by Tony Attwood
The really, really big news is that I have found a bar on the outskirts of Pafos which has promised that they will be showing the match against Cologne. The barman even went to considerable lengths to point out to me that Cyprus is two hours ahead of the UK, and thus the game would be on at 8pm local time. I nodded enthusiastically, thanked him and then immediately got lost on my way back to my hotel.
But the timing works well. Time for a drink in a local bar before heading back to the hotel for the evening consumables and then off to the sports bar (if I can find it again).
Now I can well understand that this might seem like rather a surfeit of bars, but last night the hotel Head of Certain Things came and told our group organiser off for rearranging the furniture in the lobby of the hotel where the dance club had gathered to have a little consumption of something or other before the meal.
That of course is not something dancers will take lying out, or indeed standing up, and so we are taking our pre-dinner trade elsewhere. And indeed being the only football fan in the party, I shall be taking my post dinner trade elsewhere also.
Meanwhile, back in the world of football, I suspect that we might have a slight insight into the team tonight, with it being something a little radical…
Ospina,
Debuchy, Holding, Mertesacker, Chambers,
Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Elneny, Wilshere,
Welbeck, Giroud
Now that is rather odd, going back to 4-4-2, but Mr Wenger has shown himself willing to try out the unlikely from time to time. I also know that it involves dropping Nelson and Willock because they don’t fit into the squad when orientated that way.
But do we actually need Coquelin and Elneny playing together in central defensive midfield? If you saw our video of Cologne beating BATE the answer is yes, most certainly.
To give an alternative reality this is the team we put out last time in the Europa League
Macey,
Debuchy, Elneny, Holding
Nelson Maitland Niles
Coquelin, Willock,
Walcott, Giroud, Wilshere.
Beached on that occasion we had:
Cech, Akpom, Da Silva, McGuane, Nketiah, Osei-Tutu, Sheaf.
So there we are. It could be either or a combination of both although probably without Walcott and with Ospina in goal.
Moving on to different matters, and in terms of who goes forwards to the knock out, surprisingly little is certain at this stage.
| Group | Winners (Seeded in round of 32 draw) |
Runners-up | Qualified but final position uncertain |
|---|---|---|---|
| B |  |
|
Dynamo Kyiv |
| G | |
|
Steaua București |
| H | |
|
Arsenal |
| K | Lazio | |
|
| L | |
|
Zenit Saint Petersburg |
And here is the list of Champions League group stages teams that are currently in third spot, and thus liable for a little outing in the Europa, come the new year.
| Seed | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Seeding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | CSKA Moscow | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 9 | Seeded in round of 32 draw |
| 2 | D | Sporting CP | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 7 | +1 | 7 | |
| 3 | G | RB Leipzig | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 7 | |
| 4 | E | Spartak Moscow | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 6 | |
| 5 | F | Napoli | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 6 | Unseeded in round of 32 draw |
| 6 | C | Atlético Madrid | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 6 | |
| 7 | B | Celtic | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 17 | −12 | 3 | |
| 8 | H | Borussia Dortmund | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | −5 | 2 |
Alexander’s Pub Paphos
Pub · 4.9
· Open now · $
unit 1 & 2 Tefkrou street
8041 Paphos, Paphos, Cyprus
+357 96 537613
Used it a few times multiple screens , Phone first to confirm.
Hope the likes of Dortmund, Napoli and Athletico get seeded. Don’t want to meet them too early in the knockout stage
Dortmund might be interesting having just nicked Mislintat from them.
UEFA still has no lineups out. UEFA “Arsenal correspondent” Daniel Thacker is busy brandishing his tally whacker over any and all stories about Arsenal. We must prepare all the Arsenal fans for defeat and despair.
Elsewhere, it sounds like Keown is now saying that Arsenal didn’t beat the Tottenspuds, rather it was the Tottenspud that lost. Thank you for that. Maybe you should go get a job at Tesco, eh?
Is it possible that Gareth Bale will be Wenger’s replacement? I didn’t even know he was getting his coaching badges.
Badges?
We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.
COYG!
Tony,
Can I suggest a positional re-jig of your players
Ospina,
Holding, Mertesacker, Chambers
Debuchy, Elneny, Coquelin, Maitland-Niles
Wellbeck, Giroud, Wilshere
Beach
Macey, Sheaf, Willock, Nelson, Iwobi, Nketiah, Akpom
Master Tony, Sir, while I accept the two starting elevens you’ve made which you think Le Prof will likely start at least one of the them for the Arsenal vs FC Klon in tonight’s EL Cup match, and despite my posting yesterday night on this site of my own Arsenal 3-4-2-1 starts and 7 Gunners bench which I want to see Le Prof start for this match in my own armchair Arsenal manager starts and bench making, and due to the unconfirmed absent of the two key Arsenal II players of Olivier Giroud and the confirmed absent of Theo Walcott from this match, I am compelled to do one or two changes to my starts and bench that I made yesterday night.
Starts:
Ospina
Debuchy ElNeny Holding
Nelson Wilshere Coquelin Niles
Iwobi Welbeck
Nketiah.
Bench:
Macey BFG Chambers Willock Sheaf Dasilva Akpom.
Will these my Arsenal starts and bench not hit FC Klon 0-3 in the game after the blast of the final whistle ending the match by the referee? I think Arsenal undoubtedly will.
A good game in the early kickoff in the Europa League. One all at half time between Astana and Villareal. Wonderful opening goal from Astana but the almost constant pressure from Villareal paid off with an equaliser. More goals to come in this game I think.
Still no official team news, should be out in the next 10 minutes
Team as per my post as are the subs!
Well done Andrew.
Tony got all of his notes right, but to quote an old comedy duo – not necessarily in the right order
Game over in Belarus as Villareal take a three one league
Sorry three one lead over Astana
Another excellent goal from Astana to spice up the last few minutes. Game going into injury time
Mainland-Niles is having a bit of a game.They can’t stop him without fouling.
45+2 time of first half
Early second half statistics (missed halftime)
Shot attempts 2:9
_on target 1:3
_off target 1:5
_blocked 0:1
_woodwork 0:1
Offsides 0:1
Possession 37:63
Passing accuracy 80:92
_attempted 151:377
_completed 129:348
Balls recovered 16:20
blocks 1:0
Fouls 8:10
COYG!
I am going to guess that Debuchy’s yellow was for persistent infringement?
COYG!
Come on Nelson, gives us some magic!
COYG!
When I said in my comment posting yesterday on this site that the Gunners Le Prof will start in this match should not underrate Klon in the game but be up and doing in the match eschewing complacency in the game because I sensed Klon will likely play a World Cup final match against Arsenal in this match. But it appeared no Gooner believed me. Our hopes in this match now are, let the Gunners redeem the club’s image that’s is on line for battering by Klon and score the equalising goal and then go on to score the winning goal in the match.
We have 1 defender left? Come on Eddie!
COYG!
Daniel Thacker is being a turd again. A parakeet would make a better Arsenal Reporter for UEFA than he does.
COYG!
90+4 time of second half
Shot attempts 2:9 4:13
_on target 1:3 3:7
_off target 1:5 1:6
_blocked 0:1 0:3
_woodwork 0:1 0:1
Offsides 0:1 1:1
Possession 37:63 34:66
Passing accuracy 80:92 82:91
_attempted 151:377 293:714
_completed 129:348 240:648
Balls recovered 16:20 35:38
blocks 1:0 3:0
Fouls 8:10 13:18
Yellows 0:0 2:1
And so our 4 card a game referee, issues 3 cards. He’s consistent.
Bate 0 – 0 Red Star, so we win group regardless of the score today.
It would have been nice to tie it up though.
Another very dodgy penalty given against us. Equally valid claimMs at the other end ignored.
Another slow passing game against a parked bus results in a defeat – this is beginning to be predictable
@ Andrew
Come on mate, have you not heard the rule that if you tread on an Arsenal defenders foot and fall over, it’s a definite penalty…………..just be grateful it wasn’t a red card lmao
OT: FIFA News
Apparently Peru is preparing a bill to interfere with football in that country. As they qualified for the World Cup, this could see them excluded. Marca believe Italy and Chile could be replacements.
—-
OT: Other News
Marca is reporting that Robinho has been sentenced to 9 years in jail for a 2013 sexual assault in Milan.
Dodgy penalty against Arsenal and no dodgy penalty against them and with equally valid penalty claim by Arsenal not given is not a tenable excuse for the Gunners losing this match 1-0 to the Billy Goats as Coquelin missed sitter for Arsenal in the first half would if he had scored would have given Arsenal the lead in the game going into the 2nd half of the match which Arsenal would have defended and hold on to it to the end of the match with the worst happening in the match would have been a draw game. Right.
Has Le Prof contributed to this Arsenal away lose to Klon by his introducing the match rusty Welbeck to pair Wilshere behind Giroud, and another match rusty Chambers as right wing back in the match who are not regulars in Arsenal II but at least should have been first played at the Ems in the competition before starting them at away. I think the duo who have just recovered from long injury sidelines should have been started from the bench for this match instead of starting the match right away which with their starting it, I believe has affected the starting cohesion of the Arsenal II. Iwobi who last played for Arsenal II at Bate is okay to start the match to replace regular starting Walcott who is sick.
And even, should Giroud have started this match instead of Nketiah starting it? Has Le Prof by starting 3 Gunners who are match rusty contributed to Arsenal losing this match despite we’ve qualified for the knock out but without a ciga each in our mouths?
This lose is uncalled for as it has not elated us the Gooners in a foreign land but unacceptably downgraded us.
The other teams in our group have 6, 6 and 5 points respectively. The two with 6 points, I believe have the same goal difference. And those 2 teams with 6 points play each other for their last games of the group stage. A win for either team, puts them in second place. A tie, could see both of them drop out. Bate with 5 points plays us. A tie does them no good, it puts them level with the two 6 pointers (maybe, sort of) and they would have an inferior goal difference. So Bate has a reason to try hard, when they come to Wenger Stadium in a couple of weeks.
While we didn’t get points today, we did get valuable experience for Maitland-Niles, Nelson and Nketiah. And Holding, Chambers and Welbeck got some recovery time. Wilshere also got recovery time, but he did manage to play the 90, and put on a good show. I’ve no idea if Debuchy is playing well enough to attract interest from other teams, but he was visible again today.
So I hardly think that today was a disaster.
It was clear to me that we would (probably)lose and we did.
After all, Koln needs to have a chance eh?
We will get the points needed to top the group in our next Euro match.
Arsenal need to be ruthless, but i understand so well why they are not.
I like to think that our juniors gained a lot of experience playing with the seniors as well as with creditable opponents. Most of them performed well.
The attack was blunted , with OG trying his best but to no avail.
Was hoping for at least a draw , but other than the penalty , no complaints from me .
Para, we already have the points to top the group. If one of the teams with 6 wins, they will have 9. If the two 6 pointers tie, they will both have 7. If BATE beats us, they will have 8.
We have 10 now. No matter what happens in the last game, we will still have 10.