We should start today’s post by saying farewell to Mr Hill-Wood, a true Arsenal stalwart and the last of the traditional Arsenal men. His father, Dennis, was AFC chairman which means that Peter was born into an Arsenal family. He was involved in bringing George Graham, David Dein and Arsene Wenger into the club. On a personal note, as a teenager I washed cars on Sundays in Hampstead Garden Suburb and HW was one of my customers!

He needs his own post as Mr Hill Wood has been hugely influential in the development of AFC into the monster it is today.  One for GN5, I think.

Two AFC Greats

Tough game today. Hands up who thinks we can even get a point. Not many of you. My hands were firmly on the keyboard.

In yesterdays post, GN5 highlighted our miserable PL record at Anfield. Apart from one very significant game in 1989, it has not been a happy hunting ground. And we go into the game suffering a serious depletion in available players with Ozil the latest to be unavailable.

Ozil. Knee knack? I thought Emery said his substitution at half time vs Brighton was tactical. What do you believe?

But Ozil-gate is for another day.

Can Arsenal reproduce the fine performance of Liverpool at home? A game we should have won (yet another). If, a huge if, we have a couple of returning defenders we have a chance, but this is unlikely. The biggest loss is Bellerin. Against a side blessed with pace we will struggle, especially against Mane and Salah.

Liverpool’s defence is the best in the PL, a testament to their buying policy (Red Arnie). A winning team has a quality defence, witness GG and early AW, Klopp’s team play flowing attacking football based upon a very athletic, dynamic back 5. It works.

An example of the excellence of Liverpool’s current policy of spend, spend spend is that of Shaqiri. They have a very similar player in The Ox, who cost over €30m, Ox gets crocked for a season and L’pool buy a costly short-term replacement. Will Arsenal  do the same for Holding and Welbeck? I doubt it.

Can they win the PL? I hope not as it will cost me a fish 🐟.

Can we afford to play both PEA and Laca in this game? I would but I believe that attack is the best form of defence (once said to me by the Spurs legend Dave Mackay). Laca can be played a little deeper and take the Ozil role.

My Team:

Bent

Licht    Greek Bloke   Koscielny

Curly   Xhaka   Terrier   Wardrobe

Ramsey

Lacazette   PEA

This requires the old Swiss FB to spend much of his time in his own half and not play the over-lapping FB role. He hasn’t got the legs anymore. AMN (Cons) is a possible but he hasn’t the experience or the black arts of Lichtsteiner. However, this team is lop-sided and perhaps AMN would add some right side threat. Otherwise Ramsey will have to do so.

If we get a point it will be a victory. 3 would be heroic.

COYRRG

Having played all our home games for 2018 we finish the year with away ties at Brighton and Liverpool.

Brighton is the home to many an ex-lover (as was discovered on the blog on Xmas Eve). Strange that. Must be the air.

My First Love, now residing in Brighton

Also in the strange department is the fact we are playing in a black kit – apparently our second away kit – against a team who plays in blue and white. Being an old fart I cannot understand this, are ther new rules that teams cannot use their home kit when playing away? And even if that is the case, which numpty designed a grey/black kit or for that matter, an awful peppermint outfit? Thankfully we change our kit sponsor next season.

Last season Brighton beat us at the Amex, they play good football under their very popular manager, David Wagner,and the atmosphere created by the Seagulls fans is fervent. This will not be an easy victory. But, we have finally overcome the monkey of leading at half-time. An ealry goal for the men in black would be very welcome

Our squad is suffering from a plethora of injuries, A greek chap, Holding, Catwalk, Naco, Mustafi, Mhki, Smith Rowe (Lab) and Big Danny all out; some for lengthy spells. Given the very recent and less than impressive return of Koscielny, there is clearly a need for purchases in January.

So, who remains standing? We can still put out a strong team. Terrier and Ramsey were rested at the weekend and will surely play today (unless our Welsh Wizard has already signed his transfer papers.

My Team:

Bent

AMN  (Cons)     Sokratis     Koscielny     Wardrobe

Ramsey    Xhaka   Terrier

Ozil    Iwobi

Lacazette

With the Liverpool game in a couple of days, I think PEA will be benched.

Ramsey to play in his preferred role in front of the midfield. Looking at this team it is crying out for a proper winger.

Any money spent in January will surely be on defenders, our defensive record is as bad as I can remember. We have only had 3 clean sheets this season and I do not expect another today. Brighton are a tough team at the Amex.

Don’t forget the later kick off

We need 3 points this afternoon if top 4 is remain on the horizon. Let it be So.

COYRRG

Them again.

Trouble with this game is that I am ambivalent – desperately want to beat the Miscreants but don’t want a two leg semi-final against Oilers.

How will Mr. Emery approach this fixture? Will he continue to utilise youth players or prioritise silverware and select a number of first teamers? I have no idea and doubt you do!

The 4-2 victory was glorious (any victory against them is glorious). Every goal magnificent. We witnessed one of the PL games of the season and gave them a hammering. The Emirates was rocking. Shame we couldn’t repeat a 5-2 victory!

Pochettino will want to end his final season at Spurs with some silverware, so I anticipate they will bring a very strong team including  Alderweiss (isn’t that a song from Sound of Music?), Alli and all the other muppets.

We, on the other hand, are blighted by injuries and cannot risk some of our chaps. Dare we start with Nketiah upfront or play safe with Lacazette?

My Team:

Helmet

Licht   Sokratis    Medley   AMN

Ramsey    Xhaka   Willock

Ozil     Iwobi

Lacazette

Mustafi is recovering from injury, Kos played 90 on Sunday, Holding out, Mavro out,  Wradrobe out, Chambers AWOL, we have to play either Monreal or a kid at CB, I choose the kid. SAka and Eddie on the bench. PEA given a night off.

We play Burnley at the weekend which must be the priority.

If we win – it is a fine victory

If we lose – it is only the Carabao and we beat them in the important game.

COYRRG

Run over. Disappointing performnce done. Emery had severe selection problems. Let’s move on …

But before we do here are some purely subjective player ratings:

Leno: Despite GIE’s fine disclaimer, I think Leno could and should have done better with the goals. Made one fine save.      5

Bellerin: A costly injury to a player who has done well this season. Could have got closer to the crosser for S’ton’s first goal    5

Lichtsteiner. Not good. Despite his vast experience he was continually caught out. S’ton are not blesssed with great attackers but the defence allowed them to score 3 headers.    4

Koscielny. Love the bloke but he had a shocker. I know there are many excuses/reasons but nonetheless we can only judge on his afternoon’s work    3

Xhaka. Not a Swiss Army knife. He is no full back nor is he a CB. Did his best – it wasn’t good enough   4

Monreal. One of hhis worst ever games. Apart from the cross for Mhiki’s first he contributed little to attack and was absent too often in defence    4

Guendouzi.  Ran about a lot. As yet  not a creative MF, and we needed one.    5

Terrier. As usual he took a kicking which the referee allowed. Probably our best player.   6

Iwobi. Started well, faded rapidly.  A poor performance from a man who needs a goal to bolster his confidence    3

Mhiki.  Scored twice which raises his rating from a 4 to a     6

Auba.  Well marsalled but had chances.  Worked hard.     5

Subs.   AMN. Caught napping for S’ton’s winner (according to some)     4

Ozil.  Played too high up the pitch to influence. Some delightful flicks     5

Laca. Busy.    5

Mr. Emery. Given the lack of available defenders he was always struggling but I felt his choice of Duozi in midfield and Xhaka at the back caused us problems. We never managed to gain control in midfield  nor did we have players to create chances for PEA (apart from an early long ball from Douzi).. Was he keeping players back for the midweek Spurs game. It was obvious that S’ton with Ings and Austin would try to score from crosses so why not play a Back 4?   4

The run had to end but it should not have done at team who had yet to win at home this season.

written by Big Raddy

A return to Europa action in front of what could be our lowest attendance for some time. If only 33k turn up for a Spurs CL game, how many will bother paying to watch the kids tonight? That said, I wouldn’t turn up to see Spurs play anyone 😀

We know who is dropping down from the CL to the Europa: these are the contenders – Club Brugge, Inter Milan, Napoli, Galatasary, Benfica, Shaktar Donesk, Valencia (who just humiliated MU), and Viktoria Pizen.

Of these only Inter, Napoli and Valencia are to be feared, though we have lost to Benfica in the past.

Tonight we will see a return for our Team Captain, Mr. Koscielny. At 33 y.o. and having recuperated from such a chronic injury, I expect him to be unable to recover his former exccellence. Less pace, less stamina, less jumping ability, but more experience. He is an important player but IMO is unlikely to ever be a first choice player again.

A night for the youngsters who have done so well this season. Smith Rowe (no hyphen) Maitland-Niles (with hyphen), Willock etc  Qarabag have nothing to gain from tonight either so we could see a a very open. attacking game.

My Team

Helmet

Licht   Sokratis  Kos   Corporal Jenks

Douzi   AMN    Elneny

Smith Rowe   Iwobi

Nketiah

Maybe a bit light upfront.

And what of Ozil? I expect him to ride the pine and then come on for the second half, or perhaps start and get subbed. He needs pitch time ahead of S’ton.

Sokratis is banned on the weekend so should start.

A dead rubber (whatever that means!!), nonetheless I expect us to win and continue our unbeaten run

Let it Be So.

Sokratis, Holding, Koscielny, Mustafi, Mavropostolopuslos, Chambers. Who would have thought that we would struggle to find a CB by Xmas?

We have only one available CB for our next PL game at Southampton, Koscielny who hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since the Europa semi-final back in the first week of May. Much will be expected of our Club Captain.

It is strange how we get a slew of injuries in one position. It used to be full back and left back in particular – can you remember Flamini doing so well there?

So what is the solution – do we sign a CB or two in January, do we rely upon our youth players? Do we utilise the dazzling centre half skills of Elneny, Lichtsteiner or Nacho?

We have a couple of fine youth players coming through in Zech Medley and Julio Pleguezuelo. The latter (can’t be arsed to write his name again) came from the Barca academy and has already played for the first team in the Carabao (Blackpool), he is highly rated.

Medley got some minutes at Vorksla, he is only 18 y.o and is 6’5″. Apparently an excellent prospect.

I expect Mr Emery will play Nacho and the Swiss fella at St Mary’s.

Did anyone watch the Copa Libertadores? It was great entertainment, everything one expects from a game between two Argentinian teams. Diving, fake injuries, shit-housery, allied to superb skill, pace, and energy. Both teams would do very well in the PL. The fans were superb and for once the Bernabaeu was rocking.

written by BR

It was a surprise when Huddersfield forced their way in to the PL and it was an achievement of almost Leicester standards for them to stay up last season. Town have spent hardly anything, have a small ground and … how can I put this? … just think cobbled streets, Hovis and Lowry’s stickmen.

Manager Dick Wagner (  😀 ) has done a fantastic job.

Dick Wagner

In terms of economy, history, players there is no comparison with Arsenal but Town will give us a hard game this afternoon, just as they did at Wenger’s farewell at the John Smith’s in May.

We hammered the Terriers 5-0 last time but the score flattered us, with 3 goals in 4 second half minutes.

With two Danes, it would be 3 but for the suspension for Billing, there is much Huddersfield interest in Denmark.  TBH I know nothing about their other players,  the Dutch CB, Kongolo, appears to be their stand out man.

Thinking of CB’s, it is horrible news about Holding who is developing into a solid performer. We must hope he can make a full recovery ready for our title winning season in 2020.

We have injuries, some long-term, the loss of Welbz and Holding will probably result in January TW activity.

My Team:

Bent

Catwalk    Mustafi   Greek Bloke    Kolasinac

Terrier    Xhaka

Ozil    Iwobi

PEA    Lacazette

I pick a very attacking team. Why not – it’s Xmas.

Will Ozil’s “back spasm” continue? I have had back problems and can assure anyone who hasn’t that it is very debilitating requiring rest and time to improve. I prefer not to believe that there are tensions between Ozil and the club.

We have been on an wonderful and much unexcited run, a win today is important.

Let it be So.

COYRRG