By Bulldog Drummond
Today of course we have the return of Theo who has been talking about his move from us to them…
“I’m not going to lie, I fell out of love with football for a little bit. Because I had some good performances, but then just didn’t get the chance to play on. Scoring over 100 goals for Arsenal is a great achievement for me personally, and then just the last year-and-a-half was tough, I can’t lie. It was really tough, not being able to get into the team, being in and out.
“I just felt I wanted to get the excitement of football again. I didn’t feel like it was going to be at Arsenal then.”
Indeed Theo has scored 56 times in all competitions at the Emirates Stadium. Only Robin van Persie has got more.
So as we saw in yesterday’s charts we have had seen 22 years meander by since the last Everton win against us in London. They have since come, seen and been conquered 20 times – four draws is as good as it has got for the men whose supporters have been known to come with the illegal pyrotechnics.
So let’s have a look at the latest from the Physioroom website.
Surprisingly this week we are top of the injury league (with 8) and Everton are second (7). Here is our list of the fallen….
| The man | What’s he got? | Back? | Today? |
| L Torreira | Knee Injury | September 23 | Late Fitness Test |
| H Mkhitaryan | Ankle Injury | September 23 | Late Fitness Test |
| A Ramsey | Fatigue | September 23 | Presumably |
| K Mavropanos | Groin Strain | No Return Date | No |
| C Jenkinson | Ankle Injury | November 11 | No |
| A Maitland-Niles | Broken Leg | October 22 | No |
| S Kolasinac | Knee Injury | October 22 | No |
| L Koscielny | Achilles Injury | November 25 | No |
The oddity of course is Mr Ramsey with “fatigue” which presumably comes of larking around with the Welsh. If he is looking to move in January, that won’t go down well with a new employer. Or maybe they just don’t care.
As for Everton…
| The lad | What did he do? | Back? | Today? |
| S Coleman | Fractured Foot | September 29 | Major Doubt |
| P Jagielka | Cartilage Knee Injury | September 29 | No |
| M Keane | Fractured Skull | September 23 | Late Fitness Test |
| A Gomes | Hamstring Injury | September 29 | No |
| Y Mina | Foot | September 23 | Late Fitness Test |
| B Baningime | Ankle Injury | No Return Date | Slight Doubt |
| J McCarthy | Broken Leg | October 21 | No |
Speaking about the forward line Mr Emery said that Aubameyang needed a bit of a confidence boost as he makes his way back to his very best. He got that on Thursday. “We want to score and the players who need to score like Aubameyang will take this confidence, it will be good,” he said.
“I also have a lot of confidence in Lacazette and also Welbeck and Nketiah. They’re our strikers and I’m going to work with them and give them my confidence and the best possibilities in the attacking moment to score.”
Meanwhile of course the gibberish of the bots goes on. Here is the latest from the Football London bot: “The Unai Emery era is well and truly underway, with two wins in the last two games.”
And another:
“Emery achieved back-to-back away victories for the first time this season with a solid, if unspectacular, win away at Newcastle United.”
And from the Playingfrom90 bot
“Arsenal come up against Everton in the Premier League this Sunday, and while many fans will look forward to greeting Theo Walcott, he will have his eyes only on the goal.”
And of course this being football we have a spot of the bleedin’ obvious with “Tottenham deny stadium reports” in the
Anyway, back to the injuries, here is the chitter chatter: Henrikh Mkhitaryan is being assessed after hurting his ankle on Thursday while Lucas Torreira took a knock to the knee during the Thursday game but is expected to be fit.
So what else do we know?
We have not had a single PL home game without letting one in this season shock horror. This is the first time it has happened across the first five games in the PL since 1988/9 when it took us eight games before we had a match without letting one in.
On the other hand there is some rather good news: we have scored 10 PL goals this season and they have all been scored by a different Arsenal man except for one which was an own goal from State Aid United.
Also there is concern that we have not drawn any games at all, although I can’t think why. In 1983 we had 28 games without a draw.
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I understand there was squad trimming, as we seem to be one of the very few to comply with FFP, I also understand Wenger may have let players go for their own good, in me case to help them get in a team that won the World Cup, but as with Giroud, selling Theo, a very decent player to a potential rival left me very uneasy, just hope the curse of the ex player doesn’t strike us again today
No! No any curse of the ex-player will strike Arsenal in their game against Everton today at the Ems in the PL. What I believe will strike Arsenal in the game is good fortune that will come on the Gunners to give them super victory over the Toffees.
With Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham Hs winning their matches yesterday in the PL, but Man Utd were held and Chelsea and us the Arsenals playing today, the onus is on Arsenal to go 6th or even 5th in the table after beating or walloping the Toffees. However, the Gunners should fore minded to be careful not to take beating Everton for granted when they host them today in the PL at the Ems. For, Walcott, an ex-Gunner and Richardlison if they play will threaten attacking threats in the game to cause havoc to Arsenal. With Walcott in particular likely wanting to prove to Arsenal that he’s still an effective player who Arsenal should have kept and not allowed to move away.
Therefore, the Gunners defences in the game should be at the adequate alert level to deal with any threats Walcott, Richardlison and other Toffees will pose to them in the game and thwart them off to the void. Even if they the Gunners are leading the Toffees comfortably at some stages in the game, they should not be complacent. But take the business of beating Everton in the game to a very serious optimum level to the very end of the match to avoid any embarrassment suffer to them in the match by the Toffees.
Since I’ve made my own guessed Emery’s starts and bench for the match yesterday night on this site, I have not seen any reason that will warrant me to reshuffle my guessed Emery’s starts & bench for the match. Thus, I’ll leave them as I’ve made them yesternight.
Oh the second was offside actually obstructed view.
Lacazette scores from the inside left channel and that could have gone so different.
Sokratis did fine work, great game for the neutrals as they say!
With Liverpool and Chelsea in on double header and Spurs softening up Watford regardless of the result. We have s good chance at making ground on top spot and leapfrogging Watford. They will have put in a lot against Utd and then against Spurs, a win against Brentford to keep the momentum up, can move us to wining 4 9f first, see City return tontheir regular position in recent times and get us amongst the top 5 with another round of fixtures in Europe pending after the opening round of the EFLC for the premier league sides.
With random VAR spotchecks and a slightly adapted mandate for the officials. Can Arsenal maintain the run of fortune that has seen them progress against teams that have rested them at times?
With a favourable run if fixtures taking us up until Leicester before Liverpool Sandwiched by a couple of matches against the rocking ship of Sporting. Simple priority of the League over top spot in Europe should be considered essential and could prove pivotal.
3 points away from home in the EL should pretty much guarantee ptogtrddik to the seeded draw of 32.
It really isn’t rocket science, consistency will be the word, momentum may have ad much t9 do with a snap election as it does with a potentially unlikely title challenge becoming a possibility by the turn of the year. Arsenal will need yo win more head to heads with those in and around the top if that is truly to materialise.
Highlights only with that lovely exuberance 9f Islamic culture.
Oi Tony can’t you just chop off my rants and post the test, like some kind 9g abbreviated comment, with it saying some c9ntent may have been filtered I’m observation of h9use rules?
Cos at least the banter with Mandy over Theo and the compliments for fine grammar use and the yellow were welcome No! Anyways I know when your going to full of works and lost are letting you know what I think as opposed to being for publishing, except when you publish them when I click without adding the disclaimer.
As I think I have said to you before U know, or at the very least I have said in general, the answer to your points is in the Comments page with its general guidelines. The problem is with your very long commentaries you are almost certain to fall foul of them quite a bit of the time. The issue in fact is the reverse – I’m being very lenient in digging some of them out of the auto reject box and publishing them. You will also know I have offered you the chance to write one or more articles for us, but you have chosen not to. You can blame me for your decision making, of course, but I happen not to agree.