By Bulldog Drummond
Arsene Wenger has suggested Mathieu Debuchy could stay at Arsenal and play at centre back, which is a position he will probably take up again this Thursday.
Given how much playing time he had missed and the fact that he is a full back not a centre back the performance in the Europa was rather decent I felt. So I suspect he could stay in the Europa side.
Here’s the group we put out last time.
Arsenal: Cech; Debuchy, Holding, Elneny; Nelson, Willock, Coquelin, Maitland-Niles; Walcott, Giroud, Wilshere.
Beached: Osei-Tutu, Akpom, Da Silva, Macey, McGuane, Nketiah, Sheaf.
Callum Chambers is said to be back in training but this game might be too soon for him. Ospina I think will be ready for the game.
But thinking of players made me consider how different our approach this season is from the Manchester United approach in the competition last time around.
Here is a list of the Man U players who played five or more Europa games and the number of PL game they played last season…
| No. | Pos. | Name | Premier League | Europa League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Goals | Games | Goals | |||
| 3 | DF | Eric Bailly | 24(1) | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | Marcos Rojo | 18(3) | 1 | 8(2) | 0 |
| 6 | MF | Paul Pogba | 29(1) | 5 | 15 | 3 |
| 8 | MF | Juan Mata | 19(6) | 6 | 9(1) | 2 |
| 9 | FW | Zlatan Ibrahimović | 27(1) | 17 | 9(2) | 5 |
| 12 | DF | Chris Smalling | 13(5) | 1 | 8(2) | 0 |
| 14 | MF | Jesse Lingard | 18(7) | 1 | 6(4) | 2 |
| 16 | MF | Michael Carrick (vc) | 18(5) | 0 | 5(2) | 0 |
| 17 | DF | Daley Blind | 21(3) | 1 | 10(1) | 0 |
| 19 | FW | Marcus Rashford | 16(16) | 5 | 8(3) | 2 |
| 20 | GK | Sergio Romero | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| 21 | MF | Ander Herrera | 27(4) | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | Henrikh Mkhitaryan | 14(9) | 4 | 10(1) | 6 |
| 25 | MF | Antonio Valencia | 28(1) | 1 | 8(1) | 0 |
| 27 | MF | Marouane Fellaini | 18(10) | 1 | 7(3) | 1 |
| 36 | DF | Matteo Darmian | 15(3) | 0 | 7 | 0 |
Five of the Man U players who played five or more Europa games also played five or more League games. Of course it might turn out that way for Arsenal too when we move into the later rounds, but it looks at the moment as if Man U mostly had half a separate squad for the Europa, while Arsenal has a totally separate squad.
This might particularly change after the group stages when we are playing clubs that were knocked out of the Champions League for coming third.
Meanwhile taking a look at what our visitors have done since the game in which we beat them with a late Giroudian goal.
| Date | Competition | Home | Score | Away |
| 19/10/17 | Europa | Crvena Zvezda | 0 – 1 | Arsenal |
| 22/10/17 | SUL | Crvena Zvezda | 2 – 1 | Mladost Lučani |
| 25/10/17 | SUL | Crvena Zvezda | 1 – 0 | Spartak Subotica |
| 29/10/17 | SUL | Zemun | 0 – 1 | Crvena Zvezda |
So three straight wins for them. And three straight wins for us after the last meeting…
| Date | Teams | Res | Score | Competition |
| 19 Oct 2017 | Crvena Zvezda v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | UEFA Europa League |
| 22 Oct 2017 | Everton v Arsenal | W | 2-5 | Premier League |
| 24 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 2-1 | League Cup |
| 28 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Swansea City | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
The final question in this opening piece relates to the possibility of crowd trouble. I think it is far less likely than with Cologne because Red Star have been in Europe regularly, while for Cologne it was a bit of a novelty.
Here is their recent record
- 2010/11 Europa League – lost 9-1 on aggregate in the 3rd qualifying round
- 2011/12 Europa League – lost 1-6 on aggregate in the Play off round
- 2012.13 Europa League – lost 2-3 on aggregate in the Play off round
- 2013/14 Europa League – lost 1-4 on aggregate in the 3rd qualifying round
- 2015/16 Europa League – lost 1-4 on aggregate in the 1st qualifying round
- 2016/17 Champions League – lost in the 3rd qualifying round and lost in the play off of the Europa 1-4.
So although they have not had great success in Europe of late they have had a number of games and thus the novelty of travel to such games will have worn off. Hopefully also Arsenal will have learned their lesson from the last match. If they have not, they are going to look very silly, and Uefa might start moving into point deduction mode.
Recent rambles
- Olivier Giroud: dancer and academic
- How much does it cost to buy a trophy these days?
- Football is facing an existential crisis created by its greed and its insistance on controlling debate
I like our approach of having two squads for PL & Europa/League Cup, but Man U obviously had the Europe competition more highly prioritised and in the event they were proved correct by winning it quite easily.
I would imagine that (as you suggest) we’ll put stronger sides out as we progress. The strain on the squad will become apparent when the FA Cup starts (even thought the League Cup is mostly over by then).
I really think we could win this event.
Like I said in one of my comment posting this week, Arsenal should not take beating Crvena Zvezda for granted just becsuse they beat them 2-4 at away in the first leg of the match.
Every game has it’s own complexion and Arsenal who are at home with home advantage in this return leg match should not rest on their oars in their aims to win the match. For, Crevda Zvezda who are on 4 points in the Europa League group ‘H’ table with Arsenal above them on 9 points will not come to the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night’s to plsy a father Christmas match. But could surpringly play a serious football match to win it as they are likely to still fancy themselves having a chance to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition if only they can get a result at the Ems.
Moreover, Arsenal should be mindful of teams that are lower in status to them coming to the Emirates Stadium to play a World Cup final match because it is the iconic Arsenal FC they are playing against and want to beat them to make name and get recognized.
But neverthelss, if the Gunners will fully prepared themselves for this match mentally, physically and tactically so as to enabled them play a superior game in all aspects of the match that is superior to the game Crvena Zvezda have on offer to play in the match, Arsenal will carry the night irrespective of whatever resistant Crvena Zvezda posed in the match.
OT
Match officials for the Man City/Arsenal game…
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Simon Bennett, Stuart Burt
Fourth official: Andre Marriner
While in truth , I an not too worried on who plays for us against Crvena Zvezda , I do admit that I fear for our resident punster and names wordplay specialist , Croxley Rebel, http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/65322 who I feel may be overwhelmed by the array of near unpronounceable names of players of our next opponent !
But am still looking forward to his attempt .
So good luck , sir with the following (from wikipedia)
1.Damir Kahriman
3.Branko Jovičić
4.Damien Le Tallec
5.Abraham Frimpong
6.Uroš Račić
7.Nenad Krstičić
8.Guélor Kanga
10.Nenad Milijaš (captain[28])
11.Luka Adžić
14.Richmond Boakye
15.Srđan Babić
16.Nemanja Milić
20.Mitchell Donald
21.Filip Bainović
23.Milan Rodić
27.Nemanja Supić
28.Dejan Joveljić
30.Filip Stojković
33.Dušan Anđelković
40.Luka Ilić
44.Zé Marcos
45.Aleksandar Pešić
49.Nemanja Radonjić
55.Slavoljub Srnić
77.Marko Gobeljić
82.Milan Borjan
89.Ricardinho
90.Vujadin Savić
@Bricks
Yeah, Mitchell Donald is a tongue-breaker!