Our…

November 2, 2017

Turn

The B team. Any team which represents Arsenal has a duty to give 100% and perform with pride. So far our reserves have done just that.

images-1.jpeg

We welcome Red Star and their passionate fans, who will hopefully bring the kind of atmosphere created by Koln (but not the chaos, please). If I am honest the Belgrade fans were the best part of the away leg, we won but it was turgid stuff.

Can we entertain tonight, please?

Win tonight and we top the group, which is no more than expected. We are on a different financial level to our rivals. Things will change as we enter the knockout rounds – just last night Athletico Madrid, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund (you know we will draw them!) dropped into the Europa. It will be tough to win.

But that is for another day ….

My Team:

Macey

Debuchy   Elneny   Holding

Nelson    Willock    Coquelin    Maitland-Niles

Wilshere

Walcott   Giroud

This team seems a bit light in creative midfield and perhaps Iwobi will start. It is not a vital game and as such, why put players at risk ahead of Man City?

By the way, I have seen Red Star play at Highbury, we drew 1-1 in 1978. This was the team

Pat Jennings
Pat Rice  David O’Leary   Willie Young  Sammy Nelson
Graham Rix  Steve Walford   David Price  Mark Heeley
Frank Stapleton   Alan Sunderland
Look at that back 5!  Excellent.

Win tonight and Mr Wenger can play the Arsenal Ladies team against Bate.

COYRRG

Advertisement

96 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

Red Star Pre – Match

October 19, 2017

There are some names in football which have a ring to them, something romantic that takes us back to times past, Red Star Belgrade is one of those.

Before mass- televised football, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of Yugoslavia, before drug testing etc Red Star were huge, Barcelona huge. They were Tito’s team, they played in Communist red and white with a red star. They were the team that Man Utd played before the awful Munich disaster. They had a ground which held 110,000 fans – more than Wembley, and they filled it for every game! In 1991 they won the  European Cup.

Unknown.png

Times have changed. After the breakup of Yugoslavia and the creation of Serbia, Red Star are no longer the powerhouse of East Europe. They remain the peoples team with almost 50% of Serbs supporting them.

The ground is called the Marakana, tonight is a 55k sellout and AFC can expect a hostile, intimidating welcome.

images-2.jpeg

Once again, I know nothing about the opposition squad. I expect them to be organised, hard working with a couple of tricky players and a big bloke upfront (much like us!)

My Team:

Cech

Debuchy   BFG    Monreal

Nelson     Elneny     Wilshire    Maitland-Niles

Iwobi

Walcott    Giroud

Debuchy is due to start his first game for almost a year. Apparently Mr Wenger tried to give him away in summer but received no offers, thanks to high wage demands. One has to feel for the Frenchman; injured early in his AFC career by a sly foul from some Stoke Orc. he has had the misfortune to see his place taken by a young, wonderful talent who, quite frankly, is in a different league to him. Given how much Debuchy cost, how in demand he was when at Newcastle, it must hurt not to be a first team choice and perhaps explains Debuchy’s less than compliant attitude.

Welbeck, Kos, Chambers, Sanchez, Ramsey and Mustafi are all out with different degrees of injury.

I expect Ramsey, Sanchez and Ozil to start at Evertion so Iwobi and Wilshere should be our creative hub tonight.

Not an easy game to predict as Red Star are a decent team, have home advantage and Arsenal will be putting out a second string team. It should be fun as we continue our Europa campaign.

 

117 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red