By Bulldog Drummond
Previously…
- Arsenal v Leicester injury news
- Arsenal v Leicester. Why PGMO have a lot to answer for.
- Why do Leicester get such strange stats for fouls, cards and penalties?
- Arsenal v Leicester; heading for 4th, and the last 10 games table updated
In the last article, I mentioned some unexpected positivity from the BBC preview to today’s match, including that “The 25 points they have accrued during that period [last 10 games] is the joint-most in the division, alongside Manchester City.”
But that was pretty much the end of the positivity because the next fact that they give us is that, “The Gunners could become the first team to win five consecutive Premier League matches by a one-goal margin since Birmingham City in November and December 2009.”
Is that important? Does it matter? Not really, although, again to be fair they do also bring up the fact that Arsenal “have scored 22 Premier League goals by players aged 21 or under this season, twice as many as next-best, Crystal Palace.”
Which when you come to think about it, is pretty amazing and rather good for the future. As is the notion that Saka has been directly involved in nine of our last 10 league goals, (scoring six with three assists). I guess that is why so many newspapers etc have been talking up the idea of him not wanting to stay at Arsenal, and how he will be at Manchester City or somewhere like that next season.
All of which leaves it rather tough to find anything positive to say about Leicester, except that they very rarely manage to come out of a game without the opposition scoring against them. In fact this year this has only happened three times:
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar 2022 | Burnley v Leicester City | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 5 Mar 2022 | Leicester City v Leeds United | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 10 Mar 2022 | Leicester City v Rennes | W | 2-0 | Conference League |
and when one comes to think about it Burnley, Leeds and Rennes don’t exactly have the strongest attacks in Europe at the moment.
But less we think that Leicester really are marching on consider their away form this season. Here is the complete list
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug 2021 | West Ham United v Leicester City | L | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 28 Aug 2021 | Norwich City v Leicester City | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 19 Sep 2021 | Brighton and Hove v Leicester City | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 30 Sep 2021 | Legia Warszawa v Leicester City | L | 1-0 | Europa League |
| 03 Oct 2021 | Crystal Palace v Leicester City | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 20 Oct 2021 | Spartak Moscow v Leicester City | W | 3-4 | Europa League |
| 24 Oct 2021 | Brentford v Leicester City | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 7 Nov 2021 | Leeds United v Leicester City | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 1 Dec 2021 | Southampton v Leicester City | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 5 Dec 2021 | Aston Villa v Leicester City | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 9 Dec 2021 | Napoli v Leicester City | L | 3-2 | Europa League |
| 22 Dec 2021 | Liverpool v Leicester City | L | 3-3 | League Cup (5-4) |
| 26 Dec 2021 | Manchester City v Leicester City | L | 6-3 | Premier League |
| 6 Feb 2022 | Nottingham For v Leicester City | L | 4-1 | FA Cup |
| 10 Feb 2022 | Liverpool v Leicester City | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 20 Feb 2022 | Wolverhampton v Leicester City | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Feb 2022 | Randers v Leicester City | W | 1-3 | Conference League |
| 1 Mar 2022 | Burnley v Leicester City | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
Six away wins in 19 games and those against Norwich, Spartak, Brentford, Randers and Burnley.
And here is one other from the BBC… “Patson Daka failed to score in 12 of his 13 away appearances for Leicester in all competitions. The exception was his four-goal haul in a 4-3 win at Spartak Moscow in the Europa League in October.”
So, let’s look at the team…
Ramsdale
Cedric White Gabriel Tierney
Partey Xhaka
Saka Odegaard Martinelli
Lacazette
Which is all fairly obvious but does leave out Smith Rowe, our top scorer. (He has 10, Saka 9). Actually, another goal for Saka means that Amy Lawrence can run out her infamous line about “Arsenal have only two players in double figures” for scoring.
Not surprisingly The Hard Tackle goes for the same lineup and I guess the notion is that Smith Rowe comes on as a sub just as the defence is tiring.
Indeed no one is expecting Smith Rowe to be a starter – Sports Mole also putting out the same lineup. The only variation one can find is the way in which the lineup is written as 90 Min takes the same players but rearranges so we have
Ramsdale
Cedric White Gabriel Tierney
Partey Odegaard Xhaka
Saka Lacazette Martinelli
And an honourable mention must go to the Daily Cannon, which tells us that “Zak Swanson has been stepping up from the u23s to fill the backup role behind Cedric, and he’ll likely do so again if Tomiyasu isn’t back.” As well as noting that “Rob Holding has really carved out a niche in the squad for coming on when Arsenal have a lead to protect, and he’ll be ready to do so again if and when called upon.”
Anyway, let’s finish with a little bit of a smile, and then hope it continues through the afternoon. The Independent has this jolly jape at the top of its article today…
“Leicester City’s season has turned a corner in recent weeks and they will look to continue the momentum when they travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon to take on Arsenal.
“The Foxes have endured an up-and-down campaign but four wins in a row in all competitions have them dreaming of Europa Conference…” It fades out at that point and demands that I register which I have done twice, so I am getting a bit fed up with them.
Guess the end of the sentence.
“Glory”?
Can you really have Europa Conference glories? Or come to that newspaper registration technology that actually works?
VAR
Chelsea
Blatant elbow – No sending off.
Clear shirt pull in box – No penalty.
VAR = Joke !!
Off topic I’m watching Newcastle v Chelsea and how Newcastle weren’t awarded a penalty for shirt pull I don’t know , maybe because it wasn’t Arsenal and Xhaka .
Itram we’re both on the same page
Steve Vallins
VAR was put in place to iron out refereeing mistakes, and clarify difficult calls.
They do neither. They fail to correct mistakes. They fail to see what the referee misses.
And what’s more they fail to do it with bias and inconsistency.
Basically VAR just won Chelsea a match.
VAR ?
In principle fantastic.
In reality a complete and utter joke.
Several blatant errors so far have seen VAR and the ref fail to punish 100% dead cert infringements, whether for red cards or penalties.
I bet Riley has been in touch to make sure we get a really soft one go against us in our much, just to redress the balance.
Typo ….. much = match
Because it was never trialled for a season, never data-based amongst referees, fans, players, managers, never introduced with a code of agreed offences and a body of knowledge amongst all the parties.
There were those who did argue for the principles and a practical, knowledge based examination period to establish the working protocol. Riley is an opportunist.
More, often overlooked, the FA, EPL, PGMO, in the introduction of VAR, were so up to their necks in their own self-importance – We Are The Kings Of The World! – they did not deign to look at other sports and how these ensured a fair introduction and a supportive fan base.
@ Nitram
If I see it , you see it and many others see it , how and why aren’t these non decisions never ever discussed in the wider views of football . We’re pretty sure we know no one in the football club world is allowed to mention any of this so how can it be brought to everyone’s attention because the media won’t touch it .
It seems Untold is trying hard and a couple of blogs mention VAR and decisions but not very much .
Guys, the whol PGMOL organisation are just IAM : Incompetent Arrogant Morons.
This game – and it did NOT involce Arsenal.
And, Zedsaunt, refereeing, as Untold has proven time and again, is in the end a numbers game. Thing is PGMOL have no idea about that, visibly are not conducting any review based on numbers and kind of adapt when Untold demonstrate that something is amiss.
Military people call this OSINT : Open Source INtelligence.
Visibly it is now acceptable to slap or hit Arsenal payers in the face.
Must have been some new rule that was silently implemented during the week…
interesting stat I just heard on german TV.
Since start of the season Arsenal had 117 corners against them.
None ended in a goal….
What a poor defensive line right ?!?!?
And 11 clean sheets as well
What an excellent game of football – season ticket holders, I envy you.
As long as we don’t score that second goal, we’ll be in great danger – they have skilful, creative lads upfront, and without the tentacles of our octopus of a GK, we’d be one-all already.
Hats off to Impressive Partey – his goal should be shown in academies: perfect timing for the jump, and he somehow managed to both let the ball skim his forehead while hitting it, giving it power …
I’m only moderately optimistic though, because, as far as being awarded penalties, having opponents sent off, being given positive VAR reviews are concerned, the PGMO motto is pretty obvious: Arsenal(o) delenda est
Emil in, Marti out, i’d have nothing against …
COYG
At half time, the important stat was LEI 54% possession, 3 shots. Arsenal 46 % , 11 shots.
Which explains why I was not so worried
Now it is 52 % possession, yet 5 shots against 18….
I love what I am seeing…
Some team is going to have a lot of goals scored against them soon , we are making good chances
A lovely performance, a lovely game to watch. Mr Arteta building a team. Must be difficult for people who listened and believed the relegation shouts from the first three games. The tribalism of football journalism leaves bags of soiled laundry hanging around.
Partey MotM is a no-brainer … but I’m in awe of the amazing job MA has done with our kilted left-back.
The kid’s improved all the aspects of his game: better focus, positioning in defense, (much) greater unpredictability on the attacking front, and all this disciplining the lad has been done without taking any of the fun, the energy out of him … outstanding management indeed
‘Pool now, they can’t afford to drop any points, so the pressure’s on them, let’s hope the joke will be too, this time – at long last
COYG
Games come and go and we see the team getting better and players finding each other.
We still need to sink some of them occasions.
If I am not wrong, Laca has been involved in 10 goals in the past 11 games.
I just feel sorry for Nketiah. I hope he can be patient, take a longer term view and convinced to stay
Well, our mid-week game is going to be interesting.
No pressure, we have games in hand. The kids can have fun.
Me thinks this will be decided as always by the referee, so why stress.
A tie would do nicely thank you !
One game at a time. Level headed. Playing for each other. Delighting in what they can do. A sublime run from Saka, a run from Martinelli to the byline, Tierney running across and clearing the ball before the Leicester player got in a shot, the speed at playing out the whole pitch opening. Lovely to watch.
wierd to read stuff like that….
“they almost seemed to be having too much fun with those attacking combinations, trying to dance the ball into the net in the grand modern-day Arsenal tradition.”
The most important thing for me is the ‘having fun’ part. This is the way to win games.
Another great performance of every player on the pitch.
A couple of weeks ago I did a prediction of how the final games would play out with regards to predicted points won per match concluding in a final total. I did this using a system I have used as a rule of thumb to predict results for years, or at least to predict the minimum requirement if we were to challenge for the top 4, and it has proved pretty reliable. As you will see, if we achieve this we will probably end up in the top 4, if we don’t we probably wont, it’s as simple as that.
This how I predict the points need to be gained:
HOME
Against the 1st and 2nd placed teams = 0 per match
Against the 3rd and 4th placed teams = 1 per match
Against the rest = 3 per match
AWAY
Against the top 4 placed teams = 0 Per match
Against the next 6 placed teams = 1 per match (or down to half way if you prefer)
Against the rest = 3 per match
Using this system this is how I see Arsenals, Man Utd’s and Tottenhams remaining fixtures playing out, where we will possibly gain points and where we probably wont, concluding in where we will end up points wise.
It consists of H or A – Team and Current League position – Expected points return against them.
ARSENAL
H Liverpool 2nd = 0 pts
A A Villa 9th = 1 pt
A C. Palace 11th = 3 pts
H Brighton 13th = 3 pts
A South’ton 10th = 1 pt
H Man Utd 5th = 3 pts
A West Ham 6th = 1 pt
H Leeds 16th = 3 pts
A Newcastle 14th = 3 pts
H Everton 17th = 3 pts
TBC
A Tottenhsm 8th = 1 pt
A Chelsea 3rd = 0 pts
Total = 22 pts
Current = 51 pts
End the season on 73 points
TOTTENHAM
A Brighton 13th = 3 pts
H West ham 6th = 3 pts
H Newcastle 14th = 3 pts
A A.Villa 9th = 1 pt
H Brighton 13th = 3 pts
A Brentford 15th = 3 pts
A Leicester 11th = 3 pts
A Liverpool 2nd = 0 pts
H Burnley 19th = 3 pts
A Norwich 20th = 3 pts
TBC
H Arsenal 4th = 1 pt
Total = 26 pts
Current = 45 pts
End the season on 71 pts
MANCHESTER UTD
H Leicester 12th = 3 pts
A Everton 17th = 3 pts
H Norwich 20th = 3 pts
A Arsenal 4th = 0 pts
H Brentford 15th = 3pts
A Brighton 13th = 3 pts
H Chelsea 3rd = 1 pt
A C.Palace 11th = 3 pts
TBC
A Liverpool 2nd = 0 pts
Total = 19 pts
Current = 50 pts
End the season on 69 pts
So as much as we have games in hand, they are tough games in hand and I predict very little from them. BUT, that should not matter as long as we maintain our general overall form against the rest of the teams. If we do that we should be fine.
So my final points prediction is:
Arsenal 73
Tottenham 71
Man Utd 69
But it’s going to be tough.
MØ8 is so good I realize I now take him for granted, and write him off the MotM “contest”
What a lad … clever, cool, calm, collected, composed, unselfish, clairvoyant; he makes everything look simple, which is of course the trickiest trick, the one only the very, very best can pull
Should he lure Haaland home to North London, a Viking Arsenal will rule o’er Europe sooner than later
what a superb performance from the team.that was a solid clean sheet for the back 5, Aaron is superhuman tonight. Thomas is a monster bossing that midfield plus he scored a goal and lastly, to think that Arsenal manage to persuade Real Madrid to sold Martin for only 35 million is just ‘wow’.one of bargain of the century, that guy really is unplayable tonight. bring it on Liverpool, this young ‘gunners’is not afraid of nobody
@LeGall,
considering that the way it looks MBappé will be in Madrid, Barcelona would probably not be able to hire a big salary on top of their existing squad and billion in debt, PSG has prooved it is the care home for retiring or temperemental players and coaches unable to handle them, Bayern have got Müller and Lewandowski, I think that Haaland coming to the PL would seem possible.
From there I rule out NewRyad because I think the nordic people are more sensible to human rights and there is no squad with ambitionsm just money. Manure does not fit the bill for a guy like him. He just needs to think about Pogba, Rashford and others, and he knows a young player just gets destroyed. Chelsea seems like a long shot. I don’t think he knows who Sp*rs are, they are unknown in the trophies statistics. Citeh maybe but then again there is the moral issue and the squad they have. So why would Arsenal not try ? He’d bring the age average down and act like a Saturn V rocket lifting off for a moonshot… We ought to start a grassroots campaign….. ! He’d usher in at least half a decade of power, goals, competitive spirit, talent, fun and games. He’d be the big brother to all these youngsters. The sky would be the limit.
Well, let’s shut down the playstation and come back to reality….. yet our reality is so much better then the one of at least 16 other PL teams,,,,
Just home after a fun afternoon and evening out with friends, travelling to London to see the game, and returning.
And it is really interesting to read all the comments made concerning today’s game, which really was enjoyable all round.
Plus a special thanks to Arsenal Independent Supporters Association for organising a huge Ukrane solidarity banner, and getting some good photos of members with the banner.
And back with the football – Arteta really has built a very special team here. I know we were only playing modest opposition, but they still have to be disposed of as neatly and cleanly as possible, and that was done.
I do have have to say from inside the stadium things really are looking good in terms of this team.
read this from the Guardian : “This was a dark day for anyone who cares about the game’s soul. No amount of sportswashing could make the putrid air hanging over this fixture disappear”
Not that he is wrong with his statement
But these guys (don’t know about this journalist particularly) who just relished in reporting clubs spending billions, winning trophies, being part of the gravy train, criticizing on no end someone honourable and honnest like Mr Wenger, did not give a damn about all those moral isses suddendly are making it sound like they care ? Sorry, but IMHO this is just writer-washing after the facts. They are just weathercocks.
And it is so hypocritical. The same people were playing scandalised because Arsenal’s owner owned a TV channel about hunting. Seriously ?!?!
As for the fans in general they don’t care as long as their team plays, has a chane to win or wins, whatever the moral cost.
Panem et circences
In the meantime people are facing tanks unarmed and telling their crews to go the f..k back to Russia. Talk about real courage.
that’s correct @Chris. do you see Ralf Rangnick presser when he said Arsenal should be punish because Usmanov used to be our shareholder. talk about Shithausery from a guy who used to work in Russia and at the club that has a close tie to Russian government. that uninformed ‘Moscow Ralf’ realy a funny guy
@chris, i like this train of thought of yours an awful lot
The English are past masters of confessing in public when their corruption gets found out. We’ll have a few years of journalists crying for their sins. Putin exposes everyone – most of the English Establishment – who loved the comfort of his dirty money, this made explicit, beyond description, by the courage of Ukrainians.
You’ll need puking buckets. The abuse given out to Mr Wenger by the people who failed to challenge Putin’s enablers was disgusting.
Last night I saw a piece on german TV about Chelsea. They went to interview fans around Stamford Bridge. And one of them even uttered the following – I am quoting from memory but the last words are verbatim :
I understand the need for sanctions and the war is horrible, but WHY SHOULD THE FANS SUFFER ?
I mean, words just fail me. S-U-F-F-E-R ? What the frack is this guy talking about.
Another one was saying that the sanctions would not change the war in Ukraine anyway, so why sanction ?
At least the scribbler in the Guardian has reacted and seen the obscenity of the situation – albeit very late.
Then again, England will not let refugees in and is so coward that it hides its decision behind pseudo technical issues. When you compare that to neighbouring countries… so the fans’ reaction is in-line with all this and the governement does represent the people: we don’t care and just want to see our team win, so let the money, any money in. The only thing missing now is fans taking to the streets to defend their right to any rich owner.
Panem et circences
By the way, one wonders why people can still play online at games such as World of tanks and others part of the same franchise.
I remember a documentary showing the creators, the companies behind them….all in Belarus…
Why should online gamers not suffer like football fans after all ?
So much for globalisation….
@ Nitram
13 March 2022 at 3:21 PM
It’s not a joke. It’s the reality of PGMOL selective vision. We know it is consistent and has an agenda and enjoys cruises on the Putin funded yacht. We do not have much hope against the PGMOL considering the SAF Chinese, the Russians of Chelsea and the weed /chemical smokers of Liverpool are all affiliated.
Our simple system of play the ball, pass to avoid physical contact (accept the unseen late kicks to our legs) and score despite being fouled in the opposition box.
It’s the Arteta process that’s confusing the media.