A two part post today. Big R’s pre-match followed by GN5’s statistics for the game
Pt 1:
IMO next to our trophy-less neighbours the biggest game of the season is the Red Devils especially now they are managed by The Miserable One.
As you will read below, we have a poor record at OT but Mr Emery is a new brush, could he bring us our first victory since 2006? If so, how?
Would you choose the Back 3 which has been so successful or revert to a Back 4? Will Ozil return? Should Wobbly start or Lacazette? Ramsey or Mhiki?
LB made a fine case that Emery is using the Back 3 to accommodate Kolasinac whose defensive discipline is uncertain. It appears to work as this frees the Wardrobe to play with more invention thus he had his best game on Sunday. If Mesut is still suffering from “back spasms” then I see us lining up with the same team but rewarding Ramsey for his impressive 45 mins..
My Team:
Bent
Mustafi Sokratis Holding
Catwalk Terrier Xhaka Wardrobe
Ramsey Wobbly
Auba
As we know, Mr Emery is likely to make changes should it not be working.
Enough of that … time for some vitriol. Anyone who has read my comments over the years knows how I detest Moaninho. Since his first press conference in London, his cowardly eye-gouging, the destruction of Inter Milan, his playing style, his conceit and arrogance. And now the beleaguered act. To read the farcical statement that Everton have spent more money than MU said it all, He is the Donald Trump of the PL.
As to the MU team … expect a rough game. Lukaku is a battering ram who creates the space for the lightning fast raids by Rashford and Martial. In midfield they are aggressive but have flair.
And then there is Fellaini.
We need a strong referee. Dean was appalling on Sunday, tonight we have Andre Marriner and we can only hope for better.
Arsenal must be on a high after 3 wins in a week. It should be an exciting but cagey, tense game.
Pt 2:
Perhaps our least impressive away record is against Man U, the last game we won at Old Trafford was September 17, 2006 and we have only won a total of three games in the Premier League era. This particular game is special as it’s the 100th away game.
Here is our overall away record.
Our away record by game – in the Premier League.
Memorable victories at the Old Cowshed
14th March 1998 – Man U 0 Arsenal 1
A fair few points behind in the League but with games in hand, this game was pivotal in Arsene’s first League title. Marc Overmars scored in the 79th minute after Arsenal had dominated throughout. Bergkamp, Anelka, Parlour and Petit were imperious and Alex Manninger made a crucial stop when a linesman failed to flag an offside Andy Cole in the first half.
Photo by Rui Vieira/PA.
8th May 2002 – Man U 0 Arsenal 1
With Henry injured and Dennis on the bench, Paddy V, Edu and Parlour bossed the midfield allowing Wiltord and Kanu to score whenever they wanted. They chose the 55th minute (with Freddie’s help) and Arsenal went on to clinch the Double at the home of their nearest rivals (The FA Cup had already been won a few days earlier with goals from the Romford Pele and Freddie).
This is a new era with a new Manager and a renewed level of energy which may introduce a new flavour to our results at Salford.
We are unbeaten in the last 19 games in all competitions – will we make it 20?
GunnerN5
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
No Xhaka tonight. 5 yellows.
Thanks gents. Fed up with pundits claiming ever time “poor record against big teams”!
So far we played well enough against Chelski to have won convincingly, took points from all conquering Dippers, and smashed the Spuds.
Tonight is the next chance, although they will claim its a Manure in crisis!!
LBG. So Ramsey to start or do you think Elneny?
Thank you Raddy and GN5.
It will be feisty that’s for sure. Shame we won’t have Xhaka’s physical presence.
I hope we stick with the 3 at the back … why change a winning formula?
I’d keep the starting 11 the same (is Mustafi injured?) with Ouzi coming in for Xhaka. Ramsey to come on as an impact sub whenever UE decides. Another option would be for M-N to replace Xhaka, but I’d keep him for second half reinforcements. Ozil …. not necessary for this game IMO. Let’s get through this run of challenging games and then see how he can fit in with the style of play.
The one thing I don’t want is to end the 90 minutes with a sense of injustice, be it from the lack of protection by the ref or the dark arts of manu.
We must compete physically and have the same level of desire as against the totts. Unai needs to keep the players calm and focused. We should recognise the threat Fellaini poses and put players up against him who can deal with his physicality. Achieve those things and the good guys will notch up another impressive victory.
Morning all.
“The one thing I don’t want is to end the 90 minutes with a sense of injustice, be it from the lack of protection by the ref or the dark arts of Man U”
Rasp your comment happens to be my most enduring feeling in our games with the Red Arses, these days I detest them more than the Potato Men.
I hope upon hope that today we have yet another memorable victory and defy the stats.
Laurent Koscielny passed fit for potential Arsenal return against Huddersfield
Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is fit and available for the first time in seven months despite limping off in his return for the U23s.
The Frenchman came through 85 minutes of the Checkatrade Trophy win over Portsmouth on Tuesday night.
There were concerns he may have re-injured his Achilles, which had kept him out since May, when he was seen grimacing as he was substituted for Nathan Tormey.
But Sky Sports News understands Koscielny just suffered cramp and was assessed on Wednesday morning before being given the all-clear to return to the first team.
Excellent, BR and GN5, many thanks.
It would be so good to leave OT with all three points.
Although our record in the League is poor, we’ve fared better in the Cups, particularly in March 2015 when Nacho and Danny scored in Manchester during our march to another FA Cup Final.
Treat it like another cup game – it always is against them anyway.
Brilliant stuff. Thanks Raddy and GN5. 🙂
Somewhat nervous about this game, but only because of the history. ManUre production has been good historically at the Old Cowshed citadel.
Emirates is for the first time looking like a fortress now. And our away form is much improved as well. I am counting on the good guys finding a way to beat the MaureenBus.
Cautiously optimistic. 2-0 to the good guys. COYG. 🙂
Sorry for the delay in reply6, Daddy
First choice a fit A M-N, second, reluctantly, Aaron, out of position, but centrally and forward of Terrier and Ouzi.
Sorry Daddy…..Raddy!
Agree with some of Rasp’s projections, except three at the back, mainly because I want Mesut in.
Must “compete”, press, “treat it like a cup game”, BUT, keep calm, don’t give away free kicks which opens the way for the hairless one. Keep the ball, get the Manure crowd to boo them off the pitch at half time, and WIN.
1 or 2-0 and show me the money!
Well, the magic of Emery will surely be required, for in my mind there are 2 unknowns. First, Xhaka is out due to that crappy ref, he has been playing so well lately and is a physical presence, no matter what most people think-that guy is solid, and Mustafi-can he play today without being subbed off injured. With that said, the question now is who to replace Xhaka, Guen surely, and who for Mustafi if he goes out and throws a wrench into Emery’s second half plans, AMN my guess but is it too early and to physical of a game for him-he will have to step up huge if required.
Still, I feel the Arsenal team is moving in the right direction and could just as easily score a few goals early and see this one out due to manure’s back line injuries.
It will be great to set the record straight for Emery, and see the Arsenal move aside moaninho and his lame theatrics.
Team cohesion will win this one for me.
I am torn between the idea of rewarding Ramsey for his fine performance and staying with Mkhitaryan who will have something to prove up there — My punt is for the same team with the obvious addition of Guendouzi for Xhaka and importantly Monreal on the bench.
With this eleven being exhausted come Saturday I expect the changes to be made against Huddersfield. The return of Monreal and Ozil in the starting eleven being highly likely.
Thanks for the read BR and GN5
Good game to have a good first half for the first time this season.
Just watched the Unai press conference, wow, in the space of a few days his English has soared; he has realised at last that he needed to shorten his sentences which he has and it is finally possible to follow what he is saying.
I put this all down to beating spuds. The list of things that that cures and improves is loooooooooooong.
Interesting. Language improves with a win over the Miscreants 😀
Need a number of wins to get fluent in Danish. COYRRG!!
Just watched it, too.
Most of the journos’ questions are so poor that he could almost just answer ‘No’ to most of them.
Was Aubameyang upset by the banana? FFS!
He’s required to answer these stupid questions so he has to waffle and virtually give the same answer to half of them.
His English is definitely improving, though. Needs a pronunciation coach and he’s sorted. 🙂
That last question about him being a ‘coward when he was a player made me laugh. The translator probably translated it as ‘chicken shit’ or something like that as it brought a big smile to his face.
By the way, I’m working early tomorrow and won’t have time to do a post later.
You get that one BR, congrats
Line up pretty much as expected.
Getting excited now but whoever came up with the fixture list needs shooting. Two of the highest profile games of the season within 3 days and 4 games in 10.
Line up looks good. Interesting to see Nketiah in the subs as well as Lacazette. Second back-up striker, looks like Unai wants to be able to play two up front whatever happens if needed.
COYG
Could you have got 3 more boring pundits on BT Sport?
Got Maltesers in the house guys 😁😁😁
If you haven’t had a curry before this game, then frankly, you’re a wrong ‘un
Maltesers for the game? Yippee
Evening all.
Hi Micky …. you must be loving our football this season ….
Rasp
Just brilliant. Constantly staggered by Unai’s tactical abilities
We’ll need to allow him one or two transfer windows, but things looking really bright
Absolutely ….. he’s even managed to bring the Emirates crowd to life … no mean feat
Fuckin pistachio.
Maybe a good result might make me like that kit.
I must admit I didn’t notice the crowd being much different for the Wolves game.
If the stadium can’t get up for the spuds, we are in trouble.
ahem, chas, it’s biscay 🙂
Are you saying the atmosphere on Saturday was the same as usual Chas? I wasn’t there, but others tell me it was electric from the start … and importantly very positive when we went 1:2 down?
Biscay and peppermint. Awful.
Pitch very fast. Already seeing some shit-housery from Utd.
Evening Micky
I wasn’t there either, Rasp.
I just meant that I don’t think I’ve been at an NLD where the atmosphere hasn’t been electric.
We were two nil down in the first 5-2 and the crowd didn’t turn. It can’t afford to in an NLD.
I’ll shut up now.
in 🙂
Ddn’t expect that. 😀 😀
Ouzi’s lack of experience being exploited
Bolleaux. Stupid goal to give away – the free kick, the poor push from Leno and another offside goal
Herrera off side for there goal apparently
Don’t think Leno has gotten a clean sheet
Why isn’t Marriner giving these dirty MU bastards any cards? We are getting kicked on almost every tackle.
Hope holding injury not serious
On but we get one for our first foul
We could end up with half a fit team.
Marriner is just way too soft. That tackle of Curly was a leg-breaker. a clear red card. And now another on Terrier!
How the fuck was that not a red card?
Man, I hope Holding is going to be ok later. This could be a game changer!
Come on Gunners-man I despise manure and the way they play.
This crap happens every time we play a competitive match with overly physical sides. To hell with it, get a few cards but do not just let the other sides just put our entire team on the sidelines.
And F the fa and there retroactive bans and reviews.
My sense of injustice is growing 😦
It’s going to get a whole lot uglier…Fellaini is on the bench!
Still, we’re always better after oranges 🙂
It’s always the same at OT. Arsenal get a kicking, the referee does SFA.
Herrera was offside for the goal.
I fear for us
COYRRG
The time has come and gone for the Arsenal to give as good as they get-results be damned! For the safety of the players if the ref will not call the fouls. Have not the Arsenal already seen our players crippled, yet nothing ever gets changed
Rotational fouling is not the same nor does it create fear in the other sides.
Happy with that. On 2 days rest I thought we dominated large parts away at OT which is something we haven’t done for many a year. All the goals were poor but we had the better chances and could easily have won it. At the end it looked like 2 very tired teams but we were better organised and looked the better. When they were dirty we matched it and we never lost our heads. Hopefully the injuries aren’t as bad as they seem and we can now gather some points over Xmas against some weaker opposition.
We’re two players short 🙂
Titanic battle. Ok with the point given away at OT, and being just ok shows how much higher my expectations have risen.
This Arsenal has real guts and spirit.
A very satisfying result, as usual I had to mute out the Man U biased commentators.
Yes, will take that, but the Arsenal could have grabbed 3 points easy, and at what cost?
How many people on our squad now have knocks that will linger or affect their performance moving forward?
Only watched last half hour as I’ve been out networking business thing.
Views, good goal (seized on opportunity) but disappointing to concede straight away from a no threat ball, Kola should have just hoofed out of touch.
Why was Laca goal disallowed? De Gea had ball in one hand, wasn’t in act of kicking therefore he did not have control of ball. Bet Mariner and Lino were not even watching.
Fellaini sent out to kick and and he did, hair pull on Guendouzzi was shocking. Although the young man may now reconsider that hairstyle.
And judging by the amount of injuries that was clearly Maureen’s tactics straight out of SAF playbook if you can’t match them kick them.
How ManUre are still allowed to get away with that is beyond me.
I don’t think we can be happy with the result, and as always you have to look at the players first, at 2-1 we had game won in spite of the kicking and poor refereeing. And basic decisions cost us those 3 points, at the moment the crowd would have turned on United we gave them an unnecessary lift.
Let’s see what they have to say on MOTD.
A fantastic battling performance from an injury depleted first team. If someone had offered me a week ago a win against spuds and a draw at old trafford I would have bitten their hands off for it.
I am so, so impressed with the hard work that the lads put in today, manu were frightened of us for big chunks of that game and when was the last time we could say that?
Reading up on rules apparently once keeper has control of ball he cannot he challenged, whether tossing up in air, bouncing or holding in one hand.
It’s changed since I were a lad!
Ok that has really cheered me up, just watched Spuds vs Saints on MOTD, lots of Arsenal supportingseats in attendance.
Thought I’d check tonight’s attendance…..33,012 for a midweek PL game.
Intrigued me bearing in mind they’ve built a 60000 seater stadium….
Fulham 58k
Liverpool 80k
Barca 82k
Cardiff 43k
Man City 57k
PSV 47k
Chelsea 55K
Inter 57k
S’oton 33k
So basically they only sell out their new ground when they play big clubs with support in London (Pool, Barca)
Admittedly no one wants to traipse our to Wembley every week, in what world did they think they could sell out 60k fans week in week out?
What I enjoy about this current team is I’m actually excited to watch us regardless of who’s starting. It seems no matter who plays, the commitment and energy is the same and that is a joy to watch. Last year I would’ve been looking at our weaknesses and moaning that certain players were in and others weren’t, but this season it doesn’t seem to matter.
At the beginning of the campaign I said I didn’t care about results and I just wanted to see the team regain some identity and show some fight, and they’ve definitely done that. Hopefully we can kick on now and really cement a top 4 place. We may not have gotten all 3 points tonight but it was another small yet positive step on the journey. 20 games unbeaten…wow!!!
Having caught up from last night, agree with most ever contributor. Want to be positive regarding end product. Sad at reoccurring defensive frailty. Really sad at injuries lack of justice for Holding. But fuming this morning, that Klopp can get a hearing on Burnley tackles, yet Manure can get away with a Ferguson/Moaninho kicking performance against us and no-one challenge it in the media. We know what we get from Marriner and sometimes I prefer the play on approach rather than stop start (another Moaninho tactic), but how Rojo and Fellani were not sent off, I cannot fathom.
24 hours and it will be shaken off, but sad for Rob, injustice and disbelief at refereeing standards…..again.
Rojo own goal?
Not on here is it going to be. Incompetent wankers.
Byeeeee
Oh, and morning.
Retrospective action for Felliani as he has done it before?
Would be very happy if my pre season prediction that Chelski and Manure become the fall by the waysiders.
Morning All,
Anyone feel like writing a few lines?
OK. I will.
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