by Bulldog Drummond
The BBC confirms that we will be without Thomas Partey, who has a strained hamstring and Kieran Tierney who has a leg injury. Bernd Leno and David Luiz are of course available.
That site also reminds us of the earlier meeting at Elland Road when Nicolas Pepe was sent off in a goalless draw and then they add,
“There will be goals this time, though, I am sure of it. Leeds were too good for Crystal Palace on Monday, while Arsenal have been hard done by to lose both of their past two games, against Wolves and Aston Villa.”
They go for a 2-1 win to Arsenal as long as no one else is sent off, but given it is the PGMO in charge, that is not a given.
The best match fact in our favour is (again from the BBC) that we “are unbeaten in five at home and have not conceded in any of the last three.” Which in turn means that we could have “five successive home clean sheets in all competitions for the first time since a run of seven from December 2013 to February 2014.”
And one more from them about Arsenal while we are at it…”Bukayo Saka has created 26 chances and won 42 fouls, more than any other Arsenal player in the Premier League this season.”
Which might be balanced by their comment on Leeds, which notes they have “lost their last six Premier League fixtures in London by an aggregate score of 2-18.”
So who is going to play, I hear you cry. Well… the always obliging Sports Mole offer us
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Cedric;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang;
Lacazette
The Standard also predict a 2-1 win, but like the BBC won’t venture into a squad prediction.
The Hard Tackle gives us exactly the same line up as Sports Mole but at least the Guardian have different ideas…
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Cedric;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe
Lacazette
Yes only one change but a powerful thought – dropping Aubameyang totally rather than hoping that finally his form returns. So that would mean bringing him on as a backup.
The Independent isn’t very independent today as they go with the Sports Mole line up, which is in fact proving very popular at the moment.
Sky Sports have a page on line about the game with the word “Prediction” in the headline but there is no prediction of the squad, merely a statement that we will lose 2-3.
Football.London do however not only give us a team but remember that we have just signed a new player on loan, so they offer radically different from the rest when it comes to the forward line. Smith Rowe they reckon, deserves a day off.
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Cedric;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Aubameyang, Odegaard, Saka;
Lacazette
And the Sun takes a meander down its own curious ways as well…
Leno;
Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Cedric;
Xhaka, Elneny
Smith Rowe, Aubameyang
Lacazette
And the last one for the road – the Daily Express
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Cedric;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Odegaard
Saka, Lacazette, Pepe
As ever one pays one’s money and takes one’s choice.
And here is the actual team
Leno,
Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Cedric,
Xhaka, Ceballos,
Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Saka,
Aubameyang
Subs: Ryan, Marí, Holding, Elneny, Chambers, Martinelli, Pépé, Lacazette, Willian
- Arsenal caught in a perfect referees’ trap for Leeds match. But will the ref change?
- Arsenal v Leeds: the home/away split, and the gaslighting influence
- Arsenal v Leeds: the Arsenal problem with goal scoring.
As always, rather than wasting my time indulging in pointless guesswork, I am happy to wait until the actual starting eleven is revealed by the club.
As for me, whatever be the Arsenal starting XI team and 9 man Gunners bench that Mikel Arteta the Gunners boss will select and name them to play against Leeds Utd today’s evening at the Ems in the Premier League match encounter between the duo club sides.
But the important thing to get in the match as far as Arsenal are concerned are the collection of all the 3 points that will be at stake for collection. And I believe the Gunners can do this collection of all the 3 points job successfully for AFC today. But provided they the Gunners will desist from spurning the goals scoring opportunities that they will have in the match. For, there have been numerous goals scoring chances that they have had this season but spurned them that included their recent last Wolves and Aston Villa PL matches which they lost.
But these are matches which Arsenal would have put to bed with some easy to them had the Gunners not spurned the several goals scoring opportunities they created or fell to them for conversions in the 2 matches.
And I think since Mikel Arteta has now appeared to have brought some defensive stability sense to the Arsenal defense-line after the club home 0-3 PL match loss against Aston Villa. Which is now seeing the Gunners defense conceding less goals margin scored against them in the PL. But are still losing the matches they ought to have won.
This losing of several PL matches this season by Arsenal calls for addressing the ugly situation to fix it well and sound by Mikel Arteta without any further delays at fixing it compellingly, if Arsenal are going to win more PL matches this season.
The spurning of goals scoring chances by the Gunners for Arsenal this season that is increasingly looking like a reigning malaise in the Arsenal attack must stop from continuing to reign.
Confirmed line ups from Mail online
Arsenal starting XI: Leno; Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Cedric; Ceballos, Xhaka; Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Saka; Aubameyang.
Arsenal substitutes: Ryan, Chambers, Holding, Mari, Elneny, Willian, Pepe, Martinelli, Lacazette.
Auba gets a shot away into the net 1 -0 to the Arsenal.
16th min a Leeds player goes down and Cooper the ref gives Leeds the foul. How that works is in the PGMOL handbook of Laws for Arsenal.
Aliowski kicks Saka for the second time and this time the foul is given.
naaah…no penalty…he’s wearing red.
The cu^ts are at it again. The footage that is shown initially clearly shows the foot that takes Saka down. The VAR swine only selects footage that shows alean onto Saka that is also a foul but not according to the PGMOL Book of aws for Arsenal,
How Attwell can be coerced into changing his mind when the incident was clear and obvious beggars belief. This game is going to be managed by the cheats.
The Keeper must be sent off for the foul on Saka but how clever these bastards are.
Its 2-0 to the Arsenal but should have been 3. How the bastards work their bias is shameful.
I’m surprised that Arsenal have not had a red card for coming onto the pitch!!
It is 3 -0 with Bellerin scoring despite several fouls that would have been a Man U penalty.
The Laws for Arsenal couldn’t stop the beautiful football that Arsenal play and the PGMOL will have to revisit their hand book to deploy new tactics.
@menace,
Be careful about posts about red cards for entering the pitch. That could well give them ideas for their next revision of advice to referees.
Nitram he gives it he realises it’s Arsenal I’ll have a look because I made a mistake Riley will not be happy , not even 50/50 or subjective . Bang on penalty IMO , we have to beat the system take the referee out of the equation .
Bielsa is a good coach and he needs a better potty to sit on when playing Arsenal.
The second half is under way and immediately there is a foul that should be a card with yellow hearts!!
Auba has a hatrick!!! it is awesome.
Leeds pull one back with a jump on Luizs back and a powerful header, but VAR don;t look at that!! It’s not in their book.
Leeds pull another one back after getting to the bye line and pulling it back to the sub who scores. It is now PGMOL management time so the game hinges on small transitive decisions.
Instructions are pouring into Attwells ears.
Selective vision has kicked in some of the obvious fouls are not seen by Attwell.
Attwell allows Bamford to kick Gabriel in the head as accidental after having pushed him down.
How Bamford hasn’t been booked is miraculous oooops no Lawful according to the book.
Auba is fouled on the achilies and Alan Smith knows that it wasn’t deliberate. What an absolute shambles VAR not seeing a red card probability.
A great first 50 minutes…fell asleep for a bit and then put the match to bed.
The win wasn’t as simple as it could’ve been. The Arsenal win despite the very fair officiating of both the on field and VAR operators – not a hope!!! It’s Valentines day so a little love to the money grabbers.
I don’t know how many times was pulled up for a foul play but eventually gets his yellow card in nearly the 5th minute of 4 minutes of extra time .
Arsenal played really well and on another day could have scored 6 , we are now creating chances long may it continue .
Last post forgot the players name Dallas
WOO HOO , HOO ! Well done guys. We could have done with a clean sheet , but then again…!
Up the Gunners !
Souness has learned from his gurus how to moan about a penalty not given. It’s his ilk that sit on the appeal panel. There is VAR and there is the Laws of Riley and Souness thinks he is going to make a point that Bamford should have had a penalty. The incident was where two Arsenal players shield the ball from a player who thinks he can run through to score. The defending was perfection in terms of shielding the ball in tandem. Nothing in the Laws say that you have to make space for the opponent to score. In F1 it is mandatory to allow one cars space for an opponent to pass after making one move to block the overtake. In football there is no Law against shielding the ball without having touched it.
How the first penalty decision was turned over by the official beggars belief, as Saka’s foot was blocked tripping him, and he was lent on by a player that didn’t play the ball, bringing him down. The footage initially shown on TV showed the foot trip but the footage shown to Attwell didn’t. It is a clear example of cheating and corrupt officiating.
How that penalty was reversed is beyond me. To reverse a penalty call there has to be a clear and obvious error. The Leeds player barged in to Saka so there was a foul. If there is a foul there is nothing you can do to reverse the decision. There was no clear error from the ref so he shouldn’t have recalled his decision. The only reason could have been one of Rileys accolites shouting in his ear to reverse it. Who was the VAR ref? Andre Marinner it seems…