By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal injury news: Wenger confirms triple blow, trio to miss Man City clash
Moving more to the reality side of life we do know that Calum Chambers is back in training but of course not yet ready for a game. And just to confuse things even more apparently Mr Wenger said, “Kolasinac will have a test at the end of the week. He is not ruled out yet for Sunday. It’s not as bad as we feared at the start.” That is also in, err, Football London.
So what are we to make of all this contrary stuff? Maybe this will make it clearer.
“Arsenal team news: Two defenders miss training ahead of Man City showdown” In that story the shock horror news is that “ARSENE WENGER led Arsenal’s final training session before their Man City clash – with two defenders absent.”
That comes from the Daily Excess which says, “Sead Kolasinac missed Arsenal’s final training session ahead of their trip to face Manchester City… Per Mertesacker also appeared to be absent from training leaving Arsene Wenger with a thinned squad to select his defence from.”
I particularly love the notion that Mert “appeared” to be absent, which gives the impression of an Excess journalist peering over a hedge while standing on half a dozen boxes and using a telescope. Mind you, I suspect that is by and large how it is.
Anyway, we all know how well Man City are doing in the league thus far, but I thought I would occupy myself on an otherwise empty Sunday morning by trying to see if there really is something fundamental that separates the teams other than the obvious, that they score more goals and win more games than Arsenal.
Looking at shots so far this season, it is interesting to find that Liverpool have had more (199) than Man City (185) (although they have just played one more game), with Arsenal the fourth highest rated club on 178. So Man City have under one shot per game more than Arsenal. Not as much as one might expect.
If one looks at touches of the ball that is where they really outdo Arsenal. Manchester have had 9102 touches so far, putting them top of that ranking, with Arsenal in third but around 1000 touches behind on 8136. So amazingly, Man City have 100 more touches of the ball than Arsenal per game.
However on passes they outdo us, but only just – 185 to 178 this season – so it is a touch, touch, touch approach that marks out the difference between the two clubs.
Arsenal and Man City are top of the league when it comes to what are classified as “big chances missed” – 25 to Man City and 21 to Arsenal in second spot.
Trying a different tack I looked at yellow cards, where the arch offenders are West Ham on 24, Huddersfield and West Brom on 23. Quite interesting that in all the talking up of Huddersfield at the moment I don’t hear too much about that stat. Man City are 7th in the dirty league with 19 and Arsenal are bottom of the yellow league with just nine. City have also had two red cards already (only Chelsea beat them with three).
Huddersfield’s yellow position is explained in that they are way out in front at the top of the tackle league with over 30 more tackles than Chelsea, the next tackling team. Arsenal are 12th but interestingly Manchester City have this season made fewer tackles than any other club in the PL.
Anyway, Man City are already being talked up as emulating our achievement of an unbeaten season, so I wondered where we were after ten games in 2003. Here’s the top…
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 24 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 23 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 6 | 12 | 22 |
| 4 | Birmingham City | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 19 |
| 5 | Fulham | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 13 | 7 | 18 |
Lacazette
Alexis Ozil
Kolasinac Xhaka Ramsey Bellerin
Monreal Mertesacker Koscielny
Cech
This assumes Kolasinac is not injured. If he is then we are going to do some shuffling around.
“This assumes Kolasinac is not injured.”
Let’s hope he is ok for the game.
We would sorely miss him.
Interesting stats again.
City with just ‘under one shot per game more than Arsenal’ and only four more ‘big chances missed’ have still managed to score 35 goals in the PL this season compared to our 19. The relative goal differences are also staggering at 29/6.
On paper they look so far ahead that we might just as well not turn up….but I’m thinking of our marvellous win in the semi final, and Peps opinion of Arsenal.
Looking forward to competitive match.
I think this may well be the one game between the top teams that actually provides an attractive game, at least as far as neutral supporters are concerned. Neither team will park the bus – indeed Arsenal travelled up by train yesterday! Whilst everyone has this one down as a home win, I’m hoping that we play solidly, get an early goal and prove to a sceptical world that we are a pretty good team. If we do that then I think we could win by the odd goal in five. If we don’t we could well only score the odd goal in five.
Either way, I will be at Borehamwood watching the Continental Tyres Cup game between Arsenal and Reading, expecting goals from our Women. Four one my prediction for this one. Being there will be better for my nerves than anxiously following the Men.
Hopefully, Kolas’ and Mert’ are available and in top gear to start this match. But if they aren’t, they should be on the bench for the match with of course Iwobi and Holding brought in to replace them and start the match in place of them.
Whoever start this match among the above four Gunners will not make any difference because all the Gunners starting and on the bench in this match are fully charged up to shock any Citizen that makes contact with them on the field of play at the Etihad Stadium. In fact, the rumours emanating in the football grapevine had it that Pep Guardiola and his Citizens team are already panicking on hearing that the Gunners are fully charged up and will shock any Citizen who makes contact with any Gunner on the field during the match, and couple with the added rumour that says the Gunners have sworn by the invisible record set by them in the Premier League to beat the Citizens this afternoon at the Etihad Stadium. And will not only collect all the points at stake in the match, but will as well see to an early end to the Man City reaching for the optical illusions dreaming to equaled the Arsenal once invisibility in the Premier League. As Pep Guardiola and his Citizens heard of the enormous capacity at the disposal of Arsenal which Le Prof planned to employ to put Man City to sword this afternoon, Pep Guardiola is said to be utterly left in confusion and in state of limbo not knowing what to do next.
Come on Palace, tie up that game!
Arsenal revert to a back four
Cech
Bellerin, Kos, Nacho, Kolasinac
Aaron, Coquelin, Xhaka
Özil, Alexis, Iwobi
Beach
Macey, Debuchy, Jack, Elneny, Lacazette, Giroud, Theo
Women’s team
Moor House
Rose, Williamson, Quinn, O’Reilly
Mitchell, Nobbs, Van de Donk
Taylor, Miedema, James
Beach
Van Veenendaal, Scott, Carter, Evans, Janssen, Mead, Hinds
COYG
Thanks Andrew. I am hoping Mr Wenger has the sort of game plan he has evolved before for specific matches, involving a complete change of playing style.
Interesting lineup. It makes sense as going toe to toe with city is far too risky. However, I am extremely worried about Xhaka and Coquelin as holding midfielders, especially coquelin.
Here we go!
Come on Arsenal, we are with you.
I’m praying for an Arsenal win but not confident. Please not let it be like Liverpool match. Come on Arsenal let us be City’s bogey team.
Not surprised to see Coquelin….I do remember him a few years ago at a famous game,I’d say where he suddendly appeared as a first team player.
Back to the roots….
Updates to the Mens game via LiveScore are coming much faster than updates to the Ladies game via twitter.
COYG!
COYLG!
Alexis leads the line for Arsenal in this Gunners team in which Le Prof has done 3 changes to his starts at Everton and at the Ems against Swansea with Mert’ left out altogether and Lacazette starting from the bench and Coquelin and Iwobi coming in to start the match. And the Gunners back-three is reverted to back-four by Le Prof to enable the Gunners defense-line cope very well and deal successfully with the surging Man City’s quartet forwards of: Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus, Segio Aguero and Raheem Sterling.
Full-time scores @90″ + MNC 0-2 AFC.
Chances, chances, chances. This game has the look of a high scorer.
Coquelin as CB and Lacazette on the bench for one of our most important games this season? I really do not understand Wengers decision making sometimes.
If Lacazette cannot be trusted in games like this, why did we spend so much money on him?
Half time at Borehamwood and goal less. Williamson came off in Min 37 following an injury. She has been replaced by Dominique Janssen.
Jammy
If Laca plays, Ozil is much further back and does not defend, this way he is more forward and does not need to be back as much.
We will be different in 2nd half.(If we can hold it at 1-0)
Oh come on, what’s going on?
Focus lads focus.
Why did the ref stop play to talk to players?
COYG!
COYLG!
Does Sanchez want City to win?
Statistics:
Shots on target 2:0
_off target 1:3
Corners 2:4
Offsides 1:2
Fouls 6:4
goal kicks 3:6
treatments 0:3
%Arsenal
_5 24
10 40
15 39
20 36
25 32
30 31
35 31
40 35
45 36
45+2 40
I will guess the second half has either started, or will soon for the Ladies.
COYG!
COYLG!
That was quick.
Now it’s our turn lads.
Its in our mind, we are losing in our mind…we can win this if we believe in ourselves…
Can’t believe how often we have had to resort to just hoofing the ball up the pitch and hoping Sanchez can make something of it.
The gulf in class really is quite apparent, but what can you expect when playing against the most expensive team in the entire history of the sport and we’re only allowed to make 1 high-profile/expensive signing per season.
Their chances are all mistakes we stupidly made…they didnt outplay us…for god sake wake up…we still have a chance
We had three players treated in the first half. On at least one occassion, there was no foul given. Is that the way it should have been?
COYG!
COYLG!
Come on Arsenal.
Quite often Arsenal will play an absolute stinker in the first-half, only to come out in the second and play like a completely different team, so fingers crossed we’ll see less long-balls and more of that Arsenal magic!
Keep silent arsenal fans on this cheating….dont move a bit
Thats not a penalty.
The cheating goes on. Off side not called and a penalty for a dive. The PGMOL strike again!
Horsefeathers!
Come on Gunners and Lady Gunners, we need goals!
COYG!
COYLG!
SAA – your official has proved to be a cheat like his master Mike corrupt Riley.
“Sometimes they are given, sometimes they aren’t” No, they are literally always given against Arsenal. Any 50/50 decision will practically always go against us. So fucking tired of this bullshit.
One all at Borehamwood. Williams for Reading in min52, Mead on as sub for Taylor with the equaliser in Min 55. From the restart we go behind again Williams with her second of the game.
And not even a 50/50, its a shoulder on shoulder …not a foul
Thing is, that was not a 50/50 decision. That was a shoulder against shoulder challenge
Always always get cheated. For us to win this league we would have to beat 12 men each and every single time.
What are you referring to Yassine? Shoulder to shoulder is only (strictly) allowed if the ball is within playing distance of both players.
COYG!
COYLG!
We are getting enough possession to still turn this around. And there is time remaining. Come on gunners, let’s get a goal and start a come back.
COYG!
COYLG!
Al – 12? we have to beat the whole damned corrupt organisation including the FA & PGMOL.
I’m not saying that that was a 50/50 decision, but that’s what the commentator said after it happened.
I think there was a possibility that Sterling was offside before he received the pass I’d like a very detailed look at that & the penalty ‘foul’ before making my mind up on either.
Take that you mejia & PGMOL cheats. Lacazette!!!!!
This is where Eddie should have joined the fray.
I’m not joking.
Anyway we’re not sharp and city are closing us down quick. We will liven up though, but will we have enough time?
Looks like it 🙂
How to go Lacazettte, and nice work Aaron!
Another please.
COYG!
COYLG!
Every time Arsenal are carded, LiveScore says so-and-so is lucky to only receive a yellow for a tactical foul (Nacho’s yellow wasn’t described this way). I think LiveScore needs to read the laws again, red cards are seldom “tactical”. There are the professional fouls for fouling as the last man back, but by and large red cards are for excessive force, or force likely to injure.
COYG!
COYLG!
Watching the game on French channel SFR
And I concentrated on what they are saying.
Interesting the difference
When a City attack is stopped by Arsenal, comments are always of the sort : this could have been dangerous for Arsenal, they were lucky, etc
When an Arsenal attack is stopped by City, comments are : well done by, good interception, etc etc.
Just a detail, but it is fascinating to see how the french commentators systematically are fans of the opposite team (they’ve done the same in previous games.
Chris
The whole world is being “forced” to be the same.
Have you not noticed?
Another gift from PGMOL to City! and who tthe fcuk says this lot are not corrupt!!!
Fuck this utterly corrupt game.
Silva was at least 5 Lacazzettes offside.
Menace
You’re right, 12 was just a conservative number but yeah we’ve to beat everyone, and that includes the media too ?
Cue Menace overload and complete hissy fit .
Lost stream and when i came back they were 3 up?
Fuck me! There were two players offside there and neither were noticed by the linesman. It’s hardly surprising our players are bewildered.
And all those yellows were not given in the first half when it was on city
Well well, what a shambles of an official?
A chalked off goal when the ball was over the line before the collision. Oliver just ignored his watch. The off side is the proof if ever one needs it that the PGMOL are corrupt.
I had a lot of time for Oliver before this game, but now he’s gone right down my list of decent referees
Has this really been a 6 yellow card game? With 5 to Arsenal? You cheating PGMO dorks!
COYG!
COYLG!
Fcuk up, utterly corrupted
The Ladies couldn’t find a tying goal.
COYG!
Why are we not trying anymore, still 10 mins left.
Hannibal just climb that mountain of Elephant shit and stay there.
@para
What’s the point he would gift them another if we threaten
U know..its becoming boring…de javu again….same feelings after a cheated up game
Ref can’t see a City foul. These selectively blind bastards are special.
Para do you even understand football ?
What was that? Play for fxxx sake.
Full time at Borehamwood. Reading win by two Farah Williams goals to our one by Beth Mead. We need a managerial appointment sooner rather than later. On paper we have about the most potent forward line in the League, but it just isn’t happening on the pitch.
Credit to the team they never gave up . Best team did win and the score line was kept respectable now time to man up get down the pub and get on the piss
Simply outclassed on the day along with the usual defensive doze moments. Becoming so very predictable against organised sides.
How many yellows?maaaaaan
I have stopped wishing for a certain action from anyone regarding the refereeing. Now I just pray for serious diseases to the referees of Arsenal games and the whole PGMO. I don’t pray for brain diseases though as they don’t have brains to start with.
Ozil getting booked for a hissy fit. Have to say we deserved most of the cards.
If we manage to stuff the spuds then this result will be forgotten. COYG!!!!
What a lot of play acting and time wasting even by the ref too.
Some were deserved, but why not given to city on first half? How many fouks on sanchez on counter did he leave with no yellow?
I don’t know if our players are arguing with each other, but Özil was telling someone “you should shut your mouth”. Or was he having a go at Delph who he fouled .
How can that be a push when both players moved towards one another and shoulder barged?
We could and should have played better though, even though the ref(well and one from his lineperson) gave them 2 goals.
What a farce.
My question is;
why did we not play better? We know that we can.
Have to say if Wilshere and Lacazette were playing from the start I think we would have put up more of a fight. Xaka is becoming a liability and you simply cannot leave Lacazette on the bench for the big games.
Unless Lacazette was not match fit I have to question the selection today.
Take away that non-penalty and the offside goal and we are level. Yet some morons fail to see such blatant robbery. What’s wrong with such people??
Anyway see this kind of behaviour a lot with supporters of a certain cretin pretending to be a president, from across the pond; he does and says the most outrageous stuff yet he’s excused at every turn. Wonder if he would get the same leeway if he were a different race.
Statistics:
Shots on target 2:0 _ 5:3
_off target _ _ 1:3 _ 3:3
Corners _ _ _ _ 2:4 _ 5:5
Offsides _ _ _ _1:2 _ 3:3
Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 6:4 _15:14
yellows _ _ _ _ 0:0 _ 1:6
goal kicks _ _ _3:6 _ 3:7
treatments _ _ _0:3 _ 3:3
%Arsenal
_5 24
10 40
15 39
20 36
25 32
30 31
35 31
40 35
45 36
45+2 40
50 39
55 39
60 42
65 42
70 42
75 41
80 42
85 42
90 42
90+5 42
3 points against Stoke, 3 points against Watford, 1 point (and 2 points less for City) today. That is the difference between a 3-points gap and a 12-points gap to the top of the League. And that is all on referee partiality.
The worst thing is now that Arsenal is that far back, I’m ready to bet that during the next couple of months, we will see correct refereeing in Arsenal match, maybe even a couple of borderline decisions going Arsenal way so that the pundits can say it evens out. But as soon as Arsenal will become a thread again, the same cycle will start again
The robbery report is on line http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/65500
Haven’t made my mind up over the penalty yet, but will look for some detailed replay. The third goal was definitly offside x 2. The barge by Ramsey? I don’t think the ball went over the line first, but Oliver would have received the beep (or whatever it is they get) when Ramsey barged him, so it might get a bit confusing. First time I’ve seen that happen.
If the ref was bent then he would have awarded something for the barge on Aguero in the area followed by the push on Sterling just prior to their first goal. If we’re suffering from poor decisions then so is everyone else in the PL. There is no conspiracy FFS!
Also very interesting to see that City made a more foul than Arsenal, but only got 1 yellow to Arsenal 6 (actually the one yellow City did receive is not even included in the foul count, as it was an advantage played…)
Menace there is nothing more entertaining than reading your childish ramblings you are so predictable . Keep it up your the joke that keeps giving .
Al
05/11/2017 at 4:10 pm
Take away that non-penalty and the offside goal and we are level. Yet some morons fail to see such blatant robbery. What’s wrong with such people??
add to that the goal that was chalked off because of the collision after the ball had crossed the line.
Menace
Are you certain the ball crossed the line before the collission? I thought it was probably level with the goal line and only went over when Ramsey barged him.
Explains a lot. Refs obeying orders?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4143892/Pep-Guardiola-seeks-meeting-referee-chief-Mike-Riley.html
I’m an arsenal fan, but the truth is that was a penalty all day long, everyday
@para
What’s the motivation to play better? Try seeing it from players view not as a supporter
Even allowing for the dodgy decisions, that was comfortable for a below par man city. We played ok in patches but really, there’s no way we deserved anything from that game.
Several things are clear:
1) A loss against Spurs- let’s be honest it’s highly likely- and Arsenal are already out of contention for the PL. I don’t think many people gave us much of a chance this season but that’s not the point. To be out of it so early is unacceptable for Arsenal football club.
2) Sanchez and Ozil are not committed to arsenal and are unsurprisingly playing at only about 60%. It was madness not to sell them.
3) Being the second lowest net spenders in the PL is a disgrace for arsenal and an insult to the fans who pay the highest ticket prices in football. The club actually posted an £18 million profit this summer. Even Huddersfield spent more than us (£38 million). We could have spent that £18 million and got someone a hell of a lot better than Coquelin and still broken even. Not that we have to of course.
4) Whether Untold likes it or not, Arsenal fans are very very angry, and justifiably so. The appalling attitude shown by Kroenke, Gazidis, Keswick and the rest of that awful bunch at the AGM has incensed fans. A defeat against Spurs will be the watershed. Expect empty seats, protests and boycotts.
About bloody time as well.
Ball didn’t cross the line before Ramsay pushed keeper so no goal. Penalty should have been awarded to Sterling for Tank slight push in back but ref probably didn’t see it or think it’s part of the English game and it was a soft push.
Even though City was the better team but the match should have been a draw. The refs incompetent are ruining the games so the sooner VAR is introduced the better.
Game changer Oliver if that was then where is Danny’s the other week!? BS I am glad I didn’t catch much due to work!
Supporting AFC is definitely not for the faint hearted. COYG – life goes on. Type 111 match fixing at its best (worst?) today. How do you justify not being able to deliver the title after spending over £500m on players alone?
Jet, the day we get such penalties I can consider it a penalty. But the chance of us getting such a penalty is smaller than me winning the euro millions lottery
Please Walter, we got a penalty in situations where our players were hardly/never touched examples being Eduardo vs Celtic, Cazorla vs westbrom I believe, Giroud vs s’ton last season.
Maybe we should stick to what we know, leave the manager to manage the team, and the refs to ref the matches
Everyone said that the Eduardo penalty was a dive, and the media crucified him for it, while Sterling is praised because he was “entitled to go down” after a shoulder to shoulder challenge. Same thing for players like Rooney or Kane who “win” penalty from dives on a regular basis. Sorry I forgot English players don’t dive…
And Giroud vs Saints last season was the most obvious penalty. First Fonte (who should already have conceded a penalty 30 seconds earlier when he kicked Koscielny in the head) tried (and succeed) to wrestle him down to the ground, then when Giroud is the first to get up, Fonte deliberately lift his right leg in the air to block Giroud’s path. The most ridiculous thing is that Fonte actually made the exactly same foul the week before on Defoe and nobody questioned the penalty given to Sunderland.
Just two examples that show the medias bias against Arsenal…
Jet, by the law of the game, it was a shoulder on shoulder. Stop changing the truth…. Why do Arsenal fans try to do this? So everyone can say you are fair? Or you are not biased?
Shoulder on shoulder for God sake…a damn shoulder on shoulder