Daffodils The Flower Of Tuesday Night
Jan 28th, 2019 by 'holic
“I trust in every player, I trust in our squad. Our focus now is very clear. The Premier League is the first focus.”
Unai Emery stopped short of saying the top four but that is clearly what he meant. Third or fourth place is probably more realistic than winning the Europa League but will clearly require a greater level of consistency as we approach the pointed end of the season.
In the wake of our FA Cup exit on Friday night we return to league action at home to struggling Cardiff City on Tuesday night at what will be a very cold Ashburton Grove. There may be a bit of a flat atmosphere given the likely loss of life of new Cardiff signing, Emiliano Sala. Cardiff fans are reportedly wearing and handing out yellow daffodils prior to the match so please accept with good grace if offered one.
When asked if Konstantinos Mavropanos might start the match Emery conceded that “he is in the squad with the possibility to play”. I suspect he might be on the bench. Bernd Leno could find himself behind a back four of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal, and Sead Kolasinac.
Could we revert to the diamond shaped midfield that achieved success against Chelsea? That could mean a recall for Matteo Guendouzi in place of Alex Iwobi. Aaron Ramsey would surely relish the prospect of playing against his former club. Let’s keep the pairing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette up front.
The visitors are currently two points away from Newcastle’s ‘safe’ 17th place. They are leaking goals and not scoring enough, hence the signing of the unfortunate Sala. Quite how the side will react nobody can foretell, but it is possible they will battle hard in honour of the team-mate they never had. Their top scorer this season is Callum Paterson with four goals.
The ‘holic pound
Our recent seasons are littered with banana skin moments and this has the potential to be another. Hopefully Emery will have his team fully prepared to start strongly and deal with a team they really should be beating at home. Lest we forget the Bluebirds scored twice against us in the reverse fixture at the start of September which we just managed to windy one.
Obviously we are hot favourites so to get double digit value on a correct score punt it’s 4-0 at 12/1, or 5-0 at 22/1. I have gone with the latter on the basis that we are surely going to hand someone a heavy defeat soon?
As one who tends to feel the cold rather more than I used to I have to advise those who are going to wear plenty of layers. It’s forecast to be 2-3 degrees with light showers which raises the possibility of those sitting in the front rows a bit of a soaking.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
42 Responses to “Daffodils The Flower Of Tuesday Night”
Nice one, Guv’nor. It will be a sombre evening, I expect, as well as a cold one.
Intriguing preview as ever Guvna.
I didn’t comment on Friday because a slough of despond enveloped me but I thought the applause for Sala before the game was singularly inappropriate. That was a time for respectful, contemplative silence for someone nobody had heard of before last week not a volley of applause. Modern fans eh?
I hope he does not play Xhaka at CB. I would try Mavropanos, he may be needed on Sunday. I hope he doesn’t play Xhaka at all in fact but he will. Apart from wishing to see the Swiss roll (sorry) I like your team Holic but I’d like Nacho to come back.
We will win 2-1 or 3-1 but if our local forecast continues to worsen I will make a late decision about attending
Cor, I’d love a bit of Swiss roll in custard. A sweet treat from childhood. The chocolate one of course, not the jam. And you have to let the custard get a thick skin on it.
As for the game, I expect nothing less than a win although Colin will have them fired up.
Nice preview H. My tickets for this one were distributed elsewhere some weeks back now. I can’t say that the thought of Cardiff on a bitterly cold Tuesday evening really got the old juices flowing.
I would rather play with 10 than play Xhaka at centre back. Gus Ceaser was a better option, which should tell you all you need to know.
It will be a strange old evening for many reasons but I do expect a substantial Arsenal victory.
Enjoy boys and girls.
Hate to contradict you, ‘holic, and hope fervently that I am wrong but this match has one-nil to the Arsenal written all over it, with the winning goal coming after the 75 minute mark. Ramsey to be the goal scorer, of course. The good news is that will be our second straight league clean sheet and even the broad sheets will not be able to believe what they have seen in that respect. Just to contradict Steve T may I say
Enjoy girls and boys.
Not to be one to play “Can you top this?” but your descriptions of the fierce North London forecast for tomorrow evening made me look up my local forecast for the 2pm hour, which happens to coincide with the kickoff at Ashburton Grove. We are in the midst of our worst week of weather for many years, or so they said on the radio, but maybe the players and fans might give a little thanks they are playing the game in London after seeing this (all temperatures in Fahrenheit):
(temperature -11° below zero)
(wind-chill effect -36°)
(winds from the WNW 21 mph)
If I needed something to make me run just a little bit faster to get onto the end of a cross this sounds like just about the right recipe, except for the wind. I’m expecting the North London weather to be downright balmy by comparison.
Schools have all been closed here, making for a whole lot of very happy schoolchildren and harried parents. Suppose the happiness of the schoolchildren is the most important aspect. Daughter and a group of a dozen or so kids went out sledding this afternoon and returned rosy cheeked and happy.
Come on the uninjured Gunners, and no more injuries please.
Cardiff have 1 win away all season
and haven’t scored in the last 3
PL games. Though they hadn’t
scored in the previous 3 games
before they played us last time.
I’d give Mavro a start even if it
means partnering him with error
prone Mus.
The optimism here is amazing considering we havent looked anything but right bar the first 20 minutes against Chelsea. We do not have our first choice center-backs, our full backs at best are average and we do not know how to fit in our 2 best midfielders, Ozil and Ramsey.
Anyways, new game, new hope and hopefully we will see a midfield trio of Xhaka, Torreira, and Ramsey, play a 4-4-3 and fit in Ozil, Lacazette and Auba upfront. We need to play our best players to win and if that does mean we concede soft goals so be it, even now our defense do that anyway.
Thoughts on Perisic? at 29 and having a troubled period at Inter or should we consider the Perisic at the world cup who was among the best players in the tournament!! We haggle over the deal yet again shows that it aint just one man’s problem( Arsene), it is how the club is currently functioning.
The spirit of Eddie Waring is coming to Arsenal
Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium will be one of 21 host venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England.
It looks like Suarez is on his way to Arsenal from Barcelona . After that business with Liverpool and £40m +£1,I knew he’d come one day. Yes he’ll be fine and add some bite to our attack ! Sorry you say what ? He’s Dennis …Suarez? Oh well if it’s his brother he must be good.
Citeh must be quaking that an old boy is on his way back to show them how wrong they were to reject him.
Lichsteiner at right back. Hmmmm
Come on Elneny!
Come on Arsenal lets get back to winning ways!
Very optimistic Holic pound I have to say 😉
Especially after what we are seeing so far! They should have scored there!
We are a fucking shambles defensively. We could easily have two down.
been
Would you call Laca stupid or honest. He must learn from Salah etc and go down in the box when clipped.
We look suspect it’s painful to watch!
Two clear penalties, both against Laca, denied by Mike Dean, the wanker.
I wasn’t sure what happened to Laca there but Dean made most of it…
Gendouzi got booked for it a well not looking great, need a response and a massive one!
Another defender injured? ?
bt8 hope your prediction comes true, else we’re screwed
That deserved a red my eyes
Finally, a penalty which Auba converts. Get in!!!
Get in Auba!
At last!
Burnley are 1:0 at Manure
Laca makes it 2-0.
What a drive from Laca!
Three more for the Holic pound please now!
Guendouzi gets kicked hard, Hope he is not hurt. Teams target him and he is a serial victim of rotational fouling.
Edgy end now
We can’t close people down and no clean sheet this time also.
Poor play but finish with three crucial points.
Burnley 2 up
Hard fought win on a very cold evening, we didn’t make it easy but come on this is Arsenal what else did you expect?
Shame we didn’t take a clean sheet in all honesty but most importantly we got those precious three points.
Man Utd come back from the dead, thanks to Burnley’s stupidity.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
They still drop two points, great evening for us.
Shit, New Castle beat Man City giving Pool a clear run to the title.
Great results for us. Now back to two points clear of United and their spell broken. Laca and Auba still our totems. Didn’t go tonight, other things clashed. Didn’t even watch for first time this season. Jeff Stelling & Co for me.