By Bulldog Drummond
So summarising where we have got to in previous articles, we find that Leicester have a poor-ish away record, both in the second half of last season and this season, tending only to beat teams that are themselves doing very badly at home. Arsenal might be in all sorts of categories as invented by the media, but we are most certainly not in the category of being poor at home. Quite the opposite.
We can all remember I am sure being beaten by Manchester City at the start of the season at home. The previous home defeat in the league was against… Manchester City 0-3 on 1 March. Before that it was a 1-3 defeat by Manchester United on 2 December 2017. And before that, Watford on 31 January 2017.
In short we don’t get beaten much at home in the League.
Of course all runs come to an end sometime – and we will, one day, be beaten again in the league at Arsenal Stadium by a team from outside last season’s top six, but despite the last two seasons being the most catastrophic campaigns since 1994/5 (when we came 12th) we have only lost four home games in almost two calendar years. And yes. that could be even better but as a starting point it will do.
So on to Leicester.
Here’s what they got up to in the last transfer window with the players coming in…
- Ricardo Pereira; Defender — from Porto. £17.5m
- Jonny Evans; Defender — from West Bromwich Albion. £3.5m
- James Maddison; Midfielder — from Norwich City. £24m
- Danny Ward; Goalkeeper — from Liverpool. £12.5m
- Rachid Ghezzal; Winger — from Monaco. £12m
- Filip Benkovic; Defender — from Dinamo Zagreb. £13m
- Caglar Soyuncu; Defender — from Freiburg. £19m.
That makes a grand total spend of £101,500,000. Quite a lot really.
That was funded by £74,700,000 worth of sales, most notably Mahrez to Manchester City for £60,000,000.
Now moving on to the injury situation.
In terms of the number of senior players out we are winning on that score with the number of our men down reduced to four. Mind you it is only two out for Leicester. And despite the rabid comments from a certain Arsenal ex-player, we are not the most injury prone team in the universe. Crystal Palace for example, have seven men down Here is our list…
| Who’s hurt? | What’s wrong | When back? | What, if anything, do we know. | Today? |
| Sokratis | Ankle Injury | Oct 22 | Slight Doubt | |
| Cech | Hamstring Injury | Oct 28 | “He is getting better from his injury but he’s not training with the group. I think he’s very close to start with us.” | Major Doubt |
| Mavropanos | Groin Strain | Nov 11 | “Expected to return to full training in November.” | No |
| Koscielny | Achilles Injury | Nov 25 | “I want to come back when I am fully ready, and I can focus 100% on the game. Trust me, I can’t wait to be back on the pitch, but I have to be wise. Rushing my return would not be a good thing.” | No |
Moving on again we can have a look at how Arsenal and Leicester have done against each other in the 21st century in the Premier League…
| Date | Game | Res | Score |
| 26 Dec 2000 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 6-1 |
| 20 Jan 2001 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 0-0 |
| 25 Aug 2001 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 4-0 |
| 23 Jan 2002 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 1-3 |
| 06 Dec 2003 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 |
| 15 May 2004 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 2-1 |
| 31 Aug 2014 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 |
| 10 Feb 2015 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 2-1 |
| 26 Sep 2015 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 2-5 |
| 14 Feb 2016 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 2-1 |
| 20 Aug 2016 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 0-0 |
| 26 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 1-0 |
| 11 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 4-3 |
| 09 May 2018 | Leicester City v Arsenal | L | 3-1 |
So there is one 21st century win to Leicester, and that was part of our pretty awful away form last season. (Of course being an East Midlands game Untold was there – we would have to choose that match!)
Otherwise they have knocked up three draws – all of which (like the 9 May game) were played at Leicester’s ground.
The last time Leicester beat us on our own turf was 8 September 1973 when they won 0-2. That was our fourth match without a win in a row, and came just after losing 0-5 to the mighty Sheffield United.
The time before that was 1 October 1966 when they won 2-4. That was part of a run of eight league games without a win, during the course of which we also managed to play two 1-1 draws with the also mighty Gillingham home and away in the league cup.
Ah, the old days.
So there we are: two Leicester wins at our turf in 42 years.
More anon.
We beat Leicester home & away during their championship season.
As us Gooners and the Gunners are all aware, Arsenal have to beat Leicester in the PL at the Ems tonight to go 3rd in the table. But will Arsenal beat them by 4 clear goals to go joint 3rd with Chelsea in the table? Or they’ll beat them with 5 clear goals to independently go 3rd in the table without sharing the 3rd spot with Chelsea? This is what we have to wait to see. But whatever be the result that will emanate in the match, it will be to the favour of Arsenal. For, Arsenal will surely beat Leicester to utter submission in the match tonight.
My guessed Emery’s Arsenal 4-2-3-1 starts and 7 on the bench Gunners for the match are below.
Starts:
Leno;
Bellerin Mustafi Holding Monreal;
Torreira Xhaka;
Ramsey Ozil Welbeck;
Lacazette.
Bench:
Martinez Lichtsteiner Kolasinac Guendouzi Iwobi Mkhitaryan Aubameyang.
Indeed Sammy, or do you prefer Snake?
Still beggars belief how we threw that title away.
We weren’t helped by other teams being unable to fathom how to avoid losing to them for the Entire season. Yet the brittle tactician Msr Wenger turned them round twice.