Arsenal v Swansea: the teams, the score, the detail. In fact everything.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond.

Shock horror disaster!!!

Danny Welbeck has scored three goals in four Barclays Premier League games against Swansea City, and he is out injured!!!

Oh no!!!

(I think I am getting the hang of this jouno hysteria).

But of course Arsène Wenger knows exactly what’s what.  “I’m ready to change but we had a stability on the tactical front, the confidence was there and I didn’t change recently.” he said.

So plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as they used to say in 1849.  (I think it means there’s more money left over when I sell my mum’s old winter woolies, or something).

We’ve named the same eleven for the fourth time in a row in the PL – the last time they did this was in March-April 1996.  The last time we did five in a row was January 1994 when the manager was George Graham.

The only change we can see on the horizon is Aaron Ramsey, rated 50-50 after sustaining a knock to the fibula against Hull.   But with Jack available why take any risk with Ramsey even if he is fit?

So I will go with…

 

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooospina

Bellerin Mertesacker Koscielny Monreal

Coquelin Cazorla

Wilshere Ozil Sanchez

Giroud

Beached…

Szczesny, Chambers, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott, Ramsey(?)   Gnabry would welcome a chance to make up the numbers if anyone else drops out.

Not yet up to it…

Arteta, Debuchy, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Welbeck, all of whom should be available next week unless they do something silly in the meanwhile.

So, we are on a 10-match unbeaten run in the league, of which we have won nine.    Mr Wenger however added an extra perspective…

“It is difficult to know how strong every team will be next year but you gain as well your confidence from what you have achieved the year before and how you have moved forward. That is why it is very important that we continue to be consistent until the end of the season.”

As for Swansea Bafetimbi Gomis is probably going to start.  Hylfi Sigurdsson will also be there, and these are the two who did the damage in November.  Last season it was a 2-2 draw, with a fluke Mathieu Flamini own goal in the final seconds.

Gomis has missed the last three games injured but Jordi Amat, Oliveira, Kyle Naughton, Tom Carroll and Wayne Routledge are injured.  Jazz Richards and Dwight Tiendalli are back from loan spells.

Swansea in recent times haven’t been too overwhelming…

  • 2 May: Swansea 2 Stoke 0
  • 25 April: Newcastle 2 Swansea 3
  • 18 April: Leicester 2 Swansea 0
  • 11 April: Swansea 1 Everton 1
  • 4 April: Swansea 3 Hull 1
  • 21 March: Aston Villa 1 Swansea 0
  • 16 March: Swansea 0 Liverpool 1
  • 4 March: Tottenham 3 Swansea 2

Won 3, Drawn 1, Lost 4.

But Swansea have already done the double over Man U, and have got their best ever Premier League points total and could finish above Southampton.  The team in seventh will get a Europa League qualifying round spot if we win the FA Cup.  (The only problem with this is that the qualifying rounds started last December).

And we have to note that Swansea are looking towards a third consecutive league win, something they last achieved in the opening three matches of the season.  And they have won two of their last three away matches.

As for this game, well, 21 of the last 22 goals have been scored in the second half of the match, so you can have an extra time at the bar and come to your seat in the second half.

As you’ll know we have won 24, drawn 9 lost 1 of the last 34 league games at the Stadium Wenger, and let in two in the last seven.  More of that would do me fine.

Overall we’ve played them seven times in the Prem, with three wins each, and a draw.

What other facts and figures have we got?

No one has assisted as many Premier League goals as Santi Cazorla since August 2012.  He has 28, and his signing was condemned by some (you know who you are) as another bit of Wenger picking up the bits and pieces from a club in trouble.  (It was Málaga).

Whoscored.com give a prediction of 2-0, which has been something of a favourite score of ours of late with Sanchez as man of the match.

As for the game, here’s what they make of it…

  • We’ll control the game in Swansea’s half, will score as a result of individual skills, and there will be few cards shown.
  • We’ll dominate in the air, create lots of scoring chances, score from a direct freekick and score the other from play down the wing.

So now you know.  Hardly worth going.

Still, I think I might.   After all, we have to raise a glass to Blacksheep for his massively increasing the Green vote in Northampton.

————————–

A couple more anniversaries, just to keep us going…

11 May 1910: George Leavey, the major shareholder in Woolwich Arsenal, admitted he had not got enough local people to buy shares in the club, and would search for others from outside the area to buy, or else put the club into administration.   He got Henry Norris and administration was avoided.

11 May 1972: Quite amazingly for the 3rd year running Arsenal concluded their league season playing Tottenham.  This game was lost 0-2 at Highbury as Arsenal come in 5th.  The top league goalscorer was Kennedy with 12.

We’re on Twitter @UntoldArsenal

There’s more on the home page

 

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103 Replies to “Arsenal v Swansea: the teams, the score, the detail. In fact everything.”

  1. I hope that Fabianski receives the warm welcome he deserves, after being a good servant of Arsenal.

    I also hope that he has a good game, but that he is not so brilliant as to prevent us from scoring.

  2. Gnabry played for the U21 at Bolton. He scored the final goal (Arsenal won 3-1).

    COYG!

  4. Off Topic again, but it looks like Mike Dean is there for us against Man Utd, and Anthony Taylor against Sunderland.

  5. Thanks for the wakeup Usama.

    Here are the appointments for next weekend.

    Saturday 16 May 2015
    K.O. .MATCHES . . . . REFEREE . . . . ASST. REF. 1 . .ASST. REF. 2 . .4TH OFFICIAL
    15:00 Burnley – Stoke . . . . . .Michael Oliver . S Burt . . .M Wilkes .P Tierney
    17:30 Liverpool – Crystal Palace Jonathan Moss . .D England . S Bennett S Attwell
    15:00 QPR – Newcastle . . . . . .Lee Probert . . .R Ganfield .A Garratt N Swarbrick
    12:45 Southampton – Aston Villa .Robert Madley . .P Kirkup . .D Cann . .M Jones
    15:00 Spurs – Hull . . . . . . . Anthony Taylor . G Beswick . D Bryan . G Scott
    15:00 Sunderland – Leicester . . Martin Atkinson .M Mullarkey S Child . C Foy
    15:00 West Ham – Everton . . . . Kevin Friend . . E Smart . . R West . .A Marriner
    Sunday 17 May 2015
    K.O. .MATCHES . . . . REFEREE . . . . ASST. REF. 1 . .ASST. REF. 2 . .4TH OFFICIAL
    16:00 Man Utd – Arsenal . . . . .Mike Dean . . . .L Betts . . S Long . .M Oliver
    13:30 Swansea – Man City . . . . Mark Clattenburg S Beck . . .J Collin .L Probert
    Monday 18 May 2015
    K.O. .MATCHES . . . . REFEREE . . . . ASST. REF. 1 . .ASST. REF. 2 . .4TH OFFICIAL
    20:00 West Brom – Chelsea . . . .Mike Jones . . . M McDonough D Eaton . L Mason

    Wednesday 20 May 2015
    K.O. .MATCHES . . . . REFEREE . . . . ASST. REF. 1 . .ASST. REF. 2 . .4TH OFFICIAL
    19:45 Arsenal – Sunderland . . . Anthony Taylor . S Ledger . .M Perry . K Friend

    COYG!

  6. Thanks Gord, looks like we have landed two of the worst of the worst of the worst!!!

  7. BJT
    I would remove Mike Dean from that category based on his performances over the last couple of years. Still bad but no worse than average. Taylor though is total poison and probably my least favourite referee of the bunch. More in the previews for the games though. We need to be in second place before the last game on Sunday week.

  8. Am hoping that we keep our winning ways and ,yes , it’s
    ” 2-0 to the Arsenal ” ,for me .
    Come on guys , play more of that sweet stuff for us !
    Up the Gunners !

  9. He’s back (Ramsey). Arsenal works miracles in rehab.

    X1: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud

    Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Wilshere, Rosicky, Walcott

    COYG!

  10. I don’t know how closely Arsenal are going to police their fan retweeting experiment, but they need to include a time or statement number so that you can find were you were if you manually refresh.

    COYG!

  12. Need to watch Dyer & his little trick of hanging his leg out to get “tripped” in the box. Remember two seasons ago?

  17. This retweet experiment might work. The first two: one notice the foul, next tells you it should have been a card.

    > Justin Gibson @JGibsonDem · 1m 1 minute ago

    >> Shelvey lucky NOT to get carded. #AFCvSCFC #AFCFansTakeover

    > Daanish D’souza @Dan_ArsenalFC · 1m 1 minute ago

    >> Alexis steals possession wonderfully and is fouled on the break by shelvey #AFCFansTakeover

    If the fans are calling for 140 yellow cards to Swansea, and the ref gives Arsenal 10 and Swansea 1, someone might notice the descrepency. 🙂

    COYG!

  23. Wish we would stop passing to someone who is surrounded by 3 players, we will lose it one time.

  24. How are the fans at the stadium taking the lack of cards? Screaming at the ref yet?

    COYG!

  26. In case you were wondering how good the real-time stats the BBC are getting, there is this blurb:

    > Olivier Giroud looks to have run off his back problem, which is just as well for Arsenal – he’s run further and faster than any other Arsenal player so far in this match. He’s covered 2.91km at an average speed of 6.99km/h in case you were wondering.

    Why can’t they give an accurate commentary?

    COYG!

  29. I decided to listen to what passes as commentary today, had to turn it off. Play is too fast for them to comment, they are at least 30 secs behind, then they ramble on about some thing not relating to the game. They should get some radio commentators for TV.

  31. Look at Swansea, 4-1-4-1, defending like us really, so we need to be patient and concentrated.

  32. Arsenal getting slaughtered at halftime analysis with 70% possession. Wonder what they would be saying if the stats where the other way round, maybe they’d be asking for our side to face a firing squad.

  34. We are going to wait till last 20min to get going, if we didnt score before that

  35. Poor half of football. Players should be torn to shreds at half time for that display. Awful.
    Hopefully we speed it up in the second half.

  36. Dullest half time review I can remember. Even Neville seemed lost for words

  37. I hope someone comes up with something. In the retweet experiment, at one time someone mentioned we were at 85% possession.

    The BBC mentioned something, which I will reword. We are on schedule for an 800 pass game. What is the most passes in a game?

    My wish for livening up the game: Koscielny has to clear the ball, and does so on the volley. Screaming hit (over 100 mph) which hits the referee square in the face and deflects towards the Swansea goal where Fabianski has come out to near the 18 yard line, and the ball sails over him and into the net, just under the cross bar.

    🙂

    COYG!

  38. We were sharp in first 10 mins, than from one min to the other became a little sloppy and slow. Maybe Yassin is right, but we’ve got some other players who can play against Utd.

  46. That’s appearance 150 for Jack. Come on guys. Ramsey, don’t hit the side net, put it in the front. Giroud and Alexis, you are having a scoring competition, remember? 🙂

    COYG!

  55. Gunners…

    Fabianski is not in our team.. Focus. No practice session this.

  56. Is Alan Smith suggesting one of our forward should dive to win a penalty?

  57. Arsenal have pushed teams right up to the final whistle. I don’t think that will change tonight. Come on gunners, score that goal!

    COYG!

  58. I think they should have glared at Fabianski in the tunnel instead of greeting him so friendly. That (being friendly)one can do after the match.

    See what i mean?

  64. Come on, you all know Fabianski, that kind of shot is not going to do anything. You letting me down tonight lads, what’s up?

  68. Gunners, you have 4 minutes. Let’s try for 4 goals (but 2 will do).

    COYG!

  70. It’s football yea, but we’re at home, creating another bogey team and we’re playing un-arsenal like since 10-15 mins into the game.
    This sort of thing i thought we had conquered, AND we have had 6 full days to recover, so no excuses, don’t want to hear them team or AW.

  73. Deserved result. Arsenal players and manager should hang their heads in shame after another unprofessional display. Second half more urgency but abject finishing. First half totally unacceptable and lessons from Monaco not learned. This team just does not have it in them to give 100% every game.
    Utterly disgusted with the players after that.
    They deserve all the criticism they will get.

  74. Gunners, you didn’t lack for effort. Those things happen in a game where luck has such a large influence. It would have been nice to see even the tie at this point, but all indications are it was a wonderful game. I enjoyed reading it.

    Fabianski, congratulations!

    And time to go for a day or two. Jayram and the aaa will be stinking the place up again. Bleech!

    🙂

  75. That was Fabianski giving a giant middle finger to every Arsenal fan who ever called him Flappyhandski.

    The loss hurts like a son of a bitch but I am happy for Fabianski.

  76. now everyone is gonna say it was a goal as thr ball went in, but he got the ball (Gomes) by using his hands on Monreal, thus not letting him het it. He literally used Monreal shoulder to reach the ball.

    And now tell me there is nothing called luck!

  77. Some of the worst time-wasting I’ve ever witnessed in the PL. Football – Amazing one minute we’re favourites for 2nd then Citeh bang in 6 and we lose at home to Swansea and now we’re battling for 3rd. COYG you’re better than this!

  81. Jayram you should hang your two faced head low enough to get it up you arse where it belongs.

    A disappointing result, and unfortunately a victory for anti football and the PGMO.

    I can see us getting screwed by the PGMO against the manures.

  82. I have noticed that since the refs started being criticized they appear to perform better, maybe the players need some of that sometimes? 🙂

  83. Para,

    Today some players had their minds in the FA cup final.
    And now instead of resting them in the final game, they are gonna have to play there.

    Some players did shoot when they could pass or cross the ball. Giroud for the second game was playing badly due to an early injury from an assault. And yes, Fabianski was great, but they were lucky, Sanchez and Walcot would have buried those two shoots 21 times out of 20. But today was not ours. And I insist their goal was a foul!

  84. Was a time when Swansea was being talked about as the next Arsenal but seems they’ve morphed into Chelski and learned how to park the bus and kill a game using every tactic possible. Undeserved win as they contributed little to the game but a goal is a goal…Ouch!

  87. @Jayramfootball, maybe not hang their heads in shame, they did try half heartedly after first 10 mins when they did not score, but some of the passing was not concentrated, and there was an air of not together on the pitch tonight. I could understand it if they had a game on last wed, but we have had 6 days to recover. Maybe the game on coming Wed takes priority and they were not exerting themselves too much, who knows.
    Anyway we still love them and look forward to the next match.

  88. There’s nothing in tonights performance that the team should hang their heads over. It was just Fabs playing out of his skin and perhaps we stayed in 1st gear in the first half and should have switched earlier. Thought Ramsey took along time to settle though – shaky in the first.

  89. Yassin, i know we were unlucky, but fire is fire, and we had none tonight, it’s almost as if we hoped the ball would just go in the net.

    I really blame it on all of our players hugging and shaking Fabianski’s hand in the tunnel. Not good, it sets up a conflict in your own mind, that is why we could not score past Fab. We could have kissed him after the game for all i care, just not before. 🙂

  90. 2nd would have been cool (still possible but…) let’s just finish above ManUre. COYG!

  91. Instead of lambasting my opinion, perhaps some actual assessment of the performance by the players tonight would be more interesting?
    Sorry if it hurts but that was a disgraceful display and teh players and manager should have to explain it. Totally unacceptable.

  92. Para,

    Yes I would blame them (not to shame them, but its their faults) that they didnt take the chances. But thinking of it, and having each player that he needs not to get injuried to play the final, and looking at how Giroud git kicked twice in the opening minutes, I can excuse them. But please next time, do that 20min. In the beginning? And we missed Welbeck today, it was his style, not Giroud nor Walcott.

  93. Have to agree, Welbz would have been the better choice tonight. Also I would have subbed Ramsey for Wiltshire as Coqs was solid once again.

  94. Jayram,

    Why dont you head to that site and celebrate the Wenger missed it today and he is going to get sacked and all that? You are boring! Do you think that Chelsea (winners) did play all their games in a great way? Did you watch Westham – Chelsea?

  95. @Yassin – I have never seen anything as boring to watch as Arsenal for the first 60 minutes tonight. It was far more boring than anything Chelsea have served up. Slow, predictable and a complete lack of urgency. I dont think we even had a shot on target for 60 minutes.
    Last week in the first half we played well (and I said so by the way). I am not going to pretend everything was ok tonight though. I will leave that to others that like to live in a fantasy land. As for Wenger, nothing has changed. I still want him gone. That is my opinion.

  96. Jayram – I was at the game. Swansea just came to defend – and did so very well. First half was slow but 2nd half the tempo picked up. Just couldn’t get the goal. 22 shots/9 on target vs Swansea 8 and 3. Sometimes that happens – it’s called football.

    I have seen far, far worse this season. It was not a “disgraceful display” nor “totally unacceptable”.

  97. Jayramfootball – your not completely wrong. I’ve just got home from the match. Arsenal were poor in the first 60 minutes. They were not helped by the PGMO lot. There was a lot of uncalled fouls by Swansea & selective blindness was apparent. Arsenal tried but were always shooting at the middle of the goal into Fabianski. I knew what Gomis was going to do & predicted it before the game on here. We were not prepared. Theo was weak & didn’t try hard enough. Jack brought life to the game but a packed goal was difficult to break down.

    Now after all that please fuck off Jayramfootball because you know nothing about football if you think Wenger is at fault. This site is not for dickheads like you.

  98. My earlier post
    Menace
    May 11, 2015 at 9:27 am

    Lets hope that a Friend in need is a Friend in deed. Swansea are a good footballing team & it should be a good match. I just hope our boys are awake from the first whistle. Hoping for an Alexis hat trick & Giroud brace.

    Shelvey is the key player – he makes them tick. Sigurdsen is the quality & Gomis the finisher. So OOooooooospina keep your concentration.

    COYG

  99. The assault on Giroud was disgusting and Friend is a cheating bastard for not red carding the Swansea twat who punched Giroud in the back.

  100. @Menace – The Swansea “twat” was Fernandez, and he didn’t punch Giroud, he kneed him in the thigh/arse. It looked intentional too.
    Kevin Friend is a disgrace.

  101. @Menace – Wenger is indeed at fault as it his his team playing his way. If he is not at fault when we play so poorly then he is also not the reason for any of our good performances.
    You can dress it up however you like but we were useless last night and deserved to lose.

  102. jayramfootball – so you blame God for all evil & all good. The people who use good to create evil have no blame at all? The Arsenal players were fantastic but did not have the little bit of luck that is needed in life during this game. The luck was not Wengers creation but the method that we play is. We didn’t deserve to lose but we did because the luck was on Swanseas side. If it were 2 or 3 nil then it would not be just luck. You need to grow up a little to get a balanced view. It comes with experience & understanding.

  103. Jayramfootball I suggest you enlist the skills of a professional therapist as a matter of urgency.

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