Drawing Barca Made My Whole Week!
Dec 16th, 2015 by 'holic
What a strange week this is. A full eight days between fixtures provides a welcome break for tired bodies, but remember that applies equally to Manchester City, moreso in fact since they played on Saturday. Surprise, surprise, Sergio Aguero is going to be fit on Monday! City have missed him in this last break caused by his fragile hamstring. Let’s hope we can take advantage of his lack of match-fitness and put space between us and them.
On Monday we learned our fate in the Champions League. Given that we couldn’t draw Bayern Munich again it was almost written in the stars that we would be paired with Barcelona. Actually I’m quite pleased we are. For one thing few will expect us to go through so there shouldn’t be a furore if we are knocked out by the holders. Certainly not on a ‘Monaco’ level, anyway.
Whisper it softly, but we might also be encouraged by our performances against the bigger clubs in the last year or so. As long as we can get the like of Francis Coquelin and Alexis back and in form before the first leg then we have a team that can offer a disciplined resistance, even to Barca. The wins in Manchester last season, the defeat of Chelsea in the Community Shield, the demolition of Manchester United at home this season, and the home win over Bayern Munich offer a degree of hope that we haven’t had for a number of years.
One man who might not be back in time is Danny Welbeck. The extent of his injury, and the subsequent operation on his knee, have come as something of a surprise. I don’t recall much mention of the problem at the back end of last season and at the launch of the new kit there he was walking around just fine. Here we are, eight months since he last played getting news of a further setback in his recovery. Mentally that has to be so very difficult to deal with. Good luck Danny, let’s hope in a couple of months you are back in the red and white, fit and raring to go.
The ‘news’ that Nacho Monreal might be allowed to leave in January is, I hope, a piece of nonsense. Nacho has improved in leaps and bounds in the last eighteen months and has rightly made the left-back berth his own. It is no surprise that Bilbao would be interested in the player, but the report that Arsene Wenger has sanctioned the move seems so unlikely as to verge on the ridiculous. However, that the story appeared in Metro should give comfort. That publicationΒ is the most prolific publisher of fiction around.
Right, I have a good book to continue reading so hopefully you get a review next week. I will leave you to comment in the drinks. Have a good one, ‘holics.
72 Responses to “Drawing Barca Made My Whole Week!”
Bastard draw.
Blame Dr C.
Great draw. Nice summary H. Nacho stays- no discussion.
Best chevrons ever!
Top 3.
This is the kind of game you want to play in if you have anything about you. If you can’t handle this, go play in the Europa League with the scum.
Meanwhile we have simply to go one better than the last time we were cheated out of knocking these poseurs out.
BMBD
Now to read the Guvna’s thoughts.
As you know from Monday I’m right with you Holic. Barca will be a great night and who knows what might happen? And I understand there is better news on the Welbeck front .
Arshaviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv2mxzmVvdg
π
Nice one H.
Here’s hoping that the combination of the return of our wounded warriors and being massive underdogs gives us the boost we need to finally knock Barca out of the CL.
Get well soon Danny!
Don’t go Nacho!
Nice one ‘Holic! As you say, drawing Barca in a way is “win, win.” Cracking tie against the best side in Europe, should be a great spectacle, and there is an outside chance of us going through. And if we do go out, as long as we’re not humiliated, there wouldn’t be the post mortem and refuse of negativity hat might occur against a ‘lesser’ side. And March-May would be free for domestic duties (though I’d clearly rather have the ‘distraction’ of the UCL).
As for Danny and Nacho. I don’t know why people are surprised about Welbeck not playing till Feb. Even if he hasn’t had a setback, the guy hasn’t played any football for nearly 9 months, and isn’t back in any form of full training as of today. Even if he gets back on the training pitch by early Jan, he’s got a lot of physical, match and contact fitness to do to get anywhere close to the squad, and even then, assuming OG, Theo and Alexis are fit – there’ll be no need to rush him in anyway. And Nacho…off to Bilbao in Jan? No chance. He’s at a top Champions Lge club, his best chance to win the title while he’s been in England, we’re happy with him, and Bilbao at this stage of his career can hardly be considered an upgrade or even sideways step from Arsenal. Maybe in a couple of years if he’s more ready for a return home and feels like he’s accomplished all he can here – but not just yet….
Unless AW has an agreement to buy a LB? Jordan Amavi perhaps, or Azpilicueta looking for a way out of the mess at the bust stop?
Oskar
Evening, H !
Good old physioroom dotcom is listing Welbeck as returning on 6th February, and Le Coq on 16th February.
Coquelin is listed as having an ACL injury, so it clearly wasn’t a rupture or he would have had many more months to go than that.
Evening, H !
Good old physioroom dotcom is listing Welbeck as returning on 6th February, and Le Coq on 16th February.
Coquelin is listed as having an ACL injury, so it clearly wasn’t a rupture or he would have had many more months to go than that.
Jack Wilshere has slipped back a further two weeks – from 26th December to 8th January. I really wonder what on earth has happened to him.
Oops! Don’t know what happened to that ……
Trev @11. Mourinho’s end of season analysis?
If Wenger aspires to win the cl, along shot,he shd be able to take onBarca and any other big team.Barca aint unbeatable as Matteo had shown if you have a defensive plan.The problem is anti soccer is anathema to the fm.
The thing is if Arsenal play their usual game ie pass times many,it would play into Barca’s palm.Messia ainy unplayable. We will how he will cope with our French cd and hopefully Gabriel. These two guys aint like Silvester and Cambell who were over the hill.
The team of 2015 and the one that faced Barca last is better though the Spanish have also improved their strike force.I am more confident than the last time.
Cheers H.
Barcelona is an excellent draw – we would meet them eventually if we drew another team and progressed With our erratic form we are capable of beating anyone on a very good day and can look mediocre on another. Which one we of these we will have to wait and see and most importantly which players are available on the day.
Meanwhile we have every chance of beating City next Monday and be top of the league at Christmas – an extra buzz to the celebrations.
Oh, the specious one….what an absolute moron – men in white coats getting closer.
Rumour has it that Flamini will use his ‘billions’ to buy the club and then prize Messi and Suarez from Barca … all before February.
They’ll be CL cup-tied of course, but could be useful for EPL and FA Cup. Flam may also buy the entire Chavski team and send them all out on loan.
Or I could just be fantasising…
Oskar
I believe this current arsenal squad can beat any team ….. you have to beat champions for you to be a champion goal arsenal goal
We will probably get beaten by Barcelona after giving it a real good go. That seems par for the course.
Danny Welbeck said he would come back flying. That would be in an air ambulance then.
Monreal leaving – no chance. He is the best left back in the Premier League on form.
On another note… Moaninho’s plan and his betrayal by the players : http://i.imgur.com/kWcbEED.gifv
π
And a reaction to the sacking of the moaning one : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWb4tlFWoAE3ED6.jpg
My only regret is that we had not the chance to witness the full relegation battle…… But other than that π
π π π
2 and a half years for Mourinho. Par for the course since apparently the man is so irritating nobody can stand working with him longer than that.
What a twat.
My only regret about today’s sacking is that AW did not have the opportunity to administer the coup de grace with a 6-0 drubbing of the reptile’s assortment of vermin.
I saw one of my best mates (Charlton fan) today just after the news broke and he expressed his sadness at the end of the hilarious feud between Mou and Le Boss. As he put it…
Mou: Wenger blah blah blah.
Wenger: *shrugs indifferently as if to say “who is this angry little man and who cares what he says?*
It was nice to hear from a non-Arsenal perspective how much he perceived the gulf in class between the two.
Baff. Wenger’s power is not a showy or a flashy power but it is deep magic indeed. He never beat him in a league game, and yet…
And yet Mou is gone. And Wenger, like The Dude, abides.
Abramoviches all round.
So that’s this year’s Christmas comedy special cancelled π
Disappointingly, as Bath has already mentioned, there is no opportunity for Arsene to rub salt in his face. However, the departure of the specious one can only be a positive for the good name of football ( what remains of it anyway ).
He has been shown up professionally as short termism – incapable of handing down a legacy to the clubs he ha s worked for. His negative personality simply doesn’t stay the course alienating either the owners or players – he gets found out eventually. Even the British journos ( term used loosely) finally got their brown tongues out of his orifice and turned against him.
So good riddance the obnoxious one, maybe one of the Russian clubs will suit you better.
The only real negative in all of this is that the Chavs will probably now climb up the table.
My regret is that AW did not ever beat him in the EPL. If only Moaninho had been allowed to continue till Arsenal’s next game against Chelsea on 23.1.16, I am sure AW would have beaten the PP. Now he will forever gloat about his record against AW.
I love football but Im amazed and a bit disgusted that on a day when our Prine Minister is renegotiating terms on our place in Europe the headlines on the 5pm News on Radio4 and The BBC News was the Mourinho sacking.Hes just not that important.
I listened for a short while to Talk Shite and Durham immediately suggested that United sack Van Gaal to win the title with Mourinho. There is a moral vacuum in the tabloid media .
dear ttg,
when has importance dictated your place
or indeed your inclusion
in the bbc news
yours,
disgruntled in donegal
?
and
congratulations on having john prine
as yer chief negotiator
“there’s a hole in daddy’s arm
where all the money goes”
kudos
and
can i take this opportunity to offer maureen
all the very worst in his future endeavours
no doubt
he’ll be headhunted soon
keep yer pecker up jose
no surrender !
Whilst reading through the drinks, I was amazed and a bit disgusted to find that on the day when the vile, reptilian Jose Mourinho was sacked, yes, sacked by mutual agreement, that Adrian Durham found a place in drink No 26.
He is just not that important. There is a moral vacuum somewhere in the drinks. ??
Now, if we can just get our priorities in order –
Jose Mourinho – MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
Trev, as ever, knows. π
Trev
You are completely right! Mea Culpa.
I’m self- flagellating as I type -oo-er?
CBA
Good point.
Wankers !
Isn’t the ‘moral vacuum’ what Holic gets out after we get visited by the hard-of-thinking?
And whatever can reptiles have done to Trev that he would bad-mouth them so?
Disgruntled of Donegal
Are you disgruntled because Daniel O’ Donnell is your next door neighbour?
I was there in August- God’s country. But Daniel wasn’t in!
daniel wasn’t in ?
ye sure ?
?
d’ye check the furniture ?
Oh to have seen Arsene fuck over Mourinho in another game other than the Community Shield. π
Mourinho’s managership never seem to end well. I wonder why.
Nacho rumours first reported by local Spanish press on the basis of ‘clubs interested in bringing Nacho home’ which the UK red tops turned into ‘Nacho return to Spain nailed on’. Given he is first choice in a top Premiership club and no top Spanish club is in for him, both Arsenal and Nacho would be made to make a move.
made = mad
Nacho move to Dynamo Moscow nailed on. π
I won’t lie, it wasn’t the draw I was hoping for but I’ll take it. A game against Barca is what the CL is all about. Who wants to play Thursday night football against teams you can’t even pronounce? It’s going to be an interesting game and I believe if we have an identical performance to the one where we beat Bayern Munich we can go through. We just need our best players fit. Good piece btw. COYG!!
Oh to have seen Arsene fuck over Mourinho in another game other than the Community Shield.
Rafa gets the sack after Xmas, Mourinho goes back to Madrid and makes it to the CL Final where we give them a doing over.
Dream realised.
π
@Cynic
….and we beat Chelski along the way…Finito!
π
Hiddink will relegate them…should be interesting to watch!
π
How many players will Chelsea be selling in January?
8ball. I don’t care- we already bought the one we needed.
An ex-player I won’t name reckons they should go with Pardew. HAHAHAHA! Seriously- Alan Pardew for Chelsea? Expert opinion? What is going on?
His second choice would be Mark Hughes. HAHAHAHA! Excuse me while I go and laugh hysterically into a pillow. All of this has filled me up with much more glee than I expected. It just couldn’t be happening to a nicer group of people. It is refreshing to see people getting what they deserve at Christmas for once. And this lot deserve to be in a right old mess.
Whatever else happens though, I just hope they keep losing football matches.
@GSD
Whatever else happens though, I just hope they keep losing football matches.
————-
Hear! Hear!
π
No greater joy to see Chelski in a relegation battle with pardew as their manager…what a Christmas gift.
Football is followed by a lot of very thick people with recall of a few nano seconds. They put pressure on clubs who do stupid things. The latest suggestion I’ve heard is that we ship out that prat Wenger and bring in Mourinho. That will seal the title for us even if we end up being as classless and odious as those cretins from the bus stop. Who. Ares about that…as long as we win. Winning is everything. S’obvious innit ?
Who cares sorry
If the moaning one comes here, i’m switching over to rugby for good…!
No more dark thoughts!
Up The Arse!
The utter stupidity of some people never fails to astonish me. If the Arsenal took on the reptile as manager, it would be the end of my association with the organisation formerly known as the Arsenal.
There was a time I wanted him, but this season has shown him to be exactly what others said he was. His behaviour has been appalling from day one of the season and he’s imploded completely.
He’ll be back though. Football is rife with clubs swimming in money and he enjoys throwing it away.
I agree with the Magistrate
Can he sentence to 6 months hard labour,the next poster still banging on about you know who.
Seems pretty obvious to me that the players were disgusted with Moaninho’s treatment of Dr Eva, gave up playing for him and effectively sacked him themselves.
Hate ’em as we do the chav players who ran away with the title last season can’t have declined so drastically in a matter of months, and with a new manager, any new manager, they could easily resurrect their season. Not to the extent of winning it, or even coming close, but into the Europey places where we can still laugh at them.
What they need is Fat Sam.
Oskar
Oskar. Not sure you read #57, but there’s always a chance he didn’t mean you know who. π
I was interrupted while writing #58, 8ball, and posted before seeing #57. Not sure what he means anyway to be honest.
Oskar
Clive @ 57
It’s as good as done! ?
ye can stick yer fuckin diplock
up yer hole (echo)
ye can stick yer fuckin diplock
up yer hole (echo)
ye can stick yer fuckin diplock
stick yer fuckin diplock
stick yer fuckin diplock UP YER HOLE
.
carry on
.
yer ok thunder T
i put a word in for ye ?
Cheers H!
I find the Cuntski / Scruffy Moaning Lying Porto Cunt situation hugely amusing, as are some of the drinks above regarding said situation.
However, what I find most perplexing is the overall state of the game in general – notably Cuntski and the swampies in theory pushing ahead with 60,000+ capacity stadia, entry to which they will doubtless have to charge the same levels as we do. And they will have to. FFP or not, the likes of Abramovich are serious about running clubs as genuine commercial concerns. Sell them out on a regular basis? Dream on suckers.
Some study of the history of support in the capital city, shows we were, are and always will be the biggest supported club, in terms of attendance. Some latter day success for Cuntski and the ever burning ashes of envy for the swampies, wont change that at all.
The football bubble cannot continue to inflate endlessly. People need to study the models of professional sport in North America more closely, to see that there are (serious) peaks and troughs along the way. I’m not predicting it will burst, but I do feel it will puncture at some stage and deflate. The rapidity of that deflation, the consequences of it, and time it takes to reflate are all known only to the gods at present.
And we’ll survive. Thanks to the foresight and industry of a manager and board often castigated as brainless muppets.
And weβll survive. Thanks to the foresight and industry of a manager and board often castigated as brainless muppets.
Amen to that.
Esso – Money is destroying the game at every level. Locally here there’s a club paying players Β£150 a match, on two year contracts, with goal bonuses, points bonuses and signing on fees thrown in. On “crowds” of 30 or 40 paying Β£4 to get in.
@65 Cynic.
Precisely my point mate, it cant continue.
A group of us go for a weekend in Butlins Minehead every autumn. And we always go and watch Minehead Town for the craic. This year for the first time, there was no charge to get it in. The club has gone completely amateur and decided it was pointless being poor semi-(more like quarter) pro in todays conditions.
More will follow.
VanBalls seem bent on competing with Moaninho….HAHAHHAHA!
Leicester…we’re coming for you!!
π
Heard a shocking tale today of a manager locally agreeing to pay a player Β£120 a match and picking him among the subs even when he was not able to play, so he’d get his money. At one game the player never even bothered to bring his boots or change into his kit, just sat on the bench in a trackie and trousered his dough at the final whistle, then drove home.
Manager got fired the player was transferred a week later.
LVG was a worse appointment than Moyes. He also spent a lot more. If United sack him now then Mourinho is an option but surely they aren’t that classless.
Last year’s flavour Mr. Koeman is finding it tough this time around. I think Remi Garde will improve Villa and United will go for Pocchetino at the year end. Several people have told me that Wenger wants Pep to succeed him and it would be Pep’s preferred choice , partly because his wife wants to live in London. I don’t know how much credence to attach to these stories but I do value a club who show a bit of class in these spivvy times.
Good article about Tony Adams in today’s Times. He had a very narrow escape
What a season this is turning to be! Moaninho ejected like a vulgar Rodgers after stanking the place as badly as anyone done to a reigning champion. He even managed to delude the fans with his deflections and turn them against the players.
Now United in turmoil with fans turning against the Manager and a win-or-die game against Stokelona next Saturday. And cherry on the cake the special destroyer whispered as a potential successor to Van Gaal to the despair of Chelsea’s fans.
Leicester and Bournemouth on the roll, Palace challenging United for Europe so win on Monday and Christmas will be perfect!
@TTG: not sure about that. Objectively United’s squad isn’t that great, some players are past their sell-date, some have yet to mature and many are just plain average. I think he did a pretty good assessment, they were not going to win playing hi-tempo pressing game with Carrick, Schweinsteiger, Rooney and an average back four (bar Smalling) so possession football was the best they could do and it kept them rather miraculously in contention until a few games back.
Unfortunately for Van Gaal style critics piled up and are forcing his hand to play a more fluid game with which the team is not going to be better than any of the teams on their heels, timely combined with a massive injury crisis at the back. Had they played possession football today they would at least have drawn against Norwich.
Now with Stoke away and Chelsea home next they could find themselves 6 points behind both Spurs and Palace at the end of the year. Out of the top 4 could be fast becoming realistic for United. Would be perfect if Mourinho was appointed too late to turn the ship around and so getting two top teams out of the top 4 in one season π
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