By Bulldog Drummond
The big news about today’s game seems to be why it can’t be played on Thursday, and that’s because Braga, who play just down the road from Vitoria are playing in the Europa on Thursday, and we can’t play in the evening because the game can’t clash with the champs league. So Wednesday afternoon it is.
Here’s the league table…
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Benfica | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 23 | 3 | 20 | 27 |
| 2 | FC Porto | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 5 | 16 | 25 |
| 3 | Famalicao | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 13 | 7 | 23 |
| 4 | Sporting Lisbon | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 17 |
| 5 | Vitoria Guimaraes | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 7 | 16 |
As I read the regulations to qualify they need to be in the top four to qualify for the Europa next season and at present their place is being taken by Famalicao. We’ve mentioned them before; the man running that show is also a third owner of Atletico Madrid. They won promotion to the top flight for the first time in a quarter of a century last season.
Which means that Vitoria will also be thinking about getting into the top four and possibly knocking Sporting Lisbon (the one time giants of the country’s football) down to fifth position.
Here are their recent results
| Date | Game | Res |
Score |
Competition |
| 19 Oct 2019 | Sintra v Vitoria Guimaraes | D | 1-1 | Cup (lost on pens) |
| 24 Oct 2019 | Arsenal v Vitoria Guimaraes | L | 3-2 | Europa |
| 27 Oct 2019 | Sporting v Vitoria Guimaraes | L | 3-1 | League |
| 30 Oct 2019 | Vitoria Guimares v Belenenses | W | 5-0 | League |
| 02 Nov 2019 | Morirense v Vitoria Guimaraes | D | 1-1 | League |
Since our game, it has been one win, one defeat and one draw. As for Arsenal…
| Date | Game | Res |
Score | Competition |
| 27 Oct 2019 | Arsenal v Crystal Palace | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 30 Oct 2019 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 5-5 (5-4) | League Cup |
| 02 Nov 2019 | Arsenal v Wolverhampton W | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
So they have had a better set of games than we have had.
Here is the league table
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 8 | 9 |
| 2 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 6 |
| 3 | Standard Liege | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 3 |
| 4 | Vitoria Guimares | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 0 |
Each team now plays the other three once, so technically Vitoria could win the group, although that would be one of the comebacks of all time meaning as it does, wins by three or four goals a game.
A win for Arsenal would give us 12 points, which could be equalled by Standard Liege or overtaken by Eintracht Frankfurt. But if Frankfurt win their three and get 15 points and Arsenal win this match, Arsenal will be on 12 points. Even if Arsenal lost their other two games Arsenal would still go through as the second best team.
So although such a set of results would cause great disruptions, Arsenal will go almost certainly through with a win tonight. For Arsenal not to qualify they would have to lose all three remaining games including tonight’s and Liege would have to beat Frankfurt. It seems rather unlikely.
As this is the first season we have ever played Vitoria Guimares there is no head to head results to compare apart from the earlier game in this competition which we won.
Concerning the teams, I guess we are sure to see Gabriel Martinelli, and Pepe who performed the miracles last time around.
Ozil will presumably be rested ready for the next league match but I imagine Willock will play again. As for Bellerin and Holding, I’m not sure what the manager’s thinking is.
The short fuse website comes up with
Martinez
Chambers Holding Mustafi Kolasinac
Maitland-Niles Willock
Pepe Smith Rowe Saka
Martinelli
Of course given recent exploits what this now means is that there is much more attention on Martinelli than before. We’ll find out if that plays on his mind.
Goal.com thinks that Xhaka might start his rehabilitation here.
As for the Evening Standard they go with…
Martinez;
Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Kolasinac;
Torreira, Willock;
Maitland-Niles, Saka, Pepe;
Martinelli
Anything other than a win is going to put to wilderbeest among the werewolves and give the journalists quite a bit to think about. No, hold on… quite a bit to write about. I am not sure there will be much thinking being done, whatever the result.
PS: Football.London are quoting this as the team for this afternoon…
Martinez;
Mustafi, Holding, Sokratis;
Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Willock, Tierney;
Pepe, Martinelli, Saka
Been announced that Granit has been stripped of the Captaincy by big man Bruce Rioja.
I fear for us at Leicester
What is it with if my aunty had balls in every assessment? Arsenal have to win all their matches irrelevant of group positioning. Arsenal are capable of doing so. Even in the Premier league, Arsenal are capable of winning every match.
Our attitude must be aggressive positive and not submissive negative. I think we will win this match and despite everything in the media, and win at Leicester. There is no reason why we shouldn’t. We might start 2 – 0 down before kick off but we sure as hell shouldn’t finish without scoring 3 or 4.
Come on you Gunners!!
I admire your optimism Menace
That’s Right Menace!
This is exactly the kind of mindset I’ve been talking about. Just because pundits and blogettas chorus blah blah blah….. means absolutely nothing.
Yes its a tough attitude to cultivate because you must maintain it whether you are 3-0 up or 3-0 down and I definitely agree this is one piece of the puzzle that we could really do with.
Moreover its not an entirely alien attitude to Arsenal, we just need to do it… ALL THE TIME… no matter the quality or competitiveness of the opposition.
Some of our damned so called fans at home are the problem. They have nothing positive to say or sing about because they are stuffed fuul of media shit.
Arsenal have the best infrastructure, stadia, medical facilities, admin structure coaching and Wengers legacy of some of the most brilliant young footballers in the world.
The idiots who don’t know, think the media and gobshite AFTV are intelligent. There has been nothing like the truth or reality coming out of AFTV. It is the dregs of the gutter that can’t hold a sentence in English that comment on there.
A waste of technology at the command of the stupid.
Officials provided are from Turkey.
Arsenal XI:
Martinez
Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding(C)
Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Willock, Tierney
Pepe, Saka
Martinelli
Beach: Leno, Bellerin, Lacazette, Torreira, Nelson, Guendouzi, Kolasinac
COYG!
Mirror has commentary, of course they need to kick Arsenal in their coverage. The Sun has to kick Arsenal in their coverage. Daily Mail have to kick Arsenal in their coverage.
Why blame Emery for one sentence answers, when the medja can only come up with one sentence paragraphs?
COYG!
A poor first half, not a single shit on target from Arsenal. Martinez with a couple of good saves to spare our blushes along with the post when he was well beaten. Work to do at half time.
I’m sure I typed shot
Andrew, I suspect the ex-Arsenal muppets commenting on the game made the reverse mistake all first half.
COYG!
Come on Gunners, get some shots on target!
81m Mustafi scores? No VAR callback? No emergency call from 😈 Mike Riley begging for UEFA to disallow?
How to go Mustafi! Pepe assisting.
Piss off all you haters.
COYG!
Drat, they equalized. Come on Gunners, get that lead back!
Well, a draw isn’t exactly what we wanted, but it helps. Let’s do a bit better with our next game.
Another poor performance from Arsenal. We were somewhat lucky to get the draw as twice the ball hit our post.
We need to be much better at the weekend.
Sad display in a rain soaked Portugal. The Arsenal were just not aggressive positive. One shot on target one goal. I suppose thats 100% conversion rate.
Several fouls not given but then the rain did not help. Flag happy assistant did not help with off side before the ball was played.
A draw is something to be grateful for under the circumstances.
Our performances are becoming consistently poor, that is a worry, emery needs to fix this.
You cannot allow teams that many chances,
Where have our Arsenal gone?
I think Leicester away will be his last as the manager. They are going to bury us. So everyone just download the disappointment now because this weekend is going to be extremely painful — I think it could be as bad as 3 or more goals.
So let’s see what Raul’s really worth, and let’s see the real intent from the boardroom. It’s all good to sit there preseason and talk about ambition — but this is it now. Time to show it. Project Emery is over and he has to go if we have any hope in saving our season
As per the above 3rd Arsenal match prediction before the Arsenal starts for the match was out, I can see that Football London got the Arsenal starts for the Guimaneas match today perfect. But again as it were against C Palace at the Ems in the PL last upper Sunday and after that at away to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, then at home to Wolves last Saturday in the PL, and today again at away to Victoria Guimaneas in the ELC match, Arsenal have taken the lead in each of the above 4 matches that they’ve played. In fact, they thrice took the lead in their CC match away to Liverpool but they conceded the equalizing goals in every of the 4 matches. But what is it that had made Arsenal to have conceded these equalizing goals after taken the lead in all the 4 above matches that I’ve listed? Today at Guimaneas, Arsenal failed to defend their late 1 goal lead in the match as they once again conceded the equalizing goal to Guimaneas to end the match in a 1-1 draw. But why have Arsenal always conceded the equalisers to their last 4 opposition teams in their last 4 games in all competitions? People attributed this to their lack of proper organization resilience in defending to stop the opposition teams from equalizing when they are leading in the game. And truly, I saw towards the end of the match after Mustafi has given Arsenal the lead in the match the Arsenal players who were en masse marking the Guimaneas players who were attacking suddenly getting tired and became inefficient in marking the Guimaneas players who were attacking them. No any Arsenal players in the area took the responsibility on themselves to clear the ball away from their goal area but allowed the Guimaneas players to take hold of the ball until they score in the added time. Emery and the Gunners who will play against Leicester at away on Saturday in the PL must correct this tiredness in defending flaw of a thing in the Arsenal game if they are going to stop Leicester from equalizing when they have the lead in the game on Saturday.
They’re right on the field Mark, just like they’ve always been!
omg you know what I mean!! We are so devoid of ideas that our highest percentage pass was between our centre backs 108 out of 552 . WTF are Ceballos and Willock standing on top of our back three when they should be 20-30 yards further up the pitch to receive the ball.
We have creative players but they have had their creativity sucked from their minds. It is boring boring Arsenal. I love my team. Supported since 1958. Leicester is Emery’s end game. Win or adios Unai. You might be a nice bloke but this job appears to be too much for you.
Linus, on the other hand, there are three problems.
Just because they might want a manager that doesn’t mean the manager would want Arsenal, or its fans, or its media profile.
And just because a manager has been successful in one club it doesn’t mean that he will be successful in another.
And third, not everyone wants to work for the Kroenkes.
Too quick to condemn. Why must a poor performance always be the fault of the coach? The defensive passing just never seems to go forward even after a run by an attacker. It appears to be poor decision making rather than poor coaching. Some of the forward momentum was good but some possession was selfish and resulted in the loss of the ball, sometimes as a result of an unseen foul. One touch passing seemed difficult in the conditions and aggression was not on the agenda.
If Arsenal do not approach games with winning intent then the result will be poor performance. Responsibility of this nust lie higher up than the coach. The managers that appoint the coach must also have a requirement of intent to win as a primary objective. The objectives must be followed up and be seen to have been set. Dismissal of coach is an easy get out of poor mangement. Management in football cannot be limited to administrative tasks and sipping champagne. They must have an active roll in the implementation of objectives on the field of play and be seen as observers in training and during matches. Passion is not limited to supporters. If management cannot show their passion for the game, they are not suitable for the job.
Just a thought , I think we have all seen a decline over the last 18 months of UE management at Arsenal .
In 6 or 7 cup games this season in the CC and ELC we witnessed 4 and 5 nil victories to what we saw yesterday it’s exactly the same as the EPL team they have become worse , whatever he’s asking the players to do it’s obviously not working .
I told everybody here that allowing Wenger to leave will be a step backwards tks to the WOBS and iditot fans who thought Wenger was keeping us back. but nobody listen to me. Now the club is in a big big Mess. Is there a bigger word for this that would be more appropriate.
Wonder how Emery won 3 Europas at Sevilla looks a big fluke. Was the team at Sevilla so good that they won it thrice? I don’t know as I don’t see Emery has the capacity to do so.
Well well how to get out of this mess?
As we are destroyed both on and off the field.
We are a joke club tks to the idiot fans and blogsphere who kept on barking against Wenger and made us fall at this level.
The only way I see is to bring Wenger back before Bayern signs him.
I am sure Wenger will never say no to Arsenal.
We’re again getting slated in the press & blogs (even from Untold lite Positively Arsenal), and you can’t really disagree.Just one shot on target in the whole match, and no joined together football at any one time.
I think Leicester on Saturday is going to be a watershed match. If we win then I’m sure Emery will be safe probably for the season, but lose and he’ll be out the door.
Bringing back Wenger? Who makes these jokes up?
Producing an eye catching performance on the pitch is quite difficult, but great to watch. Its even better when swaggering football also produces positive results.
Football keeps changing, fans notoriously vacillating btw wanting beautiful football and just wanting 3 points.
The prevailing wisdom is that nobody understands the gaffer. We have Spanish, German, English, French and Portuguese speaking players and some of the non-english players are at least bi-lingual…. somebody has got to understand something!
They accused Wenger of under-coaching, so what do we have now over-coaching?
Too much P.O.F.T.B.? Should we have more of hoofing the ball up field and competing for possession in midfield?
Anxiety can be infectious. We must not assume the worst for the weekend.
Afterall Chelsea turned last season around by beating Man City, without those 3 points they would have finished 5th.
@Cheadle wtf is P.O.F.T.B.? nobody understands!!!
Masterstroke: it was Bob Dylan who said “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke”
See Untold Dylan for more information (https://bob-dylan.org.uk)
@Menace
Sorry
P.O.F.T.B. stands for
Playing Out From The Back
@ Andrew
you say that we were lucky as the ball twice hit our post. In 2015/16 when Leicester won the title, if all shots in the premier league had gone in, we’d have won the title (stats courtesy of Sky). I’d say we were terribly unlucky in that regard! And it’s interesting that we were still defined as failures by both media and some fans that season.
@Ceadle – I agree that the system is not working because the players do not really understand why possession is so important playing the ball out from the back. There is no accurate one touch passing that is required nor is there variation. The goalkeeper is te key. Martinez seems to vary the system more than Leno. The defenders do not pass out quick enough and seem to think they are skilled enough to pass through the press. The lifted ball is never used, almost like the ball is lead. It would make so much difference if it were followed by quick movement to place all ‘pressers’ off side.
sorry @Cheadle
Disagree Menace. The upper management have hired their man. They dint need to be seen at the training ground. Not their job.
The coach inspires the players to perform with assistance from Freddie etc.
Unfortunately Unai doesn’t appear to inspire them so far. Of course he could turn it around by beating Leicester and going on a winning run before City come calling. By that time Liverpool might be out of sight.