Champions League night. At Home. 1-0 deficit, so need to win at least with 2 goals. Haven’t qualified for Quarter final since 2009-10. Eliminated 9 out of 10 times in knockout stages when we had lost the first leg. Worrisome past in Champions League. And a mountain hill to climb.
But…
Mikel was positive in the press conference and I’m sure the team is, too. Likes of Bukayo Saka, Martinelli (injured unfortunately), Rice, Gabriel, Saliba have proven their worth in England, I’m sure they are eager to do that in Europe as well. Today’s the day.
Arteta has stuck to the ‘new’ usual playing XI. Raya starts in goal to support the back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and Kiwior. Jorginho keeps his place in the midfield, so we would see Rice again in a more advance role. Odegaard starts.
Kai Havertz leads the front 3 with Saka and Trossard on either side. LT has better eyes for goal and we might see him rotating at top with Kai. I would say we are playing with the best team we have.
I would have preferred Thomas Partey in place of Jorginho, but he has come back from injury and has hardly played. And Martinelli is out injured for 2-3 weeks so Trossard is 2nd best option at LW.
I don’t have much to say about today, except that we need the team winning today with at least 2-0. In return, they need our support and voice and enthusiasm. Lets keep the love and hate aside for the players and the manager and enjoy a beautiful night of football.
A very short one today, games starting in 30 odd minutes.
#COYG
I turn into an irrational 14 year old kid when a major draw (or even the FAC r3) is in the offing.
Notwithstanding the sensible points emerging from yesterday’s discussion about potential opponents, nor the fact that I know the square root of fuck-all about euro footie, I’m putting the teams in order that I’d like us to face (we can’t play MC til the semis at 5he earliest right?). Tell me (as kindly as possible because I’m a sensitive, delicate flower) if you think I’m talking utter shite!
Dortmund (not a major force in Germany right now – they have the underwhelming Sancho in their team – close-ish location for the away leg – will want to attack)
Barcelona (chance to avenge previous humiliations and the injustice of 06 – a club of abject self aggrandising wankers – weaker now than at any time in the last 30 years)
Athletico (Porto mark 2 in terms of shit-housing and general nastiness for which we now have experience – good preparation before possibly facing their equally cunty cross town rivals)
PSG – An ageing squad that never quite gets there in the final stages – nullify Mbappe – easier said than done? – and we’ll have enough
Bayern – More avenging of past failure – getting one over on lisping ‘Arry (as opposed to twitching Arry Redknapp)
RM – Big boys that I’d rather play in a one-off game – bastards nonetheless.
All views welcome
KP – this is the year to play RM. They have underperformed a few times this season and next year they will have Mbappe who will be rejuvenated. In fact this season we are probably in a better state than the majority of the remaining rivals. Game management will be the crucial factor – Can El B provide the solution?
Tony-great post, not sure how I didn’t see it before I submitted my last post about the Inter/Athletico match before crashing…it must have been stuck in limbo mode because I checked to see if you had posted anything before shutting shit down…regardless, all the best today with your tests…take care
KP & Norg—we need an opponent of some significance in order to both see where we stand in Europe and for Striker recruitment purposes, so I hope we draw either Bayern or Real…neither are unbeatable and to take one of them out at this stage would be a real statement…not sure if we’re ready to play the role of spoiler but I’d rather go out against one of the big boys than lose against a side that we should be able to beat, in light of our massive investments the past two seasons
TRVL
I can picture the scene now – Arsenal vs Bayern. Arsenal win and HK comes over to El B and hands him his job application form.
Arsenal win and HK comes over to El B and hands him his job application form.
😊😊😊
And Arteta throws a pissy fit and insults Sir Harold of Kane’s family! Do you reckon there’s and mileage in Conceicao’s claim?
Sergio is certainly upset and he hasn’t stopped sounding off – or is it the press filling up pages.
He claimed something quite similar about Pep in 2020, so I’m not totally convinced that he was speaking the truth or he simply misinterpreted what was being said…certainly not a big deal, but interesting nonetheless
Bayern, I’ll take that. At least they’ll come to play. And we make sure Kane ends another season potless.
The only ones I wanted to avoid were city and athletico. City would be too intense and potential to affect the run in. Atleti would be another Porto style shitfest.
At this stage, we want proper games v proper teams. Hope it’s Madrid in the semis.
Cheers Aitcho
It’s all about sentiment so I welcome your guarded confidence about facing BM. I know little about them, but I guess like playing Spurs when HK was there, if we nullify him, then it should augur well. They’re clearly a bit diminished thus season.
I need to do sone homework on them. They might be over confident given their past CL games with us but they took place years ago
Hopefully El B will not do a Wenger and walk out with a book down his trousers. Kane will be fired up but Willy can take good care of him.
Couldn’t ask for a better draw…Bayern have never been more vulnerable, as the inmates are running that asylum, considering their lame duck manager (it will be interesting to see if MA can outmanage Muller & Neuer)…their decade+ long dominance in the Bundesliga is coming to an end and although that might put their focus squarely on the CL, they certainly haven’t played like a team destined to win anything…
there’s no doubt that we can’t allow Kane to dominate the proceedings, but unlike the vast majority of his opponents this year, we’re very familiar with what’s required to limit his chances…he clearly has an outstanding record, from a productivity standpoint, against us, but we’ve never had a more structured and settled backline, which should include a deeper-lying Rice…furthermore, a large percentage of his tallies have come from the spot (no player has scored more from the spot against a single side in Premier League history), so if we don’t give up any unnecessary freebies, we should be able to push for what some have described as a considerable “upset”
on a side note, the fact that City drew Real should be even more of a motivating force, as one of the top 2 seeds will be heading home prior to the semis…of course, Bayern will be thinking likewise
I must add that I would much rather have played them at home in the return fixture, but at least their fans won’t be allowed at the first leg in London, due to a fireworks violation during their Lazio match
we had better show some balls at home because we ain’t coming home from Bayern with a ticket to the semis unless we can find a way to both score a couple goals at home and stymie their offence, which Lazio did in the round of 16
Vieira
a fireworks violation during their Lazio match
They weren’t roman candles by any chance? 🎇🎆🎇
Should mean more seats for gooners no?
or Muller (well & truly) Riced.
just heard from a contact in Spain who will be testing my products for use in a Pyrolysis process.
He is based in Madrid and is a big Real supporter. Should they reach the semi’s and we do to he has just sent through an invite. Pleasure with a bit of business on the side.
KP-you would assume so, but knowing our club as we do, they will likely end up on the secondary market and go to the highest bidders, regardless of their respective allegiances
seems like Ben White rejected an England call-up…so either MA’s been in his ear, due to our dearth of depth in that position, or he simply didn’t want to give up his “break” for a sport he could care less about lol
TRVL
Apparently White had a falling out with Southgate’s assistant. Southgate is playing it down but it was a major incident as White was sent home. White is used to El B’s intense instructions so listening to Southgate & Co would probably have been tame.
Southgate is as banal a manager as he was a player. Doesn’t really make an impression, talks in clichés, humourless and too cautious. And the suits and waistcoats always make me think of the fast show – ‘oooh, suits you sir!’ I’m not an England fan though so he doesn’t bother me. If I was, however, all those near-ish misses in major tournaments and a failure to get a tune out of some very decent players would bother me.
Oval ball today. Ireland, England and Italy to win would be my guess. Oh, and the rather important matter of the south Wales derby where the Bluebirds have the chance to double Swansea for the first time ever (which seems bonkers considering how many times we’ve doubled the spuds over the years).
Kroenke
The only reason Southgate got the job is because no one else wanted it which in hindsight seems strange given the strength of the current England squad.
There was an article the other day where the rumour was ManU were putting together a shortlist of replacements for Ten Haag of random name, someone else and Southgate.
It’d be Christmas and New Year rolled into one for supporters of every other PL team if Southgate got the ManU job.
Imagine dining with Southgate and John Major at the same table. Lots of peas and falling asleep face down on your plate.
GS – Hmmm John, these peas are really green
JM – Yes Gareth, but even more importantly than that, you must include Harry McGuire each time you pick a squad.
My interest was piqued by your comment yesterday about pyrolysis. Having never in the science/energy sectors (save for three years promoting the UK hydrocarbons sector in Argentina) the autodidact in me looked it up. Strewth – complex or what! Can you point me towards a decent link that spells it out for laymen?
Norg-I heard about that kerfuffle, but surely that can’t be the only time something of that nature has taken place and the player in question returned to the fold
if you want to watch a very exciting finish to an FA Cup match checkout Wolves v. Coventry…just skip to the 80th minute, as there’s 9+ minutes of injury time
2 nil to City after 30 odd minutes – game over what’s on the other channels?
KP
Pyrolysis is certainly complex – too much for my tiny brain. My scientific qualifications are O level physics – I left school at 16 and haven’t used the knowledge since. I stumbled upon a waste product a few years ago and was amazed what academics had discovered but had done nothing with it. It is capable of binding dissolved heavy metals and phosphate. 10 years ago I invented a pellet version which is robust and will not degrade in water for several years. Hector, my Spanish contact is keen to discover the catalytic behavior of our pellets when dealing with biomass or non-recyclable plastics. Pyrolysis is associated with high levels of toxins – hopefully our pellets can help – it will be great if it does but I think it will only have a moderate success – if any at all.
TRVL – certainly looks a good game – I can remember in 1987 – most Gooners became Coventry supporters for a day.
Keith Houchen with a perfect diving header. I even learnt that Coventry chant which Jimmy Hill wrote, the melody for which is based on the Eton Boating song…
We all sing together
Play up sky blues
If we sing together
We will never lose
Tott’num or Chelsea
United or anyone
We will defeat you
We’ll fight til the game is won
Or the rather more simplistic
One Cov, two Cov, three Cov……
Four Cov!
Here’s a piece of trivia. Jimmy Hill, the chinmeister himself, also wrote, ‘Good old Arsenal’ which was one of my favourites back in the day.
Marc – Fulham are beating the Spuds. 2nd half coming up.
NORG
Good luck with your project. I hope at the very least that it takes you to some interesting places.
Hey guys happy to report all’s good with the initial bloodwork and consultation. It’s such a different dynamic here as my cardiologist has looked after me for 15 years we look forward to seeing each other so the dynamic is different. I’ve had 5 stents with him and my interventionist, and my garmin data is very real for us.
KP that’s right Clive was the producer and it was Alan’s studio down Fulham Palace road. They knocked out the One Step Beyond album in one month that sold 4 million globally in the first year. Robbo,Stiff’s owner, was laughing all the way to the bank with Madness after his partner took Elvis Costello away from Stiff.
Then came Ian Dury. I read Robbo is doing a one man stand up show and would love to see it. I hope it makes it to the DVD. Robbo was Jim Hendrix guitar roady in his early days.
Norg
Sounds like a really nice place. My build was different and from the ground up, so I was able to precisely keep the compression from leaving the room.
When you feel like exploring the idea I’ll happily put you in touch with my friend Steve who lives in the Southend area. Steve and I had various video chats re the install as I had a bass deficit to recover. Now perfect. Steve’s coming out in November with his wife which will be a lot of fun as we go back about 40 years.
With line source your main volume is contained between the desired height so the need to go to my levels for excellent sound is purely optional to taste. The better your ears the deeper your pockets need to be. Steve claims mine are as good as his from my engineering days. It was a wonderful 32 hours tuning my room together manually. One of life’s moments for me and worth every penny.
Then there is the wife resistance test. Can you navigate various levels of flak when the budget hits the unmentionable? However, for me, in Thailand the DB13 Aston Martin cost £640k with the green 300% govt tax bless their little hearts, my dearest and furthest decided to go with the room but only for the investment value of course. Was happy to hear Sek will have more fans.
And so back from BKK unscathed after I decided to drive to music that eats up the 400 odd kilometers over around 4 hours and change. Not as much fun as the mountain clear roads.
In 4 weeks Song Kran or the biggest wet T-shirt party globally is going to be extended because we missed out through covid. Probably where the 300% car tax goes.
Song Kran, Thai New Year, is an officially a 4 day period of water and flour street play fighting but unofficially? Depends on the province.
The sad thing is around 400 die in the 4 days mostly bike accidents.
Not had time to catch up with the football but looking forward to getting to training with Junior who’s between schools. 👀
Always a challenge is junior but an interesting one to this 68 year old.
Norg is retirement in your plans or are you planning doing a Tommy Cooper😂?
I guess work ceases to be work when it’s our hobby as with me with music and photography.
Back to football tomorrow 💤
Spurs look awful in their ersatz Chelsea kit. 2 nil down now. Oh dear.
Three nil. 😁
Tony – sounds like the check ups went as well as they could. Nice one mate.
KP just saw the Wales Italy score and thought the vallies will be quiet. Dr Barry John will no doubt be unhappy with Welsh rugby. Those were great rugby days back in the un-corporate semi amateur rugby days.
Can England pip Ireland if we beat the French? I mean Agincourt again? 👀😂 if I remember right it was 5000 archers flighting 50000 arrows making the war over in 15 minutes piecing armour at 200 meters.
Incidentally, Agincourt is a brilliant read from Bernard Cornwall that fascinates throughout with interesting facts woven into the imagined and factual characters.
I’ll catch it in the morning
Fuck didn’t bother watching the Spuddies vs Fulham thought the Spud’s would get a routine win.
New post.