Arsenal v Chelsea: FA Cup Final Preview

It’s been a very difficult season as an Arsenal fan with the disappointments seemingly far outweighing the few positives, but we have a chance to change all of that on Saturday. Arsenal already hold the record for winning the most FA Cup Finals and they can bring their tally to 14 if they can overcome Chelsea. It would be a great way to end the strangest of seasons and it would bring the added bonus of qualification for the Europa League for next season.

There are those who say Arsenal could do with a season out of European football’s lesser competition and I can understand that point of view, but I don’t agree with it. Not only will the Europa League bring in some much needed money, but it will surely help to attract potential transfer targets if we have some form of European football to offer. Until our untimely exit this season we had done very well in the Europa League in the previous two seasons even if they both ultimately ended in disappointment.

Having finished eighth (yes eighth) in the Premier League we are lucky to have the opportunity to qualify for Europe and it’s one we have to take. We were in a similar situation last season when we again faced Chelsea in the Europa League final with a spot in the Champions League on offer for us if we had lifted the trophy. That didn’t end well for us and it should have marked the end for Unai Emery at the club, but those at the top waited until we plummeted a lot further before making that decision.

When Mikel Arteta took charge half way through the season we were in a bad way and he has managed to turn things around to a degree, but we still have a long way to go. I think he is the right man to lead us forward, but he needs to bring in players who want to play for us and him and who can improve what has become a pretty average team. If it wasn’t for the goals of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang our season would have been so much worse and Arteta needs to find some players who can get us the goals that are lacking in every other part of our team.

Of course this could be Aubameyang’s last game for Arsenal if we can’t convince him to sign a contract extension and decide to cash in on whatever value he has at 31 with a year left on his contract in the current economic climate caused by Covid19. I am of the opinion we might be better to keep him until his contract ends if he won’t extend as it would cost even more to replace him and finding another striker of his ability who would be prepared to join us would be no easy task. One of the few joys I have left when watching Arsenal is Aubameyang’s smile when he scores.

It could be the last game for Dani Ceballos too as his loan spell from Real Madrid is up, but the rumours are he will be loaned to us again next season. I’ve been impressed by him since football returned, but he’s not exactly the most creative of players which probably makes him fit right in with the rest of our midfield at the moment. He has formed a fairly good partnership with Granit Xhaka though and I would be very surprised if they both don’t start against Chelsea.

The other bright moments in this season have come through the emergence of Bukayo Saka and the impression Kieran Tierney has made since he managed to put his injury problems behind him when football returned. Saka signing a new contract was a big bonus for us and I look forward to him developing as a player and finding the position that best suits him. Tierney looks to have all the assets we could ask for in the attacking side of his game and his defending should improve if we can put other good defenders in there with him.

The injury to Bernd Leno looked to have put us in a very awkward situation only a few weeks ago, but Emiliano Martinez has grabbed his opportunity with both hands which is always preferable for any goalkeeper. He will play against Chelsea and he will most definitely give Arteta a few headaches when it comes to choosing his first choice keeper for next season. With the attacking players Chelsea will have on show Martinez will have to be at his best if we’re going to have a chance.

I imagine Arteta will play Hector Bellerin on the right of the defence with David Luiz in the centre alongside Rob Holding. If he opts for three central defenders I would prefer to see Tierney alongside those two with Saka on the left as Sead Kolasinac is an accident waiting to happen all too often. Of course Luiz is the definition of an accident waiting to happen as the five penalties he gave away this season indicate. I really find it hard to understand how we extended his contract a few weeks ago, but we are so limited in the centre of our defence that I suppose we couldn’t afford to let him go. Hopefully William Saliba will very quickly become the player we want him to be when he joins us.

With five at the back and Xhaka and Ceballos in midfield it would leave Aubameyang attacking from the left which is where he gets so many of his goals. I would imagine Alexandre Lacazette will play through the middle with his ability to hold the ball up and harass the opposing defenders. He’s added a few goals in recent weeks too and it would be the ideal game for another blockbuster like we saw a couple of weeks ago.

The last place should realistically go to our record signing, but Nicolas Pepe hasn’t had the easiest first season in English football. I think it’s too easy to keep him out of the game and he needs to find a way to become more involved. He has the ability to be our match winner against Chelsea, but we could see him on the bench with Arteta possibly favouring a player who might give us more work rate.

We had great results against both Liverpool and City so recently and I expect us to try to play in a similar fashion against Chelsea. If we try to take the game to them too much our defensive deficiencies on the break could come back to haunt us so it will probably be a case of looking for our chances on the break or from a turnover. Chelsea’s defence has been no better than ours for most of the season and they actually conceded six goals more than us in the Premier League.

It’s going to be very strange watching the FA Cup Final with no fans in the stadium, but it has become the new normal. I hope we can put in a performance to be proud of and it has to be better than what we saw against the same opposition in the Europa League final last season. It would be great for Arteta and our future if he could inspire the players to put in a performance to win the cup. 

I won’t say I think we will win, but I definitely think we have a very good chance. Chelsea are rightly the favourites as they finished fourth in the league and we had our worst finish in 25 years all the way back in eighth place. It’s a one off game though and City realised in the semi-final that we can give just about any team a game if we’re at our best. All I wish for is Arsenal to be just that and hopefully it will be enough to finish the season in some glory with a nice shiny trophy.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Brighton Preview

We all hoped the Freddie Ljungberg time in charge at the club would get off to a good start at Norwich on Sunday and for the first half hour it looked like it might just do. However, Norwich scored first and all of our frailties were laid bare for all to see. To their credit the players did at least manage to come back from behind twice to get a 2-2 draw, but it was definitely another two points dropped. Norwich probably deserved all three points by the end of the game though and we were thankful to Bernd Leno for the one point we did get.

We have now played all of the bottom three clubs and failed to beat any of them with 2-2 draws away to Watford and Norwich and at home to Southampton. To be honest we were more than a little fortunate to emerge with a draw from each of those games and it says an awful lot about where we are as a team. There’s a scrap developing for fifth place in the Premier League and it looks like that’s the very best we can achieve this season as it stands.

Defensively we’re an absolute shambles and it just doesn’t look like changing. No matter what defenders we pick they continue to make wrong decisions both individually and collectively. They’re not helped by our midfield making the exact same errors when it comes to the defensive part of their game.

I had hoped Freddie would have picked Nicolas Pepe at Norwich, but from what he said there seems to be some issue with Pepe and he’s carried on Unai Emery’s policy of not giving him even a minute to play. It’s just as well we didn’t splash out a club record fee on him last summer I suppose. As I’ve said before I’d like to see Pepe play wide right of a front three with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through the middle and Gabriel Martinelli on the left.

Surely a home game against a Brighton team who don’t travel well can afford us an opportunity to play an attacking team with loads of pace. They might have put up a good show in losing 2-1 at Liverpool on Saturday, but Brighton have only taken one point in their last six away games. They’re definitely more adventurous than they were last season, but we should be far too good for them at home if we approach the game in the right way.

I’d love to see both Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney as the full backs if they’re fit enough to play and Lucas Torreira given the job of anchoring the midfield. I think a team built around those three with the attacking trio I mentioned has to be able to get our first win in seven league games. Of course having Mesut Ozil to supply the ammunition for the front three would be great too and the fact Freddie picked him on Sunday is promising.

I expect a much better atmosphere at the Emirates tonight which will hopefully make it a little easier for the players to play. The chances are Freddie won’t get the gig long term, but hopefully he can turn things around enough to leave things in a reasonably good state for whoever takes over. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Vitoria: Europa League Preview

After the disappointment of the Premier League defeat away to Sheffield United on Monday night it’s back to Europa League action for Arsenal tonight. It’s hard to overstate how disappointing the defeat on Monday night was with the chance to stay in third place in the league lost. Vitoria Guimares come calling tonight as the team have a chance to put Monday’s game out of their minds and continue their impressive Europa League form.

We have already won 3-0 away to Eintracht Frankfurt and 4-0 at home to Standard Liege and a win tonight would almost guarantee a place in the knockout stages with three group games still to play. Vitoria have lost their first two games and they’re probably the weakest team in the group, but they are fourth in the Portuguese league and cannot be underestimated. Our midweek cup performances so far have been really good and more of the same would do very nicely tonight.

As has been the case so far this season Unai Emery will make wholesale changes to the team that lost to Sheffield United and hopefully those players can take the opportunity they’re given again. We might well see 11 changes from that game and it shows the manager has plenty to choose from, but he doesn’t seem to know his best team. I would definitely argue that quite a few of those in the team tonight should have played on Monday night and maybe their inclusions could have helped us to get a better result.

Emiliano Martinez will play in goal and the back four will probably consist of Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi. The sooner Tierney, Bellerin and Holding are playing regularly in the Premier League the better as far as I’m concerned and I have no doubt the majority of fans must feel the same way too. 

In midfield Lucas Torreira and Dani Ceballos should start and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ainsley Maitland-Niles played too which would again more than likely leave no place in the team for Mesut Ozil. In a team who are crying out for some attacking creativity it beggars belief that Ozil cannot get a game. However, it seems the manager is not keen on him so it doesn’t matter whether the team suffers as a result or not.

I imagine Gabriel Martinelli will play on one side of the attack with Reiss Nelson on the other which would leave Alexandre Lacazette to play centrally now that he’s fit again. He looked like he needed to find some sharpness to his game when he came on on Monday night and hopefully playing tonight will help that. I’m still not sure whether he can always be accommodated in the team with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but he is certainly a very important player for us.

I expect another good cup performance and probably a comfortable enough win, but it’s not overly important in the grand scale of things. It’s the home game with Palace on Sunday that matters most and the manager has to find a way to make the team perform in the league. We lost at home to them last season in one of the games which cost us a top four finish and they are perfectly set up to play away to us.

Belief in the manager is fading fast among the fans and performances like Monday night would suggest the players might not be too far behind. I still expect the fringe players to do well tonight, but when the going gets tough all too often we get going or don’t if you get my meaning.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Is The Arsenal Glass Half Full

With the second international break of the season nearly over it’s time to consider how the season has been going so far for Arsenal. We’re currently third in the Premier League as well as on top of our Europa League group and through to the last 16 of the Carabao Cup. Our only defeat came away to a Liverpool team who look set to break the record for the most consecutive wins in the Premier League and they didn’t absolutely thrash us for once in recent seasons.

I’m usually a glass half full kind of person, but I’m finding it difficult to believe things are as good as they appear on the surface. I know performances aren’t the most important thing in football, but it’s hard not to believe our return so far outweighs our performances. Those things tend to balance themselves out over a season and the chances are we will suffer later in the season unless we improve.

Last season started in a similar vein after initially losing out first two games when we went on a 22 game unbeaten run when the performances were far from convincing too. Plenty of fans believed we could continue to outperform the statistics, but they almost always catch up with you in the end and so it was for Arsenal. In the end it was a very poor late run of results which cost us a top four spot and the Champions League football that comes with it. 

In the second half of last season our away form went to pieces and we finished too far down the “away results” table for a team with top four ambitions. Our home results held until the last few games when points dropped at home to teams at the wrong end of the table cost us dearly. The similarities with the performances this season cannot be ignored and I think we should be very worried about how our season might go.

With United, Spurs and Chelsea all having troubles of their own the opportunity for us to take a top four spot is better than it has been in quite a while. We’re not going to catch Liverpool or City even if City are only a point ahead of us, but we just have to outdo two of the other three big six teams. It’s crucial that we take advantage before United and Spurs in particular change their fortunes and at least we are taking points at the moment.

It’s our away form which worries me the most though and I’m not sure we can change it. We won our first away game at Newcastle, but we were wholly unconvincing and we followed it up with that 3-1 defeat at Liverpool. The 2-2 draw at Watford was a game to forget when we let a two goal lead slip in the second half and were lucky to escape with a point. We didn’t have the confidence or belief to take the game to one of the worst United teams I have seen in a long time in our last away game and we missed a great chance to get our first league win at Old Trafford in 13 years. 

If it wasn’t for the finishing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the moment we would be in a much worse position as the rest of the team are struggling to find the net. The return of Alexandre Lacazette from injury should help to ease the burden on Aubameyang, but we still need our wide players and midfielders to chip in with more goals. For us to have more of an attacking threat we need someone who can pull the strings in midfield and make the chances that others thrive on.

I find it difficult to believe Mesut Ozil has nothing to offer the team, but it seems Unai Emery has decided to discard him. It’s scary to think of how much money we pay him and to get absolutely no return for that money makes no sense. The manager seems to want to play with three defensive players in midfield and for whatever reason Ozil does not fit into his plans.

We’re all hoping the returns of Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin will improve our defence, but as much as I want that to be true it’s difficult to believe they will have that effect. It’s how we defend as a team and have done for far too many years now that’s hurting us and I can’t see anything changing in that respect. In fact we are inviting opponents on to us even more this season and that’s a recipe for disaster for a team who just cannot defend properly.

I guess we’ll know pretty soon if Tierney and Bellerin can make a difference or if we continue to concede more shots per game than almost every other team in the Premier League. I just can’t see the ability in the team for us to control the game and take it to our opponents and surely that has to be the way forward. It’s much easier to defend when you have the ball and opponents certainly find it tougher to score without it.

We don’t play any of the other big six teams in our next eight league games, but there are definitely a few banana skins in there. I think we’ll have a better idea of where we stand after those games and hopefully it will be in a good place. Like I said the glass is looking more on the side of half empty to me at the moment, but maybe we can get a refill over that run of games.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Standard Liege: Europa League Preview

It’s back to Europa League action for Arsenal tonight when Standard Liege come calling in our second group game. We won the first game 3-0 away to Eintracht Frankfurt a couple of weeks ago to set us up nicely for the remaining games. It may not be Europe’s premier competition, but we might need to depend on the Europa League for Champions League qualification if we can’t manage a top four finish for the fourth season in a row.

Our top four chances didn’t take too much of a blow when we drew 1-1 away to United on Monday night, but it still felt like a missed opportunity given their current form. We hadn’t won away to United in the league in 13 years before Monday night and it could be another 13 years before we get as good a chance again. At least we managed to come back and take a point though and that point was enough to keep us fourth in the league.

I expect plenty of changes from that team tonight as Unai Emery looks to rest some players ahead of the Bournemouth game on Sunday and also give a chance to some fringe players and youngsters. He can’t go too far though as we need to make sure we have a strong enough team to take the three points.

Emiliano Martinez should play in goal with a central defensive partnership of Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi in front of him and probably Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin as the two full backs if they’re up to it. For me Holding, Tierney and Bellerin are the future of our defence and I’m looking forward to seeing them all slowly play their way back in after their injuries. Mustafi has had his fair share of problems, but he did very well against Frankfurt and Forest and hopefully he can do so again tonight.

In midfield we should see the players who didn’t start against United get a run out which should mean Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos play with Mesut Ozil surely accompanying them. I’m not sure if Ceballos and Ozil can be accommodated in the same team which could mean one of them will start on the bench with the possibility of Ainsley Maitland-Niles even getting a game in his preferred midfield role or who knows Callum Chambers could play there too as it’s not an unfamiliar position to him.

In attack Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has to be rested as he is so important to us which has to mean Gabriel Martinelli plays centrally as he did so well in the Carabao Cup against Forest last week. I would imagine he will be flanked by Reiss Nelson and probably Nicolas Pepe despite the fact that Pepe played on Monday night. His confidence is a little low at the moment, but maybe successive home games against Liege and Bournemouth might just be the tonic he needs.

As I’ve said far too often already this season we’re not playing well, but our best two results came in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup when our team was pretty similar to what it will be tonight. We might have been a little lucky to win 3-0 away to Frankfurt, but the 5-0 win at home to Forest was an excellent display all around even if they are a Championship team. More of the same tonight would do very nicely and put us in a strong position in our group just ahead of the next dreaded international break.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Manchester United Previewed

The season has started reasonably well for Arsenal in terms of results even if the performances have been mostly far from convincing. They cruised to a 5-0 win at home to Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night despite Unai Emery making 11 changes from the team that just about took the three points against Villa a couple of days earlier. It means we’ve had almost a week to prepare for this game after playing in the previous three games in the space of six days.

Other results over the weekend mean we will have to beat United tonight to keep our place in the top four and we will have to win by seven goals to overtake third placed Leicester. While seven goals might be a bit of a stretch our aim tonight has to be to take the three points. It’s not going to be easy when you look at our away form which has continued on from the second half of last season into this season. The manager has a few choices to make ahead of the game in both his personnel and the team formation. 

First up he has to decide if Kieran Tierney is up to keeping his place from Tuesday night which was his first game for us having joined us injured. Tierney is going to move ahead of Sead Kolasinac in the pecking order very soon, but I’m not certain it’s going to be in this game. Much could depend on the formation and our away games to date suggest we will play a back four which surely would point to Tierney, but I still think Kolasinac will get the nod for the moment.

He has a choice to make on the other side too with Ainsley Maitland-Niles back from suspension, but Calum Chambers gave himself every chance with his performances after Maitland-Niles was sent off against Villa and again against Forest. He played well in both games and he did enough to give the manager food for thought. Of course the position will belong to Hector Bellerin who also made his comeback in that game against Forest, but only from the bench and I imagine he will be eased back into the team.

We have been treated to a central defensive partnership of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and David Luiz in our last five league games and it’s one which really isn’t working. We have conceded 10 goals in those five games and Sokratis and Luiz look uncomfortable beside each other to say the least. Rob Holding also returned from injury on Tuesday night and it’s hard not to believe he’s the future of the centre of our defence.

Unfortunately I think we’ll see Sokratis and Luiz again tonight when either Holding or Chambers might be a better option with one of them. The return of those three players on Tuesday night certainly gives us plenty of options in defence and hopefully they will help us to improve our defending. To do that we need to get the midfield right too and cut out the individual errors which are so costly to us game after game.

As good as Matteo Guendouzi has been at driving us forward to get back into games in recent games he has also been part of the problem. His tendency to dwell on the ball and get caught in possession has cost us dearly at times and he still has a lot to learn about the defensive side of his game. Having said that I still want to see him in the side because he has the ability and desire we need to help us to move forward.  

I have no doubt Granit Xhaka will be in the team too seeming as he is now our captain and I can see the qualities he adds to the team, but his errors and lapses have caused us so much heartache and he’s at the stage in his career where he should know better. Like any other player in an Arsenal shirt he deserves our support, but it won’t stop me worrying about his ability to throw the game away all on his own. I suspect the third midfielder will be Dani Ceballos which would make sense, but it leaves no room for Lucas Torreira or Joe Willock in the team and that’s without even mentioning Mesut Ozil.

I hope it’s a midfield trio we go with and we play a wide man either side of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to give as many problems as possible to a very average United side. It’s been far too long since we won at Old Trafford in the league and tonight we have a real chance of doing so if we can get things right. Besides the struggles United are going through at the moment they also have some injury worries and very little in reserve to replace anyone who misses out.

Of course our away form hasn’t exactly been something to write home about and the 2-2 draw at Watford a couple of weeks ago was one of our worst displays in a very long time. If we play like that against United we will lose and we could lose heavily, but with the right approach they are there for the taking. A win for us would leave them in a lot of trouble already in the fight for a top four finish, but it would leave us right on schedule. Having said that I’d still gladly take a draw when you consider how bad we have been away from home and our chances of actually changing that. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Nottingham Forest: Carabao Cup Preview

After the very exciting comeback at home to Villa on Sunday Arsenal are very quickly back in action tonight when Nottingham Forest come calling in the Carabao Cup. As cup competitions go the Carabao Cup is at the bottom of the pile and it gives Unai Emery a chance to rest a few players. The number one priority this season has to be a top four finish and I can’t imagine he will risk the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in this game.

When we trailed Villa late on and we were down to 10 men it didn’t look good, but the players managed to find it within themselves to get the goals we needed. Massive credit has to go to Matteo Guendouzi for driving the team forward in the second half and to Aubameyang who yet again scored us the goal to take all three points. The result was just what we needed, but like our other performances so far this season it was far from impressive.

With only two days between the games the manager will have to use his whole squad which could see the return of a few players from injury. Rob Holding is the one most likely to get his first game of the season while both Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin are more likely to come off the bench at some stage. We should also see those who didn’t get a run out on Sunday getting a game from the start .

We might even see the rare sight so far this season of Mesut Ozil in the team while I would imagine Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli might get a game too. With Aubameyang surely having to be rested and Alexandre Lacazette injured Martinelli might even be the one to lead the line with Nelson on one side and maybe Bukayo Saka on the other. 

Saka was unfortunate to be the one sacrificed on Sunday when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off and he deserves a chance to show what he can do again after a very impressive display in the Europa League last week. Callum Chambers came on to play right back when Maitland-Niles was sent off and despite some defensive frailty he managed to score our second goal. I thought he was very unlucky to lose his place in the team after the opening game against Newcastle and he must surely be given another chance at some stage as the centre of our defence is shambolic at the moment.

I didn’t think signing David Luiz was a good idea and we have seen the worse side of his game all too often in an Arsenal shirt. He seems to have had a detrimental affect on Sokratis Papastathopoulos too because their partnership is one which scares the life out of me at the moment. If Holding plays tonight it will probably be alongside Shkodran Mustafi and he’s our only central defender who scares me more than Luiz or Sokratis.

Forest put four goals past us a couple of seasons ago in the FA Cup in what was one of Arsene Wenger’s worst results in his many years at the club. We had a young and inexperienced team that day and there was no experience on the bench in case we needed to call on it. I imagine the manager might just have a little bit of back up tonight in case things aren’t going our way.

Forest have started the season quite well with 15 points from their eight games and they’re currently in the top six in the Championship. They have only lost one game and they have only conceded six goals in their eight games so they’re not going to be a pushover. We have some pretty good players available tonight though and I don’t see why we can’t make home advantage pay and progress to the next round.

I’ll be happy to see Holding, Bellerin and Tierney make their first appearances of the season though and to see some of the young guns get a run out too. Progression to the next round is always preferable, but I’m not so sure we want too many extra games at the moment. The younger players will still get a few run outs in the Europa League group games I suppose even if it does go pear shaped tonight. 

I might not sound overly confident, but I suppose watching Arsenal so far this season has given me that lack of confidence. Having said that we’re in the top four and won our toughest Europa League group game with what looked like relative ease if you only saw the score line. I’m still very worried that we won’t take advantage of the crisis at other clubs to cement our place in the top four and bring back Champions League football. Enough of the doom and gloom though and here’s hoping for a great performance and a victory tonight.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.