By Bulldog Drummond
There’s nothing unexpected on the injury front. Elneny is out for the rest of the season, Santi Cazorla is back running around the pitch at the Emirates, but what his future will be under the new management we don’t know, and it is suggested Mkhitaryan is reported as fit and ready to play.
For Man U Romero is out and Velencia is due back today. Arsenal, according to all the pundits are going to shuffle the team around, hopefully in a way that will be a surprise to Man U rather than an opportunity for a third version of the catastrophic defeats.
If Man U were to lose at home it would be the first time they have lost two Premier League home matches on the bounce in four years – the last time they were under David Moyes. But as the BBC helpfully point out Man U have lost six times in the league this season and four of these have come on a Sunday. Indeed both of their home defeats this season have come on the Sabbath, one against the top club and one against the bottom. Maybe they just don’t like Sundays.
If Man U were to lose at home it would also be the first time Mourinho has lost at home to Wenger.
However our record against Man U hasn’t been as bad of late as many of the pundits paint… three victories two draws and two defeats in the latest run – although before that it certainly wasn’t so good.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 09 Mar 2015 | Manchester United v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 17 May 2015 | Manchester United v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 04 Oct 2015 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 28 Feb 2016 | Manchester United v Arsenal | L | 3-2 | Premier League |
| 19 Nov 2016 | Manchester United v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 07 May 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester United | L | 1-3 | Premier League |
Both teams are a trifle distracted about what is to come, but for us the distraction is greater since the next match of consequence is the one on Thursday. Their remaining big game is on 19 May.
But historically the big problem is that although we have one away win against them noted above, the last victory before that at OT was way back in 2006.
So what about a secret weapon for Arsenal? Well, it could be Alexis, who seems to have been rather up and down with Man U since moving there. He has played nine times for them and scored two goals, and there have been the stories about him being difficult behind the scenes – although whether he is or not is hard to say of course. But if he is selected and does everything he can to try and show us how good he is, he might just overdo it, get agitated and start complaining that the ball delivered to him was just that bit too slow, that bit too much to the left, with not quite enough spin on it… Clutching at straws I know but if we are going to put out a weakened team because of thursday, straws might be what we have.
Of course this is not the last away fixture of the season but we are getting terribly close to being the only club in the Premier League and Football League to have lost all of their away league fixtures in 2018. I can only conclude it is psychological, since our home form is the second best in the entire Premier League at the moment.
The last time we lost six away games in a row was in 1965/6. That was quite a catastrophic run…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 6 Oct 1965 | Blackpool v Arsenal | L | 5-3 | League Division One |
| 30 Oct 1965 | Leicester City v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | League Division One |
| 13 Nov 1965 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | League Division One |
| 11 Dec 1965 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 4-2 | League Division One |
| 27 Dec 1965 | Sheffield Wednesday v Arsenal | L | 4-0 | League Division One |
| 01 Jan 1966 | Fulham v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | League Division One |
| 15 Jan 1966 | Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | League Division One |
| 22 Jan 1966 | Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal | L | 3-0 | FA Cup |
Our manager – a Mr W Wright – left at the end of that season. Mind you we did come 14th in the league. He was replaced by a Mr B Mee who immediately restored the club’s fortunes by taking us up to 7th.
There’s a very dodgy internet connection here today for some reason – hopefully there will be one more set of ramblings before the match starts.
- Man U v Arsenal. The home and away records and the need for a spot of luck perhaps
- Manchester United v Arsenal Sunday 29 April – The Match Officials
- Fifa crisis, Trump gets involved and making up stories to try and keep the interest. The PL from here on.
From the Arsenal History Society
1922: Arsenal’s end of the season tour and summary of games
It took a few years for Mee to turn things round fully but then he had the sense to bring in Sexton and Howe to be his assistants then with two up front Radford and Kennedy the Fairs Cup and next the double was a very pleasant time.
Arsene Wenger will have the unusual problem of having to motivate his players for today’s game.
The result will be virtually meaningless to Arsenal in this season’s EPL and there is the more important second leg of a semi final in the Europa, looming next Thursday.
Avoidance of serious injury today to key players will therefore be vital.
But our lads are professionals and will no doubt rise to the occasion.
We all wish them well. 😉
I hope AW kick a water bottle for old time sake.
I want to disagree with the opinionists who are anticipating a defeat for Arsenal
in the Man U game in the PL at Old Trafford today’s evening. And have opined that the result of the match will be meaningless to Arsenal even if Arsenal lost the match.
Personally, I am of the opinion that a good result for Arsenal in this Premier League big game encounter between the duo club sides today will redeem the Gunners’ battered image on the road from getting further battered this season if Arsenal beat Man U at away today in the League. A win result in the League they’ve not gotten at Old Trafford for quite some seasons now.
With the believes in some quarters that are believing Le Boss will rotate his team for the Man U game making rounds in the media anticipatiing Le Boss will adopt that measure to strengthen the Gunners ability to secure a knockout result over Atletico Madrid in the Europa by giving a game rest to a number of them in the Man U game which to me will be an appropriate decision taken by Le Boss if he decided to take that decision.
Furthermore, if the rotation Arsenal Gunners team beats the Man Utd Red Devils team today as I am anticipating they would but if they raise their game up above the expected level they are expected to reach playing today against the Red Devils. And matched them in the match game for game not conceding any ground in the game to the Red Devils for 90 minutes plus of the match. I believe Arsenal will be victorious over Man Utd and be in the strong confidence mood to hit Atletico wilth the hit blow that will blow them out of the Europa League Cup semifinal this season.
IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM UNTOLD TOWERS!
Sorry folks but Tony is having technical troubles at the moment so until EE sort things out there will be a delay in authorising comments, or posting new articles. Bear with us, all will be resolved soon (we hope!)
Come on you Gunners!
How upsetting when there is still so much to play for …..
Livescore has a lineup, hopefully official.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooospina
Bellerin Chambers Mavropolis Kolasinac
Xhaka Maitland-Niles
Iwobi Mkhy Nelson
PEA
Beach: Holding, Monreal, Welbeck, Cech, Nketiah, Ossei-Tutu, Willock
My apologies on mis-spelling names. Young team for the most part.
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Anyway, this is a live update on the game versus Moaninho United. At the moment, there is no score.
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A couple of medja outlets claim that Arsenal is going to be rattled, beause the team bus got a parking ticket. I don’t think that is very likely.
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I guess I will end with a joke.
Phil Neville complaining about bad officiating.
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COYG!
Gunners, it would be nice to tie up that scoreline.
COYG!
Stats to half time
%Arsenal Cummulative Possession
_5 49
10 42
15 48
20 41
25 46
30 44
35 46
40 46
45 47
45+ 47
Shots on target 2:2
_off target _ _ 2:2
Corners _ _ _ _ 1:0
Offsides _ _ _ _1:0
Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 5:6
Yellow _ _ _ _ _0:1
Goal kicks _ _ _2:2
COYG!
Oh, that took longer to prep the chicken than I thought. Nice to get back here, and see that Mhky had scored to level things. Lets get the lead now!
Any opinions on the subs?
COYG!
How did Kolasinac get hurt?
COYG!
The stats suggest PGMO has slanted the field against Arsenal, but then why disallow an offside goal for ManU in the last minutes of the game?
COYG!
Drat, Felli-elbows scores.
COYG!
Final stats
% Arsenal Cumulative Possession
_5 49
10 42
15 48
20 41
25 46
30 44
35 46
40 46
45 47
45+2 47
50 48
55 46
60 45
65 43
70 43
75 44
80 43
85 42
90 41
90+5 40
Shots on target 2:2 _3:4
_off target _ _ 2:2 _7:3
Corners _ _ _ _ 1:0 _8:0
Offsides _ _ _ _1:0 _2:1
Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 5:6 11:7
Yellow _ _ _ _ _0:1 _0:1
Goal kicks _ _ _2:2 _5:5
Treatments _ _ _0:0 _2:1
The women lost 3-0 to Birmingham.