By Bulldog Drummond
And so we come to the Sky sports which announces, “Lucien Favre on Arsenal shortlist to replace Arsene Wenger,” while Arsenal Fever runs with “Mislintat orders another raid on Dortmund, Arsenal to move for £40m midfielder.” This relates to trying to get defensive midfielder Julian Weigl to transfer to Arsenal.
But there is some amazing news! The Daily Mail is actually running a positive Arsenal story focusing on the fact that Ramsey is already in contract talks with the club and is expected to extend his time with us. Which is rather good news. If true.
Oh and since I always try to find one new blog that no one else covers much, here’s a little something from The72. I’m slightly behind as it was published yesterday, but still…
“According to Duncan Wright writing in The Sun, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur target Ben Wilmot has been pulled from today’s matchday squad against Newport County.
“The Stevenage defender is still only 18, and was only promoted from the youth set-up in early April last year but he is a current England U-19 international – despite plying his trade in League Two.”
So big stuff eh? And well, if that is what you want, Sports Lens has “Arsenal could agree deal for ‘fed up’ Dembele who ‘has offers’ to leave Barcelona”
Anyway, back to today’s match. We have not lost to Southampton in the last 22 home league games – we have won 16 of them and drawn six. Southampton’s last win was 1-0 in the league before the dawn of time, although they’ve had a couple of wins in the league cup since then.
As noted in the earlier commentaries we have quite a good home record this season, and indeed all the games we have played against clubs further down the league at home, have been straight home wins. And there’s a bit of an occasion too since if we do win, it will be the 150th Arsenal win at the Ems, which also makes us the first team ever to win 150 games at two separate stadia in the Premier League.
And a little note about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He has played six Premier League games and as a result has five goals and one assist. That’s not too bad a return.
Now for the teams.
There is a certain level of confusion in the Guardian as they have Chambers listed both as being on beach and in the side. Have they been reading too much Untold? Here’s a possible line up
Cech
Bellerin, Mustafi, Chambers, Kolasinac,
Elneny, Aaron Ramsey,
Wilshere, Özil, Welbeck,
Aubameyang.
And an alternative version
Cech,
Bellerin, Mustafi, Chambers, Monreal,
Xhaka, Ramsey,
Iwobi, Özil, Welbeck,
Aubameyang.
Beached that would leave Macey, Holding, Kolasinac or Monreal, Elneny or Xhaka, Iwobi orWilshere, Nelson, Lacazette
The thinking is that Koscielny won’t play to leave him ok for the Russian game, and that Wilshere is a doubt because he really hasn’t been on his top form of late. Lacazette is most certainly needed for the game in Moscow so once more his return to the team is being handled with some caution.
We shall see. Let’s hope the motorway is clear.
The previews
- Arsenal v Southampton Sunday 8 April – The Match Officials: always a bad omen!
- Arsenal v Southampton, what the formbook tells us – and the injuries
- Arsenal have won 5 in a row, BUT PLEASE DON’T TELL ANYONE
CRAZY NEWS ?
– What did the Man City players drink at halftime ?
– Are there new instant millionaires after shock result?
– Are the bookies crying foul after being hit badly ?
– Will Pep lose his job if he loses at home again next week?
– Or will the Citizens celebrate at Wembley ? Was this fixed or just inevitable ?
Did anyone else notice the referee just before kick off in the Liverpool man City game Last week or was it just me. He appeared to use his fingers to spell out 3 – 0 just before starting match. A signal to his mate Or something innocuous.
I am still sticking to my yesterday’s comment in my comment posting when I said Le Boss should be careful not to field an understrength Gunners team to play against Southampton today in the PL at the Ems because of the important pending ELC away match against CSKA on Thursday night.
It is sensible if Le Boss does a Gunners team rotation for this Saints PL match. But in the Premier League football, to take beating a relegation threaten team like Southampton for granted at this last stage of season could prove to a be dangerous venture to undertake by Arsenal if Le Boss decides to drop many of his regular senior team starting XI for the match. I advice him not to drop more than 2 with Koscielny being among the 2 and probably Ramsey too because of his lack of 100% full fitness issue to start or play the next match after playing a tough match like the last CSKA ELC match at the Ems,
If Koscielny and Ramsey are drop from starting or playing in this Saints match, Then I’ll have to reshuffle my starts and bench for the match in the below order.
My reshuffled Arsenal 4-1-3-2 starts and 7 Gunners bench for Southampton.
Starts:
————————–Cech—————————-
—————–Mustafi Monreal——————
Bellerin———————————–Kolasinac
————————–Xhaka—————————
Wilshere————Oezil————–Kolasinac
————–Aubameyan—Lacazette————-
Bench: Macey Holding Chambers Maitland ElNeny Iwobi Nketiah.
Who are the Gunners that will score and give assists to score the 4 goals I think we’ll score to beat the Saints 4-0 for us in this match? I think our 4 goals will be scored and be assisted by: Auba’, Laca’, Oezil, Xhaka, Kolas’, Bell, Monreal & Mustafi because they’ve been scoring goals and been given assists to score for Arsenal.
@peter. Really?
Pls, beside Oezil in the midfield front 3 should be Welbeck starting and not Kolasinac who I’ve already started as wing back opposite to Bellerin.
Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Elneny, Xhaka, Iwobi, Nelson, Welbeck, Aubameyang Subs: Macey, Holding, Monreal, Wilshere, Ozil, Lacazette, Nketiah
Horsefeathers!
Come on Gunners, let’s get some goals!
According to LiveScore, we don’t have any shots yet, on target or off target. Is that accurate, or just lousy compiling of data?
COYG!
There we go! Good work PEA, nice assist Danny!
Looking through the news at Google, it would appear that Merson needs to be cut off from Arsenal. I think he has been talking to that Robson character too much.
COYG!
Calum Chambers with the bicycle kick?
COYG!
How to go Danny! Assist from Iwobi?
COYG!
Being a PL game with a relegation battle in it on the Southampton side, I advised Le Boss not to take beating the Saints team for granted by starting a weaken Gunners starting XI against the Saints’ 1st team starting Xi. But Le Boss looks to have turned down my advice by starting a weaken Gunners team against Southampton this afternoon by keeping out Oezil, Monreal, Lacazette and Wilshere on the bench for the match. And now Arsenal have pay the price for not starting their regular best starting XI Gunners against the Saints in this match as they’ve gone down 0-1 @17 minutes into the match through S Long goal.
We can only hope now Arsenal will come back effectively into the match as the game pans on to equalise and go on to win the match to win 6 straight games in all matches.
LiveScore took forever to say Iwobi provided the assist. I think all the Untold’ers are at the game.
%Cummulative Arsenal possession
_5 77
10 59
15 67
20 60
25 66
30 68
35 66
40 63
45 65
45+3 66
shots on target 3:2
_off target _ _ 3:2
Corners _ _ _ _ 5:1
Offsides _ _ _ _1:1
Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 3:3
Goal Kicks _ _ _3:2
One unknown treatment
COYG!
This is were I just don’t get some people.
Wenger’s made 7 changes.
Playing a combination of 4 or 5 first choice starters. 5 or 6 2nd choice starters. As well as giving a young player his first premier league start.
There are players working there way back from injuries and players trying to regain there form.
Because of up and coming matches we have a midfield bereft of the graft and guile of Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey, against a bus parking team with the chastening words of there manager still ringing in there ears.
A team fighting a desperate relegation battle.
We have virtually nothing riding on this game.
Surely a combination of circumstances that could lead to a lack of cohesion and penetration.
I could see this. I could understand this.
Why is it some of our baying fans have so much difficulty in seeing it and choose to start booing within 25 minutes ?
I don’t get it.
It’s a different game Nitram. Chambers with a bicycle kick. I just seen a note that PEA took a shot from long away. There are some different things happening.
COYG!
Come on Jack, today would be a good day to score.
COYG!
Horsefeathers!
COYG!
I don’t get substituting Auba, the one player who can’t play in Moscow?!
COYG!
The %Cummulative possession numbers are drifting down, which indicates Southampton is seeing significantly more ball now than in the first half. We need to keep the ball, except when we are scoring on them.
It doesn’t have to be Jack scoring, I’ll take any Gunner scoring to get the lead back.
COYG!
Our defending is an absolute shamble, come on Arsenal concentrate.
Southampton is a Mark Hughes managed team in a relegation battle, and we have twice the fouls they do?
COYG!
Danny oh Danny.
Yes, I agree with you.
Redemption, Danny Welbeck!!!! Come on Arsenal.
Sorry, doing other things. How to go Danny! Nice assist Iwobi!
COYG!
with the huge lack of fouls and cards against Southampton, how does one explain a straight red to Southampton over a bunch of argy/bargy?
COYG!
LiveScore now says Wilshere got a yellow first, and then Elneny was straight red carded. Nice to have accurate and timely commentating (not).
COYG!
Thank God as the Gunners look to have finally turned this game on it’s head by edging past the Saints 3-2 in the match with that Danny Welbeck’s close header. His 2nd goal in the match after that his early dreadful missed goal scoring chance. But Danny has tried today for Arsenal with his brace that won all points in the match for us. Bravo to him.
Can’t figure out what Elneny did to get a straight red. Yes, he shoved a player…but after he was shoved and he didn’t raise his hands…so…
Still wondering… what exactly did Elneny do? Missed that part of the game.
Well, I think the referee demonstrated he did not have control of anything at the end there.
Final Stats
_5 77
10 59
15 67
20 60
25 66
30 68
35 66
40 63
45 65
45+3 66
50 67
55 66
60 64
65 63
70 61
75 60
80 61
85 61
90 59
90+7 57
shots on target 3:2 _7:9
_off target _ _ 3:2 _4:2
Corners _ _ _ _ 5:1 _8:6
Offsides _ _ _ _1:1 _1:2
Fouls _ _ _ _ _ 3:3 11:7
yellows _ _ _ _ 0:0 _2:0
red _ _ _ _ _ _ 0:0 _1:1
Goal Kicks _ _ _3:2 _6:3
One unknown treatment (from end of first half)
Nice to grind out a game playing against 14 players. Hopefully the officials get hit by lightning on the way home.
I don’t like seeing players being banned for something that is the ref’s fault.
Come on State Aid United!
Sky saying he shoved the bloke in the face. Pigmob strikes again
From what I could see, there was nothing there that would justify a red for Elneny.
Perhaps we will find out later.
That was rather an eventful last ten minutes. I’d say Wilshere was prevented from getting red (along with Stephens) by one of our team (who was that?) who pulled him away, and Elneny was really unlucky to get a straight red for what was just mutual shoving.
I think El Neny might have said something bad toward the ref and hence got the straight red. The pundits can’t figure out why El Neny got the straight red. Jack lucky not to get a red card. Come on Jack concentrate on the football, you’re better than that.
GoingGoingGooner
Even the commentator said ‘He’s evening it up’.
Up until that Red I though Mariner had a pretty good game, APART from missing a stone wall red card for Soton early on.
He did let stuff go but I thought fairly evenly.
I believe ‘raised hands’ was the official reason according to the commentator. Hmmm, well if simply raising hands is a sending off then half the players on the park would of been sent off during the ensuing melee.
Still onwards and upwards. Against a team with one hell of a lot to play for and with a lot of changes I’d take a 3 – 2 win any day of the week.
Well done boys.
Now the bigy,
WOO HOO , HOO ! Not a great team performance , but thanks for the three points – upwards and onwards and all that.
No complaints from me . Not much cohesion from players who have not been playing together, but there were some moments of good play. Another victory .Let’s keep it going .
Up the Gunners !
Cech tried to calm down Jack, and Jack had a pop at him. Thankfully, Cech calmed him down in the end.
I’ve read two reports and both confirm that Elneny’s red was for a push in the face.
…which was out of character for a seemingly calm player. Didn’t Danny get warned also? He wouldn’t even know how to fight.
Well, Kevin Friend hasn’t given Chel$ea a penalty yet.
Come on State Aid United!
Very competitive match with a disappointing end. A yellow each for Wilshere and Stephens would have saved two red cards no doubt. Narrow-minded refereeing. That’s now five games on the bounce we’ve scored three or more goals en route to victory. Very strong form going into the latter stages of the Europa.
Can we overhaul Chelsea? It’s certainly possible if we remain unbeaten until the end of the season. They’ve lost 4 out of the last 6 so aren’t in good form by any means. We could certainly end up within 4 or 5 points of last season’s total, which isn’t great but certainly isn’t a collapse on the level of Chelsea’s. They amassed 93 points last time out; if they win every remaining game they’ll still end up a tidy 16 points worse off. That’s an embarrasing season for any defending Premier League champions.
Now that this match today against Southampton in the PL at the Ems is over for the better for Arsenal, Le Boss and the Gunners should now immediately shift their focus to our away ELC match against CSKA Moscow at the VEB Arena on Thursday night where Arsenal are expected to extend their winning run in all completions to 7 on the trot with an away win over CSKA.
I’m on my way home from the game. The Phmol cheat allowed us to get fouled & kicked all game. His red card to the saint was a surprise as there must have been s dozen yellows ignored with usual selective vision. How he gave a red card & a foul to saints is quite select.
His subsequent red to ElNeny was even more surprising but then again not really – it’s the way corruption of the Gods works.
Chelsea showing great class with the tribute to Ray Wilkins with the players wearing no8 on the back of their training tops, a applauses in the eighth minute and a touch of the black armband by the goal scorer..
Shame they forget that they decided to not renew his contract as assistant manager to Ancelotti and went to a reserve game he was watching sacked him and gave him 2 minutes to leave the premises
Is that true Knobby?
Funny, Sky never mentioned it.
Here’s some of the story the bit about two minutes was stated on Talksport.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/8148489/Ray-Wilkins-I-was-unfairly-sacked-by-Chelsea.html
This was followed by a state of severe depression and alcoholism, he got banned for drink driving last year too.
match report is on line
Hopefully that TalkShite story isn’t fabricated.
—
Come on State Aid, tie up that game!
And that the Telegraph didn’t check sources.
Well, that helped. Chel$ea dropped 2 points.
It isn’t a Talksport story,
Try this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1334643/Ray-Wilkins-seals-Chelsea-pay-sacking.html
Or just google Wilikins sacked by Chelsea every newspaper and Chelsea blog has the story.