- If you were, thank you for listening to Untold on Radio 5, but if not, there’s still a game today.
- So here we are, the final moments of a season never to be forgotten – and a statue.
By Tony Attwood
According to the Standard, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and David Raya did not train with the rest of the first-team on Thursday and instead had individual programmes away from the main group.
The fact is, of course, that we don’t want anyone injured before the Champions League final, so that is why they are out. There is a suggestion that Gabriel could also be among those who might be kept away from the hearty roughs down in South London. There is also talk that Tommy Setford could get a Premier League debut in goal.
Going even further, there are murmurings that “Christian Norgaard will hope to get his first Premier League start of the season, having only played 56 minutes of the title-winning campaign.”
Other options (which are starting to look like a list of everyone who hasn’t played much of late and probably won’t be in the starting XI for the Champions League match) are Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Gabriel and Martinelli.
Football London however, has a rather alarming headline that reads, Declan Rice could make way for another player at Arsenal. What this is actually about is that Paul Scholes “believes Declan Rice should play at right-back for the rest of the campaign. Rice was deployed as a right-back during the first half of the win over West Ham after an injury to Ben White.”
But elsewhere, the suggestion is that Rice will be given the match off, to keep him fresh for the mid-week game leaving us with a team of…
Kepa;
Mosquera, Salmon, Calafiori, Hincapie;
Norgaard, Lewis-Skelly;
Madueke, Eze, Martinelli;
Gyokeress
It is also interesting to see that Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Islington North, wherein lies Arsenal FC, put down a Commons motion celebrating the league title achieved within his constituency. The motion says it will “commemorate the wonderful occasion we had outside the stadium when thousands and thousands of people were there”. It also states that, “This House extends its warmest congratulations to Arsenal Football Club for winning the Premier League after 22 years and celebrates the incredible contribution made by every player in the team.
“It commends the captaincy and leadership of Martin Odegaard and further celebrates Max Dowman as the youngest person ever to win the Premier League.” And it is rather good to see that Mr Corbyn has not lost his sense of equality by thanking the “cleaners, caterers and backroom staff who contributed to the north London club’s success.” Quite right too.
The motion continued, “This House wishes the team success in the Champions League final, further congratulates Arsenal Women’s Football Club for their historic victory in this year’s FIFA Women’s Champions Cup and acknowledges what an unbelievable achievement this is for everyone involved at Arsenal Football Club.”
There was no similar sentiment from the other Arsenal supporting MP, Sir Keir Starmer, although Mr Corbyn suggested the leader of the government might have other things on his mind.
Yahoo, also covering the topic of selection, noted that Declan Rice and Gabriel could also be protected so they can be in the squad for the European final.
Cristhian Mosquera is expected to continue at right-back as Arsenal attempts to help him adapt to other positions. Marli Salmon may come into defence, while it is also suggested that Christian Norgaard could receive his first Premier League start of the season after limited league involvement.
They also note that we could see Eberechi Eze facing his former club in an advanced role. Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli are also expected to feature prominently, bringing directness and pace against an organised Palace side.” Their lineup selection is exactly the same as that set out above.
Yahoo adds, however, “Norgaard, Mosquera and Madueke are effectively auditioning for greater involvement next season.”
But overall, there are bits of chit chat that show that the journalists who have been anti-Arsenal all season are now trying to get their own back, and we are now seeing headlines that read Mikel Arteta transfer decisions that made angry Arsenal fans look stupid: Xhaka, Saliba, Havertz
Although, actually, the people who really looked stupid this season were some of the journalists who suggested that Arteta didn’t know what he was doing. But of course, we would never expect any of them to admit that.
However, having journalists say that some of us fans are being made to look stupid is pretty stupid in itself. We know what the journalists are, we know what is being said, and we take it all with a gallon or two of salt. The only way we will ever deal with these anti-Arsenal journalists is by pointing out their errors and laughing at them. And even if they don’t change their minds, we’ll still do it.
