Arsenal – West Ham, the preview

By Walter Broeckx

Ok here I sit.

Tony has been snowed in I think and I even don’t know if he will be able to free himself to get to the game.

Billy the Dog McGraw has disapeared when the tried to reach the allotment of Dennis Bergkamp so he also is not here.  Which leaves me the ref-previewer, ref-reviewer, Arsenal supporter with the task of writing a preview for this game.

Let us start with what I am certain of. Some facts.

According to some the ref plays no part so that is already out of the way.

The grass will be greener on the other side of the hill is also a fact.

There will be 22 players on the pitch at kick off unless one of them is named Puncheon.

There will be two managers, one for each team. Living on different planets so we should be careful tonight in case they  would collide at one point. That would be a happy ending for some who don’t see anything good at Arsenal any more as it would be the end of the world as predicted and it will be all Arsène’s fault.

The game will start when the ref blows his whistle and stop when he also does it (blowing his whistle I mean)  but at the end of the game.  Which should be some 90 minutes later. Or 100 minutes. Depending on lost time.  If you would find the lost time, please bring it back to the office of lost items.

 

Let me now start with the bad news: We are having a few injuries it seems. This means no Arteta (big loss), no Coquelin (smaller loss but in the light of the absence of the first one  a bigger loss).  Rumour has it that Diaby is injured. Or rested. Or both.

The good news is that we should habe The Ox and Podolski back in the squad today as they recovered from their illness that prevented them playing at Chelsea. And also Rosicky is back in full training so maybe he could be sitting on the fog bank. Frimpong is also training with the group so maybe he could come in as a defensive midfielder. Which should be his natural position if I remember correct as he has been out, away, out for a while.

 

So who will play for us? And where?

I think we will see Szczesny hanging around in our penalty area for most of the time.

If I would be Wenger I then would put out this team on the field. Mind you I’m not Wenger and probably will make a fool of myself but hey as you don’t want me to talk about the ref I have to write about something else.

Sagna – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Gibbs

No Vermaelen you say? Wait a minute.

Let us take a look at the midfield

Vermaelen

Ramsey             Wilshere           Cazorla

And that leaves us in attack with

Theo             Podolski (if fully fit!)

 

The more intelligent will have discovered by now that this looks like a 4-4-2 but in fact I think both Wilshere and Cazorla should play as half midfield and half attacker. So in fact this is more a 4 – 2+1 – 2+1 formation. Just checking if it ads up to 10 outfield players. It does. Nice work Walter. I could be even a manager. For when I have enough of refereeing. Does it pay well?

Back on the fog bank where the reserves will be placed: Giroud, Arshavin, Rosicky, Frimpong, Mannone (always handy to have a reserve keeper on the fog bank) and give that boy Gnabry another chance over there.

West Ham have a few injured and missing people like Carroll who since his 35M move didn’t have much fun as before and we will only see Chamakh trying to help former players safe in to the ground as he cannot play against Arsenal as he is still an Arsenal player but loaned to them.

Diame has been rolling on everyone’s lips these days and seems to be the best player ever on a football pitch according to some.  Reports say that he is threatening to go to the court if West Ham don’t play the game according to the rules.  But that could be paper talk.

So this is it. This is probably the  worst ever game preview written on Untold or any other website ever. Someone had to do it.It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it as they say.

Over to you now who know much more about those things but who didn’t send in an article that was  better so I had to stick with this.

I could bore you with some words about the ref but I already did that to the annoyance of some. Sure they must be happy now.

If you go to the Emirates have safe journey and most of all: JUST SUPPORT THE TEAM FROM THE FIRST TILL THE LAST MINUTE!

Will you? Thank you!

 

 

 

 

30 Replies to “Arsenal – West Ham, the preview”

  1. Walter,
    An interesting lineup. I have also been wondering about playing either Verm. or Kos. as defensive midfielder, definitely ‘worth a punt’ at some point and could provide more cover when our fullbacks are in more advanced attacking positions. I suspect that Verm. would welcome the opportunity to play slightly higher up the pitch. We might also try Santos there, but I suspect he hasn’t the discipline to do that role.
    I would give Sagna a couple of games rest so would start Jenkinson (if fit).
    Will be there from the start cheering the team on. COYG.

  2. Interesting. Noted that Verthongen claimed he chose not to join us pimarily because Wenger wanted to play him in MF, could TV do the same? opening the way up for some needed gametime for Kos, who if reports are to be believed chose to sign a long term deal for us rather than be taken in by Barca’s advances. Would also like to see Jenks get a start.
    A nice early goal or two for us should do the trick.

  3. well i guess thos is the best and most important preview on this site ever,…
    best cause its damn funny, so shall.we see other articles like this please?
    and most important, for the last paragraph,really i believe the most important tactics 2day,….
    btw, ur good at refereeing, dont try to be manager, ur 1st eleven is not like ur reviews,….
    Oh and now time for the AAA to come out and say we are having fin laughing while we should be blamong Wenger, and not the angel refs who never been biased against us except in last chelswa games and this happens,…
    and they well start to.ask you to stop defending Wenger and blaming the refs in the article, cause they dont try to read.it….
    am i being an anti-AAA now?! whatever…

  4. For some time I have thought that the Verminator could well make a very fine DM or box to box player. Walter, I know you were not being too serious, but I like that idea. It will be interesting to see just who plays in midfield tonight.

  5. Chelsea – Football’s most morally corrupt team. Hazard’s kick on the ball boy is simply shameful.

  6. Great restart to second half, simply fantastic. Why can’t we play like that more often?!

  7. Come on you Ramsey baiters…come out of your sewers…boy he had a game…didn’t miss Arteta at all…what a game!!! Fantastic play…Podolski…my man of the match!

  8. Feels like deja vu when added time was 12 minutes..Thank you all..it’s good to see Arsenal play their football again..

  9. Well that was a much better team performance. Not perfect but what a start to the second half and all of our main attackers scored – including Gervinho in Africa. Ramsey looked absolutely solid all game as well. Now repeat against Brighton please.

  10. Couldn’t see it but wasn’t Jack made captain when TV left the field????
    He will have been proud I think.

  11. Yes we can certainly show up when we want to. Inexplicable team, changeable from one week to the next. And Ramsey looked much better than Diaby, hopefully the Welsh wizard will become as magical as Wilshire.

  12. At one moment it reminded me of a carling cup games some 4 or 5 years back when we trashed a team 6-0 (or something like that). And it was very young Jack with also rather young Aaron running the show that night with Vela scoring one of his great chipped goals…
    When I saw that game in those days I said that I couldn’t wait till the day they would run the show like that in the PL.
    I think we might see that in the next seasons…..

  13. Rambo is a very talented player, he has been learning the different perspective of different positions but was outstanding today where he is at his best. Superb performance by the team. But they need to build on these performances, take confidence from them and not go into their collective shell against the top teams

  14. Overall an excellent performance tonight with some superb football. Well done the team.

    Yet, even in victory this site is polluted by sarcastic twits trying to devalue the performance – not through any constructive argument – but only through sarcastic throw away one liners. Arsenal and Untold could well do without scum like that.

  15. @Mandy, exactly. I sometimes think there is an inferiority complex when the team comes up against the better teams. A win over Pool is essential to get some distance from them.

  16. Agree Rupert, hopefully a bit of caution in defending…..but no more first half hand brakes

  17. Most of the sarcasm seems aimed at those that would denigrate our team’s effort. Perhaps it wasn’t clear enough.

  18. Great win .Didn’t see the whole game (a tad too much wine!),
    but saw only the time added on and the goals highlight .
    And heard about Hazard ‘s folly – another Daniel Passarella ?
    WOOHOOO !

  19. saw the highlights on sky. brought fond memories of the henry, overmars era. the passing, movement was excellent. whats more, the intensity was that killed the game. we need to play similar against teams like manu, liverpool etc. but the problem is that we seem to be over cautious. hope we play keep this up for all the remaning games. don;t see why we cannot finish 4th or above. slept really well yesterday 🙂

  20. What a game. Great work by Poldi.

    off TOPIC: I guess people got the answer for ‘Hazard-Why dint ARSENAL sign him?’.

  21. about the hazzard kick. i saw part of what happend, ie the boy lying down and not letting the ball go. was it intentional or not… don’t know, and then hazzard’s kick. i am sure that all he was trying to do was kick the ball from under the boy. but it was really foolish thing to do a red was the right decision. about any further action, we will leave that to the police or the FA, whoever’s responsible for this.
    we all know that if the home team is leading, the volunteers will do all they can to waste time. i am not sure if they are instructed by the club. i think that the the FA should come up with a time restriction on this, or tell the ref;s to give added time if the opponent team is trying to win or get the equalier.
    i read somwhere red nose’s comment about the boy being lucky to be alive and all that crap. i think that he is a real arse. the boy could have broken a rib or 2.

  22. The ballboy was deliberately trying to waste time. What the hell was he doing rolling on top of the ball, acting out his goalkeeper fantasies?

    But Hazard acted like an idiot. Red was what he deserved.

    Heard the ballboy apologized to Hazard and vice versa so all’s well that ends well especially as the unsavoury blues took a swan dive.

  23. I just published an article about the ball boy incident. Another Untold told you so story in fact 😉

  24. I read some comments on a report this morning stating that Arsenal are “brushed aside” by “larger teams”- the usual inaccurate reporting against City game was hampered by a red and off pitch groans about ticket prices (evil Arsenal a la 1980 Cup Final etc etc etc) and Chelsea were lucky to win and Arsenal were unlucky to draw/win on Sunday-yes I know Chelsea were better in the first half, but the second half was a struggle for them.
    And 4th place Spurs brushed us aside earlier this season…

    Last night proved that when they gel the Arsenal are great to watch, so perhaps the big problem is really the psychological side of the game. Many have complained that Wenger isn’t “honest” enough, but for me that’s OK because he has time and time again stated that the team are under-confident which is the biggest problem–and I don’t see why he should underline technical weaknesses for other teams. I personally don’t think it helps with a split fan-base, but at the moment its just another problem that has to be delt with-if it can.But I don’t think it can as its either “must win/trophies” against “well it could be worse/support your club through thick and thin” and that’s irreconcilable.No matter how much they’re paid, they’re still humans,as every manager at every level knows. Corporate capitalism has no room for human frailty and that’s its blind spot and weakness. If its not a psychological problem as a unit then what is the problem? Those who state the players arent good enough are wrong.They are,(its an international level squad for FS) it just takes time to build a team and work together,and stay together, that Ferguson’s secret as it was at Liverpool when they dominated.

    Why is Der Prinz so inconsistent-?- (at Bradford he might as well have sat down and watched) yet yesterday he was the pivotal player in the game, he’s often been like this, when he plays well the whole team seem more urgent… that guy held up Kölle in the way that people say RVP did for us last season. Wenger didn’t buy him just to be “OK”, he was bought because he can play like last night.Lethal.
    Sagna seems to be a worry, he looked nervous and indecisive, sometimes passing close when he should have crossed. I felt he was the same against Chelsea.Perhaps too much media transfer speculation etc? Our club has had enough of this since Fabregas leaving.
    I personally would like to see Per get some one on one training from Tony Adams, I think he lacks a bit of confidence and bite, but he could become a truly great defender, hes already picked up so much since his first nervous games.
    I’m also worried by the frailty at set pieces (for and against), although Giroud’s goal was a training-ground set piece pulled off. Great goal! He also looked hungry last night, while against Chelsea he was a bit lost (as was the whole team after Chelseas second goal in that game).
    As others have pointed out Ramsey has had a run of games where he looks solid and confident, I’m sure Jacks return to form is inspiring him.That would be a bonus for us with Diaby perhaps in a tough moment of his career/life–I hope he stays fit and gets back to that “Viera” level again.
    Regardless of the final positions at the end of the season, I’m quite interested in how this team will fair next season, once they’ve got used to each other, as some of the telepathy they showed last night was pretty impressive.

    Ken.

  25. @ Walter,
    To be honest, I was not an Untold reader then. BUT I read that article of yours, through some other website, and I really liked it a lot. That was the time when I always thought, There are many players linked to ARSENAL but hardly any one joined. May be ARSENAL dint even look at those players and may be newspapers are speculating to increase their sales.

  26. Hmmm what a nice weather no pollution from the polluters ,hope they can keep in the sewer for a while. Big up real fans and lets enjoy while it lasts.

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