Last year, 30 teenagers were murdered in London – the highest number in a single year since records began. “No More Red” is the campaign to support young people in our communities. arsn.al/NoMoreRed
By Bulldog Drummond
- Nottingham F v Arsenal: Different lives in different leagues
- Forest v The Arsenal. Home and away form and who played in the last round
- Forest v The Arsenal: Injuries in the PL are getting utterly out of control
- Forest v Arsenal. Are we utterly utterly desperate for a striker?
Technical note: my apologies if you see two large white spaces within the article. It’s something that is affecting some readers (and it is happening on one of my computers too) and we are still struggling to get it resolved. I really hope it doesn’t interfere with the enjoyment of Untold Arsenal too much. Tony.
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As for the game today – we are playing, as you well know, Nottingham FOREST who don’t play in a forest setting, and who emphasise this fact by playing at the CITY ground. How weird is that? At least Notts County, whose ground is next door, do play within the county of Nottinghamshire. I suppose this is where the phrase “tie them up in knots” comes from.
Sports Mole are obliging as ever with a team prediction and they note in passing that Calum Chambers and Eddie Nketiah are both doubts due to COVID-19. And their team is an interesting arrangement…
Leno;
Cedric, White, Holding, Tavares;
Xhaka, Lokonga;
Saka, Patino, Smith Rowe;
Martinelli
They also predict a 1-4 win to Arsenal. And away from the predictions of the match for a moment, they are also predicting that Newcastle United are interested in signing no fewer than four Arsenal men: Aubameyang, Holding, Elneny and Nketiah. And of course if they want to go to get more playing time, this is fine as long as we have other players to replace them. For just because Liverpool are able to get the League to postpone matches without any reference to what the actual rules say, that doesn’t mean Arsenal will be able to do so.
For this match The Hard Tackle go with
Leno;
Cedric, Holding, Mari, Tavares;
Lokonga, Patino;
Martinelli, Smith Rowe, Balogun;
Nketiah
and they also go with a fulsome lead on No More Red which I am glad to see. They additionally come up with a couple of good pointers:
- Nottingham Forest have conceded at least two goals in six of their last seven matches (FA Cup).
- Arsenal have lost just two of their last 43 FA Cup matches against opposition from a lower division, one of which was away to Forest.
- On the two occasions that Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, they have gone on to win the trophy.
The Independent online newspaper goes with
Leno;
Tomiyasu, White, Holding, Tavares;
Xhaka, Lokonga;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Nketiah
So that is three predictions and all different! Quite a feat. Yet there is more to come…
However first in case you haven’t noticed and you can receive UK TV, the game is being shown live in the UK on ITV 1 with the mindless chit chat and undoubted talk about every team other than Arsenal starting at 4.20pm and with kick off at 5.10pm.
The Evening Standard runs the headline “team news” and then tells us Arsenal ‘really short on numbers’ for Nottingham Forest trip but want to play FA Cup tie, insists Mikel Arteta. And that’s it. No team prediction, no nothing. Maybe they got lost in the Forest.
TalkSport also have a page on their website with “live team news” of the game but there isn’t any, only an advert for the fact that they are running a radio commentary.
90mins do however have a line up although it takes a bit of searching out
Leno;
Suarez, White, Holding, Tavares;
Lokonga, Patino, Odegaard
Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe;
The Sun’s team news tells us that Arsenal have players in Africa, but doesn’t actually give us a line up for this match, which really is pretty dumb. But SportsKeeda remain up to the mark suggesting
Bernd Leno;
Cedric Soares, Ben White, Rob Holding, Nuno Tavares;
Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka;
Emile Smith Rowe, Charlie Patino, Gabriel Martinelli;
Eddie Nketiah
And that I think has covered just about every possible combination of a line up. But I really do think it is utterly scurrilous the way these larger media organisations are just sticking anything they feel like in a headline and then not delivering in the article.
But just as we wait for the match to come around let me finish with this… It comes from the Mirror and the “39 year old” mentioned in the piece is Mr Arteta, although why they seem congenitally unable to mention his name is beyond me. But that’s the Daily Mirror for you.
“The 39-year-old is seemingly keen on instilling an ‘us vs them’ mentality within his impressionable, youthful side who have given themselves a great chance for a top-four finish.”
Remember this comes 18 months after Mikel Arteta introduced the “stop tackling” protocol in order to regain control of Arsenal games from the PGMO who in the previous season had given Arsenal more yellow cards than any other club. As a result in 2020/21 Arteta cut Arsenal’s yellow card intake in half. If that wasn’t an “us vs them” mentality I have no idea what is, or was.
Thank you Daily Mirror. Now just 18 months behind the times, which actually could be seen as quite an improvement.
And the actual team – still no Smith Rowe!
Leno;
Cedric, White, Holding, Tavares;
Lokonga, Patino;
Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;
Nketiah
As far as scoring goals is concerned (referring to your former post) I’m much more worried at the moment by what’s being done to Emil
If he doesn’t get more playing time soon, the big-club-dementors will swarm around him, and will take his young, dejected soul away from Islington in no time, which I, for one, won’t blame the lad for
Gabriel and Partey are unavailable, so that MA has a golden opportunity to try something else
I know the following lineup is such stuff as many fans’ nightmares are made on:
Ramsdale (Leno/Cups)
Tomiyasu-White-Holding-Tierney
Xhaka
Saka-Odegaard-SmithRowe-Martinelli
Lacazette
… because of the one-DM-only (I get the point, don’t agree with it)
Maybe a change in the setup would comfort them (3-4-3):
Ramsdale/Leno
Holding-White-Xhaka
Tomiyasu-Odegaard-SmithRowe-Tierney
Saka-Lacazette-Martinelli
I’ve had glimpses of Granit in that position (in the 2-2 draw at Chelsea, after we were down to 10 men) – but he was outstanding (as he so often is btw)
Anyway, either something of the kind is given a chance, sooner or later – actually, I think today’s game is the perfect opportunity – or our top goalscorer will walk off, sooner than later …
COYG
Slightly off topic but a reminderthat out women are in WSL action this afternoon with a 14:00 kickoffaway to Birmingham City. We have an even morethreadbare squad than the men but have nevertheless managed to field a team.
Zinsberger
McCabe, Sørensen, Beattie, Maritz
Walti, Little, Nobbs
Iwabuchi,, Miedema, Mead
Subs. Stenson, Wubben-Moy, Schnaderbeck, Goldie, Maanum.
One goalkeeper, three defenders and a midfielder on the bench.
The match is on Sky Sports main event
Lia Walti has had tobe replaced by Frida Walti after an injury in the warm up. All of out outfield subs are now defenders so hope for no more injuries during the game.
A quarter of thegame gone in Birmingham andso far we have been totally inept. A goaldown inside three minutes and we are second best in all areass. Our passing is lousy, we keep giving the ball away arelosing just about every contested ball and havent had a shot from anywhere. I dontthinkMiedema has had a touchyetin the final third of thepitch.
We really have to improve a great deal to get anything out of this game.
Half time and things have got worse. Birmingham doubled their advantage in the 40th minute. Frankly we deserve to be two goals down. We look beaten and Eidevall has a monumental job to sort out the team before the second half. About the only change he could make would be to bring on Wubben-Moy go to a back threeand move McCabe further up the pitch. There are no attackers on the bench.
Three quarters of the game gone and we haven’t yet reduced the deficit and still dont look like doing so. We should now be three goals down after some seriously bad defending. Miedema should have earned two penaltiesbut for some typically bad PGMO blind refereeing.
Two nil loss and a diabolical performance puts a big dent in out title hopes. We look absolutely bereft of belief and were incapable of playing even simple five yard passes to team mates today. A vast improvement required.
I now just hope our men do a lot better against Forest in an hour and a quarter.
The actual team has been added to the article, but in case you have missed it…
Leno;
Cedric, White, Holding, Tavares;
Lokonga, Patino;
Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;
Nketiah
Not an inspired performance so far. Our midfield hasn’t produced much.
A ton of niggly fouls by Forest…only one yellow.
There I was thinking ESR is sorely missing and lo and behold Forest score. Too many statues playing today unfortunately. January in the East Midlands. It doesn’t change much. Roll on the next game.
Considerably less embarrassing than being 1-0 down after 80 minutes at home to Morcambe!
Mikey
Possibly true, but alas considerably more ‘out’ !
I have a strong suspicion that the “Arteta Out” brigade will quickly be in abundance as well as the media pundits loving Arsenal getting beat by Nottingham Forest and having a field day leading up to the Liverpool game.
Defeats happen! I have not always been entertained by certain Arsenal performances this season. This was another performance that did not meet the standard one would expect from an Arsenal team. However, until the full reasons for such a performance are explained, it is pointless to make any judgement. I am sure that the players will be shocked and disappointed with this match performance and the result.
Perhaps the Liverpool and Tottenham games will provide a fresh impetus for the squad to play how we all expect. The squad needs as much positive support as possible. I really hope that team supporters will show total positivity towards the team and the management over the next fortnight at least. I know how wrong I have been on occasion this season in offering negative criticism towards the team’s entertainment value. Injuries, Covid and the AFCON event have caused a dearth of available players for Arteta to choose from, in a similar way to the start of the season. Let us hope that all fit players will become available by Thursday.