By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal’s last ten fixtures are not exactly a rallying cry to further greatness, and the team certainly needs to start pulling itself together.
Of course this could be the moment when really see what Wilshere and Ramsey can do together on the pitch, which would be a good way of starting a new era but I’ll look at the team properly tomorrow. Meanwhile here are the last ten games…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 13 Dec 2017 | West Ham United v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 16 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Newcastle United | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 19 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 1-0 | League Cup |
| 22 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Liverpool | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
| 28 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | W | 2-3 | Premier League |
| 31 Dec 2017 | West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 03 Jan 2018 | Arsenal v Chelsea | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 07 Jan 2018 | Nottingham Forest v Arsenal | L | 4-2 | FA Cup |
| 10 Jan 2018 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | League Cup |
| 14 Jan 2018 | AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
Three wins in the last ten, two defeats and five draws. The problems can be put down to
a) The Alexis affair
b) Lacazette’s loss of form and Giroud’s injury occurring together
c) A variety of other injuries disrupting the squad, particularly Ozil, lost at the same time as Alexis’ form downturn, and Lacazette’s loss of goalscoring, and Ramsey’s injury.
But such things happen to all clubs and we need to pull ourselves out of this.
Palace’s last ten reads thus:
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 02 Dec 2017 | WBA v Crystal Palace | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 09 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v Bournemouth | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 12 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v Watford | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 16 Dec 2017 | Leicester City v Crystal Palace | W | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 23 Dec 2017 | Swansea City v Crystal Palace | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 28 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | L | 2-3 | Premier League |
| 31 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v Manchester City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Jan 2018 | Southampton v Crystal Palace | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 08 Jan 2018 | Brighton & HA v Crystal Palace | L | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 13 Jan 2018 | Crystal Palace v Burnley | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
Four wins, four draws, two defeats for Palace, which means they are doing better than we have been. And certainly the draw with Manchester City, which was very close to a win was a valiant effort.
A look at the games between the two clubs is also interesting… we have won 27 they have won four and 11 have been drawn.
There were 14 games between the two from February 1995 onwards to 1 January 2017 and Palace did not win any, but then on 10 April 2017 at a hard to forget game (although I keep trying) we lost 3-0. Fortunately matters were put right with the match earlier this season as we won 2-3 at their place.
Returning to the issue of injuries, in my last piece I reported on the list provided by physioroom and the list of injured players did not include Kolasinac. However the Guardian’s web page this afternoon has him out until 24 January with an ankle injury, which is odd. He was on the beach for the game on 14 January against Bournemouth, which makes this all a bit odder.
I’ll check again in the morning when I come to yer actual teams but for now here’s the evening’s tittle and then the tattle. Or is that the other way around. I am never sure with these journo creatures. I don’t know how Sir Hardly deals with them.
“Alexis Sanchez breaks the internet with apparent confirmation of Manchester United transfer” – which seems rather unlikely. I think the dear old webby thing is a bit stronger than that. Mind you maybe it is the connection that
Jamie Carragher backs Antonio Conte to replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. I wouldn’t personally back Carragher to do anything other than throw a coin during a football match and escape arrest. But the
‘The hijack is actually happening’ – Spurs supporters taunt Arsenal fans”. This is
And here is the big one…
“Henrikh Mkhitaryan not to be involved for Man Utd at Burnley.” Thus sayeth
Next up, the teams.
Arsenal v Crystal Palace; the injuries, the transfers, the form, and player records
Child trafficking allegations return to haunt Chelsea
Arsenal v Crystal Palace Saturday 20 January 2018 – The Match Officials
Is Kolasinac out of our CP home game tomorrow according to the Guardian? And is Maitland-Niles still suffering from the flu Le Boss said he had and thus may not be involved in our CP home match too? And lastly but not the least, is Ramsey fully fit to start this our CP home match tomorrow? I mean the Ramsey who I can’t remember in our last match that I watched live but did not see him touching the ball once when he came on as a sub in our away match against Bournemouth.
Under the coaching of the former England manager, Roy Hudgson now the CP manager, Crystal Palace team has been resurrected from the dead when it looked it was heading towards the exit door in the Premier League. But Hudgson has since came to the rescue of CP stopping the rut in team from continuing as he reinvigorated new ideas into the team that gave it a new leash of life which has since seen the team rejunvinated and start winning games in the PL this season to rhetorically extend of daring Man City to their faces at Selhurst Park by holding them to a draw game. A game in which Man City’s invisibility in the PL would have gone before it went at Liverpool last week had CP converted the injury time penalty the got in the match.
Taking this my aforesaid into account, the Gunners have to be careful not to take beating Roy Hudgson’s Crystal Palace team for granted in the PL tomorrow at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners MUST eschew all form of overconfidence in this match but be confident to do the job successfully for Arsenal which Arsenal FC is paying them to do for it. In this wise, Le Boss bearing in mind 2 out of the 3 Gunners I mentioned above may not be available for this match to mann the left wing back position in the team and even for his apparent match rustiness, Ramsey may not be able to start this match. So, Le Boss should not start him if he can’t star it. And he Le Boss must find solution to who to start at left wing back if Kolasinac and Maitland can’t play the match. Maybe he’ll have to deploy Iwobi there and play Welbeck at the left side of mid four in his 3-2-f-1 playing formation that he’ll likely play in the match. But he knows best. But he MUST starts the right Gunners selection team that will beat CP in this match and collect all the 3 points at stake in match for Arsenal.