WHU v Arsenal. The teams, the tactics, the injuries, the cost.

Posted on by Tony Attwood
In the League State Aid have of late won against Sunderland, lost to Everton, drawn with Stoke, lost to the Tiny Totts, and drawn with Mourinho.  Not too good, but I’m sure they enjoyed beating Sunderland – as did we.

In all Arsenal drew with Middlesbrough, won against Sunderland, drew with the Tinies, drew with Mourinho, won against Bournemouth.  So only two wins, hardly earth shattering, but still no defeats.  And we’ve got November out of the way.  And that, as you know, is our ….

Here is the home and away table at the top and bottom…

Home Away Total
W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts
1 Chelsea 6 0 1 20 4 4 1 1 9 6 +19 31
2 Liverpool 5 1 0 19 4 4 2 1 13 10 +18 30
3 Manchester City 3 3 0 12 5 6 0 1 17 7 +17 30
4 Arsenal   4 2 1 15 9   4 2 0 13 4   +15 28
16 State Aid United   2 2 2 6 9   1 1 5 8 15   -10 12
17 Crystal Palace 1 1 4 8 10 2 1 4 13 16 -5 11
18 Hull City 2 1 4 6 12 1 1 4 5 16 -17 11
19 Swansea City 1 2 4 10 16 1 1 4 6 10 -10 9
20 Sunderland 1 1 4 8 13 1 1 5 4 10 -11 8

What we notice is that State Aid have a very modest home record, while Arsenal are undefeated away from home.  State Aid have scored six at home and Arsenal 13 away.  State Aid have let in nine at home, Arsenal four away.

Of course I know that the pre-match home/away contrast between the Southampton and Arsenal amounted to much the same thing, but we were not talking about a game played with the first team.  This will be a very different affair.

The teams

For this game I would go with….

Alexis

The Ox  Ozil   Walcott

Xhaka  Ramsey

Monreal  Koscielny  Mustafi  Gabriel

Cech

Lurking on the east end beach we may find, Ospina, Gibbs, Holding, Coquelin, Iwobi, Reine-Adélaïde,  and Pérez.

Elneny has been ill I believe, and I think Giourd has a groin strain, but either could make the beach in which case Le Jeff would step down.   Without Giroud we still have Lucas to come on and make a nuisance of himself and I think he would relish the opportunity.

The strange case of Andy Carroll

For State Aid, Andy Carroll is possibly available again, Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio are probably not.    Töre, Sakho, Byram, and Calleri are all also out.

State Aid played much of their first team against Manchester Mourinho when they lost in the EFL cup, which is where Cresswell and Antonio got done in.  (Two bunches of hearty roughs playing each other – injuries are not surprising).

So this could mean a change in the defence for the home team for just as we are running out of full backs, so are they.   Masuaku has been out for a couple of months and could come in at left back, and our ex-player Håvard Nordtveit will presumable play on the other side to make a back four instead of a Tottenham like back five.

In this scenario Kouyate goes into midfield and I presume Noble, who didn’t go to Manchester, will also play.  Although people are talking up the return of the £35m man Andy Carroll, and there is even talk of him being “unleashed” (which I suppose is right if you compare him to a mad bulldog) things are not quite as simple as that.

Carroll has only started only 38 Premier League matches in over three years in east London (I blame the diet they have over there, but there might be other reasons), and his latest injury came in a game in the Europa League in August against the Romanian giants Astra Giurgiu.

The club announced he would be out for around a month, maybe six weeks, but it has gone on and on and on.  Carroll on the pitch will run around a lot, elbows out, bumping into people, and scoring of course, but whether he is fit for purpose is a different issue.

The issue for Bilic is that Diafra Sakho is out for six weeks, so if he risks Carroll and Carroll gets scuppered yet again, he will then be near the bottom of the league and without a first team centre forward of any description.

The stats which prove the point are State Aid’s goal scorers for this season…

Rank Player Lge FLC Total
1 Michail Antonio* 6 0 6
2 Manuel Lanzini 3 0 3
3 Dimitri Payet 1 1 2

* Currently injured

In other news the kick off is at 5.30pm – something I don’t normally mention but I noticed recently that the Independent had got the kick off time of an Arsenal game wrong, and they have done so again today.  Still that’s what you get from running a web site with robots rather than your real live writers.

State Aid and tactics

Back with State Aid, we need to be particularly careful of their fouling, because even with some dubious refereeing they have knocked up significant numbers of cards of the yellow and red variety.  In fact the bottom of the fair play league makes interesting reading…

# Club Fouls Yellow Yel/Red Red
16 Manchester Airport 127 27 0 1
17 Mourinho United 180 29 1 0
18 Sunderland 147 25 3 0
19 State Aid United 155 31 2 0
20 Watford Dubious Banking 183 32 1 1

So we can except some fairly vicious stuff in the far distance across the running track – those of us watching on TV can only hope that the cameras have all got their telephoto lenses in operation.

Random stats

Here are a few of the odd statistics…

  • West Ham have one of the three dirtiest players in the league so far this season, in their side: Winston Reid.  He has four yellows and a red to his name thus far – an honour shared with Britos of Watford and Pienaar of Sunderland.
  • Arsenal are unbeaten away in the league since February – a total of 11 games.
  • Arsenal haven’t lost against West Ham in either of their guises for 10 years, and we are unbeaten in the last eight against them, winning six.   And we have won nine of the last 11 Premier League games against the jellied eels.
  • West Ham have let in two or more in each of their last seven home games against us and have not won any of their last four Premier League games.   When they do win it is always by 1-0.
  • But when they do go ahead in a game they are more likely to lose than any other team in the Premier League (they have done it ten times).

And one more, in case he is fit again…

  • Olivier Giroud has been involved in more Premier League goals from the beach than any other player this season (three goals, one assist).

I think that’s about enough for now.  If Walter is not once more rushed off into a Belgium TV studio for more commentary on the game, he’ll be here after the match.  Otherwise you might have to wait as Tony is roaring off to Radcliffe on Trent immediately on the whistle for a spot more of putting unfortunate ladies into hospital with broken ankles.

Tales from Untold 

Wenger ponders whether Yaya Sanogo will ever really be good enough for Arsenal. 

State Aid United v Arsenal: no Jenkinson, no Santi, and the problem of moving home

When the press start saying Arsenal will win honours it is time to start worrying

West Ham v Arsenal Saturday 3 December 2016 – The Match Officials

Three times as many arrests at Arsenal as at State Aid Utd? Up to a point Ms Copper

Santi Cazorla out for three months. Now what?

A kinder Arsenal world

As darkness descends on the football world what can the response be?

 

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122 Replies to “WHU v Arsenal. The teams, the tactics, the injuries, the cost.”

  1. Sorry to say so but will not be able to publish my live match report as I am invited to a birthday party of one of my children. But will post something as soon as I can of course.

  3. Just seen Mr. Taylor showing all what is wrong with English refereeing in the match between City and Chelsea. Well he got at least one final decision right by sending off Aguero. But too many errors before that..

  4. Walter
    Chelsea got the calls but City have no one to blame but themselves.
    Bad final decisions by Aguero and poor finishing by De Bruyne cost them more than the referee did.

  5. Luis fouling Aguero off the ball in the first half, you could see him running to the position of the foul, then realising ouch I maybe have to send someone off and then doing nothing. Coward refereeing that is.
    I hope the FA looks at the images again and punishes a few more players for their bad behaviour after the Aguero assault.

  6. The play you mentioned could’ve gone either way.
    I have always had a problem with defensive players being allowed by refs to disregard the ball and play the player instead especially close to the byline.
    There’s no doubt Luis gets a lucky no call.
    On the plus side , City will miss two key players against Arsenal .
    Aguero and Fernandinho should both get a three game ban.

  7. As I said in my last comment posting that Arsenal could gain points in the table on Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool if we won at West Hammers in the tonight’s match between us at the London Stadium.

    For those of us who watched the match that have just ended between Man City and Chelsea some few minutes ago, a game in which Chelsea scored all the 4 goals in the game to beat Man City 1-3, Arsenal now have a big chance at least for today to go 2nd ahead of the 2nd and 3rd placed Liverpool & Man City in the table if we beat West Ham later. Who knows what will happen tomorrow in the Liverpool game away to Bournemouth. In view of this uncertainty in PL games, I see no reason why Arsenal should not make things certain today by beating West Ham to start an overhauling journey of Chelsea in the table.

  8. 100% agree that family events come first Walter. Have a great time.

    My problem is managing to managing to watch the game, get something to eat, get changed, have a shower, and get to Radcliffe on Trent all in about an hour, which is actually impossible.

    Still it could be worse, I could be sitting a home with no hobbies at all.

    You have a great, great time. Family first, Arsenal second, world third.

  12. Why do our refs keep embarrassing themselves week in…week out with their awarding penalties to the cheats of Tottenham?
    And why are the media so silent?

  14. Taylor in the City v Chelski was diabolical but not disappointing as he was supported by Dean as 4th official. The PGMO band keeps rolling on – blind cheats & without a doubt corrupt. The City players kept playing in spite of the slope but eventually they blew up.

    Spuds keep going with their con specials. If Moss gets that right Swansea have a different perspective.

  19. Two bookables by West Ham right in front of the Pigmob but only fouls given. Hand in the face of Monreal by Fernandes & pull on Coquelin.

  20. Monreal with 3 cross from the line….
    No one meets it….this is made for Giroud and his sublime near post goals…

  28. That must have pleased you Leon! Coquelin booked for kicking the ball into the crowd. A stamp by Payet gets nothing.

  29. Somebody tell Xhaka….don’t shoot when therz someone covering you….only when therz space.

  39. Leon you know you are a cnut of the first order. Why don’t you f off to a site that suits?

  45. State Aid getting a free ride by Pigmob officials. One on here blowing bubbles (thats MJs chimp!).

  48. Leon
    03/12/2016 at 5:41 pm
    Handball by the West Ham keeper. When are they going to pick these offences up

  70. If therz any stat that Ayew would top!!… distance covered?? Or no of time fallen down…

  72. Pigmob official giving pseudo fouls now!! What a fucking disgusting cheating bastard. Hope he gets sick on his after match meal.

  79. Didn’t read the team list, glad Elneny is fit!? Thought he was going to be out for a long time…

  80. Curb crawler Pleat really disappointed that the Arsenal are in 2nd place with such quality players……

  82. Porn brokers United with State aid & curb crawlers makes one wonder how much abuse is due to these types.

  88. welcome to Alexis show tonite. spuds think they the only one who can score 5 tonite’ Arsenal also can score 5 goals n we did it on away match. roll on to the next CL match this midweek, com’on Arsenal

  89. Menace
    You should consider coming states – side and becoming a Trump surrogate. You’re wasting your talents commenting on this blog 🙂

  90. That gift by the Pigmob with the card for Kos was just wrong. It was not a foul nor should it have been a goal. Undeserving State Aid pillocks!!!

  91. Sorry Tom but Trump & I would never get on. He is Piers Morgans mate. Besides he does not know what passion for football is. US play a ball game with little or no use of the foot & call it football. Grid iron is apt.

  92. Great win by the team, even though West Ham squad was pretty much depleted but it could have been a tricky match. Alexis what a great player.

  93. What a fantastic finish!

    A great win despite some dubious decisions by the bandit in black.

    Well done the team, the manager and also the away fans!

    A wee dram is due tonight after that performance!

    As for State Aid – their bubble was well and truly hammered!

  94. What were those yellows towards Kos and Mustafi all about?! They didn’t even look like fouls to me and it was both of their first fouls of the match. Ah well, it’s nice to win emphatically after such a dodgy run of form! Arsenal actually looked like Arsenal today; great stuff!

  96. One of those great Saturdays before Christmas. People out and happy. To come back and then watch the lads. Wow!

    The team’s clear application to the task at hand – how to get a team playing without Santi, winning, defending, playing directly. The purpose was there from the start.Add movement, speed, determination. Alexi’s fire contagious.

    Roll on Tuesday. As for Mr Wenger, many thanks.

  97. Tom,

    You inviting someone to become Trump supporter, now that’s a surprise.

    Alexis is joint top scorer, together with the crybaby that Kos had in his pocket in our 3-0 win.

  98. What I really saw different today, in a good way, was how articulate the midfield was, with smooth transitions from defense to attack. Also, the decision making on the counter looked a lot better. Proof to that the passing stats for midfielders, Özil had 96.5%, Ramsey 94.7% in 19 minutez, Xhaka had 89.7%, Chambo 86.8% and Coquelin 83%.

  99. Tom couldn’t think of any negatives to pick on with regards to performance so he chose to take a dig at a supporter instead of just congratulating the team. It doesn’t cost anything to just say well done when the team does well, esp when you’re supposed to support said team. Some people…

  101. Florian
    Not surprised at those stats, we were certainly threatening to score each time we came forward. This was one of our best attacking performances in a while, in a match we made look easy in the end but one I’d have been happy to take a draw from before kick off.

    Gabriel was in the wars today but think he passed every test with flying colours. He’s a tough cookie. He comfortably dealt with payet well, something not many can say, and was even offering an attacking threat going forward too.

  102. Chris Sutton in his MOTD debut. First called Anthony Taylor for his incompetence (said he bottled it) in the City/Chelsea game and then Dele Alli for his conning the ref for the Spurs penalty. I think the BBC has found a star at last.

  103. Churlish as it may be after a 5 -1 win , if the Ox learned to look up before he centred his stats would have been much higher.The final score masks the fact that during our early dominate spell we were quite wasteful. However the second half was carried by Alexis’ display , very much the difference by a truly world class player.

  104. Damn I missed the match as I was working! Glad we win even though the refs were shit again! ALexis Hatric sanchez! Boooom!! 😀 😀 😀 Well done team!

  105. Leon,

    For once you’re an optimist. Keep it up:) I would expect Sutton to change his tune, in the light of subsequent “training”. Saying bad words about refs and Spuds are obviously rookie mistakes;)

  106. Al,

    Gabriel and Theo cemented our right flank. I’m not sure anyone expected this, but they complement each other very well in terms of skills. Gabriel’s defensive game worked great with Theo’s pace and ability to cover the ground. It’s true that Theo’s offensive game suffered as a result, but at least, as you rightly pointed out, Payet was quiet as long as he stayed on that side.

  107. Quite an eventful thread. I pick up a red card offence by the West Ham keeper and get trolled by Menace & Arsenal 13, Menace himself gets trolled by Tom and Tom gets trolled by Al & now Al gets trolled by me. At least my trolls are polite. ?

  108. Florian
    Sutton is usually to be heard on BBC Radio 5LIve where he always speaks his mind. I don’t always agree with him, but admire his honesty. Hope he keeps it up on TV.

  109. A good win, we had to dig deep as WH were causing us problems, but they faded away after a good while.

    Still, not a great performance from the team as a whole, we were not that sharp and could have even been in trouble had WH had a little more luck, but we woke up in the end and took the game, with some goals to boost our GD.

    I wanted 6 goals today i was telling my pal before KO. Got 6 but sadly one was for the hammers, still good though.

    //
    Looks like Santi may not play for Arsenal again? What with his injury and contract running out, there may not be a renewal?

  110. Leon
    I simply called Tom out for taking an unnecessary dig after a good win, hardly trolling by any stretch of imagination. I was expecting after such a fine performance for everyone to agree, nice for a change. But seems some didn’t want that to be the case.

    If one listened to the commentary or read reports from say the BBC then one might be inclined to think we were in trouble at some point. Apart from a clearance by Kos I am struggling to recall a period we were in danger or under sustained pressure from the hammers. Our defence nullified their attack very well and their only goal came from a dead ball situation from a dubious free kick. We had 19 shots overall; 10 on target and 5 goals (for west ham it was 10, 3, 1). We shared possession 50-50 with them, so clearly we used the ball waay better than them; our attack and defence were much more effective than theirs. For a London Derby that ain’t too shabby. If that doesn’t count as one good performance then I don’t know what will.

  113. Florian
    As someone who resides in Seatle surely you must’ve been exposed to at least some of the Trump rallies media coverage.
    If you take any Manace comment, substitute Clinton for PGMO and you’ll get your average Trump supporter mentality.

    Rude, irrational,oblivious to facts and with propensity to believe in every made up conspiracy theory.

  115. Tom
    You could have a whole thread on Menace and nothing would be resolved & Godwins Law would almost certainly be invoked at some point.
    Can you believe he actually gets a lot of support on Untold?

  117. Tom,

    Don’t be delusional. I didn’t say I acknowledge your post, as for responding to it, if writing something that remotely relates to it means responding, then I guess you can call it that way. Personally I don’t need this kind of ego boosts to validate myself. But keep up the negative view, maybe one day something positive will come out of it.

  118. Florian and Al is the same poster?
    Strange!

    The bit about “acknowledging ” my posts was to Al , since he has repeatedly said he wouldn’t do it even though he always has :).
    Delusion is a funny thing.

  119. Don’t know about Florian being Al or Visa Versa, but Al always insists that I’m Rupert among others.
    This is one weird blog.

  120. My love for the PGMO is well evidenced by the articles on this site. The most beautiful thing that was missed in our game was the fact that the ref didn’t call a foul on one of the tackles on Alexis. Alexis complained & then went wild with his shooting. He didn’t wait for justice but created his own.

  121. Leon, I apologise if you were sincere in your handball comment. I didn’t see the incident & thought you were being sarcastic.

  122. Menace

    Yes I was sincere. It’s something I’ve been banging on about for some time now. Most keepers including ours sometimes do it when kicking out. It’s a bit difficult to spot, but I always look for it (in the same way that you look for foul throw ins.) although not normally a red card offense. I added that bit for effect.
    Way, way back the ref would give the keeper a friendly warning when he spotted it and that was usually good enough.
    This is always overlooked in the Untold referee reviews along with foul throw ins and they expect to be taken seriously.

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