A Point Will Do For The Arsenal, But We Want More
Nov 22nd, 2017 by 'holic
The first photographs of Cologne are on Social Media. You can see who has gone to take in a bit of culture, and who is there for the beer and bratwurst! This is the sort of fixture that has made the Thursday night sojourns rather more pleasing than we thought beforehand.
A very young cup team has safely seen us into the last 32 of the Europa League, and a draw at the RheinEnergie Stadion will send us through as group winners. The hosts won’t lie down though, knowing that they need to win to keep their hopes of qualification alive until match day six.
They are, however, down on their luck this season. They have just two points in the Bundesliga and are currently propping up the table. They have one win and one draw in Europa League group H. Our 3-1 win in the home leg was a come from behind affair with second half strikes from Sead Kolasinac, Alexis Sanchez, and Hector Bellerin, none of whom are likely to play this time around, I suspect.
David Ospina could return in goal behind a back three of Mathieu Debuchy, Per Mertesacker, and Rob Holding or fit-again Calum Chambers. Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson are expected to be the wing backs either side of a midfield pairing of Jack Wilshere and Mohamed Elneny. With Theo Walcott ruled out by a fever the front three could be Alex Iwobi, and a fit-again pairing of Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud.
Expect to see more youngsters coming off the bench in the second-half. Depending on the score it would not be a surprise to see Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah given more minutes of first-team football. As for Cologne, they will be without attacking midfielder Simon Zoller injured in last weekend’s defeat by Mainz. Club captain Mertesacker not surprisingly sat alongside Arsene Wenger at the pre-match press conference and spoke of following up Saturday’s intensity in the North London derby.
“I think it was a brilliant example of us bringing it all, fans and players together. It was a great atmosphere and lovely to see how we were together in every single situation. Even in the stands, on the bench or actually on the field, we seemed to be together. We want to reproduce, especially on Thursday. They set a good example for us, those players who came in. We saw that intensity and to repeat that tomorrow and Sunday will be a big, big challenge for us, but we embrace it.”
The ‘holic pound
When the draw was made this looked like our toughest away fixture but the way things have panned out that may not be the case. I do expect Cologne to give everything, but that Arsenal likely starting eleven is a wonderful blend of youth and experience. As I enjoyed a drink with the excellent Bergkamp the Man on Saturday I am bound to favour his favourite and have taken Paddy Power’s 1-2 to the Arsenal at 9/1.
All that remains is to wish the culture vultures and the lager swillers a fabulous trip and another good performance from the team.
Have a great one, ‘holics.
20 Responses to “A Point Will Do For The Arsenal, But We Want More”
This lager swilling culture vulture went to Cologne 36 years ago when I was in college. Lovely city and I hope to return one day, but now we need to put the fraus and herrs out of their misery.
We wuz robbed 46 years ago in Cologne when we held the Fairs Cup.
It’s payback time!
3-0 to the Arsenal !
Blimey, I’m a mere pup – it’s only
29 years since I went to Cologne.
But I’m with bt8, lovely city.
1-0 to the men in er not red but
whatever ridiculous away kit we
wear.
Perhaps I can collect the prize for first gooner in this bar in Cologne? And I don’t mean wearing the spray-on stuff. 😀
I can’t be sure of the year but it was before I left England in 1967, possibly as early as 1961, so 50-56 years ago. Anyone who can better that is welcome to the record!
Fine preview Guvna. 2-1 to the good guys will do nicely.
I have never knowingly visited Cologne though I have probably passed through it in a train or flown over it though neither would be earlier than Chris’ visit and the latter certainly didn’t have anything to do with a damaged cathedral.
Let’s win this thing.
COYG
cologne
[never been there
mind you
never been manywhere]
means conny plank to me
.
.
6oclocks a strange one
nearly got caught out
anyhoo
earphones in big coat on
see how we feel after eight
(neu joke for neu goonerds)
.
UP THE ARSENAL !
FC Köln FC Köff
“take it away, conny”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0f1Tw3YXM
2-1 has a nice ring to it. Off to the cricket club to catch the game shortly. Enjoy.
Must admit, cba, that when I think of Conny only one album comes to mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2cf833c-ec
What a flat match and one we should be leading but we aren’t sharp enough in attack. Giroud is so slow and Welbeck looks our best hope of getting on the scoresheet,
AMN has caught the eye but it’s a bore fest so far
We have some very naive defenders. 1-0.
Pathetic decision for the pen. Richarlison lives!
Bring Nketiah and Nelson on and get some movement .
History repeats itself. Another soft penalty in Cologne
We give the ref the chance to make a call, TTG.
They are in wasting time mode.
Why is Wenger so reluctant to make changes. Get in Enketiah.
Wilshere has been hugely disappointing tonight. Iwobi is the only player with any spark
Typical Arsenal performance, so disappointing.
What an utter irrelevance of a game. It’s humiliating to lose even with a second string to a side as limited as Cologne. They had one hope. To be given a penalty and they were awarded an extraordinarily soft one by anothe4 ref who is supposed t9 be helped by an assistant behind tge goal.
We were poor going forward . Giroud played at his most pedestrian. He had little service but his movement is virtually nonexistent. Wilshere had a couple of decent efforts near the end but didn’t affect the game.Too much emphasis on threading the ball throught the middle of a compact defence. We needed much more effective service from out wide.
It was a bit humiliating for Cologne fans to invest so much emotion into qualifying from this extraordinarily weak group.
I never like to see Arsenal lose ever but this was about as big a non- event as I’ve ever seen
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Frustration thy name is Arsenal. Loads of possession but nothing to show for it except a number of wasted crosses, yet more futile corner kicks and a persistence to try and pass the ball into the net through a brick wall . The Koln CBs played very well and Giroud was marked out of the game.
We did up our game after Nelson joined the fray but it was all too little too late. Very disappointing evening but we have ended up top of the Group, which hopefully will give us a decent draw in the knock out stage.
COYR
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