By Bulldog Drummond
And so Arsenal return from foreign parts having won their last four European away games – which is not bad considering how everyone says we are useless away from home. And we also kept a clean sheet away from home for the first time since beating Olympiakos 3-0 in December 2015.
There are of course other fun and games to be had with the statistics, but perhaps it is interesting to note that Wilshere was the man of the match in many people’s eyes and Theo has been directly involved in four goals (three scored, one assist) in his past four European appearances for Arsenal.
In fact Theo’s assist was his 11th for Giroud in all competitions; only Mesut Ozil has provided more assists for Giroud.
Anyway the early thoughts on the team for the game against Everton are that those who played away against Red Star won’t play away against Everton, unless we are in desperate need. Also given the violence at the last game at Goodison, we’ll be looking for cool heads and calmness.
Of those who did play I’d only expect Cech to continue on Sunday, with players such as Holding, Wilshere and Giroud on the beach. Otherwise, injuries permitting it will be new faces all round compared to yesterday.
Which raises the regular weekly issue of injuries. Here is physioroom’s league table
| Pos | TEAM | Men down | Last man out | What he got |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stoke City | 7 | P Crouch | Back Injury |
| 2 | Manchester United | 7 | M Rashford | Knee Injury |
| 3 | Everton | 6 | M Schneiderlin | Knock |
| 4 | Huddersfield Town | 6 | P Billing | Ankle Injury |
| 5 | Watford | 6 | I Success | Knee Injury |
| 6 | Arsenal | 5 | D Ospina | Groin Strain |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | M Dembele | Hip Injury |
| 8 | Chelsea | 5 | T Bakayoko | Groin Injury |
| 9 | Bournemouth | 5 | B Smith | Hip Injury |
| 10 | West Bromwich Albion | 5 | O Burke | Hamstring Injury |
We are fifth in the injury table – but equal to 10th, so pretty mid-table. Everton are above with one more man out. And the regular point can be made that one of our five is not a member of the “25” listed players – it being Santi Cazorla.
All the five men in the list are definitely out, there are none hoping for a late reprieve.
| Man down | What happened | When back | Any chance? | |
| D Ospina | Groin Strain | November 5, 2017 | No | |
| D Welbeck | Groin Strain | November 18, 2017 | No | |
| S Mustafi | Thigh Strain | November 18, 2017 | No | |
| C Chambers | Hip Injury | November 18, 2017 | No | |
| S Cazorla | Plantaris Injury | No Return Date | No |
Which now gives us our squad for Sunday from whom players will be chosen
11 from these 12 to start, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Ramsey, Xhaka, Ozil, Sanchez, Iwobi, Lacazette
Whoever is not picked above, plus six of these seven on the beach: Holding, Wilshere, Coquelin, Walcott, Giroud, Macey, Elneny.
Of course Everton is not a particularly savoury place to go at the moment. Apart from the ground being on Merseyside they have the issue of a fan seemingly hitting the Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes while holding a young child. I don’t know if that happens a lot around Liverpool, but it seems a trifle dangerous in terms of the upbringing of children. Plus the assault by Ashley Williams, the Everton captain on Thursday, on Lopes sending him into the advertising hoardings. The sort of trick Norwich City used to do to get players to collapse into the concrete bunker that housed a TV camera.
There is also the fact that 20 players were involved in the incident, and that when Manchester United and Arsenal faced a similar charge after a match at Old Trafford, Arsenal were deducted two points. One might hope for continuity in punishments, but that just never happens. And the banning of one supporter does nothing to make the ground safe.
Indeed we’ve commented many times on certain aspects of the lack of safety at the Emirates, so it is only right that the issue at Goodison should be brought up as well. Merseyside Police are conducting what they say is “a wide-ranging investigation” into the events.
Arsenal have come out of the Thursday games on top of their Europa group of course.
Here is Everton’s group… even with the pushing an what used to be called argy-bargy they lost at home yesterday…
| # | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atalanta | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 2 | Lyon | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Apollon Limossol | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 2 |
| 4 | Everton | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 1 |
| # | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal Reserves | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| 2 | BATE | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 4 |
| 3 | Red Star | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | Cologne | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 0 |
I think we’re one lower in the jury table (6th not 5th) and tenth is in fact equal 6th, and if as you correctly say Cazorla shouldn’t really be included, we’re 11th.
Not too bad at all considering.
injury table (not jury)
Yes, I look forward to Everton’s points deduction (!).
OT: GD9
All games start with a (0-0) draw. Which is where State Aid and Brighton were at. I am hoping the game ends a draw as well.
As I write this, Brighton opened the scoring. State Aid is wishing for more State Aid.
Marca is reporting that Everton have given a lifetime ban to the spectator who assaulted a Lyon player, while holding a baby.
http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2017/10/20/59ea4179ca4741f27d8b4616.html
Does the ban include the baby?
I’ve no idea. Did the baby hit the player too?
Probably, these scousers start their violent lives quite early
The keeper blocked Williams from the ball, which is pretty standard stuff, and Williams got right snotty and gave the keeper a forearm shiver knocking him off the pitch and into the hoardings. To make matters worse he kept trying to get away from his coach to get back at the Lyon players. He just lost it.
I wonder what Troy Deeney’s opinion of it is
Deene probably thinks that the baby showed a lack of fighting spirit
I’m expecting the Everton forwards to do really OK on Sunday, even without Lukaku…their second row looks dodgy, though…lightweight locks.
Deeney showed his unfamiliarity with winning. He showed no magnanimity toward his opponents…no class.
if no tabloid deployed the headline: ‘Everton spit out their dummies and throw their toys out of the pram’ they should be ashamed
I know this is slightly off topic but I think the following is a prime example of why teams are allowed to get away with murder against us, and why Everton will be allowed to assault us at will this weekend without any fear of reprisals.
Take a look at these 2 completely different assessments by Dermot Gallagher.
The first one is Marcos Alonso on Belerin:
“While former referee Dermot Gallagher told BBC Five Live Sport that the challenge was fair, Arsenal fans were left inidignant that referee Martin Atkinson had not disallowed the goal.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/02/04/arsenal-fans-outraged-marcos-alonsos-goal-not-disallowed-elbow/
The second is his verdict on the 2 elbows by Andy Carol last week:
DERMOT’S VERDICT: Correct call.
DERMOT SAYS: The first one is a yellow card. It’s the reckless nature of his leading arm, if you catch someone like that you run the risk. There’s no debate about the second one either – even Slaven Bilic had no complaints.
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11083680/ref-watch-no-penalty-on-richarlison-but-hell-escape-retrospective-action-says-dermot-Gallagher
In particular take this sentence then look at the picture of the elbow on Belerin:
“It’s the reckless nature of his leading arm, if you catch someone like that you run the risk.”
The Alonso challenge could not be a better example of a ‘reckless’ leading elbow yet he saw NOTHING wrong with it.
That is why, even when VAR comes in it will not help us.
Not sure what to say to Troy Deeney today. Missing part of his anatomy perhaps?
GoingGoingGooner
Indeed.
Watford capitulated like a bunch of woosies.