to make the last 16. With their tournament over they might just be tempted to give Campbell a chance to play from the start in that final game.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

World Cup Update From An Arsenal Perspective

With the first round of games at the World Cup over it’s time to look at the impact of the Arsenal players in the tournament so far. We have nine players in total playing for their countries, but not all of them are guaranteed starters.

First up I suppose we have to talk about Mesut Ozil and his contribution, or lack thereof, in the defeat for Germany against Mexico. Germany didn’t play well on the day, but for me far too many pundits and Arsenal fans are far too quick to lay the blame at his door time after time. If I hear one more idiot saying “he’s nicking a living” I think my head will explode. 

For me he was far from their worst player, but those who crave attention find it easy to single him out despite evidence to the contrary. He’s not the sort of player to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and win it on his own, but it seems nothing else is good enough than just that for some. His statistics on the day were quite good and it’s difficult to hold him responsible when others fail to finish the chances he invariably creates. Germany are far from done in this tournament though and we will probably see a lot more of them and Ozil too.

Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichsteiner were both important cogs in the Swiss team that got a creditable 1-1 against tournament favourites Brazil. That point gives them a very good chance of progressing to the knockout stages, but they still have a tricky game against Serbia as well as a game against Costa Rica. I thought both of them played quite well without being spectacular and I have no doubt they both have more to offer.

Lichsteiner did well against Brazil’s star player considering he had to play behind Xherdan Shaqiri who didn’t offer him too much defensive cover. Hector Bellerin will still be our first choice right back, but I would have no worries seeing Lichsteiner coming into the team at any time. Xhaka can do better and I would expect to see him get more of the ball in their next two games and hopefully make a real impact on those games.

Alex Iwobi played from the start for Nigeria in their 2-0 defeat against Croatia and that defeat leaves them on the brink of exiting the tournament with games against Argentina and Iceland to come. Iwobi didn’t have too much of an impact on the game and he was substituted shortly after the hour mark. He’s another player who might still make an impact though and I hope he can retain his place for the next two games and maybe go some way towards proving his doubters wrong.

Joel Campbell came off the bench for the last 30 minutes for Costa Rica in their 1-0 defeat against Serbia. With Brazil and Switzerland still to play the chances of progression for them are slim and they could easily end up pointless when the group concludes. I thought Costa Rica looked a little sharper in attack when Campbell came on and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start their next game.

Mohamed Elneny has played two games for Egypt now and defeats against Uruguay and Russia mean their tournament is as good as over. He hasn’t played badly in their two games, but he didn’t exactly make a huge impression either. It looks like he’ll be on his holidays very soon and back to pre season training for Arsenal nice and early.

David Ospina played in Colombia’s 2-1 defeat against Japan and there was very little he could do to prevent their first goal which was a penalty. He didn’t cover himself in glory for Japan’s winner though and I thought it was a ball he should have come for and won. Colombia have an uphill task with games to come against Senegal and Poland, but they can still progress to the last 16. They weren’t helped by having to play for 87 minutes with 10 men after an early red card and the absence of star man James Rodriguez too.

Danny Welbeck and Nacho Monreal didn’t get to play for their respective countries in their first games and they can only hope they get a chance to show what they can do as the competition progresses. Both England and Spain will be expected to progress to the last 16 and there’s every chance both of them will be called upon at some stage.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Players At The World Cup

With the World Cup only just around the corner it’s time to take a look at the Arsenal players who we will get to see playing in it for their countries. There are nine on show overall and I’ll go through them one by one starting with the ones with the best chance of actually lifting the trophy.

The Arsenal player with the best chance of winning the World Cup is probably Mesut Ozil considering Germany are the reigning champions and second favourites to lift the trophy. They have a very strong squad and Ozil is an intrical part of their team as long as he can recover from the injury which hampered his end to the season with Arsenal. If any Arsenal player is going to take a World Cup winners medal home it’s Ozil and it would be a real surprise if Germany didn’t at least make it to the semi finals. I’d give Ozil a rating of 40/100 for his chances.

Nacho Monreal has had a very good season for Arsenal despite the club having it’s worst season defensively under Arsene Wenger. He’s not a definite starter for Spain, but he can be depended upon if he gets the call to give his all. With Spain’s hopes in turmoil after the last minute sacking of their manager they might find their chances of regaining the trophy they won in 2010 that bit more difficult. After the events of this week I think his chances of lifting the trophy have drifted out and maybe they at about 20/100.

Despite playing for England Danny Welbeck is probably the Arsenal player with the third best chance of winning the World Cup. After recovering from his latest injury he finished the season well and he will be hopeful of getting a chance to make an impact in Russia. England should get out of their group, but their record in the knock out stages in tournaments isn’t good and they will have to raise their game to have an impact on this competition. If they reach the last eight they will have done quite well and for that reason I think his chances should get a rating of about 7/100.

David Ospina might not be the first choice goalkeeper for Arsenal, but he is most certainly the first choice for Colombia with nearly 100 caps to his name. They don’t have an easy group though, but their chances of making the last 16 are still pretty good. On the other hand their chances of winning the trophy are fairly long and even longer if Ospina insists on standing behind his line. They might be rank outsiders compared to the big boys, but only 10 other teams are a shorter price which means I should give them a chance of about 3/100 of winning.

Granit Xhaka can divide opinion among Arsenal fans, but he’s certainly one of the star players in a Swiss side that tends to qualify with ease and disappoint at tournaments. They will have to finish ahead of either Brazil or Serbia to make the knockout stages and that could prove to be more than problematic for them. If they’re going to make an impression they will need Xhaka to be at his best, but the chances are they will struggle for the goals they need to progress. I think Xhaka can make an impression at the World Cup, but his hopes of lifting trophy are probably about 1/100.

Stephan Lichsteiner has only just joined Arsenal after a very successful time at Juventus and he will be key to Switzerland’s chances too. He’s a vastly experienced defender at the very highest level in the game and he will make his 100th appearance for his country in their opening game against Brazil on Sunday. Like Xhaka he will be hoping to at least make the knock out stages in what will surely be his last chance to impress on the biggest stage of all. Like Xhaka his chances have to be 1/100.

Mohamed Elneny got injured towards the end of the season, but it looks like he will recover in time to represent his country at the World Cup. They’re in a group with the hosts, but it’s a group which gives them a great chance of progressing to the knockout stages. If they do make the last 16 they might need a bit of magic from Mo Salah to have a chance against any team, but who’s to say that won’t happen. With a ranking out of 100 it’s not easy to rank Egypt’s chances, but I can’t really go any lower than 1/100.

Alex Iwobi is another player who divides Arsenal fans, but it’s difficult to deny that he is very talented. How he puts that talent to use for Arsenal seems to be the issue, but he is certainly making an impact for his country with five goals in his 19 games and some good performances too which were topped off with two goals in a 4-2 friendly win against Argentina. They have a very tough group though and it will be a huge task for them to progress to the last 16. That means I can’t give them any more than the minimum 1/100, but in reality it should probably be less.

Joel Campbell is still an Arsenal player despite being out on loan for what seems like an awfully long time. Costa Rica are in a very tough group though and only four teams have a lesser chance of winning the trophy if the bookies are to be believed. It would be a huge deal for them to make the last 16 from such a tough group, but it’s something I just can’t see happening. Again their rating should be a lot less, but I’ll give them the minimum of 1/100.

With Ireland not qualifying for the World Cup I’m not sure who to support, but I will at least enjoy watching the Arsenal players playing for their countries.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Atletico Madrid Previewed

Arsenal’s season and Arsene Wenger’s last season in charge of them all comes down to tonight’s game away to Atletico Madrid. That could change with the right result tonight which would see the team win their way through to the Europa League Final. The prize for winning the Europa League is a place in next season’s Champions League and it would also give Wenger his first European trophy.

The first leg didn’t go exactly as planned last week when we could only draw 1-1 at home to an Atletico team who played almost all of the game with 10 men. A 1-0 win wouldn’t have been the worst result, but we really should have taken at least a two or three goal lead into tonight’s second leg. The late goal we conceded has left us teetering on the brink of defeat and we have to go to Madrid and get a result.

As it stands Atletico are on the way to the final with that away goal in the bank and we will be out if we don’t score tonight. We have to avoid defeat as well as scoring to either qualify for the final or at least bring the game into extra time. That’s a hard task for a team with our away record this season, but that record has been in the Premier League and we have actually traveled very well in the Europa League.

We went to AC Milan in the last 16 knowing they hadn’t conceded a goal in a long time, but we ended that run on the night and we have to end a similar run for Atletico tonight. They haven’t conceded a home goal since January and we will need to take a step up to be the first team to score away to them in nearly four months. While it is a huge task I certainly don’t think it’s one that is completely beyond this team.

I expect a very similar team to the first leg with the possible inclusion of Henrikh Mkhitaryan who returned from injury on Sunday as a team of fringe players and youngsters were a little unlucky to lose 2-1 at United. Both Hector Bellerin and Granit Xhaka played in that game, but the rest of the expected team for tonight sat it out with the exception of Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck who both came off the bench. David Ospina picked up a knock in that game and it could mean we see Petr Cech get the nod tonight. As I’ve said previously I don’t see too much between them and we really need a new keeper for next season.

If Mkhitaryan comes in (and I really hope he does) it will be for either Welbeck or Jack Wilshere and I suspect it could be the later. Welbeck offers more of a goal threat and we have to score tonight or we are out. Mkhitaryan can take some of the pressure off Mesut Ozil with his ability to commit players and that might just free up Ozil to create chances that others can hopefully take.

We targeted them on crosses last week and that’s where our goal came from. They have conceded a fair proportion of their goals in the Europa League from crosses and I imagine we will try to prod that weakness again tonight. Hopefully we will be a little better at taking the chances that come our way.

I could take a long time listing the statistics that are against us tonight between our away record, their home record and our recent trips to Spain, but there’s no real point in doing so. We need the players to treat this game as a one off or a Cup Final I suppose and go for the result they need as if their lives depended on it. If they’re going to bid farewell to the manager with a trophy they have to get the result required tonight or it’s finished.

No doubt Atletico will target our defensive frailties and we have to stand strong against the likes of Antonio Griezmann and Diego Costa. On the face of it that’s a huge task, but we would have succeeded in that task last week except for one communal slip. If the players concentrate from first to last minute and believe in themselves anything is possible.

We have players who can hurt any team even though it seems like it’s us fans they have become fond of hurting in recent seasons and this season in particular. As a fan you need belief in your team though and I always approach a game genuinely believing we can win it. Tonight is no different, but let’s just hope that belief isn’t shattered.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Bitter Disappointment As Arsenal Fail To Beat 10 Man Atletico

It’s been a very disappointing season for Arsenal, but they have a chance to come out of it with some pride and glory if they can go all the way and win the Europa League. They played at home to Atletico Madrid last night in the first leg of their semi final knowing they needed a positive result to take to Madrid next week. It was never going to be an easy task against an Atletico team who stop teams scoring goals for fun.

Arsene Wenger went with the expected starting 11 which meant Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere returned from illness and injury respectively for Alex Iwobi who dropped to the bench and the injured Mohamed Elneny. I worried that Atletico would be too savvy for us and would bide their time before picking us off on the break with Antonio Griezmann in excellent form coming into the game. We needed to start with determination and a fast tempo and we did just that.

With less than 10 minutes gone and Arsenal in the ascendancy thinks took a real turn in our favour. Atletico’s right back received his second yellow card of the night for a nasty looking challenge on Nacho Monreal and it was hard to argue with the referee’s decision. We had the chance to put them to the sword and try to make the second leg a much easier prospect.

Arsenal surged forward and came close to scoring time after time, but the elusive goal wouldn’t come in the first half thanks to some excellent goalkeeping and profligate finishing. Atletico came back into the game late in the first half and early in the second half, but they soon retreated en masse to their own penalty area to try to defend the 0-0 scoreline. It seemed to be working for them until Alexandre Lacazette rose highest to head home a Jack Wilshere cross and put us 1-0 up.

We didn’t sit back and look to defend that lead as we pushed for more goals to bring the prospect of the final even closer. At the other end we maintained our discipline in defence and Atletico didn’t look like scoring in the second half. It took just one moment of madness to undo our good work though and that moment came with less than 10 minutes to go.

First of all Danny Welbeck ran into a blind alley and fell over looking for a foul that never happened when he lost the ball. With Atletico in possession in their own half Aaron Ramsey stood and watched as a long ball was played forward instead of at least attempting to close it down or put pressure on the player launching it. What happened next just encapsulated all that is wrong about our defending.

Every team knows how susceptible we are to a long ball, but Laurent Koscielny got to it ahead of Antonio Griezmann and just had to deal with it. Unfortunately he decided to try to hook it back over his head and instead hit himself in the face with that ball and the ball fell to Griezmann with only David Ospina to beat. Ospina got enough on his attempt to keep it out, but Shkodran Mustafi couldn’t stop him dispatching the rebound to the back of the net.

On the face of it the goal wasn’t the worst one to concede, but when you look closer it’s ridiculous how many things we got wrong. After both Welbeck’s and Ramsey’s contributions the spolight fell on the defenders and they really didn’t cover themselves in glory. 

With Nacho Monreal five yards behind him Koscielny decided to push up and play offside for some bizarre reason. I’m not sure which one of them was at fault, but both of their actions showed a complete lack of communication. As Koscielny chased back with Griezmann he was watched by a virtually static Mustafi who never considered that Griezmann might get the better of Koscielny. When he did it was too late for Mustafi to recover in time and he slipped in his attempts to do so which only saw the shot deflect off him into the roof of the net.

We needed every single player to be on his game and concentrate 100% for every minute of the game, but as well as they did for so long they just couldn’t stop themselves reverting to type. The absolute basic errors we have made all season long came back to haunt us and Atletico got the away goal they craved. Try as we did we couldn’t regain our advantage and we had to settle for a draw on the night.

While going to Atletico and getting the result we need to progress to the final isn’t beyond us it’s still a huge task. They haven’t conceded a home goal in 11 games and they showed last night that they know how to defend even when they’re down to 10 men. We need to go there and score or we will be out of the competition and it’s going to take a monumental effort from the players to get a result.

I suppose last night was to be expected and it was foolish to let a team who have disappointed so often get our hopes up. I thought we played well enough though and we managed to get a goal against a team who don’t concede too many goals. Even at 1-0 we had a chance of going through, but those chances are vastly reduced now.

The disappointment stems from the chance we had when they went down to 10 men and the chances we continually created, but failed to take. We couldn’t have asked for more than playing against 10 men, but somehow we managed to mess it up for ourselves yet again. Hope springs eternal though and I refuse to give up on that hope until I hear the final whistle next Thursday night.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To CSKA Moscow Previewed

Arsenal are only one game away from their first European semi final in nine years as they travel to Moscow for the second leg of their Europa League quarter final against CSKA. They lead 4-1 going into the game after a fantastic attacking performance last week even if the defending left a lot to be desired. The three goal lead is a huge advantage, but we have to be careful of the away goal scored against us last week.

The events in Rome last night showed how dangerous an away goal can be with Barcelona going out on away goals despite their 4-1 win in their home leg. On the other hand Liverpool showed the advantage of keeping a clean sheet in the home leg when they managed to put City out of the Champions League. CSKA will have to score at least three times to have any chance of going through, but any goals from us will make their task so much harder.

We certainly looked like we had done our homework on them last week when we used the width of the pitch to get in behind a back line that has played for more years than they care to remember. Of course they had done their homework on us too and they caused us a lot of problems at the back and far more than we should be comfortable with. However, I think they have even more to worry about considering how easily we took them apart last week.

Arsene Wenger will pick the strongest team available to him, but he does have a few injury worries to concern him. Firstly Granit Xhaka hasn’t travelled due to illness which is a big blow to the balance in our midfield, but it should see the inclusion of Mohamed Elneny. He has looked good in his recent outings and he probably offers more in the defensive aspect of the game, but Xhaka has been an intrical part of the upturn in our attacking play in our last six games.

I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Elneny in from the start for Jack Wilshere considering the recent form of both players, but Wilshere has a chance to silence the doubters in this game. Aaron Ramsey will come back into the team after being rested at the weekend and he was one of the players who caused CSKA so many problems last week. I don’t think we’ll see him getting forward quite so often in this game, but I won’t be surprised to see him get on the scoresheet either.

With Henrikh Mkhitaryan out for roughly the next month after the knock he took in the game last week there’s a chance for either Alex Iwobi or Danny Welbeck to play from the start. I’ve been very impressed by Mkhitaryan since he joined us in January and I think he plays very well with Mesut Ozil. I wasn’t sure we could accommodate both of them in the same team, but I think opponents find it difficult to keep track of the creativity of both of them at the same time. 

Sometimes Ozil can be curtailed by putting an extra man on him or closing him down quickly, but it’s hard to do that to both of them at the same time. I hope we can get Mkhitaryan back if we progress as far as the final, but I imagine there’s every chance his season is over. His absence puts more pressure on Ozil and he will make the difference if he can play half as well as he did last week.

We should also see Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal come back into the defence and they are our two best and most experienced defenders despite some of the mistakes Koscielny in particular has made in recent games. As a team we are broken defensively and it’s hard to believe we can play well enough in defence to actually win the Europa League, but we can certainly get through tonight. The ages of Koscielny, Monreal and Petr Cech suggest all of them haven’t too long left in their careees and we need to invest heavily in defenders as well as finding a way to coach the team how to defend an awful lot better.

I mentioned earlier about the choice between Welbeck and Iwobi in place of the injured Mkhitaryan. I think it will go the way of Iwobi as he can offer more creativity and I was impressed by his performance against Southampton on Sunday. He’s a player who divides opinion, but I think his ability to make chances and play deeper than Welbeck will see him play. 

I’m not exactly Welbeck’s biggest fan, but he has to be admired for his ability to recover from one injury after another. Despite my misgivings about him he has gradually got better since his most recent return from injury and he has bagged his fair share of goals too. If I’m not mistaken only Alexandre Lacazette has scored more goals than Welbeck so far this season. 

Speaking of Lacazette he looks so much better since his return from injury and you have to believe his game was being affected by the injury before he was ruled out. He’s eventually looking like the striker we signed last summer and hopefully we can find a way to accommodate both him and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the team next season. I also think the change in the way we have played since the departure of Alexis Sanchez has helped our strikers and the goals are flowing for Lacazette, Aubameyang and Welbeck at the moment.

After the departure of Sanchez it looked like our chances in the Europa League would be limited, but at least we had Mkhitaryan even if Aubameyang was ineligible to play. We now have to do it without Mkhitaryan too and Xhaka is a big loss for me, but I still think we will get the better of CSKA at least. 

Hopefully our tie won’t have the drama of the Champions League quarter finals and we can progress with relative ease. Once we progress I’ll be happy though and we can look forward to Friday’s semi final draw if that is the case.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v CSKA Moscow: Europa League Quarter Final First Leg

With the rest of the season a write off at this stage Arsenal at least have a chance to make it to a European Final this season. The Europa League might be the second class trophy of European football, but winning it would be a big thing for Arsenal. Besides the nice shiny trophy the winner also qualifies for next season’s Champions League and it’s the only way Arsenal can make it back to the top table for next season.

Arsene Wenger has almost a full strength squad to choose from with the exception of the injured Santi Cazorla (remember him) and the ineligible Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Petr Cech is available again after missing Sunday’s win against Stoke with an injury and there’s even a chance he might play despite David Ospina being the “cup goalkeeper”. We should also see Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka come back into the team after both of them were rested against Stoke although Xhaka did come on in the later stages.

I would expect to see a back four (which more or less picks itself from the manager’s perspective at least) as the experiment with three central defenders now seems dead more than a year after it saved our season last season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a midfield trio of Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere with Wilshere in an advanced role. That would leave Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan either side of hopefully Alexandre Lacazette who we have been told has recovered enough from his injury to start.

I’m not so sure Wilshere is the ideal player to play as I can’t say I’ve been impressed with him in the last couple of months, but I would be surprised if he didn’t play. It might not be the worst idea to play Mohamed Elneny alongside Xhaka and let Ramsey play a more attacking role as the chances are he’s going to push forward anyway and he offers a lot more in the attacking third than Wilshere. With both Ozil and Mkhitaryan in the team I’m not sure Wilshere has a place to fill and both of them certainly offer a lot more end product too.

I’m not sure Lacazette will start as he has only had 15 minutes since he returned from his injury and there is every chance Danny Welbeck will get the nod. I’m not a fan of Welbeck and a less than fully match fit Lacazette is a better option in my opinion. Welbeck may well have been the player who managed to see us home in the home game against Milan, but I just cannot see his value to the team.

We are on a pretty good run of results at the moment with four consecutive wins and 11 goals scored in those games and only one conceded. On the face of it that’s quite impressive, but anyone who has watched us knows we have not been exactly impressive in most of those games. I would say the away win against Milan was probably the exception, but I struggle to see how we can win the Europa League playing as we are at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong, I want us to win every game we ever play, but for me the team is broken and it won’t take too much to bring it out again. The arrivals of Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan have certainly improved us in an attacking sense, but nothing has been done to change how badly we defend as a team and as individual players too. If we come up against a team who know how to defend and close their opponents down we will be in trouble and Atletico Madrid are standing in the way of any team who wants to win the Europa League this season.

CSKA will be no pushover either, but we are favourites to progress and rightly so when you look at the players we have. It’s how those players play as a team and how it seems the manager is incapable of inspiring them to excel or coach them to cope against the best sides (or any side away from home this season). I have long ago given up hope of him turning things around and I think the only way forward is for him to leave.

He’s going nowhere though and I still want the team to do the best they can with him in charge. I’d gladly take the glory of a Europa League win even though there’s every possibility it could prolong the manager’s time at the club. That might sound a little strange, but surely it’s not as strange as some fans who seem to want us to lose to hasten his departure.

I think we need to get at least a two goal start from the home leg as a trip to Moscow next week is one that should give us some cause for concern. We have a pretty poor record in European games in Moscow and I wouldn’t like to be going there needing to get a result. I’m not going to dare to predict an outcome, but like always when Arsenal play I honestly think beforehand that they will win despite any or all evidence to the contrary.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome Back Arsenal

It’s been far too long since we’ve seen Arsenal play football and international friendlies just do not make up for the teal thing. By the real thing I mean Arsenal of course and not competitive internationals which are only marginally better than their friendly cousins. The season is drawing towards a close now and there’s still a lot to be decided at the business end of it.

Unfortunately we have to wait an extra day for Arsenal to play this weekend as they don’t face Stoke at the Emirates until 1.30 on Sunday. It’s another must win game for us as most of our games will be from here until the end of the season. A top four finish might be beyond us at this stage, but we still have to make sure we finish sixth to at least assure ourselves of Europa League football next season.

The teams below us haven’t really put any pressure on us at all, but both Burnley and Leicester are capable of closing the gap if we drop points. We have crucial games against both of them to come and the outcomes of those games will probably decide whether we have to fight to finish sixth or whether we can really concentrate on trying to win the Europa League. There is no doubt that the Europa League has to be our number one priority with the prize of Champions League football on offer to the winner, but we cannot completely ignore our bread and butter.

Ahead of Sunday’s game there’s fairly good news on the fitness front of the squad with almost everybody available to play. Of course Santi Cazorla is still injured and who knows if we’ll ever see him in an Arsenal shirt again, but Jack Wilshere looks likely to recover from the knock which kept him out of the England games and Alexandre Lacazette is almost ready to play again too. It’s going to give Arsene Wenger a few selection headaches for Stoke on Sunday and against CSKA next Thursday too.

I think he’s going to go with a pretty strong team against Stoke and the strongest team possible against CSKA. His options are a little easier with Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang ineligible on Thursday so he should be unleashed against Stoke. It will be a straight choice between Danny Welbeck and Lacazette agsinst CSKA with Welbeck likely to get the nod and Lacazette probably gradually introduced in the next couple of games from the bench.

We have had our run ins with Stoke over the years and it would be great if we could push them even closer to the Championship for next season. The treatment their fans dish out to Aaron Ramsey is still a bone of contention and it would be nice to see the player who shattered his leg that day getting relegated. Maybe his mother will come and collect him if it happens and wipe the tears from his eyes.

Besides that horrific incident we have had to listen to their constant chants of our players always cheating when they have the termerity to go down after being kicked by Stoke players. We have struggled up there far too often for my liking, but their record at the Emirates is hardly one to write home about. If we can play our part in relegating them it will at least put s smile on my face in a season which has given us very little to smile about.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Waiting In Vain

Is it just me or does the current international break seem even longer than usual from an Arsenal perspective. I suppose the FA Cup games on the weekend before the break didn’t help with Arsenal’s participation in the competition this season a distant memory of an awful Sunday afternoon in January. At least we’re still in one cup competition though and it should hopefully be all guns blazing towards Europa League glory when the real football returns at least.

For the moment we just have to hope all of our players come through their international games unscathed and come back in tip top condition. It’s not something which we can usually rely on and it hasn’t started too well with Jack Wilshere missing England’s win over the Netherlands thanks to a knee injury. With his injury record any slight knock has to be a real worry and Arsene Wenger seems to have found a way to play him in midfield recently along with both Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka.

Wilshere’s contract is up at the end of the season and there’s every chance he could be on his way once the season is over. It seems he’s not overly happy with the new contract offer from the club and he could probably look to earn more elsewhere. Given his injury history he might find a lot of “pay for play” offers are coming his way and that could prove problematic for a player who has been injured more than he has been available to play or so it seems at least.

When the players return they will get the chance to push Stoke closer to the Championship before they get back to Europa League action and it’s a chance they have to take. Sixth place is still by no means certain with both Burnley and Leicester hoping to catch us and we have to play both of them before the season ends. We probably need five wins in our last eight games to guarantee sixth place, but that would be even less if we beat Burnley and Leicester.

The following Thursday it’s CSKA Moscow at home and the chance to get ahead in the first leg of the Europa League quarter final before heading to Russia the following Thursday. There are some very good teams still left in the Europa League this season and winning it is going to be a huge ask for an Arsenal team which has been far too inconsistent this season. That has to be their target though with Champions League qualification for the winners as well as a lovely shiny trophy.

The additions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang And Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January seems to be having an effect and Aubameyang should play all of our remaining league games as he’s ineligible to play in the Europa League. At least Alexandre Lacazette is back from injury for those European games even if Danny Welbeck managed to play such an important role in putting Milan out in the last round. Our attacking options are looking pretty good at the moment, but our real problems lie in our inability to defend individually or as a team.

When it comes to playing a team like Atletico Madrid those defensive deficiencies could be cruelly exposed against a team who have defending down to a fine art. Of course they could be knocked out before we get to meet them in a semi final or the final if we even manage to get past CSKA which won’t be an easy task in itself. I’m hopeful of progressing though and I think we will finish sixth, but I still think hopes of lifting that trophy in June are a long way from being fulfilled.

As the international break drags slowly into it’s second week it’s hard to think of much else from an Arsenal perspective though. Despite all of our shortcomings in recent seasons we have been pretty good in cup games, with the exception of Champions League knockout games, and that has to give us some hope. It’s the waiting that’s killing me at the moment though and I just have to hope that wait isn’t in vain.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Watford Preview

Things took a very pleasant turn for the better for Arsenal on Thursday night when they won 2-0 away to AC Milan in the Europa League. That result leaves them in a very strong position ahead of the second leg on Thursday night and they can concentrate on trying to get a positive result today. They haven’t played well in the Premier League since the 5-2 win at home to Everton a few weeks ago and they need a similar performance today.

It’s been a dreadful year so far for Arsenal with defeat after defeat which has seen the Europa League as their only chance for a trophy this season. The top four and the Champions League football that comes with it is gone too and again the Europa League is the only route back to Europe’s elite competition available to the club. They have to make sure they finish high enough to play in next season’s Europa League though because the teams behind them are closing fast and putting sixth place under threat.

It’s a sad state of affairs for the club when we are looking over our shoulders at Burnley closing in on us in sixth place as we enter the final stages of the season. For the sixth richest club in the world to be struggling to hold on to sixth place in their domestic league is completely unacceptable and it shows how far we are from our true potential. We need to win enough points between now and the end of the season to finish comfortably in sixth starting with today.

We owe Watford one too after they came from behind to win at their ground earlier in the season. We weren’t helped by some bad refereeing decisions, but we were still the architects of our own destruction on the day. We also owe one to Troy Deeney after he told all who would listen to him after the game that we had no “cojones”. 

It will be interesting to see how our players react to him today because if it was me I would certainly “let him know I was there’ early on. As a team we don’t particularly resort to the Spurs tactic of rotational fouling, but I would love the players to decide themselves to do just that on Deeney today. It’s something I can’t see happening though, but I will be pleasantly surprised if we kick him from one end of the pitch to the other.

Having played on Thursday night away from home Arsene Wenger will have to consider making some changes today to keep players fit for next Thursday. If they’re fit again I would expect Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal to play as their replacements both went off injured on Thursday night and would be better off on the bench today for their own sakes if they make the squad. Petr Cech will return in goal, but maybe it’s time for David Ospina to get the nod over him after his two mistakes helped Brighton to beat us last week. I’m not Ospina’s greatest fan and I doubt if the manager will go with him, but the more I see of Cech the more I believe he’s too far past his best to continue as our first choice keeper.

Up front Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is sure to play as he’s a top class striker and was ineligible on Thursday night. He has two league goals to his name since he joined the club at the end of January, but a player with his ability has the potential to destroy the defence of any team in any league given the chances. We need to make those chances for him today and for the rest of the season too and if we do he could well get us plenty of much needed goals.

With Aubameyang sure to play it makes sense to keep Danny Welbeck on the bench as he is going to be the first choice striker on Thursday night. With his injury record I think it’s a big risk to play him too often and playing him today could easily rob us of his services against Milan. If that was the case we would be forced to play Eddie Nketiah against Milan and maybe that might just be the break he needs.

Elsewhere I doubt if there will be too many changes to a winning team that needs to find some consistency. The away game against Watford summed up so much that is wrong with this team and the home defeat against them last season did the exact same thing too. We cannot afford to let Watford beat us for the third time in a row and we need to see more of what we saw on Thursday night if we’re going to take all three points.

As bad as we have been this season our home league form has still been pretty good with only the two Manchester clubs winning at the Emirates. We have drawn with Liverpool and Chelsea too, but we have beaten every team below us we have played and Spurs also.

Watford’s away form is in the bin at the moment with only one point and two goals in their last seven away games. They have kept clear of the wrong end of the table by improving their home form, but it’s up to us to make sure they continue that away form. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To AC Milan Previewed

The last few weeks have been even tougher than usual in what has been a very tough season for Arsenal. We’ve lost the Carabao Cup Final to City, lost our last three league games and even lost at home to Ostersund in the second leg of the last round of the Europa League. We did progress despite that defeat though and that leaves us with a last 16 tie with AC Milan which starts with the first leg in Milan tonight.

We go into the game devoid of any form after four defeats in a row and with performances that seem to get progressively worse with each game. Our only remaining route to success this season is the Europa League and winning it is the only way we will qualify for the Champions League next season too. That might seem like an incredibly unlikely scenario at the moment, but it’s one we have to hope can occur.

To make matters worse Alexandre Lacazette is injured for tonight and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ineligible so our striking options are severely limited. Danny Welbeck is the most likely candidate for the role, but to say he has been poor since his latest return from injury is a massive understatement and I just don’t think he’s up to the task. There is a train of thought that young Eddie Nketiah might get the nod and it’s a choice I think might just be bold enough to pay off, but I would be very surprised if Arsene Wenger chose anyone other than Welbeck to play up front.

Both Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey were rested for the debacle at Brighton on Sunday although Bellerin did come on late on and I would imagine we will see both of them in from the start tonight. With Nacho Monreal injured it means Sead Kolasinac will probably play on the left unless Ainsley Maitland-Niles plays, but he seems to have fallen out of favour since he got 45 minutes in his favoured central midfield role against Ostersund a couple of weeks ago. David Ospina will be back in his usual goalkeeping role for cup games and he surely can’t do much worse than Petr Cech did against Brighton. 

I would like to see us set out to keep things tight like we did away to Chelsea in the league and the Carabao Cup. That tactic worked well in both games when we came out with two respectable 0-0 draws and that would be a perfectly acceptable result tonight. If we’re going to do that tonight the players will have to work their socks off and that’s something that we haven’t seen far too often this season.

We have it in us though and we have to hope the players realise this is their only hope of any glory this season and can raise their game accordingly. If they can work hard and give their all from first minute to last the result will be a lot more acceptable no matter what it is. Even a one goal defeat would leave us still in the tie ahead of the second leg next week and we have a pretty good record at home this season despite our recent results.

It’s an awful lot to expect from players who have let us down time after time, but as a fan you need that hope and you never want your team to lose no matter what. The manager has seemed utterly incapable of getting his players up for games or of changing things in game when it’s not working, but he has to try to influence their performance tonight somehow. We have had some fantastic away wins in Europe under Wenger over the years and tonight would be the perfect time for another one. I have little to no expectation of a good result, but I will always live in hope until the players prove me wrong at least.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal V Ostersund Preview

Things are a little odd at the moment for us Arsenal fans with a game last Thursday night and another game tonight, but no weekend game in between. The FA Cup exit to Forest was the reason we didn’t play last weekend and our sojourn in the Europa League is the reason for a season interspersed with Thursday night football. There’s still a way to go in the Europa League, but if we can finish the job we started last week we will at least be through to the last 16.

After a 3-0 win in Sweden last week we have a great advantage going into tonight’s second leg. Last week’s game wasn’t exactly a classic, but the 3-0 win leaves us nicely set up to progress to the last 16 where we can probably expect a tougher opponent. That doesn’t mean tonight is a forgone conclusion, but anything other than Arsenal progressing to the next round would be a disaster at this stage.

With the Carabao Cup Final against City on Sunday you would expect Arsene Wenger to rest whatever players he can tonight. I would be surprised to see Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Nacho Monreal in the team, but otherwise I think he will pick a strong enough team. Ostersund gave it a go when they went 2-0 down last week, but even a team without those three players should be too strong for them.

The manager has been talking Danny Welbeck up ahead of the game and it’s another chance for him to show what he can do. His career at Arsenal has been severely hampered by injuries and he’s just back from the latest of those. He has shown promise at times, but I’m not sure he’s at the level we require going forward.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ineligible and Alexandre Lacazette injured he’s our best option in the Europa League unless Eddie Nketiah was to be given a shot. He certainly looks like he could be the future of the club and the game tonight might just be a big chance for him. Maybe Welbeck will start in a wider role with Nketiah through the middle, but I doubt it as much as I might want to see it happen. 

I can’t see Aaron Ramsey playing either as he’s only just returning from injury and I suspect everything will be done to make sure he is available for Sunday. It will be interesting to see whether it’s him or Jack Wilshere selected to play alongside Granit Xhaka agsinst City. I think we will get another look at Ainsley Maitland-Niles in midfield tonight and maybe we might even see the elusive Sead Kolasinac at left back.

David Ospina will be in goal again and he will more than likely play there on Sunday too. Whatever about rotating our keepers or giving Ospina a chance in cup games I think we have to play our strongest team in a cup final. It’s a decision which could cost us dearly on Sunday (unless it goes to penalties), but I would be very surprised if Ospina didn’t play.

To be honest tonight is a game we really want to get out of the way with the minimum fuss so we can concentrate on Sunday. The Carabao Cup might not be the biggest trophy in terms of credibility, but it’s our best chance of a trophy this season at this stage. The Europa League still offers another chance, but we will have a long way to go after tonight just to reach the final and an awful lot of good teams stand in our way.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.