Arsenal 2 Newcastle 0 – Player Ratings

April 2, 2019

No Xhaka, no Kos, Curly is last man standing with Torreira banned. Iwobi gets a run with Auba and Micki as firepower off the bench.

First Half

Consider the Benitez Bus well and truly parked – the wheels were off and it was being shoved backwards and forwards across the 18 yard box on a massive trolley jack.

Nothing to speak of in the first 30 apart from a seemingly perfect goal from Ramsey ruled out by the replusive Taylor for some ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other’ shirt tugging which had no influence on the goal.

Finally a ball broke for us in the area with a cannily crafted assist from two Magpie defenders; Rambo’s left slotting it in off the far post.

Newcastle had one token effort from Rondon which was going wide before some nice interchange created the best chance of the half when Laca swivelled but his shot miraculously cannoned off a square head to leave the score at 1-0 at the break.

Halftime foul count Arsenal 8 Newcastle 4 – yeah right.

Second Half

More of the same from Newcastle – a tedious desire to suck the life out of a game of football.

Auba for Iwobi had an immediate effect. His pace was electric down the right wing but couldn’t quite find Laca with a driven cross. The second when it came was the same combination, an Auba header and Laca slipping round the back to lob the keeper.

Stuart MacFarlane on twitter

The chances now started to flow properly and we should have had a third when Taylor decided he’d seen a handball from Laca which came off a massive goalkeeping glove! He really was terrible tonight – the comical booking of SeadK straight out of the Mike Dean book of celebrity reffing.

Conclusion

A perfect start to April with Newcastle being the only fools on Fools’ Day. Bus parking got exactly what it received – absolutely sweet FA.

Ratings

Leno – nothing to do against the shot shy Toon  ….. 7

Ainsley – recovered from his knock and played competently throughout   ….. 7

Shkod – some on social media still having a pop even when he does nothing wrong -smh ….. 7

Papa – solid, steely, indefatigable ….. 8

Nacho – another fine performance from La Cabra – ridiculous booking dished out by the man from the Manchester region   ….. 8

Wardrobe – rampaging and rollocking, just couldn’t find that crucial final ball ….. 7

Guendouzi – still caught in possession too often but with no protection from the ref – must have touched the ball most? – never hides ….. 7

Ramsey – crucial goal – not sure what his injury was as he jogged off comfortably enough ….. 7

Iwobi – tried to unpick the bus station doors to no avail  ….. 7

Ozil – all over the pitch, needs to take his class to some away grounds     ….. 8

Laca – didn’t look like he was going to have a right place, right time night until he popped up chasing Auba’s header ….. 8

Subs

Auba – made a difference – he really suits that last half hour cameo  ….. 8

Elneny – he came, he saw, he Mo’ed ….. 7

Micki – time wasting sub to allow Mesut to get an ovation

Managers

Emery – Everything right again at home against an uninspiring negative Newcastle team – Let’s come up with an away plan now, Unai ….. 8

The Spanish Wagner – Tediousness personified ….. 3

Referee – so many calls wrong it was ridiculous – no wonder we can’t provide refs for big international tournaments – he’s meant to be one of the better ones …. 0

chas

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What does April hold in store for Emery’s Arsenal?

March 31, 2019

Three Monday night games. Two home games, four aways in the Prem and a Europa quarter final against Napoli. Pretty exciting maybe?

Of the three Monday night games only one is at home, which just so happens to be tomorrow night against Newcastle. On April Fools’ night the UK parliament is going to, yet again, attempt to extract its head from its back passage.  Don’t hold out much hope for that, but at least we have a fighting chance of turning Newcastle over!

Next Sunday, March 7th, sees us at Goodison with a 2.05pm kick off. The Toffees are on the up and we’ll need to be better than the chavs were on their recent visit to the wild wastelands of the North West if we want to come away with something.

Mesut scores in a 5-2 win at Goodison in October 2017

We’re back at the Emirates on the 11th for the home tie of the Napoli QF. It’ll be interesting to see Unai’s priorities for each game in this really busy month. At present the League appears our best route to a CL place since we sit in a top 4 place (well we did before the mancs luckily sneaked past Watford yesterday). Juggling both Prem and Europa balls is going to be tricky. One game at a time, I suppose. 🙂

The subsequent EPL game is away to Watford on Monday the 15th April, which does gives us an extra day after the Napoli game to regroup if you were trying to look for the positives of Monday night footie. Watford are a bit up and down but can be a stern proposition at Vicarage Road if it gets buzzing and Deeney puts that hideous mask on again.

Three days later we head to Naples, hopefully to finish off the job we begun in London. This is Arsenal, though, so don’t expect 3-0 at home and a clean sheet away in Italy. We don’t do easy.

The distance to the pitch in Naples will help but it’ll still be a hostile atmosphere

Yet another three day break follows and on the 21st we entertain Crystal Palace at THOF for the 4pm kick off. I’m particularly excited about this one as it’s my next trip to see the boys in the flesh.

Wolves in midweek on the 24th of April will be a tall order after such an intensive series of games, but if we can’t match them under the Molineux floodlights ….. we shall see. For some reason, this fixture seems one of the trickiest of the month, so expect us to cruise it.

April is topped off on the 29th with the third Monday Night Football we’ll have to endure over the next month. Away at Leicester is never easy but it just so happens to be the venue for my favourite away trip fixture of recent years when we beat them 5-3 and the beer was just delicious.

All in all a very busy, very exciting and potentially rewarding month is in store for Unai’s Arsenal. After the arid, uninspiring desert that was the second half of March, it’s going to be a headlong, bumpy sprint riding on the back of a camel desperate to dip its head into the oasis.

Before you go, what do you think the dippers v spuds score might be this afternoon? Take a punt

chas 

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Arsenal FC – Our home record against the Magpies

March 30, 2019

Newcastle United Football Club (based in Newcastle upon Tyne) was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. Their home ground has been St James’ Park since the club’s foundation the ground was developed into an all-seater stadium in the mid-1990s and has a capacity of 52,354. The club has been owned by Mike Ashley since 2007, succeeding long term chairman and owner Sir John Hall.

Rodney Bewes and Ian Le Frenais St James’ Park 1972 – Newcastle Chronicle

The club is the 17th-highest revenue producing club in the world in terms of annual revenue, generating €169.3 million in 2015. Newcastle’s highest placing was in 1999, when they were the fifth-highest revenue producing football club in the world, and second in England only behind Manchester United.

Newcastle has been a member of the Premier League for all but three years of the competition’s history and has been in the top four on five occasions.

Currently Newcastle is eighth in the Premier League all time table.

The club’s top goal scorer is Alan Shearer, who scored 206 goals in all competitions between 1996 and 2006. Andy Cole holds the record for the most goals scored in a season: 41 in the 1993–94 season in the Premier League. Shay Given is the most capped international for the club, with 134 appearances for Republic of Ireland.

Newcastle Club Honours

Football League First Division: Winners (4) – 1904–05, 1906–07, 1908–09, 1926–27

Second Division / Championship: Winners (4) – 1964–65, 1992–93, 2009–10, 2016–17

FA Cup: Winners (6) – 1910, 1924, 1932, 1951, 1952, 1955

FA Charity Shield: Winners (1) – 1909

European – Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: Winners (1) − 1969

UEFA Intertoto Cup: Winners (1) − 2006 (Outright Winner)

Woolwich Arsenal’s inaugural Football League appearance was played before a crowd of 10,000 at the club’s “new” ground, the Manor Field in a Division 2 game against Newcastle United on September 2nd 1893 and ended in a 2-2 draw.

Here’s a Arsenal History match report of that first ever game in the Football League.

Classic Match Report: Arsenal v Newcastle 2 September 1893

Arsenal has won 17 of our 23 home games against Newcastle with the last loss coming on November 10, 2010.

Theo scores in the 7-3 thriller of December 2012

Ray Kennedy beats Bobby Moncur April 1971

Hopefully our good home form will see us over the line against the barcodes.

GunnerN5

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Shkodran Mustafi – give the man a break!

March 28, 2019

This post was prompted by yet more whingeing from Arsenal fans about Mustafi after a failed block in a friendly in Dubai, for heaven’s sake. 

Shkodran Mustafi signed for Arsenal from Valencia in August 2016 for a reputed fee of £35m. In his first two seasons under Arsene Wenger he played 26 and 27 games respectively, missing a few games in both with hamstring and thigh muscle problems. For quite a while now, he has been the whipping boy of the Arsenal fans and many were hoping to see the back of him at the end of last season.

With the long-term injury to Kos, this never looked likely to happen. Under Unai Emery, Sokratis had been bought from Dortmund in the summer and Rob Holding chosen to fight for a first team place in preference to the unlucky Calum Chambers, who was sent out on loan to progress his playing time.

Looking a bit gormless isn’t a crime

Almost undetected, Herr Mustafi has become an invaluable part of the Arsenal squad. Unai Emery chose him to be the regular partner of Sokratis at the start of the season. When Papa was injured in October, Rob Holding stepped into the breach to partner Shkodran and quickly looked to be maturing into the role very nicely indeed. Rob’s injury in the away game at the Old Cowshed has been absorbed by the gradual return of Captain Koscielny and by Papa establishing himself as a no-nonsense old school defender who can adjust to the rigours of Premier League football.

Throughout these upheavals, and aside from a hamstring in December which kept him out for 7 games, Mustafi has been a constant in the Arsenal defence. Admittedly part of that has been down to the shift to a back three to allow Sead Kolasinac into his favoured left wing back position, but even so, Shkodran has never baulked at his opportunities to pull on the red and white (or pistachio!) shirt of the mighty Gunners.

His 24 appearances are testament to that. So far he has played 1987 minutes of Arsenal League season, the 5th highest.  Can he really be as terrible as everyone makes out? Let’s take a look at some of his other stats.

Shkodran makes on average 3.4 aerial duels per game which is the highest for any Arsenal player. He also tops Interceptions at 1.9 p.g.  and Clearances 5.3 p.g. These are not the stats of the completely incompetent player we see described all over the Arsenal blogosphere.

How about his passing? Is it the accident waiting to happen constantly mentioned on twitter. Well, it’s surprising to find out that he’s third on the list of Arsenal passers at 1319 in terms of volume, a hundred less than 2nd placed Torreira. Yes, a fair few of those have been sideways or back to the keeper as the team attempts to implement Unai’s ‘playing out from the back’ policy, but his pass accuracy is 83% and according to the official stats he hasn’t made any errors directly leading to a goal.

His tackles made and fouls conceded per game are both 4th in the list and he sits on 6 yellows, the same as Torreira, 2 behind Xhaka and 3 behind our imperturbable Greek. Have we paid for his perceived tendency to launch himself into reckless challenges? It appears not quite as much as his reputation would have us believe.

Yes, he may end up on his backside on occasion and the odd pass may go astray but all players make mistakes. The odd lapse shouldn’t discount the other 98% of a player’s overall performance. Can anyone remember when Koscielny was coming under constant criticism for not being good enough in his first couple of seasons?

Shkodran played in one of our best performances at home to Liverpool, was subbed on 70 minutes in the thrilling home victory against the spuds with Arsenal pushing for the win and he also scored the first goal away at Man U.

Yes, our first choice centre back pairing has become Kos and Papa in a back four but don’t rule out a few more starts for Mr Mustafi in the run-in – especially if we go to a back 5 to make room for the Bosnian battering ram.

Here’s Mustafi’s bullet header from the away game in Cardiff back in early September.

This season Unai has relied on the German Albanian enough for him to have started 80% of our League games. In a reasonably successful season so far for the Club, can we really say Mustafi hasn’t earnt his money as a decent squad player?

I suppose what I’m getting at is, regardless of what may or may not happen in the summer, please cut poor old Shkodran some slack. He may well yet play a crucial part in this season’s finale as we seek a CL place, be it either through the League, or via the Europa Cup.

chas

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Posted by Bongo

8 games to go – how’s Señor Emery getting along?

March 26, 2019

So where are we with Emery after three quarters of a season having passed? It is probably easier to reflect on this as we are undoubtedly in the ascendancy right now and finishing third looks like a realistic possibility. This might all sound a bit rich coming from someone who only a few weeks ago voted sixth in a poll when asked where Arsenal would finish at the end of this season.

So what changed? Well, my reason for voting sixth was that by losing Bellerin we had lost any form of thrust from the right side which made it too easy for teams to double up on the left which in effect nullified both wings. Solutions were attempted to be found and Lichtsteiner, as good as a stop gap that he is, was never going to seriously to be able to hold it together for the amount of games that he has been asked to play and Jenkinson, as much as we love him for being one of ours, was equally never going to be the solution.

The answer, of course, has been Maitland-Niles (cons) just when it looked like he had blown his opportunity, back he came with a second half performance against ManU worthy of an England call up. His penetration down the right stretches the opposition’s defence giving Kolasinac just that bit more space to operate in which he uses to great effect.

The return of Mkhitaryan being able to play in front of AMN gives further strength to our right as well as my explanation. So I think it fair to say that Emery is a man who can find solutions but it is the bigger picture that is starting to intrigue me. I find myself asking questions like: was the ascendancy at this particular time planned. Did Emery have the luxury of first time objectivity at the beginning of the season and plan to tackle the tiring demands of EPL from the outset. I think it right to say that energy level wise our players are looking bright eyed and bushy tailed; Emery has cleverly rotated the midfield of Xhaka, Torreira and Guendouzi, the latter being the fallow field at the moment; he has certainly and purposely rotated the attack to such a point where Lacazette accepts his shortened role and gone are the earlier season tantrums and if that isn’t enough – there is Ozil.

Was Mesut’s lengthy Christmas break intentional? He certainly still looks fresh now. I don’t really believe  it was intentional, I think it was a case of simply making the necessary managerial adjustments to get him to understand what was what in the brave new world post AW and I also think again it is fair to say that it has worked. Ozil is onside, he has now brought into the idea of what is going on and that a full ninety minutes of uninterrupted game time is going to be few and far between and that now seems to be fine evidenced by Mesut’s new found determination while playing.

Ramsey is, of course, another who has been used sparingly but effectively, in fact I think if you can go round the whole team you will notice clever rotation, ok the changes to the back line have been mainly forced upon Emery so it is probably fairer to describe that as fire fighting rather than strategic rotation but again I think it only fair to say that the fire fighting has been well handled.

This whole idea might make a bit more sense if you look at other teams: spuds being the best example of having their first eleven ground into the dirt with results reflecting their fatigue. Chelsea are in a similar boat, there is way too much reliance on Hazard with the inevitable consequences occurring. ManU have less to worry about because “Ollie is at the wheel” raises eyebrows…….

No, things do look good right now and I suspect that I will not be the only one now and in the near future who starts to dare to believe that this may not be luck: this might just be the very clever vision and strategic deployment of troops from a certain Señor Emery from the outset — keep it going Unai.

COYRRG

LB

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Arsenal’s Century Club – Theo Walcott

March 25, 2019

Today we start to look at the players who are members of – “The Arsenal Century Club”. We start today with the player who took the most games and we will finish the series of posts with the player who took the least.

Nineteen players have achieved the feat of scoring 100 goals for the Club over the past 96 years. The players are sorted by the number of games taken to reach the 100 goal mark. Theo Walcott sits at number 19.

Theo James Walcott was born 16 March 1989 in Stanmore, London, but grew up in Compton, Berkshire. He attended Compton Church of England Primary School and The Downs School. Nike agreed to a sponsorship deal with Walcott when he was fourteen years old. He is a product of the Southampton Academy and started his career with Southampton before Arsene Wenger signed him for Arsenal in 2006 for £5 million.

He initially joined as a scholar, having agreed to sign a professional contract on his 17th birthday on 16 March 2006.

On 30 May 2006, Walcott became England’s youngest ever senior football player aged 17 years and 75 days. In December, he received the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award. On 6 September 2008, he made his first competitive start in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra. He has represented England at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2012 and has 47 caps, scoring eight goals. In September 2008 against Croatia he became the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick for the full England side, aged just 19.

His first goal for Arsenal came in the 2007 League Cup Final against Chelsea at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on 25 February 2007. His 12th-minute strike was overshadowed by events later on in the match: John Terry was knocked unconscious, Didier Drogba scored twice to give Chelsea a 2–1 victory and three players were sent off following a mass brawl.

Some words from the man himself-

“I was only 17 and hadn’t even played in the Premiership when I went to Germany. It wasn’t my decision to pick me. But it was good experience to train with world-class players, see the way they handled themselves.

“I never read the papers, so I never know what people are saying about me. That helps. The environment I’m in with the other players around me, I don’t really see what is in the papers. Of course I wanted to play for Arsenal. But I was only 17 and I didn’t want to play too much and get injuries. The boss has done brilliantly with me and now I’m ready to push on.”

Some more words-

Football is about opinions, but love me or hate me I don’t really care,” he said.

“I have been so pleased with everything I have achieved and I’ve enjoyed everything about it. Even with the injuries, it is part of the game. I genuinely wouldn’t change anything, I don’t have any regrets.

“I’ve seen players come through who everyone says, ‘They’re the next best thing’ and they put so much pressure on them, but then they go down the leagues and down the leagues and you just don’t hear about them anymore. But if you’re strong up here [mentally] and you have good people around you, then you can get through it.”

This may come as a surprise, but Walcott is a published author.

He has written no less than four children’s books for his “T.J and the…” series.

He was just 21 when they were published in 2010. The lead character, TJ, appears to be based on the author. Goodreads rated every one of the books at least 4.5/5.

In his 370th game for Arsenal on February 20th 2017 he scored his 100th goal in a 2-0 FA Cup victory over Sutton United.

Theo’s 100th goal punch

Throughout his last season at Arsenal, he was mainly used in the Europa League and in the EFL Cup, and he only made 6 substitute appearances in the Premier League. By October, he was increasingly on the fringes and was criticised following a poor performance when made captain in a 2–1 League Cup victory at home to Championship side Norwich City.

On 17 January 2018, Walcott signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Everton, ending his time at Arsenal.

GunnerN5

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Granit for Captain?

March 24, 2019

Granit Xhaka is a marmite player. There are those who think he only ever passes the ball sideways or backwards or, at least, rarely forwards. Some believe Xhaka is an accident waiting to happen, either by dwelling on the ball in our own final third, making ill-advised passes or by lunging into rash challenges. Others see him as the fulcrum of the team, anchoring the midfield, always available, never shirking the hard yards necessary to be defensive central midfielder.

Admittedly, he has picked up 23 yellow cards and 2 reds in his 95 Arsenal appearances so far. In January 2017 there were articles about his appalling red card record with his 9th sending off in 3 years as he was dismissed against Burnley. He’d been unlucky to be sent off a few months earlier when deliberately tripping a Swansea player who’d only just crossed the halfway line. Since then he’s cleaned up his act with no further early baths.

His passing efficacy is up for debate, but not the sheer metronomic volume of those passes. Granit has made just over 500 more passes than the next Arsenal player in the list, 1921 to Lucas Torreira’s 1417. When Xhaka is playing well, the team plays well. He dictates that central area in front of the back four without being the most mobile of defensive anchors in a more Makelele style.

When Granit steps into the bear pit, he wears his heart on his sleeve, geeing up those around him and revving the crowd up on occasion, too. We’ve lacked a vocal presence at the heart of the team for years. A captain like Laurent Koscielny leads by example but it’s doubtful many of his fellow professionals would quake in their boots if Kos decided to take them to task. Granit, on the other hand, does seem to possess a fiery, bullish temperament to be feared and respected

When Auba missed that late pen against the spuds which would have consigned them to a deserved defeat, it was Granit who was immediately there at his side giving him support. No William Gallas ‘sitting on the halfway line crying’ antics for the big Swiss but instead there seems to be a genuine desire to cajole and encourage those around him.

(The tweet above prompted this post, so don’t blame me, blame Cockneys)

Granit always features prominently when playing for his home country, though his Albanian roots perhaps preclude him from being the on-field captain when the present captain, Stephan Lichtsteiner, hangs up his boots.  Off the pitch Granit conducts himself with an air of class and appears to be a fine ambassador for the Club.

Unai Emery certainly seems to hold him in high regard and it is with great anticipation that the Arsenal fans view him lining up a long ranger on that sweet left peg. Ask David De Gea or Mignolet (?)  🙂

What do you think? Is Granit a future captain or would you choose an alternative from the current playing staff?

chas

p.s. I’m choosing to ignore tabloid scaremongering that Granit wants away to progress his career. The man’s just signed a new contract until June 2023, ffs.

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Where will we finish in the Prem? – Poll

March 20, 2019

Ten weeks ago on 3rd January, we’d beaten Fulham at home 4-1 a couple of days previously and City had just beaten Liverpool (still the scousers only defeat of the season).

We sat 7 points behind the spuds and 3 behind the chavs in the Premier League. According to the stats chaps we had a 1 in 3 chance of finishing in the top 4. The spuds sat on 90% chance and chavs 70%. Our simulated end of season points total was 71 points, 8 less than the spuds and 4 behind Chelsea.

Scott Willis @oh_that_crab on twitter

Since then we’ve caught up 6 points on both of our London rivals, including picking up maximum points at home to Chelsea and Man U and gaining a creditable (and a touch unlucky to be only a single) point away at Wembley.

The race for the top 4 has opened up with the red mancs having marginally better form than us over those same games. Thankfully the steam appears to be evaporating slightly from the OGS express with back to back defeats.

Since early January our chances of achieving that top four position have, apparently, more than doubled . Meanwhile the spuds’ chances have dropped from 90 to just under 70% and chavs from over 70% to  just less than 1 in 3.

Scott Willis @oh_that_crab on twitter

I realise that this kind of analysis annoys some folks in a similar way to GIE’s swing-o-meter used to perplex me. 🙂

I’ve seen comments on twitter under the second projection saying, ‘this is basically just the League table, isn’t it?’. Of course it’s fine to think like that about attempts to try to statistically analyse a game involving 22 chaps, a pig’s bladder and a man and his buddies dressed in black (or green), all being of indeterminate parentage.

AFP – Getty Images

Anyway, moving on to the fun part. Optimism is high in the Arsenal camp at the start of the interlull having disposed of Rennes and the resurgent mancs in the past week but with 5 away games left of our remaining eight, there are sure to be some ups and downs in the weeks to come.  Wolves away (the game postponed because of their FA Cup game last weekend) has been been rescheduled for Wednesday April 24th and we’re sure of a hot reception at Molineux under the floodlights.

Stuart MacFarlane / Arsenal Football Club

Here’s a chance for you to show what a balanced and reasonable Arsenal supporter you are by guessing where we’ll finish come May 12th. We already know that FGG thinks we’ll be lucky to finish 6th and BR only appreciates our slim chances of finishing 4th if the sun’s out in Denmark. 🙂

What other factors need to be taken into account for the run-in?  Your thoughts in the comments below, please.

chas

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EPL Top 6 positions up for grabs – who’ll finish where?

March 17, 2019

The placement of the top six clubs in the Premier League looks like it will go right down to the last game of the season.

Top six standings as of March 11th –

Lets take a look at where the teams stand with only eight games left to play (Chelsea still have nine but play today).

The top two positions look to be contested between Manchester City and Liverpool – will Liverpool finally win their nineteenth league title and their first Premier League Championship or will holders Manchester City win their sixth league title (4th since the oil money came in) ?

In the reverse fixtures this season Manchester City beat Manchester United and Tottenham but lost to Crystal Palace and Leicester City gaining 18 out of 24 points. Liverpool won 7 out of the 8 games and drew with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge gaining 21 out of 24 points.

Liverpool has the advantage of playing Tottenham and Chelsea in front of their home supporters at Anfield while Manchester City has the distinct disadvantage of playing Manchester United at Old Trafford.

My best guess is that Liverpool will hold their nerve and win their first Premier League Championship, though with both teams in the Champions League q/fs, European distractions may play a part.

============================================================

The third through sixth positions are between Spurs, Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea and the four teams are separated by only four points with their final placement in complete doubt.

Let’s look at the teams individually.

Tottenham:

In their reverse fixtures this season they won 6 of the 8 games but lost at home to both Liverpool and Manchester City gaining 18 out of 24 points.

In their last 4 games Tottenham have picked up only 1 point, drawing with Arsenal and losing to Burnley, Chelsea and Southampton. In their last 8 games they will have to face both Liverpool and Manchester City in away fixtures.

(Update : the Champions League may not distract them for too much longer unfortunately)

Arsenal:

Arsenal won 5 of their reverse fixtures while drawing with Wolves, Crystal Palace and Brighton gaining 18 out of the 24 points.

They have finished all of their games against the top 6 teams which should give them a big advantage in the race for the top 4 positions.

Emery and Podgytino in their Spanish days

Manchester United:

Manchester United won 4 of their reverse games but drew with Wolves and Chelsea while losing to Manchester City and West Ham gaining only 14 of the 24 points.

They have been revitalised by new management and in their last 13 league games they have won 10 drawn 2 and lost just 1 to Arsenal at the Emirates. Their final place in the PL will most likely be determined by the results in their homes games against Manchester City and Chelsea.

(Update : they’ll be pleased they can concentrate on the League – now that the FA Cup is out of the way! But still have Barca to negotiate in the CL.)

Chelsea:

In their reverse fixtures Chelsea won 4 and but drew with Everton, West Ham, Liverpool and Manchester United while losing to Leicester and only picking up a low 12 out of 27 points.

In their final 9 league games they have 5 very tough away games at Everton, Cardiff City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Leicester.

Getty Images

As I look at the potential final 3rd through 6th positions it’s conceivable that all four teams can finish with the same amount of points. I know that everything can change with one result but based on the above thoughts and statistics I will go out on a limb and say that they will finish in these positions.

3rd Arsenal, 4th Manchester United, 5th Tottenham and 6th Chelsea.

What are your thoughts?

GunnerN5

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Is there going to be any decent football to watch for the next 16 days?

March 16, 2019

The short answer is ‘no’ as our next competitive game is not until April Fools day. April the first is a Monday so even when proper football returns, we’ll have to wait for the whole weekend to pass before seeing the lads play again.

When I say ‘competitive’ match, I notice that a new fixture has appeared on AFC.com, a friendly on Tuesday March 26th, 3pm kick off. This is part of a mid-season break in Dubai for those not involved in the internationals and the opposition is Al-Nasr Dubai SC. This is not purely an exercise in trying to boost our profile in the Middle East, latching on to a portion of oil money. Oh no.

Al Nasr capture former PSG midfielder Cabaye

How about this weekend? Is there anything interesting in the Prem games. Saturday is a complete wash out with three non-entity fixtures. Let’s hope the rugby is good and England still have something to play for at 5 o’clock.

Sunday sees Liverpool trying to go back to the top of the table at everyone’s favourite ground, Craven Cottage, followed by the chavs at Goodison. Theo always used to score against them, didn’t he?

There appear to be some FA cup games this weekend, too, but hold little appeal for anyone apart from fans of the participating teams. Millwalll fans have been told they’ll get a severe telling off if there’s any homophobic chanting at the Brighton fans. Good luck with that. City and United to go through to add to their fixture congestion? Who cares?

As far as the international fixtures are concerned, attention turns to European Championship qualifying. Yawn.

England play the Czech Republic next Friday at 7.45 and Montenegro away on the Monday evening.

When the Premier League returns, City go to the Cottage (lucky Fulham!), the red mancs are at home to Watford and on the Sunday, the chavs are at Cardiff and spuds go to Anfield. 🙂

Let’s hope all our boys involved in matches for their respective countries return unscathed, so when April does come around we can continue afresh.

The following is a translation from the French website Ouest France and is just an excuse to show another photo of the lovely Ben Arfa. My reaction to seeing photos of him has gone from disgust to barely concealed delight. No idea why.

Hatem Ben Arfa kicked off the second leg last Thursday: “Now we’re favorites and we’ll go to London to win. “Having fun with the behavior of his former coach at PSG, which had deprived him of competition for a year and a half, after doing everything to recruit him:” I saw the same Unai Emery, who was very excited on the bench. I looked at him from time to time, and it made me laugh a little, because he did not change. “

Ben Arfa and Le Wagner on Thursday afternoon

chas

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