By Bulldog Drummond
Through our regular run of previews we’ve been left with a range of suggestions as to what Mr Emery is going to do with the team in the coming weeks, although there is a fairly regular suggestion among those who claim to know such things that he is adjusting the team for each game to play this particular opposition – something Mr Wenger did do – but not nearly so often as I get the feeling Mr Emery likes to do.
We’ll see shortly if Mr Emery follows Mr Wenger’s approach in the Europa, or reduces the level of changes, but for today we might expect one or two changes.
The pundits are coming out with a fairly standard lineup for this one of
Lacazette
Aubameyang Ramsey Ozil
Xhaka Torreira
Monreal Sokratis Mustafi Bellerin
Cech
Torreira suffered an injury during the internationals, and of course plays for Uruguay so has had Alexis-style journeys to and from but he seems to have recovered from both the jet lag and the injury. Some writers have Xhaka being dropped, others Guendouzi. If Guendouzi does drop out that could mean he is included in the Europa League game on Thursday. It is at home of course so that makes it a lot easier for players to play that league match before or after.
If we take that team above that would leave on the beach seven from these nine. Iwobi was ill but is said to be better now. We don’t need all three of Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mavropanos
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mavropanos, Guendouzi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Welbeck.
Meanwhile the Metro is breaking the shock news that the Arsenal manager insists that everyone speaks English in the changing room. That was certainly the rule under Mr Wenger, and I suspect it has never changed, but you know these newspaper fellas, they like to come up with shock headlines.
“Unai Emery introduces strict new rule to Arsenal changing room” Yes, well, you’ve got to make a headline out of something.
Some headlines around and about are quite amusing, such as “Liverpool manager quits” in the Arsenal fan favourite faces anxious wait for scan on injury” which is about Jack Wilshere, which does seem a bit of a pesky way to write a headline.
Osama bin Laden in the Arsenal shop, the Royal Navy goes on strike
I’ll leave you to take that one in yourself.
TalkSprout are being very sproutish claiming to have an exclusive commentary – and yes it is exclusive if you exclude the fact that there will be the usual commentary on Arsenal.com I think the guys do it rather well, and if you really want to you can text in comments.
And you might recall in yesterday’s preview we came up with “When it comes to shots Newcastle certainly can be a trifle shot shy, having 36 so far this season in comparison with Arsenal’s 58. Bottom are Huddersfield with 25.” Well the Daily Star knows a good idea when it sees it and today has “Premier League table ranked by shots”
I thought our list of “big chances missed” was more fun.
Anyway that’s about it prior to the game. I think we’ll know a lot more about Mr Emery’s approach to Arsenal’s team selection after we see not just today’s game but also what he does on Thursday.
Meanwhile, just for the fun of it, here’s the league table listed by goals scored. Both today’s teams are higher in the goal scored league table than they are in their actual league position.
Well, it passes the time before kick off.
| Lge Pos | Goal pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | Manchester City | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 10 |
| 2 | 2 | Chelsea | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
| 1 | 3 | Liverpool | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 12 |
| 3 | 4 | Watford | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 12 |
| 5 | 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 9 | 6 | Arsenal | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 6 |
| 7 | 7 | Everton | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| 13 | 8 | Fulham | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 4 |
| 6 | 9 | AFC Bournemouth | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| 8 | 10 | Leicester City | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 10 | 11 | Manchester United | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 6 |
| 14 | 12 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 4 |
| 11 | 13 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 5 |
| 12 | 14 | Southampton | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 15 | 15 | Crystal Palace | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 3 |
| 18 | 16 | Newcastle United | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 1 |
| 19 | 17 | Burnley | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 1 |
| 16 | 18 | Cardiff City | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 2 |
| 17 | 19 | Huddersfield Town | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | -8 | 2 |
| 20 | 20 | West Ham United | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 10 | -8 | 0 |
- Newcastle v Arsenal. Arsenal’s awful defence, non-rotation, the triumphs of Benitez
- Newcastle v Arsenal: Brilliant Kanu, injuries and form, and a few stats not seen elsewhere
- Matchweek 5 – The Match Officials including Newcastle v Arsenal
- Newcastle v Arsenal: handbrake off, Everton points deduction, David gold on sucking
The team is unchanged from the Cardiff match.
Cech
Bellerin Mustafi Papastathopoulos Monreal
Guendouzi Xhaka Özil Ramsey
Aubameyang Lacazette
Tottenham have lost again. Now a good victory from us will help sort things out.
A 4-0 win will take us above them in the league.
And if all goes well on the internet there will be a live match report from this match on Untold. keeping my fingers crossed….even though it is hard to write with crossed fingers….
Well, Spurs have lost at their temporary Wembley Stadium home 1-2 to Liverpool as widely predicted they’ll lose the match in some pundit quarters. That Spurs’ loss has now opened up the way for Arsenal to capitalise on their losing to close the gap on them in the table by at least level on points with them, but after they’ve beaten Newcastle today.
As for our starts and bench for Newcastle that are already out for seeing and digesting, I think I missed Unai Emery starts and bench for the match by just one as he has both Auba’ an Laca’ starting. And Iwobi whom I have started to rest Auba’ on the bench for fatigue suspicion reason is neither starting nor on the bench. Probably he has not fully recovered from his sickness to become fully match fit to start this match from the starts or from the bench. And I think this has allowed Elneney to be starting the match from the bench.
Newcastle 0-3 Arsenal @FT +.
#200 for Mesut!
COYG!