Arsenal v Norwich Preview: We Love You Freddie

I can’t say I was unhappy yesterday morning when I heard the news Arsenal had decided it was time to part ways with Unai Emery. We are on our worst run of results since 1992 as we’re without a win in seven games in all competitions. I’ve nothing against Emery in person, but the time had come where it appeared there was no going back.

Since our late collapse in the Premier League and Europa League final defeat last season we have been a shambles. We had no particular style of play and 18 months into his tenure all the problems in the final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign seemed to be unaddressed and had probably even got worse under Emery. I don’t think the club had any other choice than letting him go, but they now have to get his successor right.

We need a manager who can play the style of football us fans want to see at the same time as fixing the very real problems we have. It’s not going to be an task and the club cannot rush into selecting a replacement. In the meantime they have put Freddie Ljungberg in temporary charge as their search continues.

He takes charge as we have just started the busiest time of the season with the games coming thick and fast. There is no doubt he will have the fans behind him and we can look forward to renditions of “We Love You Freddie” ringing out from the stands. He hasn’t got an easy job though when you look at how we have being playing, but hopefully he can change things as quickly as possible.

Emery penned a message to the fans yesterday and it was a very good message to be fair to him. I have nothing against the man in person and I genuinely wanted him to do well at Arsenal, but it just didn’t work out. I wasn’t impressed with the abuse he got from some and that includes the slagging of his accent, pronunciation and use of English in particular. The division in the fan base of recent years and toxic atmosphere at the Emirates at times is something we could do without and hopefully it’s something that will improve as we move forward.

First up for Freddie it’s a trip to Norwich  tomorrow afternoon and it’s a game we really need to win. We’re already eight points off the top four and we only have the same gap below us to the bottom three. While we might still be a point above both Spurs and United we have a lot of ground to make up on both Leicester and Chelsea if we want to take the easy route to the Champions League for next season. Champions League football is something we took for granted under Wenger, but it’s been three seasons since we played against Europe’s elite clubs. 

Norwich got their first win in a long time away to Everton last week, but it wasn’t enough to move them out of the bottom three. They concede an awful lot of goals and they have conceded 10 goals in their last three home games which have all ended in defeat. They have shown they can play some pretty good football, but it’s a game we should win.

Freddie has to pick a team that can go to Norwich and win and he certainly has the players to do so. With three league games in eight days we have an opportunity to make up some ground if he can bring some organisation and the inevitable bounce that usually comes with a new manager. On the face of it trips to Norwich and West Ham with a home game against Brighton sandwiched in between them is exactly the start he could wish for in terms of fixtures.

If it’s true the players had lost faith in the manager we should see more from them in those three games and it’s something we need. As bad as Emery was he was let down by dreadful individual errors from far too many of his players far too often. We have to find a way to coach our players to make good decisions and I’m not sure how you do that. It can’t be a coincidence that these simple errors keep happening year after year no matter who is in charge.

I hope Freddie can show the ambition that Emery seemed so afraid to show time after time. We have some very good attacking players and the best way for us to turn things around is to play to our strengths. We have surrendered possession and been on the wrong end of far too many goal attempts to our opponents for far too long and he has to do all he can to get us to control games and take them to our opponents.

Surely Nicolas Pepe has to come back into the team as his omission at the expense of Mesut Ozil in the last few games has been ridiculous. What’s the point in playing Ozil if you don’t play the players most likely to benefit from his ability to open up opposition defences. I would love to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through the centre of the attack with Pepe on one side of him and Gabriel Martinelli on the other. I know that leaves no room in the starting 11 for Alexandre Lacazette who scored both of our goals in the draw against Southampton last week, but I think it would be exactly the dynamic attack we want with Ozil supplying the ammunition.

I’d love to see Lucas Torreira deployed in his best position and the one his agent has made it pretty obvious he wants to play in. I’m still not 100% sold on Matteo Guendouzi as a defensive midfielder alongside him, but he has a lot to learn and will improve even more. He has to get his concentration levels right though, but his lapses could be a byproduct of the amount of game time he has been given at such an early stage in his career.

I would love to sit down and watch a masterclass in attacking football from Arsenal tomorrow and I do think we will see an awful lot more than we have done recently. I don’t think Freddie has anything to lose and I don’t see him sending the team out with the fear that was so obvious in recent games. I’ll be very surprised if the change doesn’t have a positive effect on every single player and I expect Norwich to suffer the consequences (said he hopefully).

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Southampton Preview

It’s been two weeks since we had to go through the torture of watching Arsenal player, but they’re back in all their glory tomorrow when Southampton come a calling. Since the players went off on their international break quite a lot has happened and not all of it in our corner of North London. That other lot up the road did what quite a lot of us fans think Arsenal should do when they decided to part ways with their manager.

Of course they managed to replace him the very next day when everybody’s favourite manager Jose Mourinho got the job. At least his appointment at Spurs means the rumours of him taking the reins at Arsenal if Unai Emery were to leave can be put to bed. On the face of it Spurs will hope he can bring them that elusive trophy, but I remain to be convinced that it’s a good appointment for them. They have bitten the bullet though while Arsenal seem determined to keep faith in their man despite results and performances indicating his time could and probably should be up.

I could take the results if the performances were at least showing some promise and of course just about any fan will take good results without the performances. We have only won twice in our last 10 league games though and haven’t won at all in our last four. We’ve dropped back to sixth in the table which isn’t the worst position to be in, but the eight point gap to fourth place is already looking difficult for us to make up.

In those last four games we have led in our two home games only to be pegged back by Palace and Wolves and we have lost our two away games to Sheffield United and Leicester. In those two defeats we were in with a real chance until the opposition scored first on both occasions and we were totally incapable of coming back. The exact opposite happened in both home games when the opposition managed to come back against us and Palace even pulled back a two goal deficit.

The combination of not being able to hold a lead when we have one or peg one back when we go behind is a very worrying one and it will cost the manager his job if he can’t change it. The rumours of player unrest persist with Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang among those who could be on their way out if things don’t change. They all have different reasons for wanting to go if you believe the rumours and I’m sure it can’t be doing much good for the squad morale.

As bad as things are we have a chance to make up some ground and maybe even turn things around a little in our next four league games. We play Southampton and Brighton at home while we travel to both Norwich and West Ham and to be honest we quite simply have to take 12 points from those four games. Anything less and the pressure on the manager will be almost unbearable as we play three of the rest of the big six in our following five games.

Southampton are on a very bad run at the moment with only one point in their last seven games, but they have taken seven of their eight points away from home. They have conceded more goals than any other team, but 21 of those 29 goals were conceded at home. They are there to be beaten no matter how poorly we’re playing at the moment and anything other than a win would be a disaster.

The manager needs to pick his strongest team and end his ridiculous trend of picking seven defensive outfield players in every game. We’re at home against a team who concede loads of goals and the way to beat them is to play attacking football and put our best attacking players out from the start. Mesut Ozil has been back in favour in the last two games, but for some bizarre reason Nicolas Pepe was left out of the team in those games.

We can’t defend to save our lives no matter who we’re playing against, but at least we should be able to dominate teams like Southampton enough to make sure our defensive inadequacies are relatively unimportant. If we’re going to make any progress we need players other than Aubameyang to step up and get their fair share of goals. He has half of all of our league goals so far and that’s just not good enough from the rest of the team.

I’m not saying it’s going to be a walkover against Southampton and I fully expect them to give us some problems, but the manager and the players must know things cannot continue as they are. If we’re going to turn things around under the current manager it has to start now and we won’t get a better chance than against Southampton. Three points won’t exactly herald a new beginning, but it’s an awful lot better than any other alternative.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Leicester City Previewed

It’s been a tough fee weeks for Arsenal as they continually drop points from winning positions in games. They have only won twice in their last nine Premier League games and they are quickly losing ground on the top four. With Champions League football the ultimate goal for the season they cannot afford to fall too far off the pace.

They may well be only one place off the top four, but that one place is six points and a defeat at Leicester today would make it nine points. Leicester are currently third in the table and like fourth placed Chelsea they are six points ahead of Arsenal with their season going very well so far. Of course a win for Arsenal would cut that gap to three points and give us more than a glimmer of hope.

The big issue isn’t even the points difference though as that can easily be made up, but it’s how we’re playing under Unai Emery. Leicester appointed Brendan Rogers as their manager during last season and the work he has done is pretty obvious for all to see. They play an attractive brand of attacking football while still being strong in defence and the players all appear to be on board with him.

Even fourth placed Chelsea are looking pretty good in comparison to Arsenal since Frank Lampard got the job in the summer. Yet again they play an attractive brand of attacking football even if they haven’t got the defensive side of their game right. Like Rogers he knows how he wants his team to play and they are doing just that. Despite a transfer embargo he has managed to put together a team who are entertaining to watch while still being very competitive.

In contrast Arsenal don’t have a defined style of play and they simply cannot overcome the defensive lapses that cost them goals game after game. Until recently our strikers (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in particular) had being getting us out of jail, but as a team we are ineffectual at best. It’s not that we don’t have the players, but it’s impossible to believe the manager is getting the best out of the players he has.

We invested heavily in the squad in the summer and we have a group of young players coming through who give us great hope for the future. Our squad is good enough to challenge for a top four place and do it playing good football, but the manager seems intent on playing a negative game. It’s obvious defending isn’t our strong point so maybe like Chelsea we should try playing an attacking line up.

All too often we set up with seven defensive outfield players which leaves the three attacking players isolated. It’s a tactic which works for Liverpool of course, but they have the two best attacking full backs in the league and a front three of genuine quality. They also use their midfield to press really high and win the ball back in great positions for the whole game while we might start that way, but we gradually drop deeper and deeper.

We give up so many shots against us because we quite simply don’t know how to control a game or defend as a team. That has to come down to the manager and his inability to coach the players or his unwillingness to change. If we’re going to make the top four and the Champions League football that comes with it I firmly believe we need to find a new manager and do so very soon.

To be honest I don’t even think the team he picks today will make too much difference because it’s our set up which is costing us game after game. Having said that the decision to pick Mesut Ozil at home to Wolves last week was most welcome, but leaving Nicolas Pepe out to play Ozil was plain crazy. Pepe is exactly the type of player who could take advantage of Ozil’s creativity and I simply could not understand why he didn’t play.

I think most fans would like to see us play Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney as attacking fullbacks with Rob Holding in the centre of the defence with either David Luiz or Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Surely playing Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi as holding midfielders behind Mesut Ozil would make us stronger as well as adding some much needed creativity. Pepe has to play out wide with Aubameyang through the middle which would leave Reiss Nelson or Bukayo Saka on the other side.

I know that team doesn’t include Alexandre Lacazette, but it’s one I’d like to see given a chance to play together. Even with that team it wouldn’t do us much good if the manager doesn’t let them play an attacking game. His desire to sit back and defend any lead regardless of the opposition is infuriating, but it’s how he wants his teams to play.

For me it will only improve when he goes and the sooner the better, but I won’t hold my breath. As it stands we have to hope his negative tactics bear some fruit and we can somehow gain ground on the teams ahead of us, but again I won’t be holding my breath. Despite my desire to see the back of the manager I still want the team to win of course and that will never change, but it’s hard to keep belief when what you’re seeing week in and week out is just so wrong.

I think we can beat Leicester because our players are good enough to do so, but at the moment the total is less than the sum of our parts. It will probably take a moment of individual brilliance if we’re going to get something from the game, but it’s more likely to come from a set piece like so many of our goals recently. 

Finally for today the suggestion Jose Mourinho might step in if Emery goes needs to be knocked on the head immediately. Everything he stands for I find abhorrent and I think there would be some fans who would find it genuinely difficult to support the club if he was the manager. I cannot believe those in charge at the club could judge the mood of the fans so badly that they would appoint him. Besides what the fans might think his track record is all about the short term and he does nothing to build for the future of a club.

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 Kick Off The New Season At Newcastle

It’s hard to argue with what’s been a very good transfer window for Arsenal and hopes are relatively high going into the new season. It didn’t start too well with Aaron Ramsey leaving on a free transfer after the season had ended on a low as Arsenal lost the Europa League final to Chelsea as well as failing to finish in the top four. It didn’t look like we would be an attractive destination for any prospective signings with no Champions League football for the third season in a row.

With a couple of weeks to go it didn’t look too good, but the club worked tirelessly and managed to pull off some very good signings. Nicolas Pépé and Dani Ceballos will be real assets to the team even if Ceballos is only on loan for the season while Kieran Tierney looks like he will be a great fit too when he returns from his current injury. I’m still not sure about the deadline day signing of David Luiz, but I’m hoping he can help to improve a defence which badly needs improving.

We also signed Gabriel Martinelli and while he might get a few chances this season he’s definitely seen as one for the future. William Saliba was signed from St. Etienne too, but he’s being loaned back to them for the season as part of the deal and again he’s been bought with the future in mind. Of course it’s important to keep an eye on where we’re going and the future of the club is very important, but from here on it’s how this season goes that matters as our quest to return to the top four begins.

The ongoing situation with both Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac hasn’t helped with both players left out of the squad for “personal reasons” after the attempted carjacking a couple of weeks ago. If the rumours are to be believed there have been further threats to the players and it would be difficult for them to concentrate on football when the scum of the earth are targeting them and those they care about. The sooner the situation is sorted the better and it certainly does say a lot for the state of law and order in London at the moment.

We probably won’t see too many of our new signings from the start today with Pépé still short of match fitness and Luiz only arriving at the club late on Thursday. Tierney is of course injured while Martinelli is unlikely to play which just leaves Ceballos as a contender. I imagine we will see him in the team and he’ll probably play alongside Granit Xhaka in the midfield.

With all of those absences Unai Emery doesn’t have too many choices to make today. I’d be surprised if he included Shkodran Mustafi in the team considering he has told him he can leave the club which would mean we will most likely see Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Callum Chambers in the centre of defence with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Nacho Monreal as the full backs in a four man defence. With the midfield duo already sorted that will probably leave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on one side of the attack with Reiss Nelson on the other and Henrikh Mkhitaryan behind Alexandre Lacazette.

It’s a team more than capable of going to a Newcastle team who have lost their best two players from last season and winning. Newcastle have of course brought in some new players themselves, but they will have to be gradually worked into the team just like our new arrivals. They have a new manager too and it’s up to us to start on the front foot and make sure they don’t have a chance to get a foothold in the game and build some confidence.

I think we will more than likely get a narrow win and I hope to see Pépé come off the bench and make a contribution too. Of all our new players he’s the one I’m looking forward to seeing the most and the one most likely to have a real impact on our season. 

A win is a must for us followed by a home win against Burnley next week before two very difficult games ahead of the first pesky international break of the season. There’s no point in thinking too far ahead though and I’ll be more than happy with three points ahead of that Burnley game and the Liverpool and Spurs games.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Smash Their Transfer Record To Sign Nicolas Pepe

It’s been some day to be an Arsenal fan as they broke their transfer record for the third time in two years to sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille. When news of his imminent arrival first broke a few days ago I didn’t dare to believe as I pondered all the obstacles in our way, but my doubts were proven wrong when he signed on the dotted line today. It’s still hard to believe a club with supposedly only £40 million to spend this summer could splash almost twice that amount on one player.

Of course we won’t be paying all of the money up front and we have brought in a little money through sales recently with possibly more sales to follow. Pepe joins Gabriel Martinelli as a permanent fixture in the squad this season while Dani Ceballos is on loan from Real Madrid abd William Saliba has signed for us, but been loaned back to St. Etienne for this season. It doesn’t look like we’re finished either with Kieran Tierney looking likely to join us from Celtic very soon and a mystery central defender lined up too if the rumours are to be believed.

Martinelli definitely looks like one for the future and Ceballos will add a lot to the team for the season that he’s with us, but Pepe is the marquee signing us fans were longing for. He had a fantastic season with Lille last season with 23 goals and 11 assists from a wide role and he’s exactly the type of player we have needed for so long. His ability to take players on and beat them at pace is something we badly need in our team and we need someone else besides Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to score consistently.

There’s still some work to be done though and we haven’t added anyone to a very dodgy defence. It looks like both Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny could be on their way out which would make our need for more defenders crucial. The returns of both Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin will be of real benefit to the team and they can’t come soon enough for me.

We have some incredible attacking talent in the team and our forward line has to be one to be feared by any other team. However, if we don’t sort out our defensive issues we’re probably going to have to score at least three goals in every game if we want to win. A few weeks ago I might have said I had no real faith in the club signing the players we need to strengthen the defence, but it’s hard to argue with the players delivered in recent weeks and I really hope they can keep up the fantastic work.

I think the demise of Mesut Ozil in the last couple of seasons was strongly influenced by the departure of Alexis Sanchez and I hope the dynamism offered by Pepe can bring the best out of Ozil again. With the contract he’s on he’s going nowhere so it’s very important for us to get the maximum return possible from such an important and expensive asset. I, for one, can’t wait to see what our attack is capable of this coming season and we don’t have too long to wait.

I could put up links to various videos showing us exactly what we’re getting with the arrival of Pepe, but there’s no real point as they’re so easy for anyone to find themselves. In just 10 days time we should see Pepe unleashed on Newcastle United and hopefully it will be the start of a long and fruitful Arsenal career. He’s only 24 years old so he still has his best years ahead of him and maybe he can be the player to help change our fortunes and get us back into title contention and bring back Champions League football too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

My Kingdom For Some Arsenal Transfer News

Is it just me or is the wait for the new football season just really dragging at the moment. I know the qualifying rounds for the Champions League and the Europa League have started, but it’s the Premier League we’re all really waiting for. Arsenal play their first game a month from today when they travel to Newcastle and I really hoped they might have got their transfer dealings under way by now.

They haven’t been completely inactive I suppose with Gabriel Martinelli already signed and William Saliba supposedly about to sign on the dotted line too. As promising a prospect as Martinelli might be he’s only just turned 18 and it would be expecting an awful lot for him to have a real impact at Arsenal this season. He might well be a star of the future, but we need to improve our team considerably for this coming season.

Saliba is another 18 year old who looks like he might have a very bright future in the game and he’s going to be an Arsenal player very soon if the rumours are to be believed. Those same rumours would also seem to point to Arsenal loaning him back to St. Etienne for all of next season as part of the deal and that would negate any impact in our team. It makes sense to help him develop as a player and it might be a good thing for us in the long run, but again it doesn’t help us this season.

And there you have the sum total of our signings with a month to go before the window closes and the players heading off for a tour of the USA. We have also promoted Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe to the first team squad as “project youth” appears to have made a full return despite Arsene Wenger departing over a year ago. Those four players all look like very good prospects and some of them could have an impact in the team this season.

Rumours still abound with Wilfried Zaha, Malcolm,  Ismael Bannacer, Dani Ceballos, Everton Soares and Mario Lemina among those currently linked to Arsenal. While one or maybe more of those players might end up at the club we don’t have an awful lot to spend and any purchases would have to be on the never never unless we can generate income from player sales. There are certainly more than a few players who we could probably do without next season and their departures would free up squad places for new arrivals.

One player who might not be at the club much longer is Laurent Koscielny after the club issued a statement saying he had refused to travel with the squad for our tour of the States. It’s totally unacceptable behaviour from one of our “captains” and the club’s reaction would seem to suggest he won’t find it easy to get the free transfer he apparently wants. With funds badly required for the purchases we want to make we have to get whatever we can for him even if he is 33. 

He has been a great servant to the club in the last nine years and I’ll be sad to see him go, but he’s under contract and he simply cannot be allowed to dictate what we do. We’ve been through this scenario so many times in recent seasons with so many captains and all of them got what they wanted in the end. I would be very surprised to see Koscielny play for us again and his impending departure only increases our need to strengthen the centre of our defence.

There seems to be a fair deal of interest in Kystian Bielik and there’s every chance we might be able to raise a few bob through his sale to add to the modest fee we received for eventually managing to sell David Ospina. Bielik did very well in League One with Charlton last season and he looked good for his country in the European under 21 Championships this summer too. If the rumours are true he’s not in Unai Emery’s plans and if that’s the case we would do well to cash in on a player with two years left on his contract.

With the team playing four games in nine days in America starting next Tuesday we should hopefully get to see plenty of football. I know they’re only pre-season games and they don’t count for an awful lot, but we’re up against some pretty good teams. We start off with Stan Kroenke’s American team when we play Colorado Rapids and we follow that with games against Bayern Munich, Fiorentina and Bayern Munich. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Premier League Fixtures Make For An Interesting Start For Arsenal

The Premier League fixtures for next season were released on Thursday and they present Arsenal with a few challenges. We had a very difficult start to our campaign last season with a home game against City and a trip to Chelsea, but this season seems a touch easier with a trip to Newcastle followed by a home game against Burnley. On the face of it those are easier games, but given our away form for the last two seasons it’s hardly surprising the game against Newcastle will be live on TV with the chance of an upset particularly high.

There were no real expectations of getting anything from those two opening games last season and it wasn’t too much of a surprise when we lost both of them. However, we will be expected to take a minimum of four points from the opening two games next season and we should really be aiming for six points. With a trip to Liverpool and a home game against Spurs to follow before the first international break it makes six points almost a necessity from our first two games.

After that game against Spurs we have a run where we have 12 games in a row against teams who finished below us last season before a busy and difficult festive schedule. During that 12 game run we will also have our Europa League group games to contend with, but four of those six games will be followed by home game in the league. With squad rotation we will hopefully be able to keep the players relatively fresh during that period and possibly get a good return from those games.

Our primary target for next season has to be a top four finish after missing out for the last three seasons and anything that can help us achieve that target is a good thing. We might have finished the season in a bit of a mess, but it can be argued that both United and Chelsea are in an even worse state. If Chelsea can’t overturn their transfer embargo they are in a whole heap of trouble with Eden Hazard already departed while United ended their season in disarray and it will take an awful lot to improve them.

Our actions in the transfer market will give us an indication of what to expect next season with players needed in so many positions. For a start we need to replace Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech and Stephan Lichsteiner after all of their contracts ended and they either left on free transfers or hung up their boots. Only Ramsey had any real impact on the first team last season and it will take an awful lot to replace one of the few players to come out of last season with any credit.

We didn’t see too much of Welbeck due to injuries and I think we can replace him with one or two of the younger players coming through while saving a lot on his wages. If he could have avoided missing so many games due to injuries in his time at the club I think we would have missed him more, but his injury record makes him a worry for any team considering signing him. Both Cech and Lichsteiner will probably be replaced from what we have already too as neither of them had too much impact on the first team last season too.

There are rumours of just about all of our defenders leaving, but I think we need to try to keep Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding while I think both Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos should be kept too. Like so many other Arsenal fans I think Shkodran Mustafi needs to be moved on while Sead Kolasinac and Callum Chambers are both rumoured to be surplus to requirements too. We definitely need to sign some defenders who can help to cut out the individual errors that lead to so many of the goals we concede.

In midfield there are rumours of Granit Xhaka being surplus to requirements or maybe even wanting to go to play in the Champions League while Lucas Torreira has made it known that he’s not too fond of life in London. I think we really need to hold on to Torreira while I’m not so sure on Xhaka. When he’s good he can have a real influence on our control of a game, but he just does not seem to learn from his mistakes as his lack of positional awareness and perpensity to give the ball away cost us dearly time after time.

I can’t say I’m looking forward to next season too much, but the troubles of some of our rivals could open the door for us. I can’t see us challenging for the title and I would be very surprised if it isn’t a two horse race between City and Liverpool like it was last season. I’m far from convinced Spurs can do any better than they did this season and I think they’re another team who could and probably should be in our sights.

While I’m still far from convinced Unai Emery is the manager to lead us forward I’m also pretty sure he’ll still be here come the new season. While our final position was marginally better than the previous season and we collected a few more points too as well as reaching the Europa League final it was still a failure because of our inability to make the Champions League. If we can break into the top four next season it will have to be judged as some form of success and it might well be enough for Emery to continue in the job.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Where Now For Arsenal

It’s been a week since Arsenal forgot to come out for the second half of the Europa League final against Chelsea and ended up losing 4-1. That defeat condemned them to another season of Europa League football and also meant their transfer budget for this summer is severely hampered. With a squad that needs a huge overhaul it means we have very little wiggle room and will have to offload more than a fair share of the players we already have to give us more spending power.

I fancy myself as a bit of a pundit when it comes to predicting the results of football games and a few friends like to ask my opinion before placing their weekly bets. As an Arsenal fan they always think I have some sort of insight into my club, but my advice is almost always to steer clear of Arsenal because you just don’t know what you’re going to get. The Europa League final was a case in point where we most definitely could have beaten Chelsea, but ended up on the end of a 4-1 drubbing.

Before the game I said Unai Emery’s first season at the helm would be judged by the result of it after the late collapse in the Premier League saw us miss out on a top four finish. Our failure to finish ahead of both Chelsea and Spurs when they struggled to get over the line was a direct result of making the Europa League final in my opinion and the sacrifice was not worth it given the outcome of that game. To have ended up with all of our eggs in one basket and then to have failed so miserably in the final was a damning indictment of both the players and the manager.

I can’t say I’m anywhere near sure Emery is the man to lead us forward considering how the season finished and also considering our progress throughout the season. I can’t honestly say I have seen any sort of improvement in any of the aspects of our game which had become so unacceptable in the later years of Arsene Wenger. Our failure to make the top four and in the Europa League final would surely have been easier to take if there were any genuine signs of progress.

Instead we were treated to comical defending week after week with Arsenal leading the way in goals conceded from defensive errors in the Premier League. When we went behind away from home we only came back to take one point in our 19 away games which tells us so much about the character of the players when sleeves needed to be rolled up. The manager didn’t have the faith in his players to continue their early season attempts to play the ball out from the back and they lost anything resembling a style of play as the season progressed.

With Aaron Ramsey on his way out of the club this summer and Mesut Ozil seemingly unable or unwilling to perform consistently under Emery we are a team bereft of creation. Our lack of genuine width and players to take on the opposition is worrying with the full backs expected to do that work all too often. If it wasn’t for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette we probably would have found ourselves a few places further down the table.

When we went on our 22 game unbeaten run early in the season the stats people told us it couldn’t last as we were defying all the stats which generally even out in a season. Those stats did nearly catch up on us in the end, but thankfully our goal conversion defied them enough to at least finish fifth. It’s impossible to say things were any better than last season though and the late collapse made them feel worse.

The only saving grace was Spurs losing the Champions League final to Liverpool though as they yet again finished the season with their trophy cabinet bare. They will have Champions League football next season though and the money that goes with it as we make our way to the extremities of Europe for meaningless games against nothing teams. It’s no barrell of laughs being an Arsenal fan at the moment and yet we have played in five cup finals in the last six seasons and won three of them.

If we’re going to get anywhere near the level we need to reach to challenge for a top four spot next season we need to invest heavily this summer and we will have to raise a lot of money through sales to do so. There are so many players who are or should be surplus to requirements in the squad, but selling them and getting a good price for them won’t be an easy task. If we can add a few quality players to those that are good enough to stay and bring through a few of our really promising youngsters it might just give the squad the the balance and impetus it so desperately needs.

The manager showed little faith in those young players this season just passed, but he has to make Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka and possibly Eddie Nketiah a bigger part of his plans next season. They can save us so much money in the transfer market and hopefully fill some of the squad places vacated by players who need to move for our sakes and theirs too. I’m not saying they should all be in the team week in and week out, but surely they can play a bigger part than a few minutes at the end of a game that’s already won or too far gone to get back.

I can’t say I have the faith in those in charge at the club to do any or all of this and it’s difficult to believe we’re anything other than an afterthought to our owner. He has never shown any interest in putting a single penny into the club and it’s difficult to believe he was the man the board thought would uphold the values of the club when they all decided to jump ship. At the time he seemed the better alternative and I’m no lover of Alistair Usmanov, but surely he couldn’t have done any worse than Stan Kroenke is currently doing.

I wish I was looking forward to a summer of rebuilding for a brighter future for Arsenal, but it’s hard to believe it. I hope we can make the changes that are needed and move the deadwood on, but I remain to be convinced by the owner, the manager and quite a few of the players too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Chelsea: Europa League Final Preview

It’s been a fairly eventful first season as Arsenal manager for Unai Emery and the real judgement on that first season will come in Baku tonight. We finished one place higher in the league with a few points more, but our inability to finish fourth due to an awful run at the end of the season means we didn’t qualify for the Champions League. We do have another route to the Champions League though and that route comes to a culmination tonight.

It’s hard not to think the players left an awful lot of what they had left towards the end of the season for those Europa League quarter and semifinals and ultimately that’s what cost us in the league. If that’s the case they need to make sure they have done enough in the last two weeks since the end of the domestic season to make sure they take the trophy and the Champions League place that goes with it tonight. Any other result will surely see Emery’s first season in charge judged as less than a success.

The absence of Henrikh Mkhitaryan has already been gone into at length and it was the player’s choice to stay at home despite assurances of his safety. When you see Arsenal fans in the streets of Baku been stopped by the local police for wearing a Mkhitaryan shirt it’s easy to see why he felt those assurances weren’t enough. If Arsenal are to fail tonight the Mkhitaryan excuse will be offered by some and UEFA will certainly be partly to blame.

However we still have some very good players who have shown already this season that they can beat Chelsea. We won 2-0 at home to them in the league in January thanks to goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny and we lost 3-2 away to them in the league in August. If we can create as many clear cut chances as we did in that August defeat tonight I think we will lift the trophy.

The rumours of unrest at Chelsea are rife with Maurizio Sarri apparently off to manage Juventus at the end of the season while star player Eden Hazard is entering the final year of his contract and should really be sold to get some money to reinvest in the team. They have a transfer embargo though thanks to their dodgy dealing in the past and they cannot afford to sell a player of his ability if they’re unable to buy a replacement. Hopefully all the supposed unrest can have an effect on the way they play, but really it’s up to Arsenal to go out and win the game.

I assume the manager will stick with Petr Cech as his cup goalkeeper despite him being off to Chelsea as a coach when he retires after this game. I can’t see that making a blind bit of difference to a keeper with a career like Cech’s behind him and I have no doubt he will give his best if selected as expected. However if it came to a penalty shoot out I think I would prefer to see Bernd Leno in goal given Cech’s abysmal record at saving penalties.

I think we’ll probably see three central defenders deployed as playing two worked better when we had Aaron Ramsey as one of the midfield trio, but sadly we’ll never see him in an Arsenal shirt again as he’s injured for tonight and on his way to Juventus shortly. He might have been just the player we needed tonight given his form when he has played this season and his penchant for cup final goals. Certainly missing him as well as Mkhitaryan tonight will decrease our creative abilities from the midfield as well as taking two players who know how to find the back of the net out of the reckoning.

In midfield I expect an axis of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira with Mesut Ozil playing behind Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The front two have been crucial for us this season and surely we will be depending on them again tonight. I know he misses his fair share of chances, but Aubameyang might just be the difference between the teams tonight.

At the other end if we can keep the ball from Hazard and stop him when he has it Chelsea will struggle. He is by far their biggest threat and we have to be fully aware of his ability to go down very easily in our box. I’d hate to lose this final to a dodgy penalty, but there are few players more capable of fooling a referee than Hazard.

It’s been 13 years since our last European final and that didn’t end well despite us leading for so long with 10 men. We only have two European trophies to our name and it would be so sweet to add to that tally considering we have lost four European finals too. Two of those finals went against us on penalties and I really hope this game doesn’t go to penalties too as I don’t have the greatest confidence in our ability from 12 yards.

There’s an awful lot at stake for us tonight when you consider how big this game and it’s rewards are. Playing in the Champions League and the money that goes with it is so important as well as making it easier to attract new players it would also mean we can afford to spend more on them too and maybe get a better class of player. There’s also a big shiny trophy to be won and after all surely that’s what football is all about.

COME ON THE ARSENAL !!!

Formation 

5 at back

4 with Ramsey 

Arsenal’s Season Review In Limbo

At this stage of the season I would expect to be writing my season review for Arsenal, but I’ll have to wait around two weeks to do it. During those two weeks there isn’t a game to play until we face Chelsea in the Europa League final in Baku on May 29th. It’s going to seem like an eternity waiting for that game and our fate for this season hangs on it.

Our failure to make the top four means our Champions League hopes hang on the outcome in Baku and we have to win to show genuine progress this season. We finished the Premier League campaign with a few points more than last season and one place higher too, but fifth place isn’t enough for a team with Champions League aspirations. Not only are the financial rewards from Europe’s top competition better, but it’s easier to attract new players with the prospect of playing against the best players in the world.

On the face of it gaining a place in the league and going one stage further in the Europa League should be a mark of progress, but it’s difficult to see any progress this season. Unai Emery came in at the end of Arsene Wenger’s 22 year reign at the club and we hoped he could do things differently to how they had been done under the last few seasons under Wenger. He tried to get the team to play the ball out from the back at all times at first, but as the season progressed he gradually had to at least cut it back.

It’s hard to see what our style of play is and how we set about taking on opponents. Surely managing to introduce a new style, or just a style, would have shown a sign of progress, but he quite simply hasn’t been able to do it. I know it was only his first season at the helm, but I don’t think he has lived up to the expectations.

Our biggest problem in recent seasons had been our defence and it’s got even worse in my opinion. We added a goalkeeper, a central defender and a full back, but the same individual errors and team lapses seem to happen game after game no matter who is playing. There have been a few notable exceptions along the way, but all in all it’s not been easy to watch Arsenal this season.

The absolute collapse in our chase for a top four finish was the low point for me, but it came right in the middle of four very good Europa League performances. The performances in those games at home and away against Napoli and Valencia were very good, but we only took four points from six league games at the same time. It’s hard to believe the Europa League doesn’t mean more to the players than fighting for a top four spot in the league.

Of course the hectic schedule and list of injuries played a part in our league downfall, but somehow the players found a way in Europe that was missing in the Premier League. If they can pull one more of those performances out of the bag then maybe we can get hold of that nice shiny trophy and end the season on a real high. I think it would only be papering over the cracks, but it’s still infinitely superior to ending the season without a trophy and not qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Liverpool: Premier League Preview

Arsenal face Liverpool this evening in a real test of their progress so far under Unai Emery. The first season under Arsene Wenger’s successor started with defeats against two of the “top six” when they lost to City and Chelsea. It was a baptism of fire, but the team responded brilliantly by winning their next 11 games in all competitions with seven of those victories coming in the Premier League.

That run came to an end in a 2-2 draw at Palace last week, but it was a soft landing at least. The team responded with a 2-1 win in midweek against Blackpool in the Carabao Cup even if it was more or less a reserve team. The big test comes today when unbeaten Liverpool come to the Emirates and it’s a daunting one for an Arsenal team still learning to play under the new manager.

To make matters worse we have a defensive crisis and it’s our defence which has been the most worrying aspect of our game so far this season. It looks like we’ll be without Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis Papastathopoulos while Laurent Koscielny still hasn’t kicked a ball this season. It means we are likely to see a back four of Stephan Lichsteiner, Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi and one other who might have to be Granit Xhaka.

Despite his shortcomings I think Xhaka is an important part of our midfield and we clearly missed him in midfield against Palace last week. He did reasonably well at left back until Wilfried Zaha suckered him into conceding a penalty which a more experienced defender might not have given away even if Zaha “made the most of it.” I suppose you could scratch that comment about a more experienced defender when you consider the penalty Mustafi gave away earlier in the game.

Anyway if Xhaka has to play in defence it would probably mean Mohamed Elneny would play in midfield with Matteo Guendouzi suspended after his red card in midweek and again he’s a player who doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. He’ll do a good job and give his all if he plays, but we’re not as good with him in the team.

Also having Xhaka at left back severely hampers our attacking capabilities on that side as it’s just not natural for him to play there in a fashion similar to Monreal or Kolasinac. I suppose Carl Jenkinson or Ainsley Maitland-Niles could play, but I think it would be a huge risk to start either of them and I think Xhaka will probably get the nod in that position.

So many of our goals so far this season have come from players in and around the penalty spot after that ball has been cut back to them and we lose that part of our game on the left without Monreal or Kolasinac. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in great scoring form at the moment we need to make chances for him as he seems unable to miss right now. His last six attempts on target have all ended up in the back of the net and I would be very surprised to see him on the bench as he has been a few times recently. I know his pace off the bench when the opposition are tired is great, but that pace could be crucial if Liverpool try to press us today. I have no doubt they will try to press our defenders into mistakes and it’s a tactic which could work with us trying to play the ball out, but it could also open the way for Aubameyang to get in behind them. 

In possession much will be expected of Mesut Ozil and we need him to be at his best today. He can be the difference against any team when he’s at his best, but getting him on the ball in positions where he can make that difference won’t be easy. We most certainly have the attacking players who can get us the goals we need with only City scoring more goals after 10 games, but our attack might not be what makes the difference today.

Liverpool haven’t exactly set the world alight this season, but they are only behind City on goal difference after eight wins and two draws from their 10 games. I think they have become more pragmatic in their approach because a stronger defence means they don’t have to score a shed load of goals to win games. They might not be as free scoring as they were last season, but they have only conceded four goals in their 10 games.

If it comes down to a battle of who has the better defence then we are in trouble, but home advantage is hard to estimate. We lost our opening home game against City, but we have won all four home games since then and we won 15 of our 19 home games last season. Let’s just hope we can make that home advantage count today and come out with a positive result.

I think anything other than a defeat would be a positive result for us, but of course a win would be ideal. If the pkayers can put in a performance to give the fans hope I’m sure those fans will get behind them and do all they can to pressurise Liverpool and the referee too. Liverpool are very fond of their tactical fouling to stop opponents breaking and we cannot let them get away with it today. The players and crowd have to get on the referee’s back to make sure they are appropriately punished every single time they do it.

Our goal for the season has to be a top four finish and maybe some silverware in a cup competition and a win today would be a big step towards a top four finish. We have struggled badly against the rest of the top six for too many seasons and we need to start getting results off them soon. The manager got a pass for the first two games of the season, but he will be judged more harshly if he gets it wrong today. I’m not exactly overly confident of getting anything from the game, but I think we are capable of doing so and I really hope for the sake of confidence and progress we can do it.

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.

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.

The Pressure Mounts On Arsenal Today

I suppose as things go for a new manager Unai Emery has had a free pass on his first two games considering who the opposition were. Expectations weren’t particularly high for the games at home to City and away to Chelsea and the results went the way we probably expected, but we had hoped they would be different. That free pass ends today though when we play at home to West Ham.

We’re just outside the relegation zone on goal difference with no points and five goals conceded from our first two games. The manager has seen the scale of his task in those two games and he must realise the job has to do on our defence is a massive one. While we looked good in attack in the first half against Chelsea in particular last week, our defence looked as vulnerable as ever and maybe even more so.

We play a West Ham team who have lost their first two games too and in worse fashion than us. They lost their opening game 4-0 away to Liverpool and they lost 2-1 at home to Bournemouth last week after taking the lead in that game. There seems to be huge unrest already despite massive investment in the summer and they have a fair degree of injury worries too.

Over the years of the Premier League they have been a bit of a thorn in our side in home ganes in particular, but they cannot be allowed to get anything from this game. We have to show that the new manager is having an effect on the players and put away a West Ham team that look devoid of confidence.

When it comes to the team today I don’t expect to see too many changes from the one that lost at Chelsea last week. The manager seems happy to use his bench early in the game and he’s very open to changing things as the game progresses. He does have a few decisions to make though and those decisions could have a huge bearing on our performance.

In defence there are calls for Stephan Lichsteiner to be given the nod ahead of Hector Bellerin, but I would be very surprised to see Bellerin on the bench. As good as Lichsteiner is it would be a real slap in the face to Bellerin to leave him out and he’s definitely not the only defender struggling at the moment. There has been a fair deal of criticism of his efforts going forward too, but he had a large part to play in much of our good play on the right side last week.

Elsewhere in defence there aren’t too many choices unless he decides to leave Shkodran Mustafi out, but it would be a huge risk to throw someone else in at the deep end with a team that still seem incapable of defending. Nacho Monreal has to play at left back with no other options available and hopefully he can regain his form of last season. He was by far our best defender last season and he offered quite a lot going forward too.

The biggest choice of the day could be who plays in midfield with Matteo Guendouzi surely a dead cert to keep his place. It’s probably a straight choice between Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira to play alongside him and Torreira looks like the favourite to get the nod at the moment. I suppose Aaron Ramsey could play that deeper role too, but I would expect to see him deployed further forward if he does get the nod.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was signed in January to score goals for us and he certainly did so for the rest of last season. Last week he had one really good chance to score and another fairly good chance too, but he failed to put both of them away. He needs to put a few away as soon as possible, but like any striker he will miss his fair share of chances too. I still think he is the man to score those goals for us and he is going to make it hard for Alexandre Lacazette to get a lot of game time.

I would be very surprised if both Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t keep their places even if Ozil didn’t have the best game last week. He is a top class player and hopefully he will overcome the problems he’s having as soon as possible, but the best place for him to do so is in the team. Like Aubameyang last week Mkhitaryan missed a sitter, but he did make up for it by scoring one goal and making another and he must be a certainty to play.

The last choice is probably between Alex Iwobi and Ramsey and I think Iwobi might just keep his place. He scored one goal last week and he is more adept than Ramsey in a wide role which should probably see him picked despite the misgivings many fans have about him. As I said previously Ramsey could play a deeper role too, but I have s feeling he might be on the bench.

We need to get our first win and points of the season after those two defeats and that win has to come today. West Ham are there for the taking and we should be able to do just that if we go about it the right way. Anything other than a win would be a huge blow and it would put real pressure on the manager only three games into his reign. I think we will get the three points and we should see a few goals too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Second Time Around For Arsenal At Chelsea

Arsenal’s first competitive game under Unai Emery didn’t go too well last week when they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City. It was a result that was to be expected I suppose against a City team who broke so many records in running away with the Premier League last season and it was certainly no worse than Arsenal did against them in the three games they played last season. There were encouraging signs in that game, but it will take time for the manager to get the players used to the style of football he wants to play.

The manager has a few choices to make when it comes to picking his team after things didn’t really go as planned last week. Some of the players have come in for criticism more than others, but it can’t have been easy for Granit Xhaka in particular to step straight into the team so soon after returning from World Cup duty and to be expected to be as proficient as some of the others. He lasted less than an hour as did Aaron Ramsey who was only returning after missing the last two pre-season games through injury.

It’s fair to say the whole team struggled with the new style at times and particularly with the attempts to play the ball out from the back. There’s an awful lot of work to be done on that part of our game and it’s all happening far too slowly and predictably at the moment. Maybe the inclusion of Lucas Torreira from the start will make a difference against Chelsea and it certainly looks like the manager thinks he’s ready to start.

Assuming he plays it’s a matter of whether he replaces Xhaka or Matteo Guendouzi and I suspect it will be Guendouzi despite his performance last week. Guendouzi might have made mistakes and lost possession on a few occasions, but he never shied away from the ball and was probably the only player who we could say that about last week. Despite this I think Xhaka is probably going to get the nod having had another week to get used to the way the team has to play.

There are decisions to be made elsewhere too with the left back spot a real problem. Hopefully Nacho Monreal can recover in time to play with both Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles injured and Stephan Lichsteiner having had to fill in there last week after Maitland-Niles went off injured. Lichsteiner did better than Maitland-Niles when he came on last week, but it’s difficult for a player to play out of position and particularly against the better teams in the league.

Our central defensive partnership still needs a lot of work too, but our real problem there seems to be the personnel available. I’m far from convinced by Sokratis so far and Shkodran Mustafi slipped back into his old habits before the end of last week’s game after showing promising signs early on. With Laurent Koscielny a long term injury we are limited in our options and it could continue to be a problem position for the rest of the season. When we played Chelsea in a pre-season game in Dublin a few weeks ago Antonio Rudiger used his height to score from a corner and he almost got a second goal from another corner and we have to be aware of his threat.

Petr Cech has struggled with his part in our new way of playing and he very nearly scored an own goal as a direct result  last week. He’s not overly comfortable passing the ball out from the back and I’m not sure it’s something he will get the hang of at his age. Surely Bernd Leno was bought to play just that way and it would make sense to get him into the team as soon as possible and give us a more solid passing base at the back. To be fair to Cech he made some good saves last week and that part of his game looks better than last season. If we’re building for the future you would have to imagine the time for Leno to get his chance has to come soon.

If Lichsteiner doesn’t play at left back he could come in on the right for Hector Bellerin who wasn’t exactly at the races either. It would be unfair to apportion too much blame to Bellerin when so many others were just as bad and he didn’t get too much help from those around him at crucial times too. I would be very surprised if Bellerin didn’t start and I can’t see how leaving him out would benefit us in the long term. All of the players have to learn how to play that ball out the way the manager wants it to be done and there would be nothing to be gained in leaving Bellerin out.

Further forward I thought Alexandre Lacazette did well when he came on last week and it’s going to be hard to leave him on the bench again. The problem is who would be left out for him and I think he probably will start on the bench again. Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all struggled last week and perhaps the work they had to do closing others down meant they were a little jaded or thought a little slower when they did get the ball. For me we quite simply have to play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as he is a goal scorer supreme and we need him to put away chances if we can manage to make some. 

Chelsea looked good in beating Huddersfield 3-0 away from home last week, but Huddersfield are not Arsenal and they’re definitely not City. They lost the Community Shield to City the previous week and they don’t look an awful lot better than us at the moment. They are better in defence though and the return of Eden Hazard is bound to cause us a few problems as he has done in the past.

We shut up shop away to Chelsea last season and came away with a scoreless draw and a similar result wouldn’t be the worst result. It’s important for the new manager to get some points on the board and a point away to Chelsea is an acceptable result for any team in the Premier League. I think we have the firepower to beat them or at least score a few goals, but it’s a matter of whether we can keep them out at our end.

If things don’t go our way he can at least tell himself we have had a very tough start to the season and the next eight games are all against teams who finished outside the top six last season. Two games in against the champions from the last two seasons is too early to make any judgements, but they will come thick and fast by the 3rd of November when we play Liverpool if we haven’t racked up plenty of points in the previous eight games. Even then it will be far too early to make a judgment in what we are led to believe is a long term project, but we all know how quickly judgements are made and how quickly managers can lose the backing of those in charge at any club or of the fans too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Dawning Of A New Era For Arsenal

Arsenal play their first competitive match under the stewardship of Unai Emery today when the reigning Premier League chanpions come to visit the Emirates. After almost 22 years under Arsene Wenger it’s going to be strange to see a different man patrolling the sideline and he couldn’t have got a tougher task in his first game. He comes to Arsenal with a pretty good pedigree having won eight trophies in his last five seasons as a manager.

It’s a time of change at the club though and the latest goings on from our majority shareholder don’t make the future easy to predict. As a manager there’s nothing he can do to impact what happens among the power brokers at the club and he can only hope Stan Kroeneke gives him the financial backing he needs when he takes complete control of the club. His actual plans are unknown and it’s disappointing to see Emery start his reign with the off field side of the club in so much turmoil yet again.

As for today he has an awful lot of decisions to make about his starting line up. I was surprised to see so many players who returned from the World Cup lining up for their clubs yesterday and on Friday night too and the manager has to decide whether to risk those players in his squad. I’m sure he will have thought long and hard about it and will judge each player on whether he is ready to play from the start against such a strong opponent.

Normally we would expect to see Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka in the team while Aaron Ramsey is just back from a slight knock which kept him out of the last two pre season games. I suspect we might see up to two of them playing, but I would be very surprised if all three started. I would also suspect the ones who do start to come off on or around the hour mark and their replacements will have a crucial role to play too.

He has other choices to make too with the central defensive duo hardly set in stone yet and the absence of a left back due to injuries to Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal. It means Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the only real option at left back and our defence is going to have to be very strong against a City side who score goals for fun. In the last few seasons we seem to have gotten progressively worse in defence and it’s something the boss has being working on, but it will take time to rectify. Torreira could be the missing link in our midfield to help that defence, but he hasn’t exactly had an awful lot of time to work with them yet.

I suppose the other big choice is who starts up front and it has to be Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for me ahead of Alexandre Lacazette. Who would have thought a year ago when we finally landed Lacazette that we would be happy to see him on the bench, but Aubameyang is one of the very best finishers in the game and we just have to play him. Maybe the boss can find a formation to accommodate them both, but for the moment I expect to see Aubameyang ahead of Lacazette in the pecking order.

I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing to play City so early, but there’s nothing we can do to change it. Maybe we’ll catch them on the hop early on or maybe they’ll be at their best and give us a footballing lesson like they have done all too often for my liking recently. I think anything other than a defeat will be a good result for us today, but of course I’d love all three points.

In a season where regaining our top four place and the Champions League football that comes with is our top priority this game will not define our chances. We do need to take more points off the rest of the top six sides though and any points we get today would be very welcome in that cause. If we can continue our home form of last season that is a possibility, but the crucial change for us could be in how the new man improves our dismal away record of last season.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Win Out In Dublin

It had been a very long time since Arsenal played in Ireland, but they put that to rights on Wednesday  night when they played against Chelsea in the Aviva Stadium. It was the penultimate pre season game so the team were stepping up their preparations for their opening game at home to City in nine days. Unai Emery picked a team which will probably be very close to the one which starts that game against the reigning Premier League champions.

For my part I rushed home from work, grabbed some food and had a quick shower before hopping on a train with my youngest son who is 22. He bought the ticket for me along with his sister for Fathers Day and 30 minutes later we shuffled into Slattery’s in Beggars Bush for a couple of quick drinks before the game. Usually when I pop over to London to watch Arsenal I meet up with friends in our regular watering hole, but there’s no regular watering hole in Dublin. It meant I didn’t actually meet up with any of the people I hoped to, but I had good company in my son anyway.

We got to the stadium about 20 minutes before kick off which is unusual for me, but then again it’s not often Arsenal come to Dublin and I didn’t want to miss a thing. We had great seats in the lower East Stand and I had a bird’s eye view of the Arsenal players warming up. The stadium wasn’t completely full, but the official attendance of just over 46,000 in a stadium that takes 50,000 seemed just about right.

You can’t read too much into the game itself as pre season games are exercises in building fitness as much as anything else. The manager did wait until the hour mark before making his first substitution which is unusual for a pre season game which is what makes me think the team that started could well be the one that faces City. There are plenty of other players who are just back from World Cup duty to add to the squad, but lack of fitness could prevent them from playing next week.

Aaron Ramsey was named in the starting 11, but he picked up an injury in the warm up and didn’t play a part in the game. His contract situation still hasn’t been sorted and the manager admitted afterwards that he didn’t know what was happening with Ramsey. If we can’t tie him down to a new contract there’s a very real chance he will leave on a free transfer next summer and that’s something we can’t allow to happen. With the transfer window closing in a week we’re quickly running out of time in which we could realistically sell him and buy a replacement.

Back to the game itself and it’s obvious the manager wants us to play out from the back with Petr Cech getting more touches in that game than he has possibly ever got in an Arsenal shirt. It didn’t always work out with Chelsea pressing us and turning us over a little too often for my liking. It’s something we will have to work on and it’s obviously going to have a few setbacks on the way.

We pressed Chelsea too and while their defence dealt with it better than ours, we did have some joy pressing their midfield. I thought Matteo Guendouzi was very impressive in our midfield and was always on hand to take the ball from the defenders and try to link up with the players ahead of him. He was caught in possession a few times and made a few wrong choices, but overall he really looks like one for the future and maybe even the present too.

Chelsea took the lead after Antonio Rudiger rose above our defence to head home a corner and our defending left a lot to be desired. He almost did the exact same thing early in the second half from another corner, but his header went wide with the Arsenal players looking helplessly on. There’s still a lot of work to be done on our defence and it doesn’t look like the failings of last season and previous seasons have been cured quite yet.

Mesut Ozil played the whole game despite not being back as long as many of the other players. He was behind almost everything good we did in the game and it was a magnificent reverse pass from him which put Reiss Nelson in the space he needed to set up Alexandre Lacazette for a tap in to equalise with virtually the last kick of the game. As I’ve said previously the manager needs to get the best out of Ozil if we are going to have any chance of having a good season.

Lacazette had to make do with a place on the bench, but he took his chance when he came on even if he should have equalised from a one on one with the keeper a little earlier. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played from the start and he could have had a couple of goals too. It will be interesting to see if the manager can accommodate both of them in the team at the same time.

When that late equaliser went in plenty of people had already left which I found a little odd. Why wait over 30 years for Arsenal to come to Ireland and then leave early to get a drop on others for public transport. Some of them came back for the penalty shoot out, but those who left could most definitely hear the huge roar when Arsenal got their goal. I would say the crowd was at least two to one in favour of Arsenal it was certainly a lot bigger than the crowds they got when they visited in the 1980s.

The penalty shootout was very entertaining and I was impressed with Arsenal scoring all six of their penalties. With the players we had left on the pitch at the end of the game I was struggling to find five players I could trust to take the penalties, but I needn’t have worried judging by the standard of Arsenal’s penalties. It came down to Alex Iwobi to convert the winning penalty after Chelsea missed their sixth penalty and he duly obliged much to the delight of the majority of those in the stadium.

Cech saved that sixth penalty to set us up for the win and I thought he was our best player on the night. He saved a penalty from Alvaro Morata during the game as well as saving three times when faced with Chelsea players one on one. Maybe the arrival of Bernd Leno has given Cech the push he needs to find the form of a few years ago.

All in all it was a very enjoyable night watching “the greatest team the world has ever seen” win, even if they left the equaliser late and the win was only on penalties. It was good to spend some time with my son before he heads off around Europe on his Interrail adventure for the next few weeks. The only disappointment was not finding the time to catch up with my many other Arsenal friends.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Are Coming To Town

It’s been a very long time since Arsenal played a game in Ireland, but I will get to see them play in my home town of Dublin on Wednesday night. Of course I get over to London to see them as often as I can, but it’s a heck of a lot easier just to pop on a train and get off 10 stops later at the stadium rather than setting off at 3.30am via the Air Coach, a plane, a train and finally the tube. Without doubt some of the joy is in that pilgrimage and it’s always a bigger buzz to see them in a competitive game. Having said that it will be great to see them play in Dublin and I can’t wait to meet up with some of my fellow Arsenal fans over a beer or two.

With the new season only 10 days away I expect to see a fairly strong Arsenal team on display and the pre season games have gone pretty well so far. We drew with Atletico Madrid before losing on penalties and went on to beat PSG 5-1 in Singapore, but from here on the games are a lot closer to home. Of course pre season games don’t count for an awful lot and it’s all about building fitness and preparing for the start of the season. There’s more scrutiny on pre season this time around for Arsenal though with a new man at the helm for the first time in 22 seasons. 

I would imagine we’ll see a pretty similar team to the ones that played in Singapore and I’m not sure if the players who have just returned after World Cup duty will make the trip. Of all of those I am anxious to see Lucas Torreira the most because he looks like he has the potential to be the player this team has been missing for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an appearance against Lazio on Saturday in Stockholm though and hopefully he’ll be ready to go for our opening game against City.

The player I’m looking forward to seeing most of all is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and I can’t wait to see what his impact will be in a full season at Arsenal. He has scored goals for fun everywhere he has played so far and I expect him to be one of the top scorers in the Premier League next season. For the moment though I’ll be more than happy to see him put a few goals past Chelsea.

Besides Aubameyang I’m looking forward to seeing Mesut Ozil in action and I imagine he will get a great reception from the Arsenal fans after his recent trials and tribulations. For me there are few players in the world with his ability to make chances for others and we might just have the players at the club now who can put away a higher percentage of those chances. The final player I’m excited about seeing is Aaron Ramsey and I hope it’s not the last time I’ll get to see him in our colours. His future is still uncertain, but hopefully Unai Emery can convince him Arsenal are the club where he can make the impact that his talent deserves to make.

I’ll be going with my youngest son after his sister and him chipped in to get my ticket for Fathers Day. My eldest son will be at the game too as well as my brother in law and my nephew. It’s going to be a real family affair for me in more ways than one as my actual family will join me at my football family. It’s been a long time coming and I am really looking forward to it.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.