By Bulldog Drummond
The video collection series
- Arsenal v Everton – the historic games on video
- 241 historic Arsenal videos with more being added each day
- Support the team
The BBC is telling us that Arsenal have kept just three clean sheets at home this season in the Premier League, but then we don’t really need to be told; it has been a pretty hard slog. Nor that the key thing we have done is sorted out the defence, so it is one of the best in the league…. But no, that would be a positive, so we mustn’t say that.
However in looking around the interwebby thing I was reading a preview of this game from Grandoldteam.com . Its a long piece, and I hope they don’t mind if I reprint a part of one paragraph about Arsenal. It is of course biased, as fans write biased copy, because well, we are fans. Except, we don’t see so much of that in Arsenal previews. It’s all negative and criticism, unless we are playing Tottenham, and even then there’s a fair amount of Anti-Arsenal within.
Exactly as it was in the days of Mr Wenger, except the hatred is not directed at the manager any more. Here’s what Grandoldteam has to say about the forthcoming game.
“I can’t pin point where it went south for their fanbase in my eyes because there is still an awful lot of goodwill from one night in May 1989 but whenever their latest representatives seem to pop up on a screen of mine, it is of some of the worst Thatcherites behaving in self absorbed ways. A different vibe to Highbury so maybe it was something to do with the dynamics of the new stadium and who it attracted. Their fan channel doesn’t serve them well but I tend to swerve that best I can, so it just seems their new heads are just banter ridden performing twats. Some species eat their own and I encourage Arsenal to adopt this for the sakes of succession.”
In many ways I agree, and the fact that an Arsenal supporters group is spending the days feeding anti-Arsenal FC material to the newspapers which are already rancid enough, shows the level of problem that we have. Fortunately other supporters group are available.
It is quite hard to find many team selections for this one, but eventually we did get a few. Here is 90min
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Xhaka;
Partey, Ceballos;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe;
Nketiah.
We haven’t taken a line up from Bergkampesque for a while so here’s one today…
Leno;
Chambers, Holding, Mari, Xhaka;
Partey,
Smith Rowe, Ceballos or Ode;
Saka, Pepe;
Nketiah.
The Telegraph web site let me in for long enough without my having a subscription, for me to be able to copy down their selection and quite a radical one it is. Leno is out again for them, and Martinelli is at centre forward, which is where we first saw him all those years ago when we were allowed in the ground.
Ryan;
Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Xhaka;
Partey, Ceballos;
Pepe, Smith Rowe, Saka;
Martinelli.
Sporting Life tell us it will be a 1-1 draw but won’t tell who they think will play which actually is just plain weird. The SportingPredictions site doesn’t have a team either but 56% of the people who vote have gone for an Arsenal win.
Vavel.com – another new one for us – gives us
Leno,
Cedric, Holding, Gabriel, Xhaka;
Partey, Ceballos;
Smith-Rowe, Pepe, Saka;
Martinelli
and I think with that we have covered most of the options. For myself, I prefer Xhaka in midfield if at all possible because he does so much to direct the team, and particularly to keep the youngsters working according to the script, but on the other hand he seems a fairly decent full back. Does anyone remember when the word in every newspaper and blog was that he would never play again for Arsenal. Now he’s first on the team sheet. How strange!
And I’d really love to see Martinelli have a return to the absolute free-flowing game of his at centre forward we saw in his earliest days, playing in the Europa. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Finally, we must have something from WhoScored. This time it is the Team Characteristics.
Arsenal’s Strengths
| Very Strong | |
| Strong | |
| Strong | |
| Strong |
Everton’s Strengths
| Strong | |
| Strong | |
| Strong |
Arsenal’s Weaknesses
| Very Weak |
Everton’s Weaknesses
So there were are. Fingers, legs, arms, and everything else, very crossed. Attack down the wing, lots of shots from outside the area and fall over every time they come near one of our attackers.
The Midweek Combination: how it was stopped and what next
- Who can stop the Midweek Combination, and how can they do it?
- Arsenal supporters issue solid rebuttal of club’s plan to join unwanted new league
- Breakaway clubs face largest football PR and political disaster of all times
- Superleague. The key question the media utterly refused to ask, let alone answer
- Apologies from Arsenal, but not everyone is saying sorry.
- After the apologies, what next for naughty six? And how did they get it so wrong?
- Super League v Premier League: now the real war begins
Another player coming out to say support not just wait for an opportunity to boo.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/mwr6h8/mohamed_elneny_on_fans_i_need_you_to_support_me/
If all goes well for Arsenal in the Premier League in accordance to their plan as they’ve planned it to beat Everton tonight in the Premier League at the Ems.
Then I will say I am more than positive the Gunners will beat the Toffees to the collection of all the 3 points that will be at stake in the match for collection. And improved on their standing in the table towards enhancing the chances of the club to get a qualifying ticket through the PL this season to play European Football next season.
And since there are still some sporting merit spots motivation in the PL this season left to play for, and get them. The Gunners should therefore get motivated by this. And become challenged to win their tonight’s PL match against the Toffees unfailingly.
Towards their achieving this win over Everton, let Mikel Arteta gets his Arsenal game starting XI and 9 substitutes he will select for the match spot on. And eschew any kind of experimenting with another new Arsenal game playing Gunners selection to play the match. Which if care is not taken by him to avoid doing this against Everton could backfire to leave him in the should I know it’ll be like this I wouldn’t have experimented again.
My predicted final score-line in the match is: Arsenal 3-0 Everton.
But the Gunners should not be expecting the win to come to them on a plate. But through their relentless hardwork play unrelenting in the game would they claim a win in the match over the Toffees who are currently above them in the table and chasing to get a PL qualifying spot to play European Football next season similar to as Arsenal are chasing this season,
I’ve seen the Arteta’s Arsenal match starting XI and the 9 Gunners he has chosen as substitutes for the Arsenal home match in the PL tonight against Everton.
And I must say I am impressed with his strong starts and bench making for the match.
He has given the nod to Nketiah to start. And I hope to see the young Arsenal striker seize this rare opportunity given to him by reposing the confidence his manager has in him to select him to start the match, by scoring goals and gives productive assists for Arsenal in the match.
Team
Leno
Chambers, Holding, Mari, Xhaka
Partey, Ceballos
Pepe, Smith-Rowe, Saka
Nketiah
Subs
Ryan, Bellerin, Gabriel, Cedric, Odegard, Elneny, Willian, Nelson, Martinelli
Considering the week Arsenal have had they are playing ok , need a little bit of quality in and into the penalty area .
howler from Leno
Our passes are slowing us down. One would hope the opposite would be true.
In fairness to Leno, Xhaka let Richarlison run unimpeded down the inside track with a poorly timed attempt at a tackle.
What utterly corrupt bollocks yet again. We were totally dominant throughout the match and yet the referee and VAR managed to conjure an offside where there wasn’t one. It’s crazy shit which has lost us 23 points so far this season.
Whenever I see “we never lost on/against” I know we are going to see it happen for the first time
..and an average of 27 points for the last 15 seasons. What a creepy bunch of f*ckers these PGMOL are.
I really want to know how they made it an offside with the penalty call. Never offside for me.
“Clear and obvious”……………
VAR intervenes when a clear obvious mistake is made , was there a clear and obvious mistake no IMO but PIGMOL are looking for it , how many matches has this happened to us ?
Mikey we were posting at the same time
Walter,
The offside clearly part of the penalty for the ESL debacle. No other reason for it.
I can hardly be bothered to watch at the moment. We are screwed before we start by our owners and by the match officials and our own players thereafter.
Is this the best we can play with these players Mr Arteta? Of course officials won’t do it’s any favours they never have we are not Spurs or Man Utd.
As for the fans who wanted us to lose – go boil your heads.
What our manager MA has had to put up with since he started has been unprecedented , I’m not going to list them we should know them . He’s made mistakes it’s his first job , I hope he learns for them and he’s with us for years .
We used to be called “ Lucky Arsenal “ I think it’s gone missing .
Is it this conjuring of match rigging by the PGMO through their match officiating referees and VAR personnel against Arsenal forcing them to lose matches in the PL they clearly are seen winning, that made Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke to opt-in his club Arsenal to join the ESL out of frustration, as he continues to see his Arsenal intentionally getting hampered unabatedly in the PL by the PGMO?
Honestly, the way and manner the PGMO had cleverly turned the table in this match against Arsenal tonight in their home match in the PL against Everton, by making sure the hard fighting Gunners in the game lost the match has made me to have a rethink of my opposing Arsenal joining the ESL.
For, how long will I continue to watch and endure this monkey of match refereeing in the PL against Arsenal by the PGMO?
If the original 12 big European club sides that formed the abortive ESL will review the Supper League by introducing sporting merit into it, I think the PL will continue to forge on. But without the big six club sides playing in it anymore. As big club like Arsenal could still opt-in again to join the ESL to in it under a different new operating format I suppose.
Is it this conjuring of match rigging by the PGMO through their match officiating referees and VAR personnel against Arsenal forcing them to lose matches in the PL they clearly are seen winning, that made Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke to opt-in his club Arsenal to join the ESL out of frustration, as he continues to see his Arsenal intentionally getting hampered unabatedly in the PL by the PGMO?
Honestly, the way and manner the PGMO had cleverly turned the table in this match against Arsenal tonight in their home match in the PL against Everton, by making sure the hard fighting Gunners in the game lost the match has made me to have a rethink of my opposing Arsenal joining the ESL.
For, how long will I continue to watch and endure this monkey of match refereeing in the PL against Arsenal by the PGMO?
If the original 12 big European club sides that formed the abortive ESL will review the Supper League by introducing sporting merit into it, I think the PL will continue to forge on. But without the big six club sides playing in it anymore. As big club like Arsenal could still opt-in again to join the ESL to play in it under a different new operating format I suppose.
I think the authorities have long known about KSEs desire for the ESL, maybe due to that photo in the hotel, and the club are being And have been punished accordingly. Things starting to make sense.
They will not touch City or Chelsea, nasty lawyers. Liverpool and Utd untouchable, Spurs seem to have powerful friends in the media.
If FA and EPL long knew about the ESL guess which team will be punished…give you a clue, part of the punishment was this evening.
I fear we will get this as long as KSE are here, or they employ the sort of lawyers City or Chelsea would.
Get used to VAR being used against us, and even if we were good enough, considering the players we are lacking, I don’t expect us to be allowed to triumph in Europe either
Good point @Mandy Dodd let’s get Arsenal in touch with the same solicitors lol
@ Steve Vallins
‘Great minds’ eh? 🙂
I have to disagree with your other post about “Lucky Arsenal” though. If we get one decision or deflection go our way, people still roll out that phrase. It doesn’t matter about the 20 poor decisions, missed penalties or anything else that went against us before that. We’ve had two shots on target against us in the last two games (and one of those was from a penalty for a dive) but does anybody ever talk about “unlucky Arsenal?
People have learnt to hate us because that’s what the media have taught them, so any excuse to bad mouth us is jumped upon with glee.
If that decision (the ruled out penalty) had gone against anybody else, the media would be making a big deal about it saying how unlucky/marginal/unjustified it was. What do they say for us? “……but Pepe’s arm was offside in the build-up so it was overturned”. So why have they spent two season’s banging on about the fact that it must be a part of the body you can score with that must be offside, so where’s the outrage?
The BBC don’t even mention the VAR for Everton’s goal, they’re too busy wetting themselves over Leno’s “howler”.
And no mention of us having more possession, more shots, more shots on target, more corners. No. All they could say was, “They played some nice football against Everton but did not fashion many clear-cut chances”. May be not but more than the opposition did!
I wonder how different their match report would have looked if it had been one of their darling red shirted, teams from the north west who’d lost like this!
Mikey , I agree with what you last posted .
I was looking at “ fortune/luck “ from a point of what we don’t get given and when we do it’s certainly mentioned in the media . Last night’s decision there was no outburst of an injustice , I think in a recent game we had a goal ruled out for an offside decision Fulham maybe , I found 1 article where Keith Hackett former head of referees thought the goal should have stood as it was a big toe offside and not a clear and obvious mistake made , when we score I’m sure they look at it in a way of how can we disallow the goal .
Until we learn that the number of passes alone, has no real connection with the match result, we will not prosper.
Our rival Clubs have sussed us out by standing firm in defence, in sure and certain knowledge that our fast passing will eventually peter out with no end product.
Mikey and Steve Vallins
If you go back and look at my posts when VAR was looking certain to arrive I said all the way back then that rather than be a help for us in our battle against the biased referee we constantly face, it was certain to make matters worse.
I said back then that any minor transgression from our players, perceived or otherwise, that the referee missed, or might possibly of missed, would be picked up by VAR to ensure we got punished.
Where as any transgression against us that the referee missed, which as we know happens a lot, the VAR man would conveniently overlook it.
As you have both said neither last nights nor the Fulham offsides where clear and obvious errors and therefore should not of been given as offside, especially as, despite offside being a matter of fact and not a subjective call, the moment the pass is made is subjective, or at least open to interpretation.
Depending on at what point the VAR person decides, and that is what he does, he decides, the ball is played, that can make all the difference in these marginal decisions.
Given they are saying players are on or offside with margins as small as an inch, the subjectivity relating to the moment the ball is played, is surely enough to undermine the certainty of those decisions ?
We are being robbed blind by VAR in exactly the way I said we would be all those years ago.
nicky
You have a point about our end product. I agree we need more. But that is another matter all together and isn’t a reason to overlook the pathetic way we are being robbed by VAR.
And in any case, despite not having the clinical end product we would all like, given how well we defend in general, we are playing well enough, and creating enough chances to win games, if only marginally, if it wasn’t for this VAR fiasco.
Our “offside” happened 15 seconds before the penalty was awarded so when the Everton player headed the cross away it was now a new phase of play. But did anyone say anything about that on Sky?? If they did then I stand corrected. Also wasn’t VAR brought in to overturn the howlers and the clear and obvious errors eg Auba last year at OT? Does anyone bring that up anymore??? We have been royally screwed by VAR to the tune of 23 points according to various posters and that’s just this season!! Other teams have also been shafted but we appear as always to come off worse. The club needs to put together a montage of these errors and present them to the premier league. Kroenke Out. Pigmol Out. Var Out. Until then we are fighting a losing battle. It’s now win the Europa League or bust. I sincerely hope we do but in all honesty a year away from Europe might help Arteta actually coach the team rather than let them rest and recuperate with no time to implement what he wants. Have to also remember we were without four or five starters last night. (Everton )were bang average and we gifted them their goal. It’s been that kind of season, replace Everton with any team and that sums us up.
Steve Vallins – Not only Hackett. Halsey also said that the Ceballos header against Fulham was a good goal.
The media are opportunistic hypocrites. Having cast themselves as “on the side of the fans” over the ESL fiasco, they let the mask fall and showed their true colours as enablers of injustice before I was able to make a cup of tea.
They are liars.
Sorry, english is not my native lang…)
Hello everyone! I have been following the posts on this blog for years, and I share a number of your views.
Especially regarding the corruption (or wilful incompetence 🙂 )of the pgmob officers. Already the club, the fans, Arsène, all have paid the price and it looks like it will continue under Arteta.
Many of us were rightly suggesting that it would be good if someone – in the club – had the guts to highlight the problem.
Yet I am amazed, particularly today, to see some forums (not this one)silent on the subject .
I would like to draw attention to one point and ask a question: Mikel in the press conference is very openly critical of the relationship with the referees and the way VAR is used. Finally someone dares to do so! And it could cost him dearly. What do you think? Should the fans support him or ignore it and make him bear the brunt of all the defeats?
Someone has been trying to damage Arsenal FC for some time and may well be succeeding. Should we stick together or wait for some fans to bring out the “Arteta Out!” banners?
(Again I’m not talking about Untold, but I notice that some blogs, which claim to be …. positive, don’t talk about Arteta’s interventon but rather choose to criticise him for his results).
Now, about the VAR…
Does anyone have enough knowledge on the subject to understand how it works and explain it to me?
About offsides… how are they able to judge certain positions with an accuracy that sometimes seems close to the millimetre… and finally influence a game result.
For example, last night (but it’s very common at other times) we saw two offsides judged in this way (one for each team). How can they claim to be so accurate, almost to the pixel! Even with their digital “tools”, square, plumb line and the like….
For a start, how can they determine this with such precision when they have to determine the exact moment of the ball’s departure from the passer’s foot?
This is the limit of the technology’s capabilities… and it seems to me that to claim to be precise in these matters is illusory. But then… as a decision is required, how does the video ref decide in the end (especially when it’s Arsenal playing 🙂 )
Very interesting point Alex. I think however Arteta will get away with his comment because his comment that the problem is VAR and the referees are acting under orders of how to interpret the rules.
And your English is far better than that of some native English speakers who comment here!
It’s nothing but sour grapes when you start questioning the offside technology when it goes against you at season’s end. The use of technology in determining offside has gone against almost all the teams, including the ones you’ve called the darlings, the armpit offside is not a new criticism. Even Wenger suggested adjusting the lines to read from the back of the feet. Recently the same went against Liverpool. So anybody asking for arsenal to make too much noise about this is asking us to just embarrass ourselves, I’d suggest that person can help us make all the hue and cry and embarrass himself on our behalf.
On to the article, Tony I think you are one of the most guilty party in giving the media, as you call them, the weapons with which to run down the arsenal fan base. In Almost all your articles you find ways to repetitively run down every arsenal fan group, blog etc that you don’t belong to from AST, to Arsenal fan TV, Le grove, Piers Morgan etc. Incidentally, apart from AISA that you are probably an executive of, and maybe positively arsenal(once in a blue moon) you don’t have any thing good to say about arsenal fans or supporters. So take some of the blame for our bad reputation. If we say something as innocuous as “results are not good enough” you brand us names “aaa” and all that