- Arsenal take on the Tottenham Hotspur of Spain tonight
- To attack Arsenal or appreciate Arsenal? The media can’t decide.
- Sevilla v Arsenal, comparing the clubs and their last six games. It’s not looking too tough
- Sevilla v Arsenal. Video of a recent game plus the prospects
By Bulldog Drummond
In our final roundup for the match against Sevilla (unless some major news breaks, such as the unexpected arrival of volcanic activity in Andalusia) we can take a quick roundup of the two clubs where we have data for each:
| Attribute | Arsenal | Sevilla |
| Squad size | 25 | 27 |
| Average age | 25.7 | 28.9 |
| Foreigner players in squad | 18 | 18 |
| National team players | 21 | 8 |
| Stadium size | 60.704 | 43.883 |
| Most valuable player | Saka: €120.00m | Djibril Sow: €22.00m |
| Record transfer paid | €167.04m | €5.5m |
PainintheArsenal offer us the thought that “Arsenal were dire on Saturday” while on the other hand “The Spaniards have been emboldened by Alonso’s arrival and were impressive against Real Madrid on Saturday. They’re soundly balanced and capable of hurting the visitors, who’ll seek to control and dominate Tuesday’s bout.” Which more or less justifies the site’s name. They suggest a line up of…
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu;
Partey, Rice, Odegaard;
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
The Standard tell us that
Sevilla have former Tottenham winger Erik Lamela available again after a muscle injury, but Marcao and Mariano Diaz are expected to miss out.
As with most journalistic efforts they take the positives from the opposition and the negatives from Arsenal and then draw a conclusion which may or may not have anything to do with what they have just written. It’s a habit I suppose.
So we learn that “Arteta’s side were poor too for much of the match against Chelsea on Saturday, offering very little in attack before eventually battling back to earn a point.” Meanwhile, “Sevilla showed against Real Madrid that they are capable of making things difficult, particularly at home, and an Arsenal side still struggling to click in forward areas could drop more points.”
As for their team news, boldly announced in the headline, it is that “Aaron Ramsdale missed the Chelsea match due to his wife giving birth to a baby boy, but the Gunners should have him back in contention to face Sevilla. That will provide Arteta with a selection headache, after David Raya’s struggles at Stamford Bridge. Kai Havertz is also pushing to start.”
The BBC tell us that “Raya is expected to remain in goal for Arsenal’s Champions League game against Sevilla”. But they have also run the story “Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has criticised Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta for not being honest about the goalkeeping situation.”
That is of course hardly new. It is in fact what the media are doing all the time, touting around for people who are going to attack Arsenal, criticize Arsenal, knock Arsenal, and by and large suggest that if it were not for sheer luck the club would be in the Southern League by now, and quite probably looking relegation in the face to the United Counties League.
Actually one of the other great things we get is the in-depth analysis, as again on the BBC site we are told, that Micah Richards says, “You can’t have two keepers are the same level at a club.” Well, great. That’s given us a lot to think about.
One of the problems of course is that a large number of fans only read the commentaries relating to the club they support, and so Arsenal fans can just see this incessant array of negativity and might be persuaded it is just Arsenal that is in a dire situation. But in fact a lot of other clubs get the same treatment. Not all, but quite a few.
Moving on Gooner Talk also have a team…
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu;
Partey, Rice,
Saka Odegaard; Martinelli
Havertz
The Mirror digs deep for its negativity telling us that “Arsenal’s last Sevilla trip saw Wenger sent off and forgotten Premier League star score… The Gunners suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Lens in their last European outing to dent their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Right now, Arsenal fans are still confident of progressing. But a loss to Sevilla in Spain on Tuesday might just alter that attitude.
Football.London also have a team prediction, which is
Ramsdale;
White, Gabriel, Saliba, Tomiyasu;
Partey, Rice, Odegaard;
Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
Meanwhile it is pretty much negative, negative, negative. He’s a final blast: “Sevilla’s latest managerial change has come at the worst possible time for Arsenal.” That is in the Athletic. And just to show it is everywhere, the Mail tells us that “Sevilla lack consistency but under new manager Diego Alonso and with their ability to step up in big games, the Europa League holders could cause trouble for Arsenal.”
So that’s pretty much it. We’re gonna lose. And I know that cos the media says so.
If Arsenal were crap against Chelsea, but would probably have won 3-1 if correct penalty decisions had been made, Chelsea must be really thankful that Arsenal did not hit tòp form..
Well the media were wrong yet again.
Very professional performance with some outstanding contributions from several players. It could have been even easier. Sublime first goal.
Big win. Could and probably should have put the game to bed in the first 10 minutes of the second half when we were all over them. The 1-2 came just too soon and out of nothing. But you know after that you have to dig deep. And that is what we did. Let’s hope Jesus is not really injured and that it was more fatigue than a real muscular problem…. fingers crossed…