ФК БАТЭ Барысаў (Bate) v Arsenal: the selections of who actually got on the plane and who didn’t.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

by Bulldog Drummond

Since the plane has taken off, and indeed landed in foreign parts, we can now be fairly sure that Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez, Alexandre Lacazette, Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Petr Cech were apparently not seen at the airport!

But not that sure, as will perhaps become apparent in what follows.

Meanwhile there is a fair chance that Reiss Nelson and central midfielder Ashley Maitland-Niles will at the very least be playing on the beach, if not actually starting the match.  Joe Willock might also stand a chance of some match time.

Tantalising us with thoughts of who might line up where Mr Wenger said. “You do not get 10 opportunities to play for Arsenal.   When you get it, even if you only get 20 minutes, you have to convince people you have the qualities to do it, and you have the courage to play.

“There is always an uncertainty. You see in training that the player has the quality. He is here because he has the qualities. To show it during competition is something different. And in my experience, you only discover that during the competition.”

Per Mertesacker, who of course takes over the Academy next season, said, “We see a lot of young players, they have a good future here.  But you also need to develop them in a lot of areas. It’s now about resisting those pressure situations, the lapses of concentration.”

But before we get to the youngsters we can expecte Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Per Mertesacker and Jack Wilshere are all going to be part of the show.

Here’s a possible line up

Ospina;

Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal;

Nelson,                                  Maitland-Niles;

Wilshere,             Elneny

Walcott,           Giroud,             Akpom

 

We’re told that racist abuse is fairly commonplace in Belorussian matches, and Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics FC were told by Uefa to shut part of the Borisov Arena for a Champions League fixture with Porto in November 2014 after previous accusations of racism.

But Uefa is nothing if not totally and utterly inconsistent, and if there is any abuse it will be a chance to see the 2017 brand of the almighty Uefa disciplinary machinery slip into action and fine the club £2.75.

And apparently Mr Wenger will say hello to Alex Hleb, which should be nice.

Discussing the playing of Maitland-Niles, Mr Wenger said: “His best position is defensive midfield. He has exceptional pace, a capacity to steal the ball from people, and I am convinced that he is ready to play.”  Of course this doesn’t mean he will play defensive midfield, because other players also have to fit into the structure.  Elneny will probably also get a game because he has limited opportunities while Xhaka and Ramsey hold the centre, but he has been highly praised and Mr Wenger clearly is keen to keep him happy with playing time.

Back on the subject of Maitland-Niles Mr Wenger added, “He has to improve a little bit on the concentration front, the demands of top-level football don’t tolerate some lapses of concentration, but all the rest is there.”

Trying to work out who is going to be on the beach is difficult, as I have seen several lists of everyone who got on the plane, but each one seems to be different.   The Mirror is reporting the squad as:

Ospina, Cech, Macey, Mertesacker, Holding, Mustafi, Wilshere, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Walcott, Giroud, Nelson, Willock, McGuane, Dasilva, Akpom, Gilmour, Debuchy, which is again different from the selection said to have got on the plane by others.  Some say that Cech and Mustafi were not at the airport, but we all know what pesky things these airports are.  People appear, people vanish.  It’s all a mystery, or maybe just a revelation of the fact that the media makes it all up anyway.

Anyway, in other news as they say, Joel Campbell appears to have recovered from his injury picked up while playing for his country, and so he is now ready to start his loan spell with Real Betis.

So now I think we’ll have to leave it at that, and see who is actually playing and who is beached sometime after 5pm UK time.  Apparently the game is free to air on Freeview in the UK.

All the news from Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics

 

 

 

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78 Replies to “ФК БАТЭ Барысаў (Bate) v Arsenal: the selections of who actually got on the plane and who didn’t.”

  1. So, Alexis hasn’t been seen twice at the airport? He has to be the most unseen person on the airport ever!

  2. I would Have Maitland-Niles as Right Wing Back and Nelson on the left, otherwise I think you are probably about right.

    Another option would be to have DaSilva at Left wing back and start Nelson as left forward instead of Akpom. That way you at least have two out of three youngsters playing in their normal positions

  4. As I have to work late on Thursdays and the match is early I will not be able to write a match report…. Sorry.

  5. @Ogban

    Debuchy has, I think, been sent through a black hole to a distant part of some galaxy. He hasn’t been photographed in any of our training sessions for some time. He certainly wasn’t on the plane to Belarus, or if he was he didn’t get off it.

  6. Not sure about this being free to air in the UK. If it is it must be on some obscure channel unavailable to me.
    Your team selection looks quite close to what will probably start. Akpom! The forgotten man of Arsenal. This could be his opportunity to remind us that he’s a decent player.

  7. With so many versions of the media account of which Gunner got on the plane and flew off to Belarus being circulated on the net since yesterday which I’ve used, it has appeared the media outlets are not sure of who were the Gunners who actually got on the plane and fly out to Belarus. They just guessed the list of the Gunners who boarded the plane. This is bad journalism. At least one of the media outlets journalist should have gone to Luton airport to ascertained who and who got on the plane and writes a news report. And from his news report writing, the rest of the media outlets can use his information report to circulate the news in their media outlets since they are allowed to share stories among themselves.

    Mr Drummond, your starts and mine are similar to the one I posted in my comment posting on this site this morning in my very last starts and bench making. Save, Mustafi I started for Monreal who you’ve started because the media reports said Mustafi got on the plane but Monreal stayed behind.

    Le Prof’s 18 man squad for the match when revealed will let us know who and who actually got on the plane. But I implore the media to henceforth be reporting correctly in truth and stops guesswork journalism as this can be misleading.

  8. Arsenal team

    Ospina
    Mustafa, Mertesacker, Holding
    Nelson, Maitland-Niles
    Willock, Elneny, Wilshere
    Theo, Giroud

    Beach

    Macey, Da Silva, Dragomir, Mc Guane, Akpom, Nketiah, Gilmour

  9. It looks like this game is on satellite in Canada. Maybe you can find something in the UK Jax?

    Probably no intelligence in the sound feed though.

  10. @Jax

    Is is on BT Sport challenge 2 and also their Sport Showcase channel. HD Freeview Channel 115

  11. Bate team

    Scherbetski
    Roos, Gajduchik, Milunovic, Polyakov
    Volodko, Dragon
    Gordejchuk, Ivanic, Stasevich
    Rodionov

    Bench

    Vermenko (GK), Tupminen, Yablonski, Berezkin, Baba, Volodko, Signevich

  13. Master plan by Mr Wenger, to send Debuchy through the wormhole. So that when he returns he could be younger. …….

  14. Arsenal.com is in gameday mode:

    > Summary

    > _ Match set to begin at 6pm (UK time)
    > _ Olivier Giroud will spearhead our attack
    > _ Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott also start
    > _ Live commentary available on Arsenal.com and the Arsenal app

    COYG!

  22. Andrew

    Thanks for that info. I think those channels must be exclusive to the BT Freeview box (which I don’t have), because they’re not on the normal Freeview list.

    Gord. I’ll have to connect my satellite stuff up again. Haven’t bothered at all with it for a couple of years now.

  40. That was predictable. Good header giving Ospina no chance. Need to be careful in possession

  53. Maitland Niles has been excellent…….

    Never catches the eye as he’s not flashy like the other youngsters on the field…..but consistently performing well whenever called upon…

  58. 100 Giroud….. yyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh…

    Let the gates open…

  62. ARSENAL 13, the penalty was awarded because of shirt pulling.
    Unfortunately in the premier league, bigmob’s men in black turn blind eyes. How many times have we seen defenders trying to undress Giroud in the box

  63. Oops, I was doing farm chores when the game started. Congrats to Walcott on the brace (so far), Holding on his first, and Giroud on his 100th!

    COYG!

  69. Why does Arsenal do these sort of things?
    They stil have not learnt that game is not done til it’s done.

    But maybe they just want to get out of the forest alive though. 🙁

  71. I hope Arsenal learns from this how to be ruthless in games. Could have back fired and left them in a tricky situation.

    Cant afford to be lax until game is done and dusted, no matter where you are playing.

    Still, letting them get back a little may well be a strategy that ensures Arsenal(and fans) get out alive.

  73. I went upstairs to watch the last 23 minutes or so, which was just before BATE scored their second and I guess about when Arsenal geared down. The stats before that time were quite a bit in Arsenal’s favour, but the full game stats are much more even.

    Shots on target 9:7
    _off target 6:5
    Possession 57% Arsenal
    Corners 3:5
    Offsides 3:3
    Fouls 12:10
    Yellow 3:0

    I think I would have preferred to see another Arsenal goal or 2, but 4 goals away is still not a bad result. Lots of young players getting some time in.

  74. @ Para, their mind was on how they will take their selfies, and lost concentration on the match. Just joking.

  78. Andrew
    Just updated my channel list (first time in over a year) and discovered….115……Doh!
    Thanks again for the info.

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