Time for Revenge. Anderlecht Away

October 22, 2014

Many years ago in a land far away our valiant boys took the field for the first leg of the 1970 Inter-City Fairs Cup Final which today is the equivalent of the Europa Cup. We had been poor for a number of years and recently lost the League Cup to Swindon, yes Swindon, so the prospect of playing the Belgian Champions was worrying.

Despite being a rabid Gooner and having been to all the league games at home and many away, I didn’t travel abroad (my Mum wouldn’t let me). Just as well as we lost 3-1. At three down it was all over but Ray Kennedy managed to notch one back in the 82nd minute to give us some hope for the return – which I will write about when Anderlecht come to the Emirates.

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The current Anderlecht team have won their league 4 out of the last 5 seasons. Quite honestly I know very little about Anderlecht apart from the fact they play in the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium and that one of their players had a trial at Arsenal as a 16 y.o. (Dennis Praet). This season in the CL they drew away at Galatasary and lost 3-0 to Dortmund. After 11 games they are top of the Belgian league, 3 points ahead of Brugge.

Arsenal have selection problems (!!!).  Ever heard of Ryan Huddart? Neither have I, but he is on the bench for us tonight and if Martinez gets knocked he will be playing. A 17 y.o. who has just signed professional forms in goal in an away CL game! Then there is the defence – Chambers will play CB and Bellerin at RB, two 19 y.o.’s. This is Arsenal we are talking about not some Mickey Mouse organisation and yet the 8th richest club in the world has allowed this to occur. Am I bovvered? You bet I am.

Midfield and upfront we are much better served. There are many permutations but I go with this one

My team:

22nd oct

Not sure who we will have as a defensive sub apart from Monreal but hopefully we will not need one.

Food: Belgium is not renowned for its cuisine though for a few years in the ’90’s Belgian beer and Moules was popular in N. London. Belgians like a bar of chocolate and a truffle or two and of course are responsible for the dreadful Mandarine Napoleon which is made by mixing brandy and tangerines. I suppose what most Belgians eat is waffles …. they love a waffle.

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Maple Syrup, Nutella or Fruit?

As I have a little time perhaps you will allow me to tell you about another time an English team went to play on Belgian soil.

It was 15th June 1815.  The English squad had their version of Podolski, Mertesacker and Ozil in the team (at that time known as Prussians), they were taking on the current European Champions, the French. Our boys were managed by the Duke of Wellington and the opposition by the foreign genius and Mr Wenger of his day Napoleon Bonaparte. You will not need me to tell you that Our Boys gave the French a good spanking (one reason being the English forces numbered 120k and the French 72k).

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Beating the French away.

Will we lose 3-1 as we did all those years ago? Unlikely. The two teams have grown in different directions and despite the excellence of the Belgium national team Anderlecht are the weakest team in the group. We should get a result.

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy

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Cook, Thief, Wife, Lover, Internet and Arsenal.

October 10, 2014

The title? Nothing whatsoever, just happen to like a film, and the words.

So, what’s on the chit chat menu for today? How about Blogging itself, and more broadly, the Internet and how it has altered football.

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Back in the good old days, turn up Saturday at midday in chosen boozer. Meet mates you haven’t seen or spoken to since the last match. Drink four or five pints. Get to the North Bank three minutes before Kick Off. Final whistle, maybe another swift one and away into the night.

Therefore, my brief conversation starter for this bright sunny morning asks these questions:

–        Is blogging good for your Arsenal experience?

–        Is the increased transparency the internet provides good for football?

–        Throw Twitter, Facebook and Players into the mix, and what do you get?

–        How much would you like to read Stan and Arsene’s Text accounts?

written by MickyDidIt89

 

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Don’t Mention the War ….

October 5, 2014

I don’t want to write about him, so I won’t.

No, not the big mouthed class-less clown or even his vicious, neanderthal henchman – I have plenty to say about them. I am talking about the player upon whom the media are choosing to focus almost to the exclusion of there being two unbeaten teams meeting this afternoon. It will not be about one man but about 22.

I don’t like Chelsea, never have.

My first trip to the small club close to Fulham was in the ’60’s.  Along with the rest of the North Bank I marched to the Bridge. At that time (and probably today) Chelsea had a bunch of meathead followers called the Shed Boys – loonies to a man, every one a criminally violent fascist; it was the intelligentsia from the genteel streets of Islington who would attempt to “Take the Shed”. It will not surprise our regular readers to discover that I had no intention of hitting anyone or even less of being hit, after all it would have done severe damage to my karmic being, but I was carried along in the spirit of the North Bank as we entered the ground. The next hour was horrific as fights broke out all around me and the Shed became a battle ground.

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The Shed

I have no idea whether the Shed was taken, all I know was that I vowed that from then on I would sit in the stands for away games at The Bridge. On my last visit I was with the Away Boys in the lower stand and above us were the Chavs; needless to say the whole game was ruined by them throwing coins, drinks, urine and other stuff down on us whilst the police and stewards looked away. I will never go back.

The days of the wonderful Chelsea Pensioners with their stoicism and humour are well gone. Want to know about Chelsea’s New Sophistication? John Terry is all the answer you need. Please, please. please let him get Diaby’ed this afternoon.

Then there is the manager. If I allowed it my keyboard would self destruct rather than let me write about him. Yes he is a brilliant tactician and has won time and time again. Yes, he has the Indian sign over Mr. Wenger. But let me ask you this …. would you let him go out with your daughter???  Just recall the spiteful and cowardly eye-gouge whilst at Barca, can you imagine Mr Wenger doing that? The High Priest of the Me-Generation has found his natural home

I can’t write about their team. They will surely win the title this year and are very, very good in every department. But so what ….. they are still Chavs.

Arsenal: Before we get all doomy it should be recalled we go into this game unbeaten on the back of a fine win against the Turkish Chavs.

We do not have the players to play defensively and I do not believe Mr Wenger will be over-cautious. No-one wants a repeat of last season but this is a game we should try to win as opposed to damage limitation. We have superb attacking potential and this is a game where Alexis will surely shine.

What do we need to do to get a result? Be lucky. Be resolute. Be tactically aware. Be fearless. Be ruthless. Be aware that we have huge pace and the centre of Chelsea’s defence is manned by Orcs.

My Team:

7th oct

The real concern with this side is the size of our midfield. Is there a more diminutive midfield in world football? If Mr. Wenger plays Cazorla instead of Ox he would lose 15cms and Ox is hardly a giant. Could Diaby be a solution – is he available? Or Bellerin at RB and Chambers alongside Flamini as a defensive shield?

We will not get many chances so Welbz will have to be potent.

The food from the Borough of Chelsea is , as you would expect, dreadful. Cakes and Buns mainly – not your lovely creamy jobs, more things full of fats and raisins.

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The Chelsea Bun – Looks like something a dog laid.

Can we win today? It is a huge ask with Chelsea being in fine form and with our brave squad diminished by injury. The losses of Debuchy and Ramsey could hurt us today. As good as Chambers is, he is going to find the pace and trickery of Hazard difficult. Ramsey’s ability to score and his non-stop movement is hard to replace. But why not? We have an excellent team and we are unbeaten.

Trouble is Chelsea have one of my heroes playing in their midfield.

Don’t mention the war.  I did once but I think I got away with it.

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy.

 

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Friday’s Rant

October 3, 2014

What is it you find disagreeable ?

Here is a starter ….

Complaints about Stan Kroenke taking money out of the club: Why?  When I owned a business if one of my customers told me that I couldn’t take a smidgeon out to enjoy a self-finding mission to the Berkshire countryside I would have given them short shrift (whatever a shrift is?). The man has invested heavily into AFC and yet to take a dividend, his company did some work for the club, they got paid. So what? Anyone who thinks Silent Stan is in it for anything but profit is beyond naive.

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Needs money for a decent haircut.

The price of piss-weak beer at The Emirates. I do not mind paying big money for a ticket nor for a Chinese child slave produced replica shirt but I object to drinking low alcohol lager at premium beer prices.

Mobile phone conversations. It should be mobile free inside the stadium. Do I give a monkey’s whether the bloke sitting next to me has to pick up his daughter from riding classes after the match? No, I do not, nor do the 20 people who can hear his inane conversation.. Nor am I interested in whether the twat behind me wants to buy pork belly shares at €1.22 and will not pay a cent extra. I am there for the football and so should they be.

This isn’t football related but I am writing this and you aren’t 😀 ……

The “It should have been Me” and why isn’t it?  These blokes are around the same age as me and some of the chaps on AA. Just check out the crowd reaction at 1.33. You may not like the music but imagine it was you up on that stage instead of Brian Johnson (lead singer)….. just imagine (play extremely loud)

 

 

 

 

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There’s Only One ……

October 1, 2014

First things first……

Congratulations to Mr. Wenger on his 18th Arsenal Anniversary. You do not look like a man who enjoys a cream cake and a bottle of Asti Spumante so instead we will take the cheap route and send best wishes.

What a fantastic ride it has been from the DB10 years, through the TH14 years and now onto the DW23 era. Thank you.

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“I left the Afghan coat in the 2CV”

Right, let’s get onto what will be a difficult game. It would be a tough one had we been on form and given our inability to find cohesion this season  …. yadda yadda yadda.

Galatasary are only in the competition because their city rivals and league champions Fenerbahce were very bad boys and not allowed to play in the CL so the Turkish runners-up took their place.  They like Italian managers and have employed both Mancini and Prandelli over the past season – we can expect a compact, counter attacking team. They have some fine players including the mercurial (read unreliable) Sneijder. In Yilmaz and Pandev they have strikers who will cause problems to our brave lads but as always in CL games at The Emirates it will be the quality of the opposition defence which will determine tonight’s result.

And talking of defensive quality, let’s talk Eboue. Tonight should have seen his return to his real home club but instead poor Emmanuel will be sitting elsewhere. His star has faded in Turkey and as far as I can find out Eboue hasn’t even travelled with the squad. Apparently he has been relegated to the reserves. What a shame. It would have been great to hear “You’ve only come to see Eboue” sung once more at THOF.

Onto The Arsenal. Much is made of our injury record and with good cause. Just a few games into the season and we have already lost 4 first team starters (and Diaby is being rested for tonight 😀 ). It must be hugely frustrating for Mr, Wenger to see his squad depleted year after year. However, as always it gives opportunities for others to shine and a few games for the Ozil/Alexis combo to fire.

With so many midfield and attacking options picking a team is guesswork but  …

My Team:1st october

Hard to leave out Cazorla who is such a marvellous player. Perhaps my line-up is too attacking though Alexis is very good at tracking back and helping the midfield. It will be fascinating to see how the team sets up when Walcott returns in just a few weeks.

Against Spurs Ox had a fine game and I expect him to continue his good form tonight. Last season’s injury robbed him of a breakthrough year; at almost 21 he is on the path to super-stardom and a run of games will convince Mr Wenger that The Ox is undroppable (hopefully!). AW predicted that Ox will be a central midfielder …. we shall see.

I am always loathe to predict a victory but if Arsenal are to progress we have to win tonight. 10 points is the target and given the drubbing we got in Dortmund we cannot assume we will beat them at home (of course we will BR – you doomer), so a win and a draw away plus two home victories will be enough.

A win tonight will set us up for a tough game at Chelsea. It will also give a boost to the fans at the Emirates who are starting to lose the feel-good factor left over from the FA Cup win.

On an Anniversary night Let it be So.

written by Big Raddy

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Vote for Flamini

September 30, 2014

In the summer of 2013 we were despairing of signing a defensive midfielder. Arteta was over 30 and not really attuned to defensive work, we had been Diaby-ed once too often and we had sold Denilson, Eastmond, Frimpong and a host of other defenders (remember Andre Santos?). The mega-signings of Özil and Sanogo were exciting but didn’t fulfil the long-term demands for a DM.

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We read that Flamini was training with the team in an attempt to get match fit prior to trying to get a contract somewhere …. anywhere. He had been binned by a dodgy AC Milan side after a season in which he halved his wage demands.

Stoke beckoned.

But No! Our charitable French manager saw a bargain and a cheap solution, a sticking plaster for the gaping DM hole which had been evident to us fans since the days of the Invisible Wall.

At the time I wrote that signing Flamini was a backward step and one which would have a detrimental effect upon the squad. Then Mr Wenger signed Kallstrõm! Both, in my opinion, acts of desperation.

Perhaps Arsene was waiting for Carvalho (or someone else, maybe Matic?). Maybe he thought Diaby would survive a season in the first team, perhaps he saw Ramsey as his DM cover for Arteta. Whatever it was he signed Flamini in the summer window.

It must be said that the first games Flamini played were a revelation; he was better than when he left. Milan had taught him to be more defensively aware and less like the Mathieu we allowed to leave – perhaps he had matured. A few fine performances, a number of yellow cards, some crunching tackles, the black boots, the cut-off sleeves and a number of all-action 90 minutes allowed us to forget the acrimony of his departure.

But, and here is the rub, Flamini is not good enough to help us to silverware. He just isn’t. He hasn’t the pace or the tactical awareness. Sure he can make a tackle and certainly leave “a reminder” but so can Joey Barton and I wouldn’t want him anywhere near the Emirates.

In my opinion we bought Flamini because Mr. Wenger wouldn’t spend the money needed to bring a world class DM into the club.

What do you think, Is Mathieu good enough for The Arsenal?

 

written by Big Raddy

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Why Worry?

September 27, 2014

Dear Tom,

I have done many shameful things in my life, many things I regret and others which today fill me with embarrassment. You have always been like a son to me which brings me to perhaps the most shameful act of my life, well actually it is more a non-act because sometimes doing nothing is worse than doing something  negative  …. you know what I talking about. I allowed you to become a Spurs supporter.

I sat back and allowed others to lead you into a life of frustration, broken promises, false hope and desperation. It could have been so different had I taken you to The Home of Football all those years ago but I was absent, many miles away and took my eye away from your upbringing whilst you succumbed to evil influence.

I can only apologise

much love

Big Raddy

Excuse me for taking a couple of paragraph’s for a personal note but having done so let’s get back to today’s game 😀

Yesterday we had an excellent post exploring the fans confidence ahead of today’s NLD. Are Arsenal that good that we can dismiss any Spurs team? Not in my opinion, these are always stressful, tense games – even when we beat them by the usual 5-2 there have been times in the games when I despaired – it is almost always thus.

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The New White Hart Lane 

Spurs have been hapless over the past few weeks – losing to an average L’pool and then a bottom of the table WBA are not good results. Nor were the draws with Sunderland and Belgrade, but this should be tempered by a good win mid-week.

Our form has been a little better and let’s be honest getting hammered by Dortmund in the CL is less painful than struggling in the Europa 😀 We have two more points than the neanderthals, not much but we have struggled to find cohesion; 90+ minute goals have saved blushes and points. We are slight favourites mainly because we are at the Emirates (and because we are the forces of good and Spurs are menial servants of Beelzebub)

There are too many permutations for Mr Wenger’s team today. To Wilshire or not to Wilshire? To Alexis or not? Flamini to counter Eriksen? I expect our Boss to completely ignore how Spurs set up and play his favourites.

How many of the men who played on Tuesday will start today?

Here’s my guess:

Szczesny

Chambers     BFG       Koscielny     Gibbs

Ox     Ramsey     Arteta       Alexis

Ozil       Welbeck

I fancy AW to go all out attack today against a suspect defence. I choose Ox over Wilshere for this reason plus I expect Ox to play deeper as he gets further in his career.

I have yet to write about the odious Spurs fans. Why? Because this morning the sun is shining, Mrs. Raddy is smiling, I enjoyed a fine breakfast and life is good. Why besmirch it writing about excrement? Isn’t it better to let them into the ground, allow them to tear up the seats, defecate in the stadium and after they crawl home to their hovels get out the water cannons and clear up.

I haven’t written anything about Spurs’ team. Sorry but you will have to look elsewhere. No surprise that Spurs arrive with a new manager; Pochettino appeared to have some pride when at S’ton, going to WHL where Mr Levy has sacked 14 managers during the Wenger years shows an excess of self-belief and a jot of madness. Shame.

The people outside of The Emirates talk about “bragging rights.” Win or lose today Arsenal have them because although the game is important we are so far ahead of them in terms of trophies, history, fans, ground and class there can be no question as to who is the biggest and best club in North London.

We are the Arsenal and We are the Best

We are the Arsenal – so F**k all the Rest!

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy

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Akpom. The New Anelka?

September 23, 2014

We are at home. The tickets are cheap. It is an autumn night. There are few expectations. We have a big enough squad to play some top players mixed with exciting youngsters. Southampton play expansive, attacking football.

Wish I was going.

Given the size of our squad and the strength of our bench I believe our B team can win the Capital One Cup. It would be a fine addition to the trophy cabinet and something we haven’t achieved since Rasp had hair …. without looking it up, when were we last League Cup Winners? (see bottom of post).

Reading Koeman’s pre-match thoughts it appears as though S’ton are going to play a very strong team, as close to the first team as possible. I can understand why because winning a piece of silverware – any trophy at all – would be huge for S’ton whose last trophy win was back in 1976, almost 40 years ago!

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S’ton, 6th in 2nd Div. beat Man Utd at Wembley with a goal by Bobby Stokes 1/5/1976

How will Mr Wenger respond? Well, we know that Diaby will start and I wish him all the best. He is such a good player whose career has been hampered by injury, at 28 he still has the chance to achieve his ambitions.

Ospina will start his first match for the Gunners. This is a strange signing for me – a fine signing for the club but weird for Ospina. Perhaps he believes TPIG is not very good and that he has a chance to usurp him, I think he is mistaken but I guess he is earning a far higher wage and is happy to ride the pine for the foreseeable future. As I say, an odd decision for a much in demand International class keeper.

Another point of interest will be the progress of Akpom. Chuba has played and scored for England at every Youth level, he is the fastest player over 10 yards in recent AFC history (beating both Walcott and Henry) and recently scored a hatrick for the U-21’s. He looks excellent when playing in the U-21’s but it is a huge step up to play with the Big Boys. Ray Kennedy did it, Anelka did it, can Chuba Akpom?

Then there is Isaac Hayden. Could he be the reason Mr. Wenger didn’t buy a back-up central defender? He did well in his previous outing with the first team when he played the defensive midfield role and looked very composed in the recent U-21 win over WBA.

It is upfront where we have so much in reserve. A forward line of Podolski, Akpom and Campbell is dangerous, add in the attacking midfield of (I assume) the Ox or Rosicky and we should score goals. The problem, as ever, is in defence.

Possible team:

23rd sept

This team could be a bit light defensively so perhaps Akpom will be on the bench and Ox play on the left with Campbell through the middle. Another alternative is Flamini at left back rather than Gibbs. Why? Because there is a rather important game on the weekend and we do not want to risk an injury-prone Gibbs.

So …… did you recall the last time we won the League Cup? Yes, it was in the 1992/3 season when we won the Cup Double against Sheffield Wednesday. I went to all 3 games at Wembley and this was the first. It was the Coca-Cola Cup in those days and we won 2-1. Sheffield scored first, the Merse equalised then Steven Morrow scored the winner. It was the famous occasion when Tony Adams broke Morrow’s arm whilst celebrating

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Morrow’s Big Day Out and a pre-recovery Merse.

Win this and there are just 9 PL teams left in the draw. Lose and we free up some game-time. Here’s to an entertaining match.

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy

 

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Ox to step up?

September 20, 2014

Well, the fans have giving the team a good kicking this week, we can only hope they pass it on to Aston Villa this afternoon.

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We are always unlucky about meeting a team as they are in good from and today is no exception. Given last season’s miserable performances it was more likely that Lambert would be sacked rather than make his young team into the formidable opponents they will be post kick-off. Fair play to the man.

Or could it be his assistant who has engendered this startling change of form? Keane doesn’t like Arsenal, never has. He does however respect The Arsenal and has been involved in may victories over us. Has he learned from Surralex? I am convinced he has and expect to see Villa play the same way MU did when they could beat us … that is, with violence. Not just violence but cunning violence. Expect the game to start with a flurry of  nasty tackles on our creative players (rotational of course). How the game develops from here will depend upon two things

1. How our delicate flowers respond to a bit of aggressive pruning (just for you Peaches 🙂 )

2. The strength of the referee. Today we are blessed with Mike Jones.

Before discussing Jones may I remind you of how the referee affected the game in our opening fixture last season. Anthony Taylor was so poor he was demoted – deservedly so. Do you recall how he waved play on after a TPIG foul in the area and then when Agbonglahor missed gave a penalty (which they scored)

Where was I? Ah yes, Mike Jones. Last season in 32 games he gave out 108 yellows and 3 reds. Yes, you read that right! This season after 3 games 10 yellows and one red. This chap is card happy. Will this be a good thing this afternoon? The stats do not show whether he is affected by the home crowd as so many refs are. We must hope not and that he continues to brandish yellow each time one of AV’s thugs ploughs through the back of our heroes.

We welcome the return of Big Phil. A player I have always liked – not Arsenal quality but a top bloke and one of Peaches faves. Alongside Vlaar he makes a fine CB partnership and with two quality FB’s Villa have become very difficult to break down. Especially as they have a busy midfield with Delph showing just why he was so highly rated as a teenager at Leeds.

Upfront, they rely upon pace which is not good news for BFG. Breakaway goals are an AV speciality and we can only hope the lessons of Tuesday night have been learned. We cannot afford to be too gung-ho.

Arsenal:  Please, please play Oxlade-Chamberlain today. I don’t care who gets dropped, we need his energy and drive.

The difficulty as I see it is how does a player recover from a bad bout of form without playing? Ramsey is one of our best players but of late has been completely anonymous (apart from scoring two vital goals 😃 ). Can Mr Wenger drop him? Can he drop Ozil?  Of course he can but will he?

Can Sanchez play twice a week given the amount of energy he expends during a game? Or Welbeck, who has covered more ground in 3 games than Giroud does in 6.

This is a tough team to guess but let’s try

 Villa 2014

I am excited to see Chambers get a run in the position he was bought for. Once again we have a powerful bench though lacking in defensive possibilities

Being in the Midlands the food I associate with Villa is always a curry – so I will choose one of my favourite dishes, a Daal Makhani. I read that one of the best can be purchased at the Sanskrit in Stratford Rd.. Add in a Paneer Marsala and a few breads and you are assured a veritable eating extravaganza.

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All it needs is a chilled Lager

Birmingham is home to a host of famous drink and food brands. Typhoo tea, Birds Custard, Bournville cocoa, Cadbury’s chocolate and HP sauce all originate in Brum.

Can we win today? Of course. Our team will be desperate to absolve themselves after the Dortmund Debacle. If it goes tit’s up it will not be because of lack of effort. We have attacking talent in spades, our defence will be augmented by the excellent Gibbs, and we have a fine record at Villa Park

COYRRG

written by Big Raddy

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BVB. The Return.

September 16, 2014

The Signal Iduna Park. Scene of one of the best football nights of my life. Regular readers will be bored with yet another reminder of the why’s and wherefore’s of Didit and my victorious campaign to German soil. We came, we saw, we conquered. Enough said.

However, a repeat of the Arsenal victory may kick start our season and I can see no reason why we cannot beat them again.

To begin with BVB have lost important players – Lewandowski (who scored at the Emirates) has joined Bayern and Gundogan, Reus, Hummels,  Sahin , Ji and some bloke with an unpronounceable name from Truskolasy in Poland are all out injured.  However, Sven Bender and Kagawa are fit as is some Armenian CF who is a bit tasty and whose name I cannot spell.

BVB are finding their feet in the Bundesliga having won two and lost one so far. Kagawa returned to a heroes welcome at the weekend and scored in an easy win over Freiburg but Arsenal are (hopefully) a sterner test.

Arsenal have defensive problems …… Debuchy knacked,  Monreal banjaxed, Chambers 50/50 (throat knack). Thankfully Gibbs is fit and I suggest we may see Flamini take the right back shirt with Arteta returning to the conductor’s podium. Or we could blood Bellerin. Would you?

Now I have high hopes for Bellerin – I like that he comes from the Barca factory, that he has phenomenal pace and that he has a ridiculous haircut. Plus his parents were irresponsible enough to name the lad Hector. Can you imagine going into the 5th form classroom and introducing yourself as Hector? He must be well hard by now.

Mr Wenger has taken Bellerin with the squad to Germany so he must trust the boy.

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Does this chap look the full shilling?

These defensive injuries are certain to arouse the smug  “I told you so’s” amongst some of the AFC fans but before you get all Jack the Peanut – the defensive frailties have been highlighted by every single football fan and you are not cleverer than Mr Wenger – so sit down and shut up. Mr Wenger was obviously after a specific target and didn’t get his man. Nor did he find a suitable player to improve the squad. Like everyone else I think this was poor, make that piss-poor from our Purchasing Dept.

Elsewhere we abound with outstanding talent, so much so that great players cannot even get on the bench and that is without Giroud, Walcott and Diaby. I would start Podolski tonight instead of  ….. mmmm I don’t know who 😀

And that is the problem. We have too many quality players.

My Team:

16th sept

Perhaps we could rest Welbeck, play Sanchez centrally with Rosicky or Podolski playing a more defensive left sided role. We have been exposed recently by our over-zealous attacking fullbacks. I don’t blame them – I would prefer to look at the tactical awareness of the midfielders who must see the huge gaps Monreal and Debuchy leave behind.

The local food in Dortmund is unsurprisingly beer and sausage. The local brew is Dortmunder Pilsner and I can tell you from personal experience it is possible to almost drown in the stuff without losing consciousness (5.5% alc).  A fine tasting brew. I am told it is best accompanied by the “Salzkuchen mit Mettente” which is a curried sausage in a caraway seeded, bagel type roll. I have only tried the bratwurst (hugely disappointing).

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So will we come home with the points? It is undenianable that BVB are a fine team, one of Europe’s best and the sense of lassitude about tonight’s game is purely repetition rather than opposition. It must be the same for Messrs. Klopp and Wenger, whom we are told are good friends which may be very exciting when thinking about Arsene’s successor! Both teams are weakened by injury, both teams are struggling for form as their international players recuperate from the stresses of the World Cup. I would be delighted with a repeat of 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Lastly, I am disappointed but not surprised by ITV’s decision to show Liverpool against a team of East European hairdressers as opposed to what is the plum tie of the round. No doubt we will hear that the “atmosphere is incredible as Liverpool return to the Big Stage” etc etc  Anti-Arsenal bias? You bet.

written by Big Raddy

 

 

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