By Bulldog Drummond
Physioroom has the injury list as below. Soares is now fit it seems, but needs to return to full training this coming week before being ready to play.
| Player | Reason | Detail | Potential Return |
| Calum Chambers | Knee Injury | Ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee. | August |
| Sead Kolasinac | Shoulder Injury | Significant strain to right shoulder joint. Aiming to return to full training by the end of March. | 4 April |
| Kieran Tierney | Shoulder Injury | He’s done two or three complete sessions. Hopefully he will join the squad soon. | 7 March |
| Lucas Torreira | Ankle/Foot Injury | Awaiting further specialist reviews which will determine recovery plan. | No Return Date |
For West Ham the injury news is that Tomas Soucek has recovered and could play, but Andriy Yarmolenko is not quite ready.
The Guardian gives us for their Arsenal team prediction as…
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Mari Saka
Xhaka Ceballos
Pepe Ozil Aubameyang
Nketiah
Which then puts a bench selected from Martínez, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding, Willock, Guendouzi, Martinelli, Nelson, Lacazette
And interestingly Squwaka give us exactly the same predicted starting line up as above although they predict a 3-1 victory.
The Standard however breaks ranks and gives their predicted starting team as
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Mustafi Saka
Xhaka Ceballos
Nelson Ozil Aubameyang
Nketiah
Football London on the other hand gives us
Leno;
Bellerin, Mustafi, Luiz, Saka;
Xhaka, Ceballos;
Pepe, Willock, Martinelli;
Aubameyang.
The Sun doesn’t have a predicted line up – or at least didn’t when I looked – but they do helpfully ask “is the match on TV” and then also helpfully answer “no” which I suppose is helpful if you somehow thought that despite all the TV set up arrangements and contracts, the whole deal would suddenly be changed.
Prior to the game, David Moyes now managing Wham said all the right things about Mr Arteta, having been his manager when Moyes was at Everton. Among other things he commented that Arteta, “helped change Everton, the team and the way we played. We had so many good players at the time, and it changed what we had and improved us greatly.
“He was always a really good football player first and foremost. It took him a little time to settle in, but once he got used to the physical elements of the Premier League, he developed into a really good captain. His professionalism rubbed off on a lot of people around him at the time.”
Speaking of Moyes, he hasn’t won away to games Arsenal despite playing 15 games against us (and only four of those were draws). This is the worst record of any manager in the Premier League history.
On the BBC site the prediction is for a 1-1 draw even though West Ham have won just one of the past eight Premier League games and have lost more PL games against Arsenal than anyone else (30). They also note that “Arsenal have failed to reach 40 points at this stage of a Premier League season for only the third time. They finished the other two campaigns in 10th and 12th.”
But here is something a little more positive. When Aubameyang scores his next League goal he will be the 38th player to score 50 league goals for Arsenal. More to the point if he does it today he will be the fastest Arsenal player to do so since Joe Baker in 1963.
Meanwhile despite all the negative stats surrounding Arsenal we are currently in the longest current unbeaten run in the league, with three wins and four draws in seven games.
And that’s about it. All we need now is for the game to be played.
Just watching LiVARPool. 85th minute, Mane takes an olympic gold worthy dive in Bournemouth’s box…nothing.
Nada from the ref., nada from the VAR, nada from the commentator fans on french TV.
Such an incompetent bunch the PIGMOB. Not eeven able to hide their bias.
As for the talking idiots… I much prefer listening to an arabic stream…I don’t understand what they are saying …..
Arsenal XI: Leno,
Sokratis, Luiz, Mari, Saka,
Ceballos, Xhaka,
Pepe, Pepe, Aubameyang,
Nketiah
Arsenal bench: Martinez, Bellerin, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli, Lacazette
COYG!
Todays confirmed team
Leno, Sokratis, Luiz, Mari, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Ozil, Pepe, Nketiah, Aubameyang
Arsenal bench: Martinez, Bellerin, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli, Lacazette
Chris
Completely agree re the Sane dive, as blatant an attempt to con the referee you could possibly see. The dive was a couple of seconds after the perceived phantam foul.
Apparently StateAid fans are going to release black balloons at the game, as a protests against, Gold, Sullivan and Brady.
I’ve no idea if this is Neun und Neunzig Schwarz Balloon or not.
In other pregame news, Arsenal are set to sell 75 players, and buy 187 this coming summer. All for $1.38 (net). And as usual, everybody (and their dog) with no experience at running a team, is better than the professionals we have running Arsenal.
Unfortunately, it appears Atkinson showed up for PGMO.
COYG!
First foul of the game to Arsenal. Who?
COYG!
Second foul of the game goes to StateAid, and a yellow goes with it. Obviously PGMO decided to treat all games the same, eh? Oops, Mick and Chris already noticed that PGMO was tilting to LiVARpool.
COYG!
23m in, Arsenal commit third foul of game. Supposedly we had no shots on target and 2 off target. Which isn’t good enough. We had most of the possession. Corners are about even Fouls are 4:3 and cards 0:1. No treatments were noticed.
Hopefully we get more shooting into the game in the second half. And goals (in State Aid’s net).
COYG!
At Southampton ref Graham Scott used the pitchside Monitor before issuing a red card toMoussa Djenepo. Newcastle so far unable to make their man advantage count even missing a penalty.
I am watching an NBC stream and the co-commentator is even more biased against Arsenal than any of the terrible SKY/BT ones, and that is saying something. Not a good word to say about us throughout the first half.
Does anyone know who he is?
Three penalties not given by bentkinson
Fo.Lo has been mentioning one to Nketiah in the first half. What were the others?
Andrew, I had guessed that the pitchside monitor would only be showing cartoons. Did anyone see what cartoon was showing? 🙂
Shots are still listed as 1 on target, 2 off. Fouls are 8:4 and cards are 1:1.
COYG!
What a sham officiating by the PGMOL bastards!!
Clear pens not given and fouls called where none exist.
Corruption in the flesh!!!
Atkinson would have us believe that Luiz injured himself, and required treatment at 72m.
COYG!
Even the commentator I had on couldn’t work out why Bentkinson gave the free kick
How to go Lacazette! Nice work Mesut!
More please.
COYG!
well Ozil’s shoelace was offside. even the commentators who are not pr-Arsenal are not understanding what the f… is going on…
Guess they were calling Riley for instructions, none of them wanting to get fired for letting an Arsenal goal happen…
If it is so blatant that they are trying to screw Arsenal that the silly talking heads are seeing it, this is really ridiculous.
Guess now we just have to wait for a penalty against us, or a red card or both
Last sub, Bellerin on for Ozil.
Perhaps Bellerin assists Lacazette for another goal?
COYG!
Where in the world do they find 5 minutes of added time ?!?!?
5 minutes? There was only the one treatment to Luiz (with a foul given against Luiz)?
COYG!
Congratulations Gunners. Who was expecting a 1-0 to the Arsenal? Fouls are (supposedly) 12:5 and cards are 1:2. 2 shots on target and 3 off.
It took the VAR a few minutes to correct the decision from the assistant who raised her flag just to make sure it would be checked I think. When even the VAR can’t find a nail offside, he was not offside. I wonder if the lineswomen would have raised the flag if there would have been no VAR?
Artkinson seeing every tumble from a WHU player as a foul from an Arsenal player. At the other end… nothing to be seen. And that during the whole match.
Hey Bulldog, who were the experts?
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OT: CPalace 1 0 Watford
Well, Watford’s 1 game winning streak is over. Taylor was the PGMO twit. Fouls are 12:16 and cards are 4:4. Recently there was a headline about VAR proving the Zaha is not dirty. Guess what, Zaha got a yellow today. I wonder if that was VAR assigned? Watford needed a treatment on 30m, and it looks like Taylor issued a foul and a yellow over this. To a Watford player? My, what an odd situation that must have been.
I can’t find a description of what happened at 30m.
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OT: Sheffield 1 0 Norwich
Hooper is the PGMO twit here. Fouls are 12:8 and no cards. Sheffield inflict a treatment on Norwich on 6m, Sargeant Hooper Schultz sees NOTHING! Norwich inflict a treatment on Sheffield at 60m, which requires a substitution. Sargeant Schultz sees NOTHING! Norwich inflict another treatment on Sheffield at 89m, which also requires a substitution. Sargeant Schultz might have seen something, I am not sure. Two players kicked off the park, and no cards.
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OT: Southampton 0 1 Newcastle
Here’s Andrew’s red at 28m Scott the PGMO twit. Fouls are 14:15, 1 red card to Southampton and 3 yellows to Newcastle. Scott gifts Newcastle a penalty on 45m, which is missed. Shortly after that, Scott begins carding Newcastle. Southampton inflict a treatment on Newcastle at 60m, Sargeant Scott Schultz sees NOTHING!
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OT: Wolves 0 0 Brighton
Marriner is the twit for PGMO. Fouls are 4:7 and cards are 1:3. Brighton inflict a treatment on 31m, Sargeant Marriner Schultz sees NOTHING!
—-
Hopefully Burnley burns the spuds.
Just seen Moss book Lamela for a foul almost identical to the one that took out Torreira. Only difference being Lamela’s wasn’t nearly as aggressive as the Portsmouth player.
Mikey
And the comment from carragher:
“ you’re always going to get booked for a tackler like that, EVEN IF YOU GET THE BALL”
And it was nothing like as bad.
Honestly you couldn’t make this shite up.
Moss gifts the spuds a penalty on 48m, which Dele Diver scores on to even the score.
Fouls are 5:8, and cards are 1:1.
Let’s go Burnley!
Moss has gone nuts! Fouls are now 8:9, and cards are 3:2.
Is Moss going to gift the spuds another penalty or two?
Come on Burnley, get that win!
Fouls are 12:10 and cards are 4:3.
OT: Burnley 1 11 spuds
Moss the PGMO twit. At 36m, spuds inflict a treatment on Burnley. Sargeant Moss Schultz sees NOTHING! Fouls are 16:11 and yellows are 5:4.
Drat, Burnley didn’t win. So, we are 1 point behind the spuds, and 5 behind Chel$ea. It would be nice to see Wolves and Sheffield start to stumble a bit. 🙂
OT: Burnley 1 1 spuds
Oops, the spuds didn’t score 11.
I’m guessing that the time added on in our match was 4 min for normal stoppages, substitutions, Treatments etc plus 2 minutes for the VAR nonsense. I wasn’t at the game and was following a text stream which showed 2 mins plus delay..
As for the difference in fouls with Torriera – sub rule 8b again I’m afraid. ‘UNLESS AN ARSENAL PLAYER IS INVOLVED’
Three points gained though. A miracle win at City on Wednesday could see us up to fifth.
@Andrew,
thanks for putting the record straight, I had completely forgotten about the VAR mascarade.
I don’t believe this woud be possible in any other big league, this so blatant searching for reason to punish a team.
And considering that in case of doubt the rule says the attacker wins, it proves again how refereeing in the PL is done by incompetent referees unable to read and/or understand the laws of the game – and apply them in a coherent manner.
OT: Arsenal Women
Van de Donk limped out of Netherland’s game against Canada. We (Arsenal) didn’t need that. Being Canadian, her getting injured wasn’t my fault. 🙂
Get well soon Danielle!
Does this explain Moss in the second half?
https://www.sportsmax.tv/index.php/football/international/item/58915-dyche-referee-moss-changed-after-talk-with-spurs-staff