We are off to Baku Azerbaijan; the city is the scientific, cultural, and industrial center of Azerbaijan. Many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tons of general and dry bulk cargoes per year. In recent years, Baku has become an important venue for international events. It hosted the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, the 2015 European Games, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix since 2016, and now it will host the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League Final between London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea. It will also be one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2020.
Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku’s urban population was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku’s metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.
Baku is divided into into twelve administrative raions and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku, along with the Shirvanshah’s Palace and Maiden Tower, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet’s ranking, Baku is also among the world’s top ten destinations for urban nightlife.
Shirvanshah’s Palace
The city is renowned for its harsh winds, which is reflected in its nickname, the “City of Winds”.
Now let’s talk about football.
The first league meeting between the two teams took place on 9 November 1907 at Stamford Bridge (112 years ago). This was the first Football League First Division game played between two London clubs and drew a crowd of 65,000.
The first London derby 1907 at Stamford Bridge
A match between the clubs at Stamford Bridge in 1935 drew a crowd of 82,905, the second highest recorded attendance for an English league match. They met in two close contested FA Cup semi-finals in the 1950s, with Arsenal winning both times.
The clubs have contested three major finals: the 2002 FA Cup Final, which Arsenal won 2–0, the 2007 Football League Cup Final, which Chelsea won 2–1, and the 2017 FA Cup Final, which Arsenal won 2–1.
The two teams have also met in the UEFA Champions League in the quarter-finals in 2003–04, drawing 1–1 at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea winning 2–1 at Highbury to go through to the semi-finals. (a bitter memory for Arsenal fans)
Throughout the 112 year history Arsenal has won more games in all competitions than Chelsea, having won 76 times to Chelsea’s 63, with 58 draws (as of 19 January 2019). Arsenal’s record win was a 5–1 victory in a First Division match at Stamford Bridge on 29 November 1930.
Arsenal has also won more league games – GP164, W63, D49, L52, GF231, GA210.
The last game was at The Emirates on January 19th 2019 when Arsenal won 2-0 with goals from Lacazette (14) and Koscielny (39).
1994 Copenhagen
Colorsport / Stuart Macfarlane.
The journey of 2,709 miles will be an arduous one for both teams.
GunnerN5
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Thanks very much, GN5.
We seem to have done well against the chavs in recent years – well compared to performances against other top sixers anyway. I’m hoping that last big Final we played in 2017 against them will point us in the right direction.
Like BR, I’m very much underwhelmed by the prospect of this Final.
I’d have much preferred it if it had been against more of an unknown quantity like Frankfurt.
The CL Final has been ruined as well by the all-English, ‘want neither of them to win’ nature of it.
I have to say, a lot of things have happened, which have put a real dampener on this final! The latest being, we’re not even allowed to wear T shirts, in the warm up, with Mkhi’s name on..
It’s nearly time though, so, I really hope all of this is put aside & we play the way we all know we can! It’s a final, a big deal for us.. just imagine how we’ll all be feeling, if we are victorious!! Come on Arsenal, let’s do this 👊
Saw pictures of a charity game last night, which featured Wenger & Zidane (no Zidane didn’t headbutt him 😀) was weird, seeing Arsene in a kit, actually playing!! Fair play though, at his age!!
Morning Peoples,
Another great Post from the pen of GN5, our own John Milton — not that the latter had any notion about football — but he was one hell of a writer – Paradise Lost is an epic poem, well worth a read even 350 years after its creation, and could be interpreted as the story of the good and the bad in football, and the eventual triumph over monetary evil — well I think he got the last bit wrong, but they had their own troubles in 1650. 🥺
Loved the history of Baku, and tho I am well travelled, I am unlikely to put Baku on my bucket list.
When push comes to shove — Arsenal since the Invincible days, tend to cave, and I see no reason for that to change in the EL Final, although there is a little hidey-hole in my cranium where, against all other worries, lives an expectation of a positive outcome — and I think that has got to be called Hope. 😳
Raddy,
I am tickled and pleased that you were able to overcome my invisible typing and agreed with me concerning my doubts about the value of Mr Kroenke to Arsenal.
My comment was inordinately long, because you said that there would not be a Post yesterday, and once I started I expanded on a point and enjoyed myself.
Made me realise my decision not to write Posts again was the right one! 😁
Hope Mrs GN5 is doing okay, and thanks for another fine post, GN5. Winning the FA Cup final so many times in recent years may prove to make the difference. Both Arsenal and Unai are clearly cup fighters, so I am feeling good about this one. With the likes of Xhaka, Tor, Ozil, Auba and Laca we have formidable players to take on the Chavs, and we just have to hope that our defence will play as a strong unit and hold out. Hopefully it will be SokKos in the centre of defence and safe-hands Petr behind them. It is a shame the game is at the other end of ‘Europe’ but it will be still our boys in an European final, so I for one am very excited. Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners!!!
Hi Sew,
I feel for you — and agree it would not be right to ban Tee Shirts with Mihkee’s name on them — but maybe any such ban is just a cover because no-one can spell ‘Mikheecarryon’.
To be candid, spelling your name correctly is stretching my abilities to their limit. Can I shorten it to Su? 🤪
Happy Birthday, Laca. Now wouldn’t you enjoy that as a belated present?!! Put it in the back of the onion sack, my son! COYG.
GN5,
I was unable to spend much time on AA yesterday, and missed your comment regarding your wife’s cataract operation, so I belatedly learn that things have gone well and she now needs rest and recuperation.
My thoughts are with you both, and I am sure she will soon be fine. 👍
RA.. 😂😂 you are such a wally, sometimes (& of course, I mean that in the nicest possible way!!) Did I say sometimes? Actually, make that most of the time 😉
Morning all.
Final game of the season tomorrow and it’s a final.
I’m traveling with my son about 250 kms to meet up with many of my friends at a pub in Mississauga to watch the game. It will be a great atmosphere regardless of the outcome – but if we win it will go totally crazy. There will be around 200 Arsenal fans there of very mixed ethnic backgrounds and we’ve know each other for 30 plus years.
Off to the hospital a little later for a post op check up for my wife.
Arsenal’s managing director Vinai Venkatesham has outlined Stan Kroenke’s ownership model and given clarity to fans about their aims for the club.
In August 2018, Stan Kroenke’s bid to buy outright ownership of Arsenal was accepted, maintaining at the time that private ownership would allow the club to develop at a faster rate compared to their competitors in the Premier League, with the club valued at £1.8bn.
The move was met with criticism from some Arsenal fans, as with the move to sole ownership, annual general meetings were brought to a close.
However, Venkatesham insists the owners have the ambition to win the Premier League and Champions League.
“Stan and Josh Kroenke are in sport because they’re passionate about sport and because they want to win,” he told the club’s official website.
“So when I talk about the strategy around making our fans all across the world proud of their football club and competing to win the Premier League and the Champions League, that doesn’t come from Raul and that doesn’t come from me. That comes from our owners.
“They’re hugely ambitious around where they want to take this football club and they remind us of that all the time. They’re massively involved.”
Kroenke has also received backlash for a lack of investment in Arsenal when compared to his other sporting ventures.
It was revealed this year that the multi-billionaire had not spent a penny of his own money on the club, while $1.6bn of his own cash has been put towards LA Rams’ new NFL stadium; which is due to open in 2020.
But Arsenal’s managing director maintained Kroenke’s commitment to the Premier League club.
He added: “It’s well-known that they have an American Football team, an NBA team, an NHL team, an MLS team and a lacrosse team, so they know sport and they’re really, really passionate about Arsenal.”
It’s set to be an important transfer window for the Gunners who have been linked with the likes of David Neres, Nicholas Pepe and Ryan Fraser while Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech and Danny Welbeck are already confirmed to be departing north London.
Venkatesham assured fans that any money generated by the club itself will be reinvested straight back into club development, in compliance with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
“They know we’re not going to go from where we are at the moment to delivering our ambition overnight, and they know that there’s going to be a whole load of work along the way to get there,” Venkatesham said.
“Stan and Josh and their direction is quite simple: every single penny that we generate as a football club is available for us to invest against achieving that ambition, and that is the maximum that we can ask from our owners because that is the maximum allowed through the financial fair play rule.”
My question (based on above article) is what more can we expect of Kronke as it appears he is allowing the management to spend the maximum permitted under FFP rules?
Hi GN5,
We were promised way back by the then owners, Fitzman and others that they wanted us to compete for the Premier League and the Champions League, once the move to the Emirates happened in July 2006, as we would be able to compete financially with Manure and Chelsea in the transfer market.
I doubt anyone would say that was true.
Now we are being told similar guff by Venkatesham because he says Kroenke is so committed.
Was he not committed between 2006 and 2019?
The Managing Director has not stated accurately the FFP rules, but leaving that aside he is merely rephrasing the self-sustainable financial model.
Without player investments Arsenal have had a reduced amount of sponsorship money, and in the last couple of years we have not qualified in the ‘top 4’ and have missed out on CL qualification/payments.
So what is the ramifications of Venkatesham’s statement — nothing much — Arsenal will carry on as they have been since the Kroenke’s bought Arsenal.
Have Arsenal competed in the transfer market with the other top clubs since July 2006??
Have we won or got close to winning the Premier League or the Champions League since July 2006?
You know the answers to those questions, so I repeat my earlier comment — it’s a load of guff.
[I will, of course, apologise profusely if the Kroenke’s prove me wrong — but the chances of that happening are middling to none.]
But it will still be good to come on here and chat to all you guys …… and Su. 😜
Oh I see RA,
We are operating within the FFP rules, but the fact that we are not generating additional income through CL money, Advertising revenue, Sponsorship, Shirt sales etc. means that there is less cash available to spend under FFP.
So at the moment it’s a self fulfilling philosophy – spend the minimum and we get the same back in return…………..
It’s really the same ages old American business practice which is to maximize the ROI.
From a neutral point of view, I fancy Arsenal in this game. Kante being out for Chelsea is a big blow for them, and although they finished higher in the table I feel that Arsenal are a better side (on their day, with the firepower they have). Good luck – let’s hope you can get CL football for next year!
Chat to me, Monsieur RA? Are you sure?! 😆People may talk, you know 😜 and we couldn’t have that, hehe!!
Spot on, GN5.
So they are not telling porkies exactly, but they are embellishing what is happening, or going to happen, based on what? ……. the alleged commitment of someone who rarely goes to Arsenal games, and loves his various clubs in the US.
FFP brought in by UEFA, is well intentioned but flawed, in my opinion.
For example, when the Glazers bought Manure, with much moaning and groaning from the Manu fans, it was before FFP was introduced, so the rules were different.
The Glazers allegedly leveraged the purchase of Manure from the then owners, and did not use much, if any, of their own money, it seems.
Manu’s debt is still somewhere around £500m — yep, that is not a typo — that is £500m.
So how are they making it all work out for them bearing in mind that, unlike Kroenke, the club pays out some £22m a year in dividends to shareholders, who are of course the Glazers.
But — how did they make Manure a middle of the road/league club before the Glazers, and became one of the biggest clubs in the world, and still squared the financial circle?
[I do not read their published accounts, but this is how it may well have worked — some may say, and I could not argue with them, that the following is the product of a fertile imagination, bereft of specific data!] 😁
The owners authorised large transfer funds to be made available to acquire the best players available at that time.
Those players quickly started to challenge the AW inspired Arsenal of the late 20th – early 21st Century for the Premier League titles, and eventually snuffed out Arsenal’s success, partly because the building of the Emirates restricted the transfer funds available to AW, and therefore we could not invest in quality players to replace the Invincible players, as tempus fugit, whereas Chelsea, under its new owner Abramovich, started to throw huge money at buying top players, and the tussle quickly became one between those two clubs, with Arsenal falling by the wayside.
The upshot was — Arsenal with limited funds became ‘also-rans’, whilst Manure and Chelsea won Premier Leagues over a number of seasons, and in United’s case the CL.
The correlation between success as a result of money invested in players, or the lack of it, was becoming clear.
But there’s more.
The result of consistently winning Premier League titles, and CL titles had the effect of Manure reaping an increasing share of the huge commercial whirlwind of increased TV money, and also hugely increased commercial sponsorship money for the club from businesses who wanted to climb on board with them.
The close relationship between buying top players (at a premium) — winning titles with them — and the increased commercial and sponsorship money enabled the Glazers to pay themselves handsome dividends, and hold the leveraged debt incurred in buying the club, because the increasing bottom line profits as a result of that sponsorship were making the balance sheet look good.
Then …… along came UEFA ……. worried that other clubs attempting to emulate ManU and Chelsea, and commit to spending money they did not have, in order to buy top players, they introduced FFP to restrict transfer funds to that which the clubs could fund, within their going concern capabilities.
That meant those clubs who had spent big money prior to FFP were in a financial virtuous cycle, and could sell previously bought expensive players and add the proceeds to their transfer budgets, within the FFP rules, to replace them with other top players ad infinitum — while the other clubs could only sit back and watch with envy.
Then …… along came Citeh.
Not wishing to be unkind, but they were just another middle of the road non-entity as a club when they were bought by Sheik Mansour, but an injection of big money into the club’s transfer budget, and, lo and behold, the extra cash for top quality players resulted in them winning successive titles over the last two seasons, and probably remaining as the top club in the Premier League for the foreseeable future.
How did they do it?
Well, UEFA are investigating whether or not they breached FFP rules, so I do not know ……. but apart from the increased TV sponsorships as a result of their success, and increasing shares of the competition pot, for winning them, the new City owners have also been able to negotiate increased club commercial sponsorship deals.
I repeat, I have relied on snippets of information read in the newspapers, and have not seen the published accounts of any of the clubs, so this is, at best, only an educated guess as to how two very different financial models may have produced two very different results.
I’m all chatted out now, Su. 😞
What about the type of food we can get in baku
Love that picture of Arsene. Bloody brilliant and that at 69!
Quality post GN5 and top comment at 3.14 RA, both very good reads.
It is a good picture of Arsene but the one of the guys throwing themselves in front of the Elephant man’s shot will always be something very special.
Lol
To Matt Hill. Cheers mate!
Yes, many thanks to Matt Hill for his good wishes.
MATCHDAY
Our date with destiny is finally here… COYG
Aww Santi ❤ I still miss that guy
Our date with destiny is finally here… COYG
Aww Santi ❤ I still miss that guy
Its matchday. John Cross is predicting Chelski. Laura Woods is saying Leno should play. Pundits want to keep asking, who let Ramsey go?
Bollocks×100
Come on you Gunners. Get us dancing in the streets today AND tomorrow at the Emirates.
Amber nectar chilling ✔
Tissues handy ✔
Sofa pulled out 😄 ✔
All good to go!
Come on Arsenal, let’s do this 👊
Ooh to
Ooh to be
Ooh to be a gooner ❤
VAR tonight. Please, please Sokratis, Xhaka use your brains ( oh no!!), keep your hands and late tackles to yourself.
Morning All,
Slow start for BR after a few days hard work. PM will arrive when it is written 😀
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