By Tony Attwood
Very sorry for lack of anything on Untold today, and delay in clearing comments held in moderation. If you’ve followed us for a while you might recall I live in the East Midlands, where not only have we had a tiddly bit of snow but also a total snarl up on the A14 – the main east-west road across my part of the region. Also total power cut in the area where I have been staying with one of my daughters.
The A14 was blocked for five hours. Fortunately I heard about it on the radio when I finally managed to get my car along the drive. Blocked roads, no power in the house… yep, just a normal day with a tiny bit of snow: total cock up all round.
Anyway I’ve just started to catch up, and there seems to have been a few comments by Mr Wenger.
A Mr Mourinho, who apparently runs Manchester Utd., has said that £261m – the amount he has spent at Man U was not enough to catch up Man C.
Arsène Wenger said, “I have been in that position for 21 years so I will not start to complain now. There is always one team, sometimes four, who were richer than I was, so I learned to cope with that and to deal with that.
“I think what is most important is you deal with your own situation as well as you can and, yes, Manchester City are richer than us; yes, Chelsea are richer than us and Manchester United are richer than us but I still believe we have to find a way to be successful.”
Concerning transfers he said, “I will be busy, yes, because first of all you have clubs that call you to get players on loan or to buy your players,” Wenger said. “As well, I’m open-minded to any possibility to strengthen our team.”
I don’t think that most of the journalists who heard this (ie those not snowed in at a house with no power and then facing roads that were impassable because one lorry tried to overtake another on a hill and got stuck) fully got the context. Arsenal has 25 senior players on its list, and so to take on a new player one has to be dropped – which means loaned or sold. And just to clarify, Santi Cazorla is not on that list.
Concerning Jack Wilshere he said…
“I believe that if we can meet a point of agreement financially, he will want to stay,” Mr Wenger said. On Alexis he said, “Honestly, no, we have not been approached by anyone. I’ll just stick to what I said before on him.”
I’ll leave it at that for now while I try and defrost. Hopefully a normal service will return shortly.
Good luck Tony,hope everything returns to normal soon.
Has anyone heard any noises about retrospective action for that most blatant of dives by Salah yesterday? I have not seen anything,and if that is not an attempt to con the referees,I do not know what will qualify
I hope with the minimum delays, everything will return to norwal for you Mr Attwood.
Well, as regards to the Gunners who will open their 2nd half to the season PL campaign tomorrow night at Selhurst Park, Arsenal should, have to and MUST beat the Roy Hodgson revitalized Crystal Palace team to the collection of all points in the South London vs North London PL match rivalry.
On no account of any excuse tentered, should the Gunners fail to beat the Eagles tomorrow in their backyard. I expect the Eagles to fly very high in this match. But at the same time, I believe the Gunners will down at least 3 of them in the game with their the high altitute anti-high altitute flying object batteries Even with Monreal, Ramsey and Giroud being declared absent for Arsenal in this match by Le Boss, but there are top quality Gunners left in the Arsenal 25 man senior squad to replace them with just as Jack Wilshere has replaced Aaron Ramsey and have shown what top quailty he’s made of in the PL this season for Arsenal. So will others too prove what their made of for Arsenal in this match if given the rare chance to show case their talents for Arsenal to thus make the absence of these trio not miss.
Since the issue at the Arsenal’s backline is that of left half back and both Maitland and Kolasinac are available for this match in this position but with Maitland-Niles looking to be the preferred choice of Le Boss in recent Arsenal outings even when Kolasinac is fit to start. Not to prolong my talking, my Arsenal 4 -2-3-1 starts and 7 man Gunners bench for this match are below:
Starts:
Cech
Bellerin Koscielny Mustafi Maitland
…………….Wilshere Xhaka……………….
Ozil…………Sanchez…………Iwobi…….
………………….Lacazette……………………
Bench:
Ospina Debuchy Kolasinac ElNeny Coquelin Walcott Welbeck.
Did I start Sanchez at NO.10 playing behind Lacazette in my starts? Yes, I did but I am not Le Boss. The Gunners defending in this match should cutoff service to Benkete and Zaha by cutting off and blocking their service line in this match so as to pokect the threats they could pose to Arsenal in the game.
I am amazed at the concern of referees being conned by whatever. The true concern must always be the public being conned by referees!!
THe game is shortened by officials as much as it is by bus manipulation. Each free kick is slowed down by the use of magic line spray & subsequent whistle. The Laws state that a player must retreat 10yards from the point where the foul occurred. Yet there is so much theater that has been created by officials for every foul that eats up valuable paid for time. The better solution is that after 10 seconds players that have not retreated 10 yards should be booked. It would improve discipline & save time.
The diving has become sophisticated while the fouling has become blatant. The GBH by Delli Alli was not punished by the FA nor was it jumped on by the media. It appears that some aspects of cheating in the game has not changed.
Let us see what the PGMOL have in store for Arsenal this evening.