By Bulldog Drummond
Last season as you will recall we toddled through to the final of the league cup and then fell over at a time when we couldn’t win our away games. Playing the billionaire champions at the home of Tottenham Nomads all proved a bit too much.
| Date | Game | Res | Score |
| 20 Sep 2017 | Arsenal v Doncaster Rovers | W | 1-0 |
| 24 Oct 2017 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 2-1 |
| 19 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 1-0 |
| 10 Jan 2018 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 |
| 24 Jan 2018 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 2-1 |
| 25 Feb 2018 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 0-3 |
The final was also the game which confirmed that TV was controlling the match, as the injury time was not played out in full. It would not have made any difference of course, but once the rules start being messed around with to suit the TV stations, then there is no limit to how much influence they will have.
Four quarters of 15 minutes each to allow more time for adverts is probably not so far away.
Anyway, this season there have already been a few surprises, with Burnley going out to the mighty Burton Albion. The crowd was about 2500 – a shame more didn’t turn up to see their club’s triumph.
Also Manchester at War (or so it seems) were knocked out by Derby County.
Meanwhile in other news the new home of Tottenham Nomads will be ready before Christmas. We know that because that awfully nice man who runs the show at the building site has assured us this is the case.
Today however we have other things on our mind. There is a tube strike on the Piccadilly Line and restricted trains on other underground lines. And we can be sure that to accommodate the situation the overground railways will be running short trains. Another well-past-midnight return home for those of us in the Midlands I fear.
On the injury front we now have…
| Man Down | What’s wrong? | When back? | Today? |
| S Papastathopoulos | Dead Leg | September 26, 2018 | Late Fitness Test |
| H Mkhitaryan | Ankle Injury | September 26, 2018 | Late Fitness Test |
| K Mavropanos | Groin Strain | October 28, 2018 | No |
| A Maitland-Niles | Broken Leg | October 22, 2018 | No |
| L Koscielny | Achilles Injury | November 25, 2018 | No |
I can’t imagine that Mkhitaryan will be risked through being rushed back although Sokratis could come back if we feel we need the defence strengthening.
Last time we were debating such matters, for the Europa match, I came up with a couple of possible left backs who could step into the gap, but neither were used so I imagine Monreal will continue to play. Unless of course Kolasinac is ready. He’s not on the injury list, but whether he is match fit is another issue.
We should also see, at some stage, four youngsters (if not more). The obvious four knocking on the door, as it were, are Joe Willock, Julio Pleguezuelo, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah.
Incidentally, as we are talking about who is fit, Laurent Koscielny and Ainsley Maitland-Niles have started what is know as “light training”, which I presume does not mean having electric switches attached to them.
Here is their success rating so far….
| Date | Comp | Home team | Res | Away team |
| 11/08/18 | PL2 | Manchester City U23 | 6-5 | Arsenal U23 |
| 20/08/18 | PL2 | Arsenal U23 | 1 – 1 | Brighton U23 |
| 24/08/18 | PL2 | West Ham United U23 | 2 – 3 | Arsenal U23 |
| 31/08/18 | PL2 | Arsenal U23 | 2 – 1 | Tottenham Nomads U23 |
| 17/09/18 | PL2 | Blackburn Rovers U23 | 0 – 0 | Arsenal U23 |
| 21/09/18 | PL2 | Arsenal U23 | 4 – 0 | Liverpool U23 |
And yes as you can see we we’re not doing too bad.
Unfortunately just as the FA have consistently denied that Arsenal won the FA Cup two years ago, by putting up an official web page that celebrated Liverpool, so the Premier League is now also turning into Arsenal deniers. Their official web page for the Under 23s league (officially called PL2) has a completely false set of statistics.
There is a however now a proper page up there with the right stats on it but it can take some finding. I’ll come back to that anon
More anon.
- Arsenal Women v West Ham – Post match review and a look forward
- The seven phases of Arsenal, plus PSG and some funny financial doings
- What’s it really like to make a 235 mile trip each way for home games.
With their very important home match against Watford in the PL coming up this weekend, Emery should not risk starting most of the Arsenal regular starting XI in the PL for Brentford. But he could start just a few of them and have the lot of them on the bench for the in-case.
My envisage Emery’s Arsenal 4-2-3-1 starts and 7 Gunners on the bench for Brentford are below.
Starts:
Martinez
Lichtsteiner Holding Pleguezuelo Monreal
Guendouzi Elneny
Mkhitaryan Rowe Iwobi
Welbeck.
Bench:
Leno Bellerin Mustafi Kolasinac Torreira Ozil Nkethia.
Arsenal should take a cue from what happened to Man Utd at home against Derby County who sent them packing from the Carabao Cup yesterday night. And take the necessary step to guide against such occurrence happening to them in their Carabao Cup match against Brentford tonight at the Ems.
Brentford could likely pull haywire in the game to cause an upset against Arsenal in the match. But the Gunners will contain whatever the Bees have on offer in the game as stings to sting them as they will all put on anti-Bees sting gears to block any stings penetration and thereby render all attempts by the Bees to cause havoc against them. A gun shot by the Gunners loaded with gunpowder shoot to the mist of the Bees flying about on the Ems pitch will do the job successfully for Arsenal. As the gun shot will down at least 5 Bees as spoils to the Gunners and for exhibition to us the Gooners to marvel.at. Hmmm.
Arsenal 5-0 Brentford @FT plus.
With their very important home match against Watford in the PL coming up this weekend, Emery should not risk starting most of the Arsenal regular starting XI in the PL for Brentford. But he could start just a few of them and have the lot of them on the bench for the in-case.
My envisage Emery’s Arsenal 4-2-3-1 starts and 7 Gunners on the bench for Brentford are below.
Starts:
Martinez
Lichtsteiner Holding Pleguezuelo Monreal
Guendouzi Elneny
Mkhitaryan Rowe Iwobi
Welbeck.
Bench:
Leno Bellerin Mustafi Kolasinac Torreira Ozil Nkethia.
Arsenal should take a cue from what happened to Man Utd at home against Derby County who sent them packing from the Carabao Cup yesterday night. And take the necessary step to guide against such occurrence happening to them in their Carabao Cup match against Brentford tonight at the Ems.
Brentford could likely pull haywire in the game to cause an upset against Arsenal in the match. But the Gunners will contain whatever the Bees have on offer in the game as stings to sting them as they will all put on anti-Bees sting gears to block any stings penetration and thereby render all attempts by the Bees to cause havoc against them ineffective and obsolete. A gun shot by the Gunners loaded with gunpowder shoot to the mist of the Bees flying about on the Ems pitch will do the job successfully for Arsenal. As the gun shot will down at least 5 Bees as spoils to the Gunners and for exhibition to us the Gooners to marvel.at. Hmmm.
Arsenal 5-0 Brentford @FT plus.
There were a couple of interesting blurbs in the news from Germany. It seems many fans are getting annoyed at the power Pay-TV has over scheduling.
I guess one thing done, was the there was (almost?) no crowd noise for the first 18.5 (or 20?) minutes of some particular game.
Arsenal
4-2-3-1
19 Bernd Leno
12 Stephan Lichtsteiner
20 Shkodran Mustafi
16 Rob Holding
18 Nacho Monreal (c)
4 Mohamed Elneny
29 Matteo Guendouzi
7 Henrikh Mkhitaryan
55 Emile Smith-Rowe
17 Alex Iwobi
23 Danny Welbeck
Subs
2 Hector Bellerin
8 Aaron Ramsey
9 Alexandre Lacazette
11 Lucas Torreira
26 Emiliano Martinez
31 Sead Kolasinac
49 Edward Nketiah
Don Goodman prpvides tonigjts Skybet tip witj an improbable result of 2-2 (16/1 with Sky Bet)
I think both Mandy and Sam will be most proud of this team selection. Right about now Brick will be signing of his last shipment of contraband gleefully running his hands together and Tony will be iptimisticly praising the new man’s latest selecaò.
I myself will have to backside after what I just saw. Late as ever 0.07 on the clock.
Danny gets Arsenal going and then finds himself the end product of an arsenal team goal which could only be described as Wengerball.
Mustarfi ends up on the deck again and Verd looks set to pick up that clean sheet he clearly wanted yo start with. A good sign for someone who intends yo grow and improve as Arsenals future no:1. Something of Khan and Neur certainly exists within the man named Bear, German world Cup aspirations are surely only less important than securing the National jersey.
An early scare was cleansed by the blushing cheeks of young Matteo who has surely ensured his status as prized gem and potential wonderkid. Partnered wiyj Mo i have never veen so reasonably assured of a clean sheet, if only Ramsey were too valuable to risk. Selecting him for a Home game I’m the league Cup midweek is quite astute for someone trying to galvanize a ‘ream he has inherited via the workings of some nefarious characters.
Mikhi like Matteo has found himself central to all of ‘the good working in the team, released by Stephens seasoned work behind. Hector would be well advised yo observe from the bench what is missing from his game. Summed up b6 the simple goal kick won after a infrequent foray by Brentfords left side.
Truly this game has shown the obvious quality thought the English league’s as whilst unable to manufacture anything substation and certainly no end product; Brentford have played some bright and sharp textbook football, a credit to both the players and the manager.
A SAD aspect of the game, Mustarfi unable to stay upright against a quick change of pace and direction from the penetrative Brentford front line. Meanwhile Holding has developed exceptionally well and continues to show an added composure and alertness to compliment his always studious approach to defending.
With Kolosinac available for selection, a near full bill of health is a wonderful thing, will Eddie get a shout, le5d hope Danny grabs a quick third.
I had no choice bit to watch. This team has a heartbeat. Xhaka and Mustarfi are a problem. We will need a new pair of Fulbacks shortly. But we can but any of those or a CF, RW,LW or AM.
Merci Arsene. He’s stuffing Smith Rowe outside. But valuable time.
And seriously a poll because if you ask me Xhaka and Mustarfi are the two players I’d notnselect in 22. I’d have Reiss in and probably Eddie. Bit at spare for rotation. Xhaka should become a CB and Mustarfi a Winger. Niles and Reiss return.
When someone almost finished a puzzle anyone can finish it. A bit of substance to my suggestion I could get them onto top 4. It’s homagè to the Greatest.
Glad to see he’s coming to terms with the rotation. Without him being incredibly likeable, Unai gives Henry a few more years to get to terms with attaining his obvious potential, as was my immedia5e preference should he got get the job first time of asking, pun intended.
Well all is well that ends well. Lacazette adds a goal to gloss over the second half display, which saw in my opinion Brentford raise their Tempo and catch us a little cold again.
Matteo ruins another day for Berd by gifting a great opportunity to Brentford with a dangerous free-kick, duly dispatched by Judge in an otherwise excellent performance. The young man seemed to tire and rightly so, an early change may have saved him and enthused Leno a little more. But with genuine smiles from him and others on a wonderful cup night all is truly well.
Well not for Spurs who seem to be struggling against Watford who grab a lead and then come back from behind with only ‘re men.
At least they didn’t lose like Liverpool, yet. Chelsea reveal their cards with some clever rotation as Sarri gets the best out of Emerson.