We shifted to Emirates from Highbury more than 18 years ago in 2006. In these years, we have won 335 of our games at Home with a win percentage of 67%, shared points on 93 occasions and has 71 defeats. Our shifting also coincided with the rise of Chelsea under the Russian billionaire while Manchester United still dominated the league. Our position in the league shifted from winning and competing with Man Utd to qualifying for Champions League. Arsene Wenger was adamant in keeping the books clean, made money for the club by sending our prized possessions and spending little to nothing to compete. Man Utd had their own downfall in post-Ferguson era and they are in a much worse situation compared to us at the moment. The leagues, in last 10 years, have mostly been dominated by Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool while the two biggest clubs in Premier League fought for the scraps.
But… that doesn’t mean the rivalry has died down. One part of Manchester still believes Arsenal are their biggest rivals even with their neighbour winning 4 seasons in a row and we, at Arsenal, call them ours because hey, Spurs don’t count.
So, here we are, two of the fiercest rivals, competing again today at our 500th game at Emirates.
Man Utd has appointed Ruben Amorin and it’s too early to say if he can sort out their problems. For us, we are in a good state after winning last 3 games but some injuries are going to make life difficult for Mikel.
In the team news, we have some set backs. Calafiori is out injured so Zinchenko starts at LB. Gabriel has also picked up a knock and Kiwior gets a shot at CB along side Saliba. Timber keeps his place. Odegaard, Rice and Partey starts in midfield with Saka and Havertz up top. Martinelli is back in place of Trossard.
I am a bit worried about the back 4. Having 2 players who have hardly played this season start against Man Utd is not a good thing, and when you are chasing Liverpool who has 9 point lead against you, you can’t afford to lose. Now, I would have personally preferred Ben White to start in place of Kiwior but he is also out and can’t even make the bench. We didn’t have much options, Tierney is back but he shouldn’t be starting for us. Lets see if Mikel knows what he is doing.
Addition of Martinelli brings the chaos at left side but having Zinchenko behind him is not going to help him in any way. We need our right side to perform, Timber / Odegaard / Saka are developing a very good chemistry, Timber has picked up where White had left and our Right Side game is a treat to watch on it’s day. Havertz needs to step up because in a game like this, you might get only a limited chances and no matter who is the manager and what state your club is in, anything can happen in a game of Arsenal v Man utd.
Right, I will keep it short. It might be an ideal time for the UK viewers, a 8.15 PM show on a Wednesday but I don’t like a midweek late night (1:45 AM IST) show that ends up by 4 AM in morning. I am sure I can make the first half, and if the game’s interesting, who knows.
See you during the game.
Tony
Storm Darragh I think it’s been called. Guess who’s stewarding tomorrow night.💦💦💦
Ms Kroenkephobe and I are off to Málaga next week. They’ve had floods recently so it might be a busman’s holiday.
That place you stayed in sounds like Thailand’s answer to Fawlty Towers.
NORG
Agreed. Jover’s tactics are making a massive difference. The kids and I were remembering games towards the end of Wengo’s reign of terror when we’d have 20 plus corners in a game where Ozil would unerringly hit the front post full back. Rinse and repeat. It didn’t get much better under Emery iirc.
Positioning our 5 tallest players in a bunch, working to a signal and then being back in that group in a new part of the area with no opposition to challenge you is tactically terrific. And we now have three brilliant corner takers.
And the thing is, Jover is bright enough to readjust mid game to take account of the opposition’s response. Unlike El Bastardo of course.
…and he’s able to stay ahead of the game. Expect new tactics or improved old ones at any time.
KP
My aunt was in Malaga when they had the heavy rain. It lasted a day and flooding was minor. Within a day it was back to normal. I was speaking to a contact in Cartagena this morning – it is glorious there at the moment but Felix said the whole of Southern Spain is expecting a cold snap from the middle of next week. Of course their cold snap is nothing like ours so expect the Spaniards to be wearing their winter overcoats as it will be a freezing 15 C. They will also likely to still be eating outside.
Thanks for the meteorological intel mate. As I write, storm Darragh is blowing in off the beach from the Irish Sea so anything in the Costa del Sol should be manageable.
no need to pack your shorts
Over here in the Great Lakes basin we’re getting hammered by a Nor-westerly Snowmagedden. the likes of which would send a shiver down the spines of those who were sent to the “Wall”…I’m looking at you John fucking Snow!…over one particular 24 hour period I spent a total of 8 hours with a shovel in my hands…at first it’s incredibly invigorating, then it’s fucking not!!…we’ve experienced 4 such weather systems in the last 25 years, all in early December…the first two had an almost mystical quality, as my children were younger then…schools were closed and adventures were had that would never have occurred otherwise…I miss those times and the energy they produced…if I could, I would so tap into it right now…Cheers and take care
TRVL
The first falls of snow is always pleasing on the eye, but that’s where I draw the line. I like 4 seasons and don’t mind a month of snow like we had back in the 60s to 80s in the UK. After 4 weeks we’d be happy too see the back of it, so I can imagine winter snow is no fun in the long term.
I had my first -40*C in Toronto when on my first tour of Canada in 79. We then flew to LA to drive back up to Vancouver via, Vegas, Frisco. Portland, grunge capital, Seattle, fishing for mud sharks from our hotel balconies and then Vancouver at the Edgewater.
Needless to say we all got moby-dick from such contrasting weather temps.
Looks like the Jan TW click-bait is out in force this morning. Newcastle are bracing themselves to lose Isak. City want Nico Williams, which would probably get their title challenge back on track if they can legally buy? That would piss off MA, as Williams was MA’s last main summer target.
PSG want Salah, and so it goes on.
Who is in charge of our Jan TW?
If MA, then we’ll have two see if MA’s football stock has risen this season, as he couldn’t lure any striker of note last summer. They all ghosted him except Sterling, which proves my point.
Seeing the Toffee’s new stadium leaking torrents of rain water into the stands made me laugh, but the Emirates has its issues too, I re3member quickly.
With a glance at what Dyche was saying where I was surprised to read that Everton are 2nd in the PL set piece goals to us sitting 15th with a -7GD. What that suggests is we are lucky to have such a tight defensive unit keeping us on +14GD because we can’t score many from open play to save our lives.
Sooner or later managers will start to nullify our set piece goal tally that is so difficult to defend against when the perfect ball is whipped low with pace that Saka whips in to perfection of 3/4 attempts, and Rice @ 1/3 he improved a little from 1/4.
We have a 9 who defends more than he attacks. When that changes, our open play goals will start to be regular again.
Some interesting games this weekend not least the Liverpool derby and the Spuds v Chavs London derby & Palace vs City. The top 8 gap is widening now with 6 points being the gap between us at 3rd and Villa sitting 8th.
We should take 3 points from Fulham away, but won’t be an easy game and a potential banana skin for us.
Only 3 points will do!
KP
Enjoy the game stewarding and don’t forget your thermals and flask. Can you take your mates pooch with a brandy barrel under his chin? Should be, he’s big enough to be a St Bernard.
You could always get a sledge, add a big barrel of brandy, and get the canine life saver to tow the cask where you can sell nips from the touch line. lol.
If I may make a suggestion, buy antique Hine brandy. Hine and Belvedere Vodka were my spirit tipples way back when I used to drink nearly 10 years ago now. I prefer the non hangovers life I live these days. I was never even a weekly drinker and never at home, so alcohol was never an interest for me. I’ve never had a local pub as I was always the nomad.
Hope you get the win and the weather isn’t life changing…lol
I saw a BBC article comparing us to Pulis’s Stoke side(talk about being late to the party)..the tenor of the piece was rather shocking in that it appeared to be suggesting that this was some sort of accomplishment, which seems like a mindbogglingly poor take considering their glaring lack of success…Pulis himself even spoke about how it was high time that someone finally saw the light, which would only make a lick of sense if you were somehow convinced that every dominant team since that time, who didn’t adopt his approach, were managed by a bunch of fucking tactical halfwits
I would suggest that most top-shelf managers tend not to mimic the actions of lesser lights who never really did a damn thing except for avoiding relegation considerably longer than most first thought…let’s not forget that during his 7 year tenure at Stoke(2007-13), which was actually his 2nd go round there, he had a winning percentage of around 36%, yet somehow won just as many titles as our current manager during his first 5 years, a FA Cup…talk about lowering the bar, now we’re staring down the barrel at a manager who looks more like a cross between Pulis & Moyes than a hybrid of his last two bosses…surely we didn’t spend hundreds of millions and endure the multitude of nonsensical phases for this to be our tactical endgame
on the meteorological front, since my last posting I’ve now spent another 4 hours removing another 4 feet of snow from my property…I can’t even see the fucking road when I’m backing out, as the adjacent snowbacks now sit about 8 feet high…time to self-medicate and hit the hay…Cheers
minor correction—Pulis actually never won the FA, he was the runner-up in 2010-11…so kudos to MA for superceding his managerial mentor
Good morning all Dear Gooners. Are we talking about snow? Oh God glad I don’t miss it. I spent 3 and half years in Edmonton Canada where temp in winter used to be -48 at least for couple of weeks. We had snow for 9 months of the year. Going from a tropical country like India and seeing snow for 9 monthly used to be depressing to say the least. But human body is a miracle and adjust itself to everything. It used to be a challenge to get you car ready for drive in the morning. The engine would take at least 10 min to warm up.
On the flip side I spent 4 years in las Vegas where summer temps were +40 and that was another exp. Great place to live and drive though. Locals hardly visit the strip as there are multitude of other things to do in Vegas.
TVRL- on the stoke city comparison I am afraid thats spot on. It’s not that getting goals from set pieces is bad but we seem to struggle in open play. Thats very disappointing with such high priced acquisitions. Yesterday watched Fulham and Bridgton game. It’s was so pleasing to the eyes with two teams playing excellent football. Guess fans will say don’t care as long as we win. Well let’s see but watching us has been a real bore save couple of matches.
Tony
No snow here in west Wales but bracing myself for a bit of Welsh wind and and rain. Amber weather warning here but the football authorities are so terrible it’ll probably still go ahead. I think Jed (or ‘Jedi’ as I call him) enjoyed his time with me and got a lot from watching us beat Manure and the joy that flowed from the result. His ‘dad’ is a Hammers fan so he’s not used to seeing so much human happiness.
You’ve got snow in the midlands Madhu? Good to read about all the places you’ve worked in. You watched the wrong game last night. Spurs v Bournemouth was a terrible game but brilliant result. Postecoglu got some serious abuse afterwards – a few more ordinary results and he’ll be sacked I think. As a club, they always succeed in making ordinary players look terrible. How the fuck did they beat City 4-0?
I saw bits of Fulham v Brighton and was equally unimpressed. In essence, both results good for Gooners.
only blue sky and sunshine in Norfolk today and the strong winds previously forecast are mainly in the early hours of tomorrow morning and tomorrow night. How will AFC fair against the AFC old boys? Iwobi seems to have a new lease of life and Leno is playing well. Fulham played reasonably well in the wind last night – they may be praying for similar weather that could disrupt our team – especially set pieces when the ball will be hard to place with fluctuating winds in a stadium.
New post.
Interesting Ode stats. As it says across the web page 1 goal and 2 assists from 6 games. Double digits for both metrics would represent at least 20 goals from both. With Kai often awol our midfield needs to weigh in with more goals and assists.
https://one-versus-one.com/en/players/Martin-Odegaard