Well, football gods aren’t treating us well so far this year. We started well against Brentford with a 3-1 away win but then gave away the advantage by drawing to Brighton at home. Newcastle beat us 2-0 at Emirates in the first leg of Carabao Cup semi final, we then lost to Man Utd at home in a penalty shootout which ended our FA Cup run. We did beat Spurs in the North London Derby but Emery made sure we grieve again against Villa. We are plagued with injuries with Bukayo Saka side-lined for a very long time, Jesus as well.
On one side, we have been out of FA cup and Carabao cup looks almost impossible since we have to visit Newcastle in the second leg and they have a 2 goal advantage. In the Premier League, we have been giving away points and chances to catch up to Liverpool who are sitting on a 6 point lead to us and got a game in hand.
On the other side, we are sitting 5th in the Champions League table with 13 points in 6 games and we have next two games against Dinamo Zagreb and Monaco. These are relatively easier games, though European nights are very unpredictable. A win against Dinamo today will make it easy for us to qualify for knockout stage.
William Saliba will miss the game due to the hamstring injury he picked up last week and it would take couple more weeks for him to recover. Calafiori and Nwaneri were back in training but they will need another evaluation before the game. The usuals – Saka, White, Tomiyasu, Jesus remains unavailable.
Arteta in his press conference gave the reason for playing Partey at RB – unavailability of players. Now I can understand that, when Timber was injured and we didn’t have anyone to play on the left. Recently, MLS has been sensational in the LB position and Timber is back at RB, but he has got another problem with Saliba’s injury. Take it with a pinch of salt but some of the publications were reporting that he might try Declan Rice at CB. Rice was playing in that position at West Ham academy. I would take that over playing Thomas Partey at RB.
Here’s what Mikel had to say about playing Thomas at RB.
I had no choice, I didn’t have another right full-back, just Jurrien, nobody else. Who plays when Jurrien isn’t available for his load is too high? The other day was the first time [he moved Jurrien to centre-back] but in relation to the way we have to play, we cannot have a right-footed player defending a right winger. I didn’t have another right-sided centre-back.
source : Arsenal.com
RW is another problem. Martinelli is not cutting it and I have no idea why we got Sterling in first place. A sane manager would send him back to Chelsea and recall Nelson.
Right, I am looking forward to the game. Mathematically there are 16 other clubs competing for top 8 with us, and a win today will make it smaller.
Lets do it. #COYG
Wolves living dangerously but struggling against the press.
We’ve got 4 LBs on the bench. Crazy.
Ambarish—surely you must be joking regarding your Ethan take, as we’ve all been calling for him to get his just rewards, but not at the expense of having Ode benched…of course, today Ode’s out, so Ethan gets his shot in his stead…like I said, I really want to see them on the pitch at the same time, instead of us relying on Rice as an AM
as I watch Cunha playing as an AM it simply confirms my concerns over us shelling out a tidy sum on someone who wouldn’t be coming to replace Havertz up top…so he doesn’t really fix what ails us…not to mention his acquisition would make it exceedingly more difficult for us to get an out-and-out Striker come the summer
this is another fixture where I would encourage the opposition to involve their Keeper as often as possible, as he’s always an accident waiting to happen
loving that the commentator isn’t buying Havertz as our up top option
Pool 1:0
as others have suggested, I’m a bit worried about the possibility that MA rushed both Saliba and Skelly back too soon, especially considering that our bench is fucking littered with defenders
Havertz certainly isn’t helping himself or our chances of winning…thankfully in one of those regards
with Larson going down, Cunha’s price just went up another 10M
Tony—with how open the Wolves are we should be playing through Ethan, but that couldn’t be further from the present reality
Cunha’s being a petulant bitch out there…he’s definitely had his head turned…probably shouldn’t be playing…by the sounds of things he was the same against Chelsea
TRVL
I know I would get criticism for it, Ode is technical but we also need the physical presence in that midfield. Specially when you are between 2 DMs.
Cunha might already be on our payroll based on his poor passing and lack of directness in attack
Ethan’s not known for his physicality, it’s his technical abilities and finishing that make him so impressive at times
this one will be looked at…not sure he got him with his studs…just confirmed as such
Oh dear rookie mistake by Skelly with Pool 2:0 up
Red for Skelly.
Was he on an yellow?
Looks like tripping , but likely just inexperience
we can still win this one against this side, but we made it far more difficult
Fucking ridiculous – it was a yellow all day long for a tactical foul but a red?
Another red card against us that you won’t see awarded against another team for as long as you watch football.
Actually we might play better if Rice is forced deeper to defend with Party so good job we got those 4 LB subs lol
Hoopah—he clearly raked him down the leg, but there wasn’t any real intent…definitely an inexperienced gig, as you’ve suggested
VAR says it was up the shin and dragged down to the ankle
Tony
VAR guys are the same useless cunts as the refs.
Marc—put that tin foil away…I’ve seen that as a red, especially from behind and with them breaking out with numbers
I’m looking forward to MOTD, Sky Sports etc etc bring up dozens of similar straight reds and in other things that are going to happen I’ve converted to being a socialist.
I guess MLS will be in bad books of MA. Poor kid has played really well till now but with this Red card he might have lost his place. Red card for dangerous play means he is off for 3 games.
TRVL
You won’t see another team get a red for the same thing. I called the Rice sending off as a fair red but we get too many occasions where we’re on the receiving end of the “laws” that aren’t applied elsewhere.
Madhu—I think he might not get all 3 due to the lack of intent, but that’s always a highly subjective endeavour
Doesn’t matter we’ve only got City next week.
Marc—just watch it again, he caught him above the ankle with his studs then carried it down to the top of his foot…it seemd more innocuous at first as it appeared to be nothing more than a standard from behind cynical foul simply to stop their break