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By Bulldog Drummond
So as we’ve had it confirmed: yes some of the benefit of West Ham being given the stadium has gone back to their fans whose season ticket prices are a fraction of Arsenal’s – which if there has to be state sponsorship of a club, is how it should work out.
In terms of the team news for today the BBC is saying that “Arsenal are confident Bukayo Saka will be fit despite the winger hobbling off during the win over Liverpool.”
They also add that Oleksandr Zinchenko has a calf problem, but have no update on the availability of Gabriel Jesus, except that he and Zinchenko will be assessed.
Premier League injuries gives its usual injury chart which if then turned into the order of the number of injuries.gives Liverpool top with 10, and Manchester City bottom with zero. Which raises the question, how on earth do they manage that?
Arsenal are fifth in the injury table with seven men out… the details of which are…
- Timber: a long way from recovery
- Vieira: A few weeks to go
- Zinchenko: “We don’t know”
- Saka: Looks ok
- Tomiyasu: Back from Japan, late fitness test, looks ok
- Partey: Progressing really well, being assessed.
Now on entering this match we do so on the back of two defeats to West Ham – in the football league cup, and then 0-2 at home in December.
The last time West Ham did the league double over Arsenal was 2006/7 – a season in which West Ham came 15th and Arsenal came 4th! Both defeats were 0-1 and the second was the third of three defeats in a row. Arsenal then went unbeaten for the rest of the season.
The only time West Ham have beaten Arsenal three times in a season was in 1924/5 when the top three and bottom three of the table read:
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huddersfield Town | 42 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 69 | 28 | 58 |
| 2 | West Bromwich Albion | 42 | 23 | 10 | 9 | 58 | 34 | 56 |
| 3 | Bolton Wanderers | 42 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 76 | 34 | 55 |
| 20 | Arsenal | 42 | 14 | 5 | 23 | 46 | 58 | 33 |
| 21 | Preston North End | 42 | 10 | 6 | 26 | 37 | 74 | 26 |
| 22 | Nottingham Forest | 42 | 6 | 12 | 24 | 29 | 65 | 24 |
Fortunately, in those days only two clubs went down. However, with that disaster over, the owner, Sir Henry Norris, then finally got rid of Leslie Knighton as manager and appointed Herbert Chapman in his place. Sadly Knighton then wrote an insane book in which he blamed all of Arsenal’s failures on Norris, and sold the tale to the media who ran it, and so the wholly false story that Arsenal’s early problems was born. The full story of Henry Norris at the Arsenal is indexed here: correcting 100 years of rumour and false allegations.
If Arsenal do win it will be the first run of four wins at the start of a calendar year since 1935, when we won six on the bounce:
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05 Jan 1935 | Liverpool v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Division One |
| 12 Jan 1935 | Brighton and Hove Albion v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | FA Cup |
| 19 Jan 1935 | Arsenal v Leeds United | W | 3-0 | Division One |
| 26 Jan 1935 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | FA Cup |
| 30 Jan 1935 | West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | Division One |
| 02 Feb 1935 | Arsenal v Sheffield Wednesday | W | 4-1 | Division One |
It is also worth remembering we score more goals in the 90th and subsequent minutes than any other team, and haven’t let one in yet in that period. And here’s an amazing one from the BBC…
“Leandro Trossard is averaging a goal or assist every 99 minutes for Arsenal in the Premier League. Only Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie have a better record among players to have played at least 1,000 minutes for the club.”
So to the team…
Last word on Sports offer us
David Raya
Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Jorginho, Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard
Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli
90 min go with exactly the same. Meanwhile, the Standard has the headline “West Ham XI vs Arsenal: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup and injury latest today” and I have been through that article twice, but I can’t find any Arsenal predicted line up at all. All very curious. Are journalists and editors making mistakes? Whoever could imagine such a thing!
Anyway, we can leave it at that and watch it on TV, if not in the ground.
I’ve just wathced our Women’s season continue to collapse losind 1=0 at home to Manchester City in the FA Cup in another unfathomably passionless performance. I then turned over to watch the second quarter of our men’s match against West Ham where er played with incredible passion as we scored 4 goals. Come on Mickel, sit down with Jonas and pass on the way to generate the passion.
That was some performance…… We could have hammered them…. pun intended…. 😉
Absolutely agree Walter. It was everything I could have imagined, and then some.
Usual media emphasis on how crap WHU were.
From the Daily Mail today – “Meanwhile, Jorginho has also not made the trip to West Ham”.
Funny that, because I saw him sitting with the Arsenal staff.
The SkySports commentary team of Hawthorne and Smith were certainly gunning for Arsenal this afternoon. I can’t recall hearing such a negative, biased, opinionated salvo of bile from this pair for a very long time. Until we scored our first goal, they were cheerfully taking every opportunity to remind the tortured viewers that West Ham had already beaten Arsenal twice this season, as if we didn’t already know.
The narrative changed slightly after the first goal – “Arsenal will know that West Ham are a very dangerous team”. After the second goal it became “West Ham came back from two goals down to draw with Arsenal last season”.
After the fourth goal it became “we remember what happened in 2011 when Arsenal were 4-0 up against Newcastle” (incidentally forgetting to mention the assistance received from Phil Dowd).
After the fifth goal, they ran out of steam, hoping that the pundits would carry on where they left off.
You only won 6-0. Just get down the tunnel.
With season tickets costing only £310, leaving the ground at 5:15 for late-afternoon tea will be seen as value for money.
Or even 2:45 🤬