By Tony Attwood
- Arsenal v Kairat Almaty: anything but a win would be an almighty shock
- Arsenal’s return to the Champions League, with finishing top of the league the aim
Kairat are from the city of Almaty in south-eastern Kazakhstan, around 200 miles from the Chinese border and more than 3,400 miles from London. They play in the Champions League (technically a European competition) because their country is identified with Uefa, even though the club is located in Asia. It means much longer flights, but it allows the club to attract talented youngsters from across Aisa; players who know that they have a chance of being spotted by the scouts of European clubs.
All of this fits in with their background, as they started out being part of the Soviet Union before Kazakhstan gained independence from the USSR 1991.
As a result of all this, they have to play a multiplicity of qualifying round games before the real competition begins, but as they have found, that can give them some advantage when playing against clubs from bigger leagues. Such clubs, where the season has not yet properly started, find themselves still warming up when the qualification games come along.
That and the ten-hour flight each way western clubs have to undertake to get to games in Kazakhstan gives them the extra chance. One can only hope that Arsenal has done the decent thing and allowed them the use of an Arsenal coach to get them from the airport to the hotel, and later on to the ground. I am sure they will.
And so onto the Arsenal team for tonight.
It seems clear that William Saliba and Jurrien Timber won’t be in the squad while Mikel Merino and Declan Rice are each suspended. But this does mean that Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori can have a chance to play. Obviously, Max Dowman remains unavailable as he has not been repaired yet.
The general feeling among the websites that show any interest in the game is that Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli, Eberechi Eze, Viktor Gyokeres, Cristhian Mosquera and Myles Lewis-Skelly will all be in the starting lineup. And the implication seems to be that if players such as those can establish a firm lead, then some lesser-seen players might also get a chance for the last 20 or 30 minutes.
That data comes from MSN, but it is sad to see the site sinking to the lowest of levels by saying that Arsenal are a team that is the “so-called the best in Europe.” If they don’t agree with the slogan, “best in Europe” then they could say “thought by some to be one of the best in Europe” or indeed simply leave the whole issue aside; it’s as simple as that. Or if you want to use the “best in Europe” slogan they quote a source.
Bing pulls the team together and gives us
Kepa;
White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;
Odegaard, Norgaard, Eze;
Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
MSN tells us that Arsenal will win 4-0.
Yahoo goes with exactly the same lineup as MSN.
However, Si.com comes up with a spot of variation
Kepa;
White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;
Norgaard, Merino
Madueke, Eze, Martinelli
Gyokeres
After that it is pretty much a spot of the sameness from one media outlet to the next.
This game is, of course, part of our two-match-a-week programme that the less successful clubs have escaped from by being, well, less successful. And the two-a-week schedule continues with Leeds against Arsenal on Saturday (an unusual time to kick off for this one – 3pm) followed by the home leg of the League Cup semi-final second round on Tuesday, 3 February. That of course, is against Chelsea, and Arsenal are 3-2 ahead from the first leg. After that, it is Sunderland at home.
This match will give Arsenal a chance to gain some revenge for the 2-2 draw at their place back in November.
The two games a week schedule finally comes to an end with the match on 15 February at home to Wigan in the FA Cup. And then, unless something else is quickly thrown into the fixture list, for the first time since 13 December, Arsenal will have a whole week without playing a game. And, you know, I wouldn’t put it past them to slip some other game in – just to keep Arsenal on the twice-a-week roster.
