By Bulldog Drummond
There are secrets and there are secrets, and there is Crawley Town vs Arsenal. Attempts were made by the media to do a preview as with the headline from Football.co.uk which says “Arsenal vs Crawley Town Complete Head to Head Statistics” The page is full of zeros.
But I am sure we did play them in 2010 and also in 2008, or maybe it is me that has vanished into a haze of false memories and a zero sum black hole.
Anyway in case I am still here we have also just played them again in a second pre-season game, although this one was “behind closed doors” which is probably a fire risk, unless they were fire doors which spring open.
But because it was a closed game we don’t have videos. However we do have a squad list and this combined with the list of players from the first match tells us “all you need to know” in the newspapers’ infamous phrase, about the squad of 25 players and the backup youngsters we will have this season.
But first we know the score – we won 9-0. And second we know who played…
In goal we had Cech, Emiliano Martinez,and Leno all played in goal although not at the same time.
Beyond that we have put together the team, that came and went as the subs happened…
In the defence we had eight players who took part in, of course, two groups of four…
Konstantinos Mavropanos, Sead Kolasinac, Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi, Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Sokratis
In the midfield we have six in naturally, two groups of three.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Aaron Ramsey, Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe, Matteo Guendouzi
In attack, there were five…
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eddie Nketiah, Lucas Perez, Alex Lacazette.
Obviously Ozil wasn’t there but he will be joining the squad on tour.
The goals came from Lucas Perez (2), Alexandre Lacazette (2), Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Exactly the sort of guys you want to score.
We know that Emile Smith Rowe and Jordi Osei-Tutu are being tipped to be in the squad that flies off to Signapore over the weekend. Indeed I would suspect that the entire group who played in this game will be going to foreign lands – that by and large was the whole point of the game. Just to ensure everyone was fit and raring to go.
The squad list for the trip will be the next indicator of how Arsenal intend to get down to the required 17 foreign grown adults and total squad of 25 over 21 year olds but I think we now have a clear indicator
We have not been seeing from the numbered squad list
| Squad No | Pos | Player | U21? | HG? | FG+21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | GK | David Ospina | Y | ||
| 17 | FW | Alex Iwobi | Y | Y | |
| 23 | FW | Danny Welbeck | Y | ||
| 32 | FW | Chuba Akpom | Y |
We have also not been seeing these players who would affect our figures…
- Joel Campbell
- Deyan Iliev
- Matt Macey
- Cohen Bramall
Iwobi and Welbeck have their excuse for not being there, (but it is suggested Iwobi is going on the overseas tour, although I have not heard this about Welbeck) which leads to the confirmation that Ospina and Akpom are leaving, along with the four no-number players above which gives us six departures. Those two leaving the squad and none of the bullet pointed players who have not been involved in games also leaving would take us down to our full total of 25 players of whom 17 are foreign grown.
Now of course that doesn’t leave any space for any of the newly reported incomers that the blogs invent each day, but it looks to me like a good squad.
We’ve filled the 25 places, and got a very exciting range of under 21s who are already pushing into the squad, and we’ve spent the £70m allocated by the chairman. That seems quite a clear sign that the deals really are done, as the manager said, unless something extraordinary comes along.
Footnote: Mavropanos and Guendouzi may well be under 21 for this season – I think that is my mistake.
- Arsenal in the Checkatrade. How it works is subject to Rule! error. Or so they say.
- 12 transfer updates, four new names. The 108 players rumoured to be coming to Arsenal.
- Arsenal needs to sell or loan out seven, just to be able to bring in one more player!
I would hate to see Joel Campbell go. He has shown real quality when given the chance but was pushed aside by Wenger for no apparent reason.
I have seen enough of Mr Xhaka to know that I don’t want to see anymore
In regards to Ospina, he also played in the knockout rounds of the WC on July 3rd for Colombia so would not be available to play until the 31st. It’s a tough call between deciding on keeping Cech or Ospina. Both are excellent GKs but Cech is older and his contract expires next year whereas Ospina’s contract runs until 2020 according to transfer market website.
I am at loss when I am told Orpington will be dumped instead of Check when Check is older, shorter contract and Ospina had less games.Ospina should be made to give Barnt Leno competition.
Regarding Ramsey, he is running down the contract to either hold us to ransom or leave for free and get signing-on fees.at a new club. Sell the car… he is unlikely to like our new set up without Wenger who gave them wages they did not merit. Sell him and buy a.Brazilian.
Mmmmmmmm interesting article you have written but the lack of our big name players, Ramsey and Ozil, in the list shouldn’t worry or panic people. Ozil, we know, has just signed a gigantic new deal with the club and Ramsey’s “new contract panic” constantly portrayed in the media isn’t a concern either. His agent has only just got back from holiday and I’m sure he has much to catch up on while he’s been away, obviously Ramsey’s new deal being one of them.
The player, himself, has said that he’s looking forward to working with Emery and is happy at Arsenal. He’s also in the driving seat as far as a new deal goes so he knows that he can get a bumper deal like Ozil, his agent is probably testing the club to see how far they are prepared to go to keep him. It’s a game of chicken really and I’m 99.99% that he’ll stay and captain the side for many years to come.