By Bulldog Drummond
As pointed out by a couple of correspondents very quickly the table below includes the Manchester City game played at Wembley. Sorry that slipped through in the cut and paste job of listing the games. I think that even without that game, there is still a record in the offing – but it was of course a silly mistake. My apologies
BD
The headline screams out: Arsenal striker ruled out again!!!
Oh my, who is it? Who have we lost this time? Arsenal always get more injuries than everyone else put together. We’re all doomed.
Well actually no one, because the report relates to Joel Campbell who is unfortunately out for three weeks. Is he an Arsenal striker? Maybe technically, but it is all a bit misleading.
And come to that it is a day for misleading things, as the Mirror spotted seven things that should have us all on red alert at the training sessions. But if I tell you that this includes the aggressive way Mr Wenger is standing on the training pitch, then maybe we should no dally too long with such a piece.
Elsewhere, depending on what you read, Sead Kolasinac is a major doubt, a doubt, a possible doubt, is waiting on results, hoping to be ok for the next game. But he certainly wasn’t going to play on Thursday, so the relevance for the Europa game is a little diminished despite the Metro’s frantic attempts to up the enthusiasm.
Elsewhere, in case you haven’t seen the Carabao Cup quarter-final against State Aid United (the club previously known as WHU) will be played on Tuesday 19 December, with a 7.45pm kick-off. Apparently the match will be played on Twitter and will finish the following Friday morning. With offers rising from free betting for the best odds ahead of the quarter-final match.
But now, thinking about this home match on Thursday, consider this run of matches held at the Emirates…
I make this list below to be 15 games in a row played at the Ems, and each one appears to be a victory. Now we know that can’t be true because Arsenal are a club in eternal crisis, a club stumbling from one disaster to the next.
And anyway until now no one has been talking about this, but yes it seems to be right. Ten in the Premier League, one Europa, one FA Cup, and two League Cups…
| Date | Game | Res | Competition | |
| 5 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 23 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester City | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 26 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 7 May 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 16 May 2017 | Arsenal v Sunderland | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 21 May 2017 | Arsenal v Everton | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 11 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 4-3 | Premier League |
| 9 Sep 2017 | Arsenal v AFC Bournemouth | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 14 Sep 2017 | Arsenal v 1.FC Köln | W | 3-1 | Europa League |
| 20 Sep 17 | Arsenal v Doncaster Rovers | W | 1-0 | League Cup |
| 25 Sep 2017 | Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 1 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Brighton and Hove | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 24 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 2-1 | League Cup |
| 28 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Swansea City | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
Besides that being jolly good and quite possibly a record, another win for Arsenal at home would make qualification into the next round of the Europa League certain. If BATE don’t beat Cologne we would be through as group winners with two games to spare.
Continuing the review of who might play it seems that Calum Chambers is certainly available for selection and so at the least should be on the beach. In goal Ospina is also fit and avaialable which should be Matt Macey beached, giving Cech the day off.
Elsewhere on the beach the list could include Eddie Nketiah again, plus any of these who is not picked in the opening line up:
Aisnley Maitland-Niles, Riess Nelson, Joe Willock, Macrus McGuane, Chuba Akpom, Josh Dasilva, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Charlie Gilmour and Vlad Dragomir. That is quite a list of back ups to the back ups.
More anon.
- Chair of PSG accused of wholesale corruption – but it is not reported in the British media
- Europa game 4. Early thoughts on the team and comparing with Man U’s approach
- Olivier Giroud: dancer and academic
I would suggest that the Manchester City FA Cup game may have been held at Wembley Stadium and not the Emirates Stadium…
Arsenal (2) v Man City (1) was an FA Cup semi and therefore was played at Wembley Stadium, right?
Thanks for pointing out the error. Yes that should not have been on the list.
I don’t think goalkeeper David Ospina and defender Calum Chambers will be available for selection for our Crvena Zvevda tomorrow night as both Gunners are according to Le Prof physically short in appearing for Arsenal in this match.
Nevertheless, I think goalkeeper Matt Macey is available to mann the goalpost for Arsenal in the match. And I do believe he will be assisted by his goalkeeping mate Dejan Ilive who will be on the bench for the match. Another game start by Matt Macey in this match, his 2nd for Arsenal team II will be good for his senior game confidence building in Arsenal shirt as he continues to build in his goalkeeping profile at Arsenal.
My 3-4-2-1 starts and 7 Gunners man substitutes on bench for the match.
Starts:
Macey
Holding Debuchy Elneny
Nelson Wilshere Coquelin Maitland
Walcott Giroud Nketiah.
Bench:
IIive Sheaf McGuane Willock Osei-tutu Dasilva Akpom.
I don’t think goalkeeper David Ospina and the defender Calum Chambers will be available for selection for our Crvena Zvevda match tomorrow night at the Ems as both Gunners are according to Le Prof physically short in appearing for Arsenal in this match.
Nevertheless, I think goalkeeper Matt Macey is available to mann the goalpost for Arsenal in the match. And I do believe he will be assisted by his goalkeeping mate Dejan Ilive who will be on the bench for the match. Another game start by Matt Macey in this match, his 2nd for Arsenal team II will be good for his senior game confidence building in Arsenal shirt as he continues to build on his goalkeeping profile at Arsenal.
My 3-4-2-1 starts and 7 Gunners man substitutes on the bench for the match.
Starts:
Macey
Holding Debuchy Elneny
Nelson Wilshere Coquelin Maitland
Walcott Giroud Nketiah.
Bench:
IIive Sheaf McGuane Willock Osei-tutu Dasilva Akpom.
Sorry for my reposting.
I swear that Spurs goal was massively offside. They showed one quick reply from the angle, the commentator said “maybe a fraction offside” and that’s literally the only mention of it? From what I saw, this was a blatantly offside goal in a Champions League match and they’re acting as if it never happened. How can they just sweep it under the carpet like that? I’ve genuinely never seen such an underwhelming response to such a blatantly offside goal.
According to one of the “expert” pundits, this is not the kind of thing that you want video technology for. Sure, football would be so much worse if we didn’t have teams losing due to illegal goals. It would have taken literally 5 seconds to check the footage, but apparently that would be far worse than wrong decisions deciding extremely important matches.
It was definitely offside. The Russian stream I was watching on showed it three times. He was about a foot off.
Having said that Spurs were pretty good & well worth the win (although I hate to say it).
People do not realise the effect of momentum in sport. You would often hear people say “it did not matter that the goal was offside, they beat them 3-1”. Who knows, if that goal was never scored, the match might have taken an entirely different path. I am tired of these soft, sometimes blatantly incorrect, calls that are made so many times in favour of our rivals.
Having watched again I’d say Alli was also offside, but Spurs were worth their win.
Jammy, according to the media the offside rule is apparently only applicable to certain teams. We had an example of the other side of it the other week when Theo was flagged 5 or 6 time when only a couple of them were correct. Unfortunately some fans don’t understand this rule so they then refer to Theo as ‘Theo Offside’ for the next week plus.
JP, It’s not so much about momentum, as it is about confidence (yes they’re linked). When a team knows they’ll get the benefit of the doubt then they push on that little bit more, which of course gives them an advantage and increases their confidence etc etc.
It’s a powerful force that allowed Leicester to win the PL…