By Bulldog Drummond
Here are the injuries as always based on the report from physioroom.com
| Player | What’s up? | Notes | Return date | Playing v Villa | |
| Alexandre Lacazette | Ankle/Foot Injury | “Alex will need to rest and strengthen his ankle to regain full fitness. He is likely to be back in action in October.” | 27 October | None | Ruled Out |
| Sead Kolasinac | Uncertain | In Europa he felt a small problem but it seems ok | 22/09/2019 | Being Assessed | 50% |
| Hector Bellerin | Knee Injury | Playing with under 23s. “We want the next week to take the normality training with us. After that week we can decide.” | 20/09/2019 | Late Fitness Test | 75% |
| Kieran Tierney | Groin/Hip | Same as Bellerin | 20/09/2019 | Late Fitness Test | 75% |
| Konstantinos Mavropanos | Lacking Match Fitness | No Return Date | Currently Being Assessed | 50% |
I can’t see Bellerin coming back after being with the under 23s on Friday, so the only chance of the injured returning is Kolasinac. Holding has left the list so is presumably ready to play unless deemed not match fit.
So let us move on to Arsenal against Villa in recent history, and for this I have selected the last dozen games.
| Date | Game | Res |
Score | Competition |
| 21 Dec 2011 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 29 Jan 2012 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 3-2 | FA Cup |
| 24 Mar 2012 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 24 Nov 2012 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 23 Feb 2013 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 17 Aug 2013 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | L | 1-3 | Premier League |
| 13 Jan 2014 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 20 Sep 2014 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 01 Feb 2015 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 5-0 | Premier League |
| 30 May 2015 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 4-0 | FA Cup |
| 13 Dec 2015 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 15 May 2016 | Arsenal v Aston Villa | W | 4-0 | Premier League |
So in the last 12 against Villa we have lost one and drawn one. And that defeat on 17 August 2003 was one of the most notorious games at Arsenal in the modern era, for the refereeing decision making was so erratic it could not be believed.
The BBC report on the day said that “Benteke controversially put Villa ahead…” but doesn’t quite explain what the controversy was. They mention anger from Arsenal fans but don’t quite get to saying why. And that has consistently been the problem of the modern era. The rules of accreditation of the media insist that contraversial decisions must not be speculated upon, nor can outrageous tackles which go unpunished be talked about. So we ended up with reports that had little to do with the match.
What is also interesting is that newspaper pictures from the day have fans holding up placards of protest reminding us that at Arsenal it was ever thus. The Telegraph mentioned “Feisty Villa” and spoke of their “battle-plan” but didn’t really explain what “feisty” meant. Those of us there most certainly did know what it was all about. “Battle plan” was an incredibly apt description.
The Independent at least got a fraction closer to reality by saying “many Arsenal supporters in the 60,000 crowd, decided that the fault, in a close contest between Wenger and referee Anthony Taylor, was just about equally divided.”
But of course it wasn’t Mr Wenger’s fault that he had prepared his team for a game of football while Villa had prepared for hacking and rucking with refereeing connivance.
The Guardian said that for Arsenal “expectations are being undermined by a strategically inept transfer window.” Which was interesting because we bought, as you might recall, Mesut Özil with Bellerin following later in the season. Strategically inept indeed. It was ever thus.
As for the team the Express goes with
Leno;
Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, David Luiz, Kolasinac;
Xhaka, Ceballos, Guendouzi,
Ozil; Aubameyang, Pepe
Squawka agrees with them. As does the Stats Zone, so that may well be how it goes.
The Standard is on similar lines but with one change
Leno,
Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac,
Xhaka, Ceballos, Guendouzi,
Nelson, Aubameyang, Pepe
Half time at Dartford and the Ladies have a very comfortable two nil lead. Mead and Roord the scorers. Mel Filis started and has looked bright throughout. Ruby Grant on the bench. Jen Beattie warming up as though she will come on for the second half.
16:30
leno
mniles-sokratis-luiz-kolasinac
guendouzi-xhaka
pépé-ceballos-saka
auba
can’t stand the way ue has been humiliating mesut for 15 months
hoiw long will it take him to admit joe is better than matteo?
COYG anyway
The beach is: Martinez, Ozil, Torreira, Chambers, Nelson, Willock and Martinelli.
COYG!
Full time at Dartford and a comprehensive five nil win for the Ladies. Beth Mead with a Hattrick and Roord and Mitchell with the other two. COYG. MATCH THAT!
What’s the card for, garlic breath?
COYG!
Horsefeathers! Come on Gunners, let’s get some goals.
We’ve supposedly committed 4 fouls, and that is worthy of 2 yellows?
COYG!
Our 5th foul is a second yellow for M-N?
COYG!
Another yellow to us with no foul? Dissent?
Four yellows for 5 fouls. Moss you are a turd!
COYG!
Gord, a yellow for every two fouls seems to be the ‘going rate’ for Arsenal this season, especially when it means a sending off as well! Moss can always be relied on to do his masters bidding.
ht
nightmare on kornsey road
not even angry, feelin’ very sad, actually
moss … yep, but i’d love the wenger out brigade to remind us of The Great Man’s stats against promoted teams
maybe the following XI could get us something today, eventually:
leno
sokratis-luiz-kolasinac
nelson-willock-ceballos-saka
özil
aubameyang
… should mesut feel like saving his abuser’s ass; if you were him, would you, friends??
anyway, ue won’t pick it
freddie has to take over
This a joke for refereeing. That Auba call as offside couldn’t have been more wrong. The boys should just get on with it. We have enough quality to disgrace the PigMob in their dark arts. COYG
According to my commentary, To Be Confirmed scored on a penalty given to us?
COYG!
Okay, well it seems Pepe took the penalty, and converted. Can we get Pepe a hat trick today!
COYG!
Horsefeathers, they scored again. Tie the game up boys!
How to go Callum!
Another goal please Gunners!
COYG!
How to go Aubemeyang!
AVilla go 8 fouls, to their first card.
COYG!
Keep passing out the yellows to Arsenal, Moss.
COYG!
Good result!
Do you think 7 yellows is enough for 12 fouls Moss? And AVilla get 1 yellow for 13 fouls?
And there isn’t a muppet anywhere in England who will question his nonsense.
what a great squad we have …
That may have been the hardest 3 points we’ve seen in a season or three.
And Chel$ea lose at home to Liverpool!
Gord posts
”Do you think 7 yellows is enough for 12 fouls Moss? And AVilla get 1 yellow for 13 fouls?
And there isn’t a muppet anywhere in England who will question his nonsense.”
A great post Gord.
It should be on the wall of the Emirates, it should materialize into existence everytime you hear the name of a PIGMOB arsewipe.
Ridiculous refereeing! Surely Moss’s token yellow to Aston Villa at the end will expose the reality to some people!
Well done lads! You won against all the odds!
Just what the PigMob deserves. We were playing the opposition with a ref that was very sympathetic to their cause. Virtually all the AFC players got a yellow card for the slightest of infractions. Meanwhile the Villa guys were angels in disguise. We deserved that win and doubly so.
According to the BBC stats, Arsenal received 7 yellows for 13 fouls. Villa received 1 yellow for 15 fouls. It was interesting that Leno got a card for timewasting. Adrian did the same during the Chelsea-Liverpool game and Henderson got a “talking-to”. No card was issued. Referee consistency would appear to be many years away, and it seems that VAR is causing problems due to “phases of play” being used to decide when it is called into use. Who is responsible for delineating “phases of play”? I’ll give you one guess.
Our first-half performance was less than memorable. Twitter went into meltdown after the first Villa goal, and the AMN sending-off.
Great turnaround in the second half, and a fine performance from the 10 men.
WOO HOO , HOO ! More in relif .
A very gritty win , and that too with 10 men. Not really convinced that it was a second yellow card.
And a penalty for us ? We have seen them not given . Ta, guv.
It would have been a shame if we had drop points at home , as many of our direct rivals lost ground.
Up the Gunners !
@Gord It really is obvious isn’t it that PIGMOB are bent. There will be no mention of this in mainstream football media…
@seismic – Consistency, according to PIGMOB, is when you have different rules for different teams – in the same game !
The amount of yellows was massively tilted against us. I recall the 2013 game very well, my friends and I still talk about it: Taylor was a disgrace that day.
I appreciate we didn’t play great today but what we did do was display balls the size of elephants.
Well done boys .
Oh, and one last thing………..f*** you Moss.
“So, what have the Kroenkes given us for today?”
“Well, a clueless coaching staff that has presented us fans with
(a) a ball-watching defensive unit totally clueless and somewhat reckless in challenges;
(b) a slow midfield unit totally clueless and devoid of artistry;
(c) an attacking unit somewhat clueless because of being devoid of any supporting linkage from elsewhere
(d) a match day team full of the coaches favourites who appear somewhat clueless as to how to win the game from the start;
(e) a substitutes bench containing some humiliated players that are appearing to become clueless for the future.”
” Yes, but apart from these, what else have the Kroenkes given us?
Well, perhaps a coach that eventually makes three inspired substitutions that helps to win the game.
We cannot have everything you know!”
Jon Moss makes me sick
It was an ¨interesting¨game with every quality and failing AFC have, fully on display. AV’s two goals were apparently Arsenal’s defense pretending to be in slow motion while AV’s attackers were at liberty to run and shoot where they liked. This awful tendency to back off the ball carrier and avoid going into the tackle to win the ball may be because the referee would love to give Arsenal player’s cards or penalties, as the case maybe, OR because AFC’s defense has a collective brain-fart all at the same time.
Where would we be without Auba? Maybe in mid-table obscurity or worse. Leno must wonder wtf his defenders are doing when their opponents get close to goal.
I love the energy of Guendouzi and feel that Pepe ,like Thierry when he started, is just getting warmed up. Saka is a marvelous addition and Chambers adds a lot to the team. Once Bellerin and Tierney step-up, we should be stabilized defensively.
I read news articles about the game, and all they are reporting is the failings of Arsenal. There is not even the faintest hint of mention of the failings of the PGMO. Four cards on 5 fouls at half time is ridiculous for a team which is trying to play the beautiful game with style. It might be the norm for a team such as Wimbledon was many years ago.
Moss was a total disaster first to last. However, he was not a factor in either Villa goal. Both were from absolutely shambolic defending. I’m old, slow and useless with either foot but feel like I could take a stroll through midfield and make something happen against AFC today. After waltzing through midfield, I’d then be untroubled by the centre backs if they were in fact aware of my presence. That’s how AV scored both goals.
I appreciate the fight, grit and tenacity to come back a man down and win. But it should never have been necessary. This was a home match against a promoted side. AFC should have overwhelmed them, blown them off the pitch. Come out on the front foot and stay there. It’s unfair to compare, but look what City did to Watford when they went up 2-0 early. That’s what top sides do. Strong from the off. There’s enough attacking ability here to do it. And Emery, please find a midfield combo and formation that works. Right now you’re killing the defenders and keeper.
We have seen so many games over the years where the referee was clearly allowing fouls from opposition teams whilst punishing our fouls out of all proportion. Do you remember the 180 degree spin and drop vicious tackle by Cahill on Sanchez a few years back, for Mourinho’s Chelsea. Unpunished.. yet Sanchez was too injured to last more than a few more minutes. As so often happened, our most potent attacker out of the game and a huge boost to the opponents. I remember many such incidents but that is the one which sticks most in the mind, along with the Shawcross Ramsay double leg break incident and the Eduardo leg break too, of course. We do remember the rotational fouling which this site talks about and it being so blatant that the media and pundits had to be brainwashed by themselves or the powers that be to not expose it continuously until it got stamped out.
How many games did this happen in? It was many whole seasons, some of us clearly remember. We clearly remember the pundits and press overlooking almost every incident. We remember the many years when United were the darling of the referees and the many points we lost, when on target for the title. Actual titles lost due to referees? Surely not. Yes, at least 2, where the margins were 1 or 2 points. When this site analysed points lost over a season due to referee bias a few years back, it is obvious. Maybe 12 points deducted by referee bias for us and many teams of course gaining, usually against us. Newcastle, Arsenal, anybody? Where we went 4:0 up, only for the game to end 4:4. I remember a couple of the players afterwards saying that they couldn’t go anywhere near the ball towards the end of the game without getting a card or foul against, yet Newcastle were allowed to run rampant. It was a perfect day for the PGMOL and their dark arts. It was a horrifically depressing day for us, when the title was lost for certain, after many such games, albeit not so obvious. Oddly enough yesterday, John Moss didn’t give the likely penalty against Sokratis. The mind boggles at what goes on in their heads sometimes. In the end we were perhaps fortunate for the 3 points but it was an incredible fightback, just exactly what the doctor ordered and 2 wins on the bounce.
RANT OVER!!
The current team is the best I can remember for many years. There are still a lot of teething problems with the players and us fans adapting to the Emery style but with first choice defenders coming back, the biggest issue will soon have every chance of being snuffed out. I cannot see a weak spot in the personnel. The transfer window was a masterstroke. But as George Graham must have been thinking for many years, why does Arsenal not concentrate on the defense until it is watertight? That is the key that opens up the attacking players to play without fear and really go for it, as City did to Watford, mentioned by goonersince72, above. With this team, we have an attack as good as anything in Europe, so if the defense can be made excellent, the attack will probably more-or-less look after itself and will only benefit from being freed up to be devastating going forwards. I have no doubts that Sokratis and Luiz are excellent defenders and they will learn to play together effectively in Emery’s system, with Chambers (what a star yesterday!) and Holding coming back and ready to help out. I worry for Maitland Niles, who is clearly totally wound up with having to be a make-do at right back. But he is an excellent player and I just hope that he gets plenty of chances on the wing, as a reward, once Bellerin is back, maybe giving Pepe a rest every 2 or 3 games, as a substitute or starter, in the Premiership as well as cups. Ainsley, you are a superstar!!! With the shit that these players get from fans and ‘other’ groups, whose view of the game and the team is as changeable as the wind and whose commentary seems to have no basis in reality, don’t you wish that we could send messages for the players to ignore the bullshit and feel very much appreciated by the fans that have some kind of rational view of things and that realise that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Pepe may get tackled a lot but he has the guile to overcome that. He is a very exciting player and great that he got his first goal yesterday. Aubameyangm Lacazette(The guy is totally out of this world and a real warrior!!!), Ozil, Ceballos, Pepe, it is truly mouthwatering and can only get better. How a manager can keep everyone happy in the age of instant gratification, of fan fickleness and the rubbish spouted so often in the media is beyond me but maybe a feeling of defensive solidity will help more than anything. We have the players and hopefully the refereeing will improve.
One thing is certain. The future looks bright. We have the influx of very talented young players coming through, eager to and able to help out, many of whom will go on to become fan favourites and real international superstars and a key part of their National teams, too, including England. I really like what I’ve seen of unassuming and pleasant Willock, although I haven’t followed the youth teams as much as some of you on here and thanks for the regular reports! Nketiah, Nelson, Saka, Smith-Rowe. All the rest of them. The fruits of Wenger and his team’s labours of many years are really showing now. Emery and the new Management team are very fortunate to be working for our great club.
I really have gone on but cannot finish without mentioning Guendouzi. He is one of ours and the most incredible play-maker, isn’t he! There is not a team in Europe that would not snap him up in an instant, if given the chance. He puts his heart into every game and is a real genius. And he is ours! And he is 20. Another extremely talented warrior.