By Bulldog Drummond
First off, Ladbrokes are sponsoring Arsenal Fan TV. If you have any thoughts that perhaps Arsenal Fan TV is not something that you like, and you fancy a bet, you might care to avoid Ladbrokes. Totally up to you of course, but just a thought.
Moving on Untold Arsenal confirmed this week there has been no progress over talks with journalists with a view to moving them away from wild fantasy and total make believe in their reporting of Arsenal so far this season.
And we have some breaking news from the wonderful Daily Excess. We are about to sell Mustafi to an Italian club. Thought you would like to know.
Right onto the preview…
Olivier Giroud’s winner against Leicester in the opening game was his 99th goal for Arsenal. If somehow against all predictions by the media he can get one more goal at any time during the entire season he will become only the 19th player to get 100 goals for Arsenal.
Meanwhile if Alexandre Lacazette scores he would be the first Arsenal player to score in both of his opening two Premier League appearances for the club.
On the team news we have Per Mertesacker, Shkodran Mustafi and Francis Coquelin all available. Here is the injury list and once again it is very disappointing for Arsenal as we still can’t get up to the top of the injury league as we are supposed to be every minutes of every day of every… well you know. You can read all the details here
| # | TEAM | Men Down | Last man down | What went wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watford | 9 | T Hoban | ACL Knee Injury |
| 2 | Everton | 6 | S Ramirez | Heel Injury |
| 3 | Liverpool | 5 | P Coutinho | Back Injury |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 4 | W Zaha | Knee Injury |
| 5 | Manchester United | 4 | A Young | Hamstring Injury |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | G N’Koudou | Foot |
| 7 | Bournemouth | 4 | S Francis | Hamstring Injury |
| 8 | Swansea City | 4 | L Britton | Back Injury |
| 9 | Huddersfield Town | 4 | M Cranie | Hip Injury |
| 10 | Stoke City | 3 | J Ngoy | Thigh Strain |
| 11 | Manchester City | 3 | S Nasri | Neck Injury |
| 12 | West Ham United | 3 | M Lanzini | Knee Injury |
| 13 | Chelsea | 3 | Pedro | Ankle Injury |
| 14 | West Bromwich Albion | 3 | J Evans | Tight Hamstring |
| 15 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 3 | I Brown | Hamstring Injury |
| 16 | Newcastle United | 3 | F Lejeune | Ankle Injury |
| 17 | Leicester City | 3 | K Iheanacho | Toe Injury |
| 18 | Arsenal | 2 | A Sanchez | Abdominal Injury |
| 19 | Burnley | 1 | D Marney | ACL Knee Injury |
| 20 | Southampton | 1 | R Bertrand | Knock |
Our men out are Alexis as above, Santi Caz of course, and Laurent Koscielny serving the last game of his suspension.
In its preview today the BBC says,
“Amongst the dramatic headlines of their four goals against Leicester, it took just 90 minutes for the familiar defensive questions to be posed. Whether Stoke can probe them further remains to be seen.”
This theme is developed further with a thing called “LAWRO’S PREDICTION” in which an alien entity gives a view of what will happen. It says, “Arsenal only just got through their topsy-turvy game against Leicester and are not always great away from home.”
Now we must consider this: Arsenal are not always great away from home. And “They have also struggled at Stoke in the past”.
Let us analyse further. Here is Arsenal’s away form last season…
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 30 | 16 | 14 | 42 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 19 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 43 | 22 | 21 | 38 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 19 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 28 | 17 | 11 | 35 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 19 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 33 | 24 | 9 | 35 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 19 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 39 | 17 | 22 | 33 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 19 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 38 | 28 | 10 | 30 |
Not the best, but hardly the worst. We won more than we lost, we scored more than we conceded. So what is this “not always great away” stuff?
Maybe we should consider Stoke at home last season. Stoke at home did win more than they lost – but only by one game. And they had a goal difference of nothing.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 19 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 47 | 9 | 38 | 53 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 19 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 55 | 17 | 38 | 51 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 19 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 39 | 16 | 23 | 45 |
| 4 | Everton | 19 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 42 | 16 | 26 | 43 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 19 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 45 | 18 | 27 | 41 |
| 6 | Manchester City | 19 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 37 | 17 | 20 | 40 |
| 7 | Manchester United | 19 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 26 | 12 | 14 | 34 |
| 8 | Leicester City | 19 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 31 | 25 | 6 | 34 |
| 9 | Burnley | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 26 | 20 | 6 | 33 |
| 10 | AFC Bournemouth | 19 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 35 | 29 | 6 | 31 |
| 11 | West Bromwich Albion | 19 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 27 | 22 | 5 | 29 |
| 12 | Watford | 19 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 25 | 29 | -4 | 28 |
| 13 | Hull City | 19 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 28 | 35 | -7 | 28 |
| 14 | Stoke City | 19 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 24 | 24 | 0 | 27 |
Thus the story is we are rubbish but this might help alleviate the worries…
Or we might consider the last five games between the two teams…
| Date | Game | Res | Score |
| 11 Jan 2015 | Arsenal v Stoke City | W | 3-0 |
| 12 Sep 2015 | Arsenal v Stoke City | W | 2-0 |
| 17 Jan 2016 | Stoke City v Arsenal | D | 0-0 |
| 10 Dec 2016 | Arsenal v Stoke City | W | 3-1 |
| 13 May 2017 | Stoke City v Arsenal | W | 1-4 |
- Here’s another video in case you are still not convinced…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsQwhS5KV1c
In fact we could win seven consecutive league fixtures for the first time since an eight-match winning run from February to April 2015 – which when you think about it is not bad for a club that simply cannot defend. And we have not been beaten in the first away game of the season in the last eight years.
More in the morning…
- Stoke v Arsenal Saturday 19 August – The Match Officials: will the improvement continue?
- What happened to the Grenfell Tower money collected from the Community Shield match?
- The Arsenal 25 man Senior Squad – where are we now?
And from the Arsenal History Society
The end of Woolwich Arsenal and of the first season at Highbury.
Really looking forward to the match. Mentioned on previous post that i had been looking at the Arsenal team training, sixteen photos no less, but can not find one with the Ox. Any views ?
Are you suggesting we use Skybet, Sky Casino or William Hill who always have interfering adverts on untold?
I’ll give them and Ladbrokes a miss thanks…
I wouldn’t entertain Paddy Power either, he is far to friendly with arch Arsenal hater Durham on Talkshite.
OT
Merson has finally cracked up.
He says Arsenal have missed out by not signing Gareth Barry!!!!
Actually Andy I don’t gamble at all, so I am not suggesting, but in terms of the ads, I do need the money to pay for the defences that we have had to put in place, which in essence means having this site on a server all of its own, with extra protections. Even then, as you know, we go down on occasion.
So which team is “always great away”? It’s sheer nonsense.
Tony – defence does not mean supporting unsavoury gambling entities. These people only allow you to gamble as long as you lose. If you start a winning streak they curtail your stake or block you completely. There is nothing open & fair about these bookmakers.