Thanks to everyone who has written posts, read posts and commented on posts throughout the year.

Merry festivities from all at Arsenal Arsenal.

September 2^nd 1893, The Woolwich Arsenal play their first competitive match against Newcastle Utd.

Then there was Supermac.

However, those are not the greatest ties between ourselves and today’s opposition. Newcastle were my favourite opponents on my Subbuteo baize. Always liked the red and white of Arsenal against the Magpie black and white.

I’ve only seen this Benitez side once, and that was against Brighton during their title winning campaign last season, and they were good to watch. They now sit one point above the bottom three, and my guess is there must be great pressure to bus park in tougher looking away fixtures.

Compound that with the fact that Rapha will have noted how ineffective we’ve been at breaking down massed defences recently, my hopes for the game rest squarely on us scoring early.

This will require all our good players, the dribblers, the scoopers, the eye of the needle threaders and the intelligent runners to be at their best, but more importantly, I think we have to up our tempo dramatically.

Also, and this will lead on to my team selection, I think we need to adjust our approach to risk.  In essence, be less afraid to fail with the killer pass or the one-on-one take ons. This is how space is made in the danger areas.

For this to be less worrying from a defensive point of view, defenders need to be quick to cover the counter.

I read suggestions by RC and FGG for alternative DM’s. While we play three at the back, the speed of the DM is less important and therefore Xhaka is fine, but I have a sneaky feeling Arsene may go with the four. If so, then I like FGG’s idea of Maitland-Niles in that DM role, as opposed to RC’s Monreal. Partly because I think Monreal is a far better attacking LB than The Beast in a back four.

My hope is that a positionally disciplined performance by M-N, combined with his high speed in covering back, would allow Monreal and Bellerin to provide the width in attack, but of course, they’d both need to be aware of who was making a run and at such time hold their defensive positions.

My XI:

……….Sanchez    Lacazette

……………….. Mesut

……..Wilshere  M-N   Ramsey

Monreal  Koscielny  Mustafi   Bellerin

……………………..Cech

Message to Newcastle and Rapha: “looking good at Subbuteo is not enough. Come and play football”.

Up The Gunners.

Written by MickyDidIt89

In the recent seasons, teams like Chelsea, Totnum, Pool, and of course Leicester, have profited enormously by not being in the Champions League and being able to field injury free, fresh XI’s on the weekends following Continental outings for League competitors.

This season was our chance to capitalise on fielding the reserves midweek, leaving the First XI fighting fit to spearhead a determined League campaign.

Certainly we have been able to field a more consistent eleven, but capitalise we certainly have not.

Following Christmas, the FAC will kick in, as will more tricky Europa fixtures, demanding the attention of our full squad, and thus the playing field will level off in the league.

We have failed miserably to make hay, but as I mentioned before the season began, I have a suspicion we are a Cup side. The League is awfully demanding, what with having to huff and puff through terrible weather conditions over so many games, whereas with knockout tournaments, there are fewer games before glory.

Of course we are still right up there in the mix for top four, but frankly, that’s getting a bit tedious. I really did have high hopes for a genuine league challenge this time around, but that has all but evaporated despite being handed opportunities almost every weekend by the stuttering CL campaigners.

The Cups it is, I believe.

Written by MickyDidIt89