Blackpool v Arsenal: contemplating the past and the line ups.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

For Arsenal of course this is the start of the FA Cup this season.  For Blackpool it is match number four.  Here are their results thus far…

Date Match Result Score
10 Nov 2018 Exeter City v Blackpool W 2-3
30 Nov 2018 Solihull Moors v Blackpool D 0-0
18 Dec 2018 Blackpool v Solihull Moors W 3-2

Going back across the last ten years we can see their progress, and perhaps spot a problem.  The manager column shows a constant shifting of the top man, which is rarely a good idea.   And the league top scorer column shows a number of seasons where no player made it to double figures in terms of goals scored.   Figures here adapted from Wikipedia.

Season League Pos Manager FA Cup Round Lge top scorer
2007/8 Champ 19th Grayson 3 Burgess 9
2008/9 Champ 16th Grayson;
Parkes		 3 Campbell 9
2009/10 Champ 6th Holloway 3 Adam 16
2010/1 Prem 19th Holloway 3 Campbell 13
2011/2 Champ 5th Holloway 5 Phillips 16
2012/3 Champ 15th Holloway;
Appleton;
Ince		 3 Ince 18
2013/4 Champ 20th Ince;
Ferguson		 3 Ince 7
2014/5 Champ 24th Riga; Clark 3 Orlandi 4
2015/6 Lge 1 22nd Clark;
McDonald		 1 Cullen 9
2016/7 Lge 2 7th Bowyer 4 Cullen 13
2017/8 Lge 1 12th Bowyer 1 Vassell 11

In the run up to the League Cup match we mentioned the club’s disputes between the owners and many of the fans, resulting in low attendances; I have not seen any information on this dispute being ended – if there has been a change please do write in to update us all.

Blackpool however do hold a record in the FA Cup – being involved in the highest aggregate score in a final when they beat Bolton 4-3 in 1953.

Overall in the FA Cup Blackpool have that one win, but have reached the final on two other occasions, their last final being in 1951.   Arsenal, I am sure you will know, have won the FA Cup more times than any other team (13), and been runners-up seven times, making it 20 appearances – a record equalled only by Manchester United.

In the League Blackpool sit near the half way point…

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Portsmouth 26 17 6 3 46 24 22 57
2 Luton Town 26 15 7 4 49 24 25 52
3 Sunderland 24 14 8 2 45 23 22 50
4 Barnsley 25 13 7 5 40 22 18 46
5 Charlton Athletic 26 14 4 8 42 30 12 46
6 Doncaster Rovers 26 13 6 7 47 32 15 45
7 Peterborough United 26 12 8 6 45 33 12 44
8 Coventry City 26 11 5 10 28 29 -1 38
9 Southend United 26 11 2 13 32 31 1 35
10 Blackpool 25 9 8 8 26 25 1 35

and they occupy the same position if we just look at their home record…

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Luton Town 13 10 3 0 31 9 22 33
2 Charlton Athletic 13 9 2 2 22 10 12 29
3 Portsmouth 13 8 3 2 24 12 12 27
4 Sunderland 12 7 5 0 25 11 14 26
5 Barnsley 12 7 5 0 19 8 11 26
6 Doncaster Rovers 13 7 4 2 24 13 11 25
7 Burton Albion 13 7 2 4 18 12 6 23
8 Shrewsbury Town 13 6 5 2 17 11 6 23
9 Fleetwood Town 13 6 4 3 21 17 4 22
10 Blackpool 13 6 3 4 17 13 4 21

They are scoring just over one goal a game at home and conceding exactly one per game on average.

Since beating Solihull Moors to reach the third round Blackpool have played four league games…

Date Game Res Score
22 Dec 2018 Blackpool v Barnsley L 0-1
26 Dec 2018 Rochdale v Blackpool L 2-1
29 Dec 2018 AFC Wimbledon v Blackpool D 0-0
01 Jan 2019 Blackpool v Sunderland L 0-1

Which suggests that they might have their eye on the cup match rather than winning league games.  They have scored just two goals in these four games without a win.

Arsenal’s record of late is perhaps less relevant since we will surely not be putting out that many of our first team players.  Maybe just a few to steady the ship and stop the youngsters getting too carried away, rather as we have seen in the Europa League and the League Cup.

For that game against Blackpool in the League Cup we put out this team

Cech

Jenkinson Pleguezuelo Mustafi Lichsteiner

Smith Rowe, Guendouzi Ramsey

Mkhitaryan, Welbeck, Maitland-Niles

Lurking on the beach we found Aubameyang, Holding, Iwobi, Martinez, Nketiah, Torreira, Willock.

Recent Posts

7 Replies to “Blackpool v Arsenal: contemplating the past and the line ups.”

  1. Mkhitaryan is out until February and Mustafi and Smith Rowe are both injury doubts. Maybe you should add Welbeck to this lineup since the whole team is crooked already.

  2. Away to play against Blackpool in the FA Cup on Saturday, Arsenal should try as much as they could to avoid being giants killed by Blackpool, but beat them.

    Yes, the Arsenal team that last played at home against 8lackpool in the Carabao Cup is less by 4 players of: Mustafi, Emilie Smith-Rowe, Mkhitaryan and Welbeck who are all sidelined with various degrees of injuries with that of Mustafi looking to be already a healing hamstring injury but may not see him included in the 18 Gunners match day squad for the match. I think Emery has been underutilizing Jenkinson in matches for Arsenal. Jenko looked to be back for Arsenal in the last time he played against Qarabag FK in the Europa League at the Ems. And I have been advocating that Emery should play him in the PL more so as Arsenal as of now have defenders injury crisis on their hands to deal with it. But all my advocacy to see him to start playing in the PL for Arsenal has been to no avail. And would Arsenal allow the home grown Jenkinson to leave Arsenal on transfer this January window? Well, I don’t know.

    My preferred Arsenal 3-2-4-1 starters and the 7 Gunners on the bench I’ll like to see Emery use for Blackpool are as below.

    Cech,
    Jenkinson Pleguezuelo Medley;
    Elneny Guendouzi;
    Saka Ramsey Willock AMN;
    Nkethia.

    Bench:
    Martinez Koscielny Lichtsteiner Sokratis iwobi Xhaka Lacazette.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *