The Seagulls fly into The Emirates

October 1, 2017

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. were founded in 1901 and started playing in the Southern League where they won the 1910 FA Charity Shield, which at that time was contested by the champions of the Southern League, and the Football League Champions.

The 1910 FA Charity Shield was the third Charity Shield. The match was played on 5 September 1910 between 1909–10 Football League winners Aston Villa and 1909–10 Southern League champions Brighton and Hove Albion. The match was played at Stamford Bridge, London, and ended with a 1–0 win for Brighton and Hove Albion. The goal was scored by Charlie Webb, an amateur, with 18 minutes of play remaining.

Poor management brought them close to relegation from the Football League to the Conference which they narrowly avoided in 1997 and 1998. A takeover saved them from liquidation, and following successive promotions they returned to the second tier of English football in 2002, from then on playing in the second and third tiers of English football until the conclusion of the 2016–17 season, where the club earned promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history, marking an end to a 34-year absence from the top flight.

In December 2008 – after 12 seasons without a permanent home the building of their current home The Falmer Stadium started. On 31 May 2011 the club officially completed the handover and was given the keys to the stadium with an initial capacity of 22,374 seats, which has since been increased to 30,750. They are nicknamed The Seagulls or simply Albion.

We have only played 8 league games against Albion, all in Division 1.

Here is our record.

I cannot see anything but a victory for the good guys regardless of our team, it seems that Koscielny is doubtful and Ozil, Coquelin & Welbeck are out and many of the viable alternatives played in Belarus on Thursday – so it’s a real guessing game – but here is my stab in the dark.

 

Keep the FAITH – we will win.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by Jeremy Bongo

Journey into the Unkown

September 28, 2017

I have to admit to knowing very little about Bate Borisov – I didn’t even know they were based in Belarus, in fact I don’t even know where Belarus is! But, if they are in the Europa then they have to be decent opposition!

I have read that Hleb started his career at Bate, that they have won the Belarus League the last 11 years running, Their ground holds 13k and will be filled with Arsenal fans because Belarus has many Arsenal fan clubs.

Beyond that ….??

So, this PM will concentrate on the away team. How many goals have Arsenal conceded in their last 4 games? I will tell you. None. Given  the start we had with 8 goals leaked in just 3 games, this is huge. Some may say that it is down to good fortune, fortunate refereeing decisions and poor opposition but the fact remains, we have gone 360+ minutes without conceding,

This is huge.

We are wonderful attacking players, so many that International first teamers cannot even get on the bench, but defenders? And defensive organisation?

And midfield control? Have we just been lucky or has Mr Wenger found a way to set up his team to stop the massive gaps exposed by Leicester and Liverpool?

Is the absence of Ozil and the resurgence of Ramsey just co-incidence?

3 games in 6 days means rotationand a chance to judge the quality of the squad.

Even allowing for over half the team being reserves we should still win tonight (though I hesitate to predict a victory as I usually put a bok on the team). A front line including Walcott, Sanchez and Giroud is potent.

My Team:

Ospina

Holding    BFG     Monreal

Bellerin   Maitland- Niles     Wilshire     Elneny

Walcott   Giroud     Sanchez

Perhaps it would be good to start with Ryan Nelson but given Holdings frailty aon the right it makes sense to give him the security of Bellerin.

6 p.m. kick off (7.00 CET), ideal, wish there were more.

Our first away fixture in the Europa. It would be great to start with a win … Let it be So.

COYRRG

 

 

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Now we welcome the Baggies to the Emirates

September 25, 2017

West Bromwich Albion Football Club was formed in 1878 and they have played at their current ground since 1900. They are known as The Baggies, The Throstles or WBA. They are based in the West Midlands with their main rivals being Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

In 1930/31 they won The Double of The FA Cup beating Birmingham 2-1 and winning Promotion – this version of The Double had not been managed before or since then.

In 1953/4 they came close to being the first team in the 20th century to win the recognized League and Cup double. They beat Preston North End 3-2 in the FA Cup but  finished as runners up to their bitter rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league.

They have only been English Champions once after winning the League in 1919/20.

For the main part of their history The Baggies have played in the top flight of English Football, however when the FA formed the Premier League in 1992, Albion were down in the third tier (the current League One). Gary Megson was appointed as their manager in March 2000 and he led them to promotion into the Premier League in 2001/02.

Our home record against the Baggies –

Arsenal go into the game with a renewed level of confidence after winning their previous three home games against Bournemouth 3-0, FC Koln 3-1 and Doncaster Rovers 1-0.

My team = a shot in the dark.

Tony Pulis was appointed as their manager in January 2015 and in August of 2016 they were purchased by a Chinese investment group.  With Pulis as their manager, we should expect them to park a bus in front of goal and hope to beat us on a break away – in the past we have found these types of defences inordinately difficult to break down.

Let’s hope Gibbo has an off day

They have only beaten us at home once and that victory came back on September 25, 2010 so even with Pulis in charge, I fully expect us to come out as 2-0 winners.

Enjoy the game – but most of all keep the FAITH in our Gunners.

Written by GunnerN5.

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Posted by Jeremy Bongo

Bonny Donny Gonny – Player Assessments

September 21, 2017

Revelations and facts

Ospina’s mother’s maiden name was Ramirez

Chambers is closer to leaving than I realised.

Mertasacker will always be an Arsenal legend.

Holding purposely had his confidence massaged in this game.

Reiss-Nelson is not as advanced as I had hoped.

Elneny should be playing in the first team more.

Wilshere is better than I had remembered. (gone next window) lol

Maitland-Niles is fast, I mean hot damn fast. This was the biggest revelation of the night. Hadn’t noticed this before.

Walcott looks like a poodle when he jogs back after an attack.

Giroud is surprisingly happy playing his bit part role.

Sanchez is the greediest footballer in the EPL. Surprised he played the whole game as he should start on Monday.

Thoughts from LB

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Posted by Jeremy Bongo

“Donny” come to The Emirates

September 20, 2017

The Rovers were formed in 1879, 138 years ago and turned professional in 1885, they have spent most of their years bouncing about in the lower leagues of English football and currently play in League 1 after gaining promotion from League 2 in 2016/17. Their ground is the Keepmoat Stadium which has a capacity of 15,231 which interestingly is bigger than Premier League Bournemouth’s which only holds only 11,360.

They along with Stockport County hold the record of playing in the longest ever competitive game while playing in Division 3. The match was tied after 90 minutes and remained tied after extra time, the rule at the time was that the game would carry on until one team scored but after 203 minutes the game was still tied so the decision was made to stop the game and have a replay which Doncaster went on to win 4-0.

They won their first major honour when they beat Bristol Rovers after extra time to win the Football League Trophy.

We’ve only played Doncaster 8 times in our history; our first game was on November 30th 1901 when we played in the 2nd division.

The last game was on Dec 21, 2005 in the League Cup, the game was tied 1-1 at full time and Doncaster went ahead 2-1 in the 104 minute and it was not until the 121st minute that Gilberto Silva scored the equaliser – we went on to win via penalty kicks.

Our team that day was:

Alumnia, Cygan, Senderos, Eboue, Djourou, Silva, Hleb, Song, Van Persie, Abeyie and Lupoli.

My Team…

Our full record:

The only time we lost to Doncaster was in 1905, 112 years ago and they have only scored 3 goals against us – so it would take a very brave person to place money on Arsenal losing this game; being a coward I forecast a big win for our kids.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by Jeremy Bongo

It’s not the players … it’s the tune

September 19, 2017

Following on from yesterday’s post, there was a degree of agreement that balance is a crucial factor in the way a team performs.

An extension to that theory would be that the best team may not necessarily comprise the best 11 players. Jeff Beck playing in Black Lace (showing my age 🙂 ) wouldn’t have appreciably improved the music.

Players in their best position and performing to their maximum, surrounded by other players all of who understand their role in the side, breeds confidence … and confidence combined with work rate and ability makes good teams great.

We have the potential with the players currently in the squad to win the league … I have no doubt about that …. we just need them all to be singing from the same song sheet.

Discuss …..

Rasp

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Posted by Rasp

Superb performance, balanced side …. and without Ozil?

September 18, 2017

What you are about to read may be considered sacrilege by many. I don’t want to cast any negatives after such a good result yesterday ….. but I’m just going to put something out there.

I only saw highlights of the game, but from that and the comments of respected bloggers, I think we all agree that the team performance was excellent with special mention for Monreal, Iwobi, Ramsey and Bellerin … and all that without Mesut Ozil.

Many of us would make Ozil the first name on the team sheet. His technical ability is on a different level, and contrary to popular opinion he works very hard and covers a lot of ground … but there is a growing belief that he and Ramsey (and Iwobi, his understudy) cannot function effectively in the same side. Moreover in playing them both, the team becomes unbalanced and gaps appear in our midfield.

I’m a self confessed Ozil fan. I’m also a big fan of the Ramsey we saw in yesterday’s game. He’s a much more potent attacking force when he’s not having to share territory with Ozil. There doesn’t seem to be the same problem when he plays with Iwobi. I don’t know the answer. They’re both great players. Ironically, I think that more clubs would be interested in signing Ramsey than Ozil.

Arsene clearly loves having Ozil in the side. He hasn’t signed a new contract and may leave on a free in the summer …. would that be a huge loss if we can get the best out of Ramsey and Iwobi continues to improve?

I don’t want this topic to be hijacked by ‘fans’ who don’t have the perception to appreciate what a brilliant player Ozil is … he’s class … the only question I ask is …. is he always the best man for the balance of the team?

Rasp

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Posted by Rasp

1-0 Down, 3-1 Up.  MOTM: Arsene Wenger.

September 15, 2017

Here are some brief “feelings” on the back of last night’s game, pulled together from my own thoughts as well as picking through the excellent comments on here from genuine experts.

  1. Back three/four. I think it’s wrong to judge a system by the personnel. Throw Koscielny and Mustafi into yesterday’s starting XI and I’m sure things would have looked different.
  2. However, perhaps we looked better second half BECAUSE of the switch. Thoughts?
  3. I’ve stated my concerns over our midfield pairing of Xhaka and Ramsey. Chief amongst my concerns is the lack of back-up, and now heavily underlined by the injury to Coquelin. Has anything from last night changed the thinking here? I always have liked Elneny’s quiet, unfussy, business like approach to the game. I thought he was excellent.
  4. Maitland-Niles moved more central, and we also saw the welcome return of Jack. I reckon we saw enough to think we have real quality in depth waiting in the wings.
  5. Sanchez, oh Sanchez. How would he react to the boos on Saturday and even having to start last night? My answer, he plays against Chelsea.
  6. Alex Iwobi. Love the guy, but I think his role lies further up field as back-up to Mesut, rather than in the deeper Ramsey role.
  7. Arsene Wenger played a superb 15 minutes at the break. A rare half time substitution, a change in formation, together with a considerably upped tempo from the boys from the first minute of the second period means he gets my MOTM.

Thoroughly enjoyable game. We saw many exciting things. Bring on Chelsea. Cannot wait.

MickyDidIt89

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Posted by Rasp

The Mesut/Alexis Conundrum

September 13, 2017

Question of the day from GoonerB

What do people feel we should do with Sanchez and Ozil? Options could include:

  1. Play them as 1st 11 choices all season and let them leave on a free in May.
  2. Show them the contract now and say sign or you go to the reserves, and we invest the playing time in our future players rather than you.
  3. Play them till January then look for the best deals we can get. If so should we look for player swap deals (but with which clubs?) or straight cash (but with which clubs?).

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Posted by Rasp

What we learned from the Weekend.

September 11, 2017
  1. Lacazette is worth the money.
  2. We can win without Sanchez.
  3. Mr Wenger’s experiment of playing Bellerin on the left is over.
  4. Kolasinac needs PL experience but looks a fine addition.
  5. Welbeck can finish!
  6. Mustafi central with pacy CB’s outside him works against teams who have no attack
  7. Our midfield excel against teams lacking confidence and ability
  8. We are better without The Ox (but good luck to the chap).
  9. In Xhaka and Ozil we have two wonderful creative players who will propel Lacazette towards 25 goals this season
  10. Arsene will struggle to find game time for Walcott

And from elsewhere:

  1. MU are flat-track bullies and will struggle against better, more organised sides.
  2. Chelsea remain a quality team
  3. De Bruyne is a marvellous player and should be sold to Real Madrid – immediately.
  4. The same can be said for Harry Kane
  5. Liverpool played exceptionally well when beating us and were rubbish on Saturday
  6. West Ham are doomed.
  7. And this hurts to write …. Spurs are serious title contenders.

I also learned that it is not a good idea to go walking in torrential rain

written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

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