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
Just did some research on Trossard senior, ie tonight’s so-called referee.
Turns out he’s an utter Dick that goes by the name of Turpin. No wonder his officiating felt like a complete (highway) robbery! At least our penalty takers were able to stand and deliver!
I’ll get my coat for the second time this week. Don’t worry it’s just post match euphoria mixed with some non chemical delirium. I’ll be back to being an old bastard tomorrow (or Friday depending who we get in the draw).
A good game between two quality sides as it should be at this level. I think both games exposed a lack of nous that may count against us now it’s big boys from here on in.
Porto are no mugs and accustomed to playing past the group stages so this was a good test. While we didnt blow them away, we showed greater maturity than the first and played a much more controlled game. Games are often won by tight margins in the knock out stages so I’d see this game as progress even if it doesn’t give me much reason for optimism when we meet a proper big name.
Wendell did a tidy job on Saka both legs, partly I think because White was more restrained. He needed to be. But like the rest of the team, he’s finding out that CL knock out is a different beast with teams set up better to nullify him and of course facing a better standard of player. Rice was also less ambitious, playing more like he would at West Ham, effective but not as progressive as he has been the last few months. It’s a learning curve for all of them
Fair play to Tets for trying to change things from an attacking point of view but I think bringing ESR on would have been more effective than Eddie. Move Havertz to straight 9 and have ESR playing 8, his movement can be as intelligent as Havertz and would have given Porto more to worry about. His work rate off the ball has looked impressive recently too. I don’t get his lack of game time knowing what he’s capable of, or maybe was as I’m working off memory as much as anything these days. As for Zinny, he looked shaky and a little off the pace.
Quarters eh? Not used to this. Hoping for Munich or Barca, I’ve got some late stage Wenger ghosts to lay to rest and would love to have us knock Kane out and extend his trophy drought. Realistically however, I think this tie has shown us progressing further will he a tall order.
I will say this, if we can find a way to harness the confidence we exuded on the spot today during our regular office hours, we could find ourselves in the semis…if not, our lack of end product could be our undoing…after all, we scored once in 210+ minutes against a scrappy, albeit well-coached, squad, which isn’t meant to diminish our long-awaited accomplishment of reaching the quarters
if we’re viewed as an underdog from this point forward I hope we take a page out of the Porto handbook, as they displayed the tactical acumen generally required to make things tough against a better side…it’s clear they watched ample tape, especially our most recent fixture, and knew full-well what to expect if Marts wasn’t able to go, as we’re a little too much of an open tactical book…thankfully their end product wasn’t there tonight and we were able to tie things up…if we’re in a similar position next round, with a then healthy Marts, I would hope that our attacking approach took better advantage of the potential matchups, especially if Rice and Havertz are our most centrally advanced options…we must make our opponents pick their poison, then adjust our tactics accordingly…so looking forward to the draw!!!
Aitcho
I doubt we will see ESR on the playing field again in AFC colours. He hasn’t been forgiven for praising Ozil.
Some good points there Aitcho. Porto had some quality players and they’d evidently done their homework. I thought Arsenal were unable to impose their PL style of play and as you say, they were more cagey. Having Martinelli out wide would have allowed more opportunities on the left but Trossard junior put in a good shift.
You were there right? I have one nagging question… Who was down to take our fifth penalty?
It’s good to be in the qf draw. I think I’d prefer to play one of the winners of tonight’s 2 games and avoid the big guns
KP – any body remaining in the draw would be good. If a lesser team gets through to the next round they will still be good and determined.
Hi NORG
I’m a bit more discriminatory than that. I know they’re all good at this stage but I’d rather the big boys get drawn against each other and we get one of the slightly lesser lights. One O
of the two teams that go through tonight would do me.
I’m the same when FA Cup draws are made. Sutton over Man City every time, knowing we’ll still meet them later.
Remember that time we played them (Sutton) a few years back and their 40 stone reserve GK was eating a sausage roll on the touchline? It was all linked to a bit of betting fraud iirc.
He wasn’t an ounce over 39 stone. I thought it was a pie he was eating – how many could he consume in a game. In China the bookies would have been working overtime. If my memory serves me well there was an ex Arsenal player in the Sutton line up.
Craig Eastmond – a decent player but was never going to break into the first team with the likes of Song, Cazorla and Coquelin around. According to our friends on the interweb he’s still at Sutton so good for him. I think I also saw him play for Colchester at an earlier stage.
Yeah, that tubby goalkeeper scam was a beauty!
Talking of less-than-distinguished midfielders of yesteryear, I used to enjoy a certain D Hillier popping up to do the radio commentaries on Arsenal.Com. Im not sure he’s still doing it. Pretty decent analyst and clearly loves the club, but I wouldn’t let him hold my suitcase on holiday.
… From the storied heights of the CL quarter finals for the first time in aeons via some in-game dubious savoury eating contest to some petty thievery at Gatwick. I’m too easily distracted.
I can’t remember if it was a pie or sausage roll but think it was also sponsorship related. The betting may have come after. Craig Eastmond, I think he played first team games for us, maybe even UCL
I don’t know who was down for the fifth. It’s not something I’d taken note of as I felt fairly comfortable with the options we had on the pitch.
Any team now will be a test but out of self interest, with the new ST structure, I want to spend my hard earned on seeing the big names. If we take them out it means the later stages are made easier. They’ve started clocking ticket usage as well so there’s an element of fomo if attendance becomes a deciding factor in final tickets. I know, way ahead of myself.
Baku was the only final where it was free for all as far as I remember due to lack of take up by away members. I’d been harassing friends and acquaintances with away points before it dropped to gen sale. Others have been logistical nightmares with away members and their historic points cleaning up first. I believe that’s changing too and I’m not going to complain if that particular cartel is broken.
Craig Eastmond was on loan at Colchester together with another Arsenal player. They earnt more per week than the rest of the Colchester team put together.
Hillier had some tricks in his box but never really pushed himself.
Eastmond, JET & Co – Wengers babies – were all on wages way above the norm.
Missed the game which was well past bedtime. But picking up thanks to brilliant commentary guys. Ambarish seemed to be particularly alert last night. Thanks Aitcho, that was a preety good summation
You guys rock
London IS Red 🍒
Aitcho – no long distance travelling to the final this year. We won our last game at this venue.
Lost all sense of football timing with travelling and now down in BKK.
I echo Hoopah’s sentiments with the interesting comments and good post Ambarish.
PL and CL still in our sights so onwards and upwards.
Another trip to Dubai wouldn’t go amiss for a top up.🙏😎🙏
just doing some morning-after reveling…I feel like maybe Ode stepped up for the first time in a big match, by finding a way to marry his vocal leadership qualities and his play on the pitch…last season everyone knew full-well that Xhaka was the man behind the man, but yesterday, when Arteta looked like a deer in the headlights before the penalties, Ode rallied the troops then did what the best leaders do, lead by example…who knows what the future holds, armband-wise, as Rice appears destined to wear it at some point during his tenure, but in the meantime, it’s good to know that the days of the captaincy having more to do with locker room politics/policing appear to be coming to an end
KP-I was listening to The Move and Amen Corner late last evening, after a few, and I was wondering if you have any good Fairweather Low stories…Cheers
TRVL
Andy Fairweather Low – a blast from the past. I seem to remember him being in the line up when I saw Georgie Fame at Ronnie Scotts – would have been 74 – 75? I was surprised how accomplished a guitar player he was.
Norg-what was seemingly so peculiar about his journey was that he went from teenage heartthrob to a backup musician/singer for some of the greatest artists of his era, like Waters, The Who and Clapton…just can’t think of another such story
TRVL
Tony’s the music biz aficionado – I was the modestly paid jobbing diplomat. Frankly, I would give anything to be able to turn a clock back and swap careers with him. Not sure Tony would be up for that though….
No help whatsoever but I liked that track, ‘wide eyed and legless’ by AFL.
Vieira
I thought your recognition of Ode’s oeuvre last night was spot on. The boy becoming a man at AFC.
KP-I was thinking about it more from a Welsh perpsective, but I could wrong with my assumption that you have strong ties to Wales…it was a long evening, which included some other Welsh connections, as I ran some hash BTs, listened to some tunes and watched a good chunk of an old Danny Poyle produced film, Twin Town, with the Ifan brothers…Cheers
I could BE wrong…
Hi Hoopah
Sorry you missed the game. I hope you can get the highlights.
The Alpha-Tross goal was exquisite mainly because of Ode’s through ball. The rest of the actual game was arse-clenchingly tense, so I recommend you skip through to the penalty shootout which was wonderful. It put me in mind of that England – Germany semi final in Euro 96 where each German penalty was unsaveable.
TRVL
There are a lot of fantastic session musicians that never wanted to be in the lime light. The husband of one of my wife’s friends was a song writer and session musician – then in mid life he became a Moody Blue.
Hoopah—as to KP’s point about skipping everything but the goal and the penalty kick session, when I watched the Dazn mini-recap, they only dedicated 4 minutes to the match, which included the lineups, Tross’s goal, Jesus’s late attempt on goal and 3 penalty kicks(2 of which were Porto players that were saved by Raya)…typically CL matches of consequences will get 8+ minutes of highlights
of course, none of that matters to those of us who had skin in the game, but it does likely reflect the thoughts and feelings of the neutral observer
Norg-I get that, as I likewise have friends within the industry, some of whom are well-known, whereas others are complete unknowns, but it’s very unusual to see someone go from Tiger/Teen Beat poster boy to more of a bit part player…I bet there’s a really interesting tale in there
A-ha Vieira. No I’m a relatively recent arrival in Wales (12 years ago, and not overly attuned to historic musical connections to be honest). Ms Kroenkephobe is from Cardiff but we’ve lived in Pembrokeshire since I left the civil service. My favourite Welsh musician is Dave Edmunds who formerly collaborated with people like Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. His big hit was that tune ‘Girls’ Talk’ which was originally written by Elvis C. I just about know and can sing the Welsh anthem but I’m a ‘Men of Harlech’ kinda guy really because of its links to Cardiff City or ‘Yma O Hyd’ which is a favourite of Welsh football fans.
https://youtu.be/S4TzjRFfsJs?si=LvQ8Vtey662V279l
You’ll doubtless know this tune but it still raises a smile.
https://youtu.be/MmcKPVndlTg?si=Yii6Ab4voYShjx7C
Difficult themes in this film but the song is always belted out by Bluebirds before games
KP – well well a very good friend of mine from Pontardawe (where my mother was evacuated to in the war) is / was a friend of Dave Edmunds. Alan is another of those very good session musicians that never wanted to be a star or if they did kept it quiet. He has a magnificent collection of guitars (26 when I last counted) and could play anything. Now he looks after his wife who is a lovely person but dementia has taken over..
KP-these days I always run/walk with the music cranked and on my last playlist I had an old Edmunds song that I’ve always enjoyed, “I hear you knocking” off his 72 album Rockpile
now that you bring it up I do remember the fact that you relocated to Wales more recently…maybe you mentioned your wife’s Welsh heritage at some earlier point and that led me to draw the wrong conclusion…Cheers
Music nostalgia from my time too.
Another really nice guy and brilliant Welsh musician is Terry Williams of the drummer for Dire Straits and Nick Lowe who also played with Dave Edmonds.
This all goes back to Dave Robertson and Stiff records. I was called in to do a Nick Lowe gig I think at the Hammersmith Place across from the main theatre gig at Hammersmith. Playing the Fulham Greyhound pub & Dingwalls was the precursor to getting deals as well as The Hope & Anchor that big John ran. There were always A&R people around that venues.
AFL and many like him as Norg relates to are introverts – many are and throw up before performances because of it. I’ve mentioned this before but never added a link, so you may find this interesting TRVL and you all:
https://www.quora.com/Are-musicians-brains-wired-differently#:~:text=Musicians%20who%20begin%20their%20training,across%20their%20expanded%20corpus%20callosum.
I’ll look for the published paper I read a few years ago to post as it’s really interesting, especially when you know musicians who you can relate to. The new home I’ve plans for include a fully loaded recording studio, so I can go back to do what I feel I do best as an engineer and producer.
John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin was the band’s straight man as Charlie was for the Stones. Someone has to be straight lol. Both very much introverts.
Norg guitarists are very precious about their instruments and talk with real love and emotions about each one from the memories.
As we’re talking music, I had the pleasure of talking back stage in BKK with Sek Loso who I feel is up there with the guitar gods especially with his song writing.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=sek+loso+best+songs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Have a listen to the selection for his git playing and vocals. He does western covers better tan the originals and is a must to see if visiting.
Sek is bipolar and not so cool off his meds. Because of their brain wiring most musicians are in spectrum in one way of another with the alphabetical soup contained within.
TRVL Amen Corner was great band with so many like them, but on the more soulful production and equally as good was Frankie Beverly’s Maze. As with Motown and the following sound of Philadelphia (brother & sister) cam more polished production music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEopToSWa-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLIdqGiCx7s Al Jarrreau was another of that era.
For me working with Murray Head and his who’s who of session musicians was probably the best collective I worked with.
When I designed and commission the building of my EAVR room I used Wisdom Audio I got to talk a lot with, Luc, Wisdom’s MD who was involved with Steely Dan’s studio owned by Dan Fogalberg and SD members.
Norg by the sound of it Wisdom Audio would be your level of tech. https://www.wisdomaudio.com You are blessed having https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=habitech+UK&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 in the UK.
That and my good friend Steve Rutherford who is regarded as the best room engineer globally he shyly doesn’t agree with, and why Wisdom exclusively use him as their brand ambassador.
Last week he was calibrating Jason Statham’s London him with Wisdom. Apple’s HO studios Steve has calibrated, as well as recent room calibrations in the king of Jordan’s palaces.
Look at their Line Source speakers, but a day out at Habitech in their rooms will soon have you converted and It would be an experience you won’t forget.
The 60s UK sound was raw, but Stateside as with their various sounds from Bill Hayley & Elvis to Motown, BFSM Philadelphia were soon confined to the more selective of music as Brit rock became the global leader in music mucin to the chagrin of the Americans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P4XB3bM9iA
https://open.spotify.com/album/0FTGtHHCnsBUO0f5FN7LUw
Is a good cross section of 60s & 70s music from both sides of the pond.
Back to all things Gooner, I hope we use the time wisely to recharge and keep the free goal scoring mojo going as we are in the right place, but still dependent on others.
Off for my battery of heart checks now with my cardiologist for this year. My Garmin app’s data is good so hoping for good results…..
we weren’t the only CL fixture to go to penalties, so if you’ve got 20 or so minutes to kill checkout the Inter/Athletic match….watch the last 10 minutes of regulation then skip to the shootout…3 things I learned from this affair, (1) Thuram could have iced the game on two occasions but the moments appeared too big for him, which simply confirmed my previously held beliefs (2) I would never pay anything even remotely close to Inter’s evaluation for Martinez, as I don’t think he’s got what it takes to play up top in the PL and (3) Oblak still might be the best Keeper in the world
Tony
Once again an interesting post. I have passed the link of Sek Loso onto my daughter in law – right up her street.
A Wisdom set up would be good for when I stop working but I have no plans to do so for a while. We do have spare rooms to alter but it may need to be passed by the local heritage listing officer first. The stables which are used for my product manufacturing tests could be adapted but I am not sure my wife will agree. Music is not so important in her life.
Back to all things Gooner, I hope we use the time wisely to recharge
Tony
That has to mean one thing only. Road Trip! The Boys return to Dubai!
I didn’t know Nick Lowe was also Welsh. I had him down as a London er. Do you also remember that mid 70s band Brinsley Schwartz?
And NORG – your story about the Dave Edmunds connection and Pontardawe is great. I was reading about Pontardawe the other day – apparently a mad place to go out in back in the day. That creative nexus between Elvis Costello, Dave E and Nick Lowe (and some other geezer called Clive something?) yielded some brilliant songs in the second half of the 70s.
Tony
The very best of luck with the check-ups mate.
Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley… Who may have also had connections to Madness Tony?