By Bulldog Drummond
As pointed out before I made a mistake in analysing Swansea’s trophy cabinet, giving them two League Cup wins by reading the wrong column on Wiki. What they won twice was the FA Trophy in 2006 and 1994. They have of course only won the League Cup once and that was in 2013.
My apologies for that mistake; interesting though to see the lack of courtesy among those pointing out the error. Anyway, let’s move on. On the transfer front we have this morning
Tottenham could scupper Arsenal’s club-record deal for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
And it that wasn’t enough for you Sportskeeda have “5 reasons why the Aubameyang deal doesn’t make sense for Arsenal “ but since it is from Sportskeeda and about not making sense I took it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I’ll give you one more to see the flavour of the news today: “If Wenger persists with these 2 flops, Arsenal will get stuffed by Swansea tonight”. I really wouldn’t bother reading it if I were you as you have to give them three clicks to find out who they are talking about, but if you must, it is on “
Swansea as might be expected from their overall league position are bottom of the home league table
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 15 | Brighton and Hove | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 15 |
| 16 | Southampton | 13 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 18 | -3 | 14 |
| 17 | West Bromwich Albion | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 15 | -3 | 13 |
| 18 | Watford | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 16 | 25 | -9 | 13 |
| 19 | Newcastle United | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 14 | -4 | 12 |
| 20 | Swansea City | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 17 | -10 | 11 |
They are in fact much better away from home where they stand 13th, and have actually scored one more goal away from home than at home. Maybe it is the pressure of the home fans that upsets them.
Arsenal away from home are ninth in the table, having scored 14 and conceded 18, winning three. Here’s the away league table.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 9 | 19 | 31 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 24 | 9 | 15 | 24 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 22 | 11 | 11 | 24 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 29 | 22 | 7 | 21 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 20 |
| 6 | Burnley | 12 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 11 | 12 | -1 | 17 |
| 7 | Leicester City | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 14 |
| 8 | Watford | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 17 | 19 | -2 | 13 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 18 | -4 | 13 |
| 10 | Newcastle United | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 20 | -8 | 11 |
So we have scored twice as many away from home as they have at home, meaning we should get something like a 2-1 win tonight.
But to continue the not scoring themes, if we created a table of teams who have scored the fewest goals at home, Swansea would be the winners with seven, beating even the notorious Burnley and the depressing Newcastle.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Swansea City | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 17 | -10 | 11 |
| 9 | Burnley | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 17 |
| 19 | Newcastle United | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 14 | -4 | 12 |
| 12 | Huddersfield Town | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 16 | -5 | 16 |
| 15 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 15 |
| 17 | West Bromwich Albion | 12 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 15 | -3 | 13 |
| 14 | West Ham United | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 16 | -3 | 15 |
| 10 | Stoke City | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 20 | -5 | 17 |
So what else do we know? Henrikh Mkhitaryan is presumably going to play which could mean we will see Ozil in the middle of midfield. And we still have the issue of how to play Ramsey and Wilshere at the same time.
Injured we have Santi, of course, Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud. Giroud is listed as a slight doubt and Danny as a major doubt with a muscular injury.
Physioroom does insist on putting Santi in the injured list even though he is not a registered “25” player, but even allowing for that we are quite low on the list – although Swansea have beaten us with only one man out. Remember how the media used to tell us that we always had more injuries than any other club at it was all down to Wenger? Such stories slowly melted away as we pioneered the injury league table. But it is good that someone else does the research now as we can’t be accused of fixing the figures.
| # | The club | How many men down? | Last man lost | What happened? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watford | 12 | T Deeney | Illness |
| 2 | West Ham United | 11 | C Kouyate | Ankle Injury |
| 3 | Burnley | 8 | J Tarkowski | Groin Strain |
| 4 | West Bromwich Albion | 8 | J Livermore | Hamstring Injury |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | 7 | Y Cabaye | Ankle Injury |
| 6 | Everton | 5 | S Coleman | Fitness |
| 7 | Huddersfield Town | 5 | T Kongolo | Knock |
| 8 | Manchester City | 5 | L Sane | Ankle Injury |
| 9 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | E Lamela | Gluteal Injury |
| 10 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 4 | J Skalak | Knock |
| 11 | Chelsea | 4 | D Luiz | Ankle Injury |
| 12 | Arsenal | 3 | D Welbeck | Muscular Injury |
| 13 | Liverpool | 3 | A Lallana | Muscle Injury |
| 14 | Bournemouth | 3 | H Arter | Illness |
| 15 | Manchester United | 3 | D Blind | Muscular Injury |
| 16 | Southampton | 3 | R Bertrand | Hamstring Injury |
| 17 | Newcastle United | 2 | F Lejeune | Foot |
| 18 | Stoke City | 1 | G Johnson | Knee Injury |
| 19 | Leicester City | 1 | W Morgan | Hamstring Injury |
| 20 | Swansea City | 1 | R Sanches | Hamstring Injury |
A final thought: Arsenal have won 27 and lost one of the last 34 league fixtures against bottom-of-the-table sides since a 4-3 loss at Blackburn in September 2011.
Long may it continue.
More anon.
- Swansea v Arsenal – Tuesday 30 Jan 2018 – on a good day the ref is dodgy. On a bad day…
- Abuameyang transfer starts to make sense in German newspapers
- Swansea v Arsenal: Just how good does a new manager have to be?
After their suprise win against ‘high attacking’ loserpool, Swansea will be high in confidence believing they can do to us what they did to loserpool. Statistics are good but they will not affect the result of this game.
We can’t afford to lose this game if we are going to make the top four
You’ve now gone with Minesy’s mistake by saying Swansea won the FA Trophy in 1996 & 2004!
Did you not read all of the comments?
The FA Trophy is for non league teams and as far as I can remember Swansea were a league club in 1996 & 2004.
You are quite right. It is not a competition I have particularly had an interest in but I think I should refer to it as the FL Trophy or the EFL Trophy not the FA Trophy.
Wasn’t meaning to be discourteous, Bulldog … apologies if it sounded like that … (unless you mind me having a couple of digs at the BBC !!!)
Arsenal now have a surge of adrenalin injected into them and this time i feel that Arsenal will shake off their lethargy for good and continue to play like a TEAM rather than trying to pass the ball to “just one particular player” when others are in free space(a thing i complained about regularly).
So Swansea, beware, for unless you play a very good game of football, Arsenal will take you apart tonight.
Up the Arsenal.
Micko
I really should know better as I did go to the 1988 Final replay at the Hawthorns when Enfield beat Telford 3:2, (was a student in Birmingham and living within walking distance of west Brom !!!).
Excellent preview Bulldog! In regards to transfers, I wanted to share a few quotes from our newest addition to the club that should make all supporters happy:
“Of course it was not very difficult to make this decision to come to Arsenal, because I think the way that Arsenal play [make] it a dream for every player to come here and play offensive football,” Mkhitaryan told Arsenal’s official website.
He said: “Of course it’s very important to have respect from your manager. I know that he’s demanding and he likes his players to explore.
“He was one of the [reasons] to join Arsenal as well because everyone knows he’s a great manager.”
Minesy
I went to the 1985 final to see my local side Wealdstone beat Boston.
They were the first team to do the non league double.
Well we are displaying collective amnesia again. Ozil loses the ball, a rarity, then Xhaka does that thing where’s he acts like he’s down the lark and just doesn’t defend.
Lacazette is Beijing extremely lazy, something I have been concerned about since the summer before when we played them in out pre-season cup.
Koscielny needs to move to the left of the central defence, Xhaka for Mikhi.
Ramsey has been enthusiastic am delighted already saved a certain goal, along with Mo, that was a good fine tackle, so why the debate.
WE shouldn’t have conceded. 2-1 looks likely, although why we have themselves a chance Ian beyond me.
Aubameyang Ian needed to turn the team around and force Lacazette into showing some guile.
City moving inn Mahrez at £50m plus. Sound s off! We’ll see! But it shows the quality Pep thinks he possesses off it proves to be true. They aren’t light by a winger, so it could be.
Cech – needs to move on
Colario
Looks like the gap between us and Loserpool is growing
Drop Cech, drop Xhaka, why was Koscielny not on the left of central defenc especially once Dyer clearly realised he could run Mustarfi?
Why did he take off Mo and not Xhaka and why dodnt we keep the width; plus Lacazette was shocking today and deserved to come off.
After we conceded that second, of have left Mikhi out of that embarassment unless we got an equaliser and I’d have I used Nketiah!
They have absolutely no confidence, none!
A catalogue of errors and they hadn’t time off, he needs to drop the guilty parties
If City take Mahrez and Spurs Moura. Liverpools won and again with a chance to make head way with a load of head to heads coming up, we bottle it. We are in trouble.
Aubameyang has to get completed, Giroud sold and ignored we aren’t skint we need to look at rival bid for the Algerian.
That was shocking from Xhaka, you watch a player run past you and just look. If I wasn’t on the team I’d punch him, straight, no delay. “Wake the f**k up”
Horrid, absolutely horrid!
They are playing as ignorant they are in a retirement home! Jekyl and Hyde, literally. Sit deep, press high, go direct. You are obviously going to face counters. How are we relying on Monreal for goals. Aaron tried, Ozil, Iwobi was poor, Bellerin was not even playing percentages balls into the 6. Koscielny on point.
Cech why you playing like someone threatened your kids. That’s slice was ridiculous.
Genuinely I am furious, to the point of indifference. Vent over!
Clueless performance! They havent been right since being stitched at the season start and have been worse since the 4 penalties and FA Cuo exit. Pride, play for pride. Just every Galen leave everything on the pitch!
That didn’t wonders for Mikhis confidence, great night, like should I have really moved!
The only thing left is for the yesterday man who sits on the bench to leave and we can start again. It will be a long process but worth it.
Tell me Jules, how do you know? Arsenal replaced Crayston, and Swindin, and didn’t get improvement. Arsenal replaced Neill with Howe and didn’t get an improvement. And although Mee improved on Wright we first had four years with no trophies – not even the derided FA Cup. How can you be sure this time it will happen? After all the team is performing at a higher level under Wenger than it ever did under those managers.