By Tony Attwood
As I am sure you will know by now a draw of any type will send us through to the “Round of 32” knock out part of the Europa, and will make us top of the group. Which is not only nice in itself, but also rather pleasant for Arsenal II, the team of squad players who are not getting outings in league matches. Whether Cologne will go all out for a point or will actually use the game as an attempt to play some football will affect what sort of evening’s events.
The only doubt seems to be over Theo Walcott who has been ill, but otherwise it seems we will be putting out much the same team as before.
As for the Billy Goats, since we last met them, their fairly awful season has continued apace, and they remain bottom of the league. The one spot of light came in the Europa however when they beat BATE Borisov (the tractor boys) 5-2 (an extraordinary match of which is there is film below).
But despite just having that one win and three defeats so far in the Europa, Cologne could still qualify if they win their last two games and other results go their way. A bit unlikely but just about possible. Here’s the league table.
| Group H | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 10 |
| Red Star Belgrade | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| BATE Borisov | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 10 | -4 | 4 |
| FC Cologne | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 3 |
But to give the full perspective, Die Geißböcke have in fact not only had a modest time of it in the Europa they also made the worst start to a Bundesliga season in the history of German top flight football.
After no wins from their first nine Bundesliga matches, and picking up just two points (both from goalless draws), with three goals scored, seventeen conceded, and injuries to key players, they then had their Sporting Director Jörg Schmadtke resign.
What was really behind all this was that having lost their goal scorer Anthony Modeste for a club record €35 million, Köln have found they can still keep on creating chances but they can’t convert them. Thus they have descended into a situation where they have the worst conversion rate in the German League – touching around 3.5% which is pretty poor by any standard. It took them 20 games last season to concede 17 goals, compared to this season’s nine games – and all of these goals were from within the penalty area.
And they have had referee problems too in particular a ludicrous game against Dortmund when the referee blew his whistle to stop the game, only to then allow the goal scored by Sokratis at the end of the first half to stand.
Of course our issue this week is their home form. Of late it looks like this (most recent game at the top in this chart).
| Date | Competition | Res | Home team | Score | Away Team |
| 05.11.2017 | German Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 0-3 | Hoffenheim |
| 02.11.2017 | Europa Lge | W | 1.FC Köln | 5-2 | BATE Borisov |
| 22.10.2017 | German Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 0-0 | Werder Bremen |
| 01.10.2017 | German Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 1-2 | RB Leipzig |
| 28.09.2017 | Europa Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 0-1 | FK Crvena Zvezda |
| 20.09.2017 | German Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 0-1 | Eintracht Frankfurt |
| 25.08.2017 | Europa Lge | L | 1.FC Köln | 1-3 | Hamburger SV |
What we can notice here is that yes, they lose at home, but most of the time not by much. There’s a goalless draw and three defeats by just one goal, which suggests that they know how to defend some of the time. And here’s another quirk – in the BATE game, Cologne were actually losing 1-2 at half time. Here’s the video – it is worth watching just to see the way in which Cologne score.
https://www.ngolos.com/videos/2017-11-02-fckoln-bate
However beating the tractor boys doesn’t actually help them in the league and they remain bottom.
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 13 | VfL Wolfsburg | 12 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 16 | 17 | -1 | 14 |
| 14 | Hertha BSC | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 19 | -3 | 1 |
| 15 | Hamburger SV | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 20 | -10 | 10 |
| 16 | Werder Bremen | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 14 | -6 | 8 |
| 17 | SC Freiburg | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 24 | -17 | 8 |
| 18 | 1.FC Köln | 12 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 23 | -19 | 2 |
Footnote: I’m off today for a week of non-stop dancing (or more likely a bit of dancing and a week of nurturing my injuries) in Cyprus. Unfortunately the 50 odd members of staff that Untold invariably has at its disposal in such circumstances are also away, so I shall be doing my best to keep things running from foreign parts – but it may not be the normal five star service that you have become used to. Sorry in advance.
Sorry for digressing from the topic, but anyone followed the episode of Arsenal official twitter account posting an innocuous tweet of Ozil calmly drinking a cup of tea to Adam Carlton of Daily Mail who posted a combined Arsenal-Spurs XI with no Arsenal players in it?
Apparently the tweet got viral and some of the posters made homophobic and anti-semitic remars on Mr. Carlton’s twitter.
Mr. Carlton complained asking clubs to take more responsibility for their tweets and Mr. Henry Winter, from the Times, joined in saying that this was a “cheap” comment by Arsenal and that they need to take “reponsibility” for their action.
Now, I do not condone anti-semitism, homophobia, racism etc in any shape or form. But how is Arsenal responsible of a small number of rabid Arsenal supporters posted inappropriate tweets? Does it mean that clubs cannot respond through simple banter when these so called journalists write countless number of click-bait articles continously criticising the clubs, players and managers on the basis of very little fact and loads of mis-truths?
I for one was very glad that the journalist got his due, apart from the inappropriate homophobic and anti-semitic tweets.
The best answer to this and the other various pre-match opinions of journalists and pundits (“I can’t see beyond a comfortable Spurs win” etc.)was given by our players, each one of whom proved better than any of the Spurs on the day.
Despite the fact that Arsenal have already qualified for the knockout stages of this season’s Europa League competition, the Gunners must be careful not to take beating FC Klon for granted on Thursday night’s because seeing their very poor start to the Bundesliga season which they are having at the moment, the Gunners maybe tempted to underrate them. For, FC Klon may decide to make this particular Europa League Cup match day no.6 against Arsenal a World Cup match seeing it is the iconic Arsenal FC whose team is the team to watch worldwide by football fans who Klon are privileged to host but could decide to make the match difficult to play for the Gunners to play by making it a World Cup final match in the game. For, I perceive if Klon succeeded to beat Arsenal in this match will for them be like they’ve won the World Cup.
But I believe Le Prof will warn the Gunners of Arsenal II who will play this match to be physically, technically and mentally prepared so that they can fully be up and doing in the match to contain whatever Klon will throw at them in the game and deal with it by surpassing it by throwing back to Klon more than double of what they’ve thrown at them in the game to thus claim a 0-3 away win at RheinEnergieStadion at the end of the match.
Despite the fact that Arsenal have already qualified for the knockout stages of this season’s Europa League competition, the Gunners must be careful not to take beating FC Klon for granted on Thursday night’s because seeing their very poor start to the Bundesliga season which they are having at the moment, the Gunners maybe tempted to underrate them. For, FC Klon may decide to make this particular Europa League Cup match day no.5 against Arsenal a World Cup match seeing it is the iconic Arsenal FC whose team is the team to watch worldwide by football fans they are privileged to host but could decide to make the match difficult for the Gunners to play by making it a World Cup final match in the game. For, I perceive if Klon succeeded to beat Arsenal in this match, it will for them be like they’ve won the World Cup.
But I believe Le Prof will warn the Gunners of Arsenal II who will play this match to be physically, technically and mentally prepared for the match so that they can fully be up and doing in the game to contain whatever Klon will throw at them during the match and deal with it correctly by surpassing it to throw back to Klon more than double of what they’ve thrown at them in the game to thus claim a 0-3 away win at RheinEnergieStadion at the end of the match.
Sorry for my reposting.
Sam Sayyed
I totally agree.
Carlton’s initial article was provocative and designed to attract clicks and reaction. It was ill conceived, silly and frankly insulting to Arsenal and their players, you could say typical Daily Mail (after all they do employ Adrian Durham). He who lives by the sword dies by the sword so he got what he deserved, apart from the inappropriate homophobic and anti-semitic tweets which the vast majority of people would not condone.
As for Henry Winter, his remarks are just as stupid as the original article.
SAA – “Sorry for my reposting.” Maybe instead of repeatedly apologising for it, you could just stop doing it altogether?
First case of retrospective action by an FA panel against a diver tried ( & found guilty) today when Niasse of Everton got a two match ban.
Not before time.
Slightly in error. Not so far found guilty & he’s the first PL player, so others from lower leagues may have previously been charged.
FA Panel didn’t do anything about the penalties awarded against Arsenal in the Watford and Man City games which were “won” by divers.
Henry Winter is a patronising and utterly self-regarding man.
Dismiss out of hand.