Sorry for the delay in publication of this article this morning; my car was involved in an altercation with a fox in the early hours of the morning over who had the right of way on a particular country lane. No one hurt except the fox (although amazingly it still managed to run away – didn’t even exchange insurance details the bugger) but there was inevitably some damage to my car, which needed looking at this morning. Tony.
Nottingham F v Arsenal
By Bulldog Drummond
If you are a regular reader you might recall we did a bit of a preview of this match when the draw was made, taking a look at how on 18 May this year a certain Mr Marinakis the President of Olympiacos and of Superleague Greece and past vice president of Hellenic Football Federation was announced as the latest controller of Nottingham Forest. The man whose seven consecutive Greek Titles for Olympiacos was converted into more titles than times the league had been run by Paul Merson in his famous TV rant about foreign managers and owners.
As was pointed out in that article the last time we played them was on 20 September 2016 in the League Cup and we won 4-0 at their ground by the Trent. Our line up was
Martinez
Gibbs, Gabriel, Holding, Elneny
Ox, Le Jeff, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles
Akpom Perez
Obviously we’ll be changing the team around for this game with any or most of Debuchy, Chambers, Holding, Mertesacker, Nelson, Coquelin, Elneny, Welbeck, Iwobi and Theo all likely to be coming in. Plus of course Ooooooospina.
But more on that anon. The first question is, how have things been going since the takeover of Forest?
The big question is who will be manager. There had been talk of former Brighton boss Oscar Garcia getting the job (he was seen in a Costa Coffee talking to the owner) but instead he has been appointed the new head coach of Olympiacos. There is endless endless endless talk of Nigel Clough getting the job every time another manager gets the boot, but these poor reporters have to fill up the papers with something.
Paul Heckingbottom of Barnsley has also been mentioned for the Forestian job and he has not ruled himself in and not ruled himself out (that’s how they speak in manager land I’m told).
Which means that for this match they will have Gary Brazil as caretaker boss. He has twice been caretaker manager at Notts County (he was for a time assistant manager to extremely large Sam, before he upped and left) and this is his third (honest, third) spell as caretaker manager at Nottingham Forest.
To give an idea of how this works, here’s the last little sequence for Forest…
Philippe Montanier was sacked as manager of Forest in January 2017 and Brazil took temporary charge. Then in February he was confirmed as manager for the rest of the season. Then when Forest racked up five defeats in seven games Mark Warburton took over on 14 March. Warbuton was then sacked on New Year’s Eve (ie seven days ago) and Brazil was made as caretaker-manager. Again.
So, what does all this coming and going mean in terms of their record…
Overall Nottingham Forest are 14th in the league with 10 wins, two draws and 14 defeats, 29 points behind the leaders.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 26 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 50 | 20 | 30 | 61 |
| 2 | Derby County | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 41 | 23 | 18 | 49 |
| 3 | Cardiff City | 26 | 14 | 5 | 7 | 36 | 25 | 11 | 47 |
| 4 | Bristol City | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 40 | 31 | 9 | 47 |
| 5 | Aston Villa | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 38 | 24 | 14 | 44 |
| 6 | Leeds United | 26 | 13 | 4 | 9 | 37 | 28 | 9 | 43 |
| 7 | Sheffield United | 26 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 40 | 31 | 9 | 42 |
| 8 | Middlesbrough | 26 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 35 | 26 | 9 | 41 |
| 9 | Preston North End | 26 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 30 | 26 | 4 | 40 |
| 10 | Fulham | 26 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 39 | 34 | 5 | 39 |
| 11 | Brentford | 26 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 39 | 35 | 4 | 37 |
| 12 | Ipswich Town | 26 | 11 | 3 | 12 | 39 | 39 | 0 | 36 |
| 13 | Norwich City | 26 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 26 | 31 | -5 | 34 |
| 14 | Nottingham Forest | 26 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 33 | 42 | -9 | 32 |
Well, Nottingham Forest bosses maybe having problem with appointing a new permanent manager for their club. But the FA Cup champions – Arsenal, who have no resemblance of such issue whatsoever will not shy away from beating them comprehensively again at their City ground tomorrow to knock them out of this season’s FA Cup campaign.
OT. Has Jack Wilshere earnestly replaced Santi Cazorla in the Gunners senior team rank? And as a result of this, if it’s turned out to be true, Le Boss may then not need to bring in a new top quality attacking midfielder from the transfer market this winter window? But enhance Arsenal top 4th table finish this season by dipping his hands into the Arsenal savings or current bank accounts but if sanctioned by the Arsenal hierarchy to get a new top quality striker with regular goals scoring ability habits for Arsenal this window?
Alexandre Lacazette, the Arsenal record signing this season has failed to live up to the expectations of many Arsenal faithfuls I would think. As he has not scored for Arsenal in as many games for Arsenal, thus, negating the purpose for Arsenal signed him. Lacazette failure to score goals for Arsenal regularly has cost Arsenal a higher spot in the table which hss seen Arsenal currently sitting 6th in the log. Against Liverpool, Chelsea at home and at away to Southampton and WBA in 4 PL games in which Arsenal dropped 8 massive points, Lacazette failure to score in these 4 matches might have led to Arsenal dropping these 8 points which if they had collected them, they would have been seen placed joint 2nd in the table to leave us nursing a hope of catching u Man City on top before the end of the season.
My 3-4-3 Arsenal team II starts and bench for the Forest game.
Starts:
Ospina
Debuchy Chambers Holding
Nelson Elneny Coquelin Willock
Walcott Welbeck Iwobi.
Bench:
Macey Mertesacker Mustafi Wilshere Adelaide Akpom Nketiah.
With these strong starting XI and 7 Gunners bench that I’ve made for this match, does Le Prof thinks otherwise. I don’t think he should. For, these my starts and bench will be too strong for Forest to handle as the Gunners will tear them a part in this FA 3rd match clash by humbling them by 0-4 away win at full-time including the added time as they were humbled 0-4 in the League Cup during the Gunners last visit to their City ground last season.
Still knocking Lacazette then .Did you read my comments after your previous rant ? I would be interested in your thoughts on them.
Lacazette is worth every penny of his fee. He is an incredible player that has adapted to Wengerball. This has reduced his natural instinct as a goal scorer & increased his team perception.
It is time for all our forwards to realise their potential as individuals within the team & take chances where power allows them a shot. The pass it into the net is lost with all the bus parking & kick the opponent tactics employed against ball playing teams.