Refreshed Gunners Face Derby Lunchtime Saturday
Jan 10th, 2019 by 'holic
Right, as I will be enjoying some superb Italian food and wine tomorrow night it’s an early preview of Saturday’s trip to the Meccano Stadium for a lunchtime meeting with West Ham.
The hosts are much improved on the team that gave Unai Emery his first Premier League win at the Grove in August, 3-1. They have found mid-table security after a shaky start saw them rooted in the relegation zone. Unai Emery spoke of them with respect in his press conference today.
“I think West Ham are improving and they also have good individual players with quality, like Anderson, like Arnautovic, who are very good players. They are playing at home with their supporters and that’s difficult for us. Each away match is a very big challenge for us to find consistency and progression with our way.”
It’s interesting that he chose to name the players who combined to give the Hammers the lead in the reverse fixture. They have been largely responsible for the faux cockneys revival. Arnautovic may well be distracted by reports of a big offer from a Chinese club at the moment. He is rumoured to be open to the move, for obvious reasons, but West Ham have said that he is not for sale. I imagine the travelling faithful will have a special welcome for Samir Nasri, now at West Ham having served his drugs ban.
If he is not distracted we will need to defend with greater conviction than we have during the injury crisis. I mentioned in the previous post the likeliest to make up a back four. That could switch to a three if Laurent Koscielny is risked alongside Skhodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Hector Bellerin should strengthen us with a return to right wing-back and Sead Kolasinac on the left. Bernd Leno is likely to return in goal despite Petr Cech keeping a clean sheet at Blackpool.
Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka may be reunited in midfield behind a flexible attacking trio. I would opt for Aaron Ramsey to start alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. I suspect however that Alex Iwobi may start ahead of the likely departing Welshman.
That will leave us with our strongest looking bench for a while, possibly Petr Cech, Stephan Lichsteiner, Dinos Mavropanos, Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, and Bukayo Saka or Eddie Nketiah.
The ‘holic pound
The bookmakers favour a 1-1 draw. I’m taking a fresh and rejuvenated Gunners to edge it 1-2 which is available at a best of 17/2.
I will be paddling on Saturday so I’m delighted to say that our very own GSD is being called up as scribe-in-chief for this one. He does write the most entertaining reports so that is something I’m sure we will all look forward to.
Have a great one, ‘holics.
60 Responses to “Refreshed Gunners Face Derby Lunchtime Saturday”
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Lacazette sounding suspiciously Russian based on that spelling. Has he been enlisted into the secret service?
Happy paddling and I hope you see no heavy wave action.
GSD including costume let’s hope. 🙂
We need these 3 points, and need them badly. We also need stability and momentum as we go into what feels like the beginning of the second half of the season.
Mrs TTG has us lined up for an auction at 2pm on Saturday. It will be a lift for her but will I go in a positive mood? Three years ago I saw us take a 2-0 lead at Upton Park , left for a wedding and learnt Andy Carroll had scored a hat- trick before we equalised.
With our defence any away game against a decent attacking side is tricky but we do have returnees. I think Emery likes to play a five at the back and wonder if he might choose Nacho and leave the fragile Koscielny on the bench? I also think we will see Mavropanos play a big part over the next few months but this game might be too early for him.
I think it will be a 2-2 draw.
Thanks Guvnor, good preview and
it highlights a few decisions for
UE to make.
I think Guendouzi will be involved
somewhere in the 18 and may start
if we decide to pack the midfield and
go with a back 4.
Personally, I’d pick
Cech
Hector, Papa, Kos, Nacho
Xhaka, Torreira
Laca, Ozil, Iwobi
Auba
Subs: Cech, Kola, Mus, Aaron, Guendouzi,
Willock, Nketiah
A risky team defensively I know but Leno
has looked shaky recently and should sit
for a few games. I’ve given up on Mus and
once Mavro is fit then Mus wouldn’t make
the bench.
Ozil hasn’t earned his place recently but
Aaron is leaving and we need to find a
way to include Mesut. Getting him involved
and playing well would greatly increase
our chances of a top 4 finish.
Of course I’d be very surprised if UE chose
that XI
Oops, that should be Leno on the
bench not Cech.
I’d have liked to find a place for
AMN and ESR. Elneny though is
really looking surplus these days
and Lichtsteiner needs a couple
of weeks out the firing line.
“I will be paddling on Saturday”
Seems a mite chilly for paddling
Guvnor, hope you’ve packed your
thermals.
Unless of course it’s an oblique
reference to some S&M activities?
In which case, I hope you and The
Arsenal both hand out good
spankings this weekend.
https://youtu.be/sKiLfH3DVGc
I don’t care who’s in the team as long as Laca and Auba both start.
2-0 no worries.
UTA.
A fine preview Guvna though it, and TTG’s memory of that disappointing draw from a few seasons back, make me a tad more nervous about this fixture than I was. Hopefully we can re-inforce our push for fourth place with a steely performance and take all the points at the Stratford Spammers.
HBD & MHR, sir. Enjoy your paddling. Presumably in champagne?
Draw written all over the game unless we defend better, we will of course score.
Even if Unai has decided to not include Ozil in his plans, he needs to be there in the present scenario and knowing how Westham are likely to play the high line, this is a game he will be effective. All the talk of Ozil not being good for physical games can be put to rest, let him play till he is here.
Aaron leaving, Emery saying there are no funds to sign anyone and Andy Murray announcing his retirement, fairly gloomy i must say although a win tomorrow, a win for India against the Aussies in the ODI and a Federer masterclass to win the Australian open will be good enough to take away the gloom.
Friday night, on BBC One, FA Cup fans.
Nice preview H but let’s be honest here. No one knows who will play and with our defence, anything could happen. So, considering all of that, I’m going for a 4-2 win for the cash strapped, only loans for us please, Gooners.
Have a great time H and oh yeah, I nearly forgot ………….. Happy Birthday.
Many happy returns Holic. January is when the finest people are born!
Happy birthday guvnor. Paddle away as you were. 😉
Cesc Fabregas playing under the management of Thierry Henry. I would definitely pay to see that, especially if a free ticket from here to Monaco can be arranged.
Saturday lunchtime for you is Saturday breakfastime for me and an early one at that leaving just about enough time to pop the toast out of the toaster, spread out the marmite and rush behind the couch.
paddlin’ paddlin’ paddlin’
paddlin’ paddlin’ paddlin’
rawhide …
keep them dawgies paddlin’
‘cross the wide missouri
That’s what Enos used to do. Now he lazes around the pool at the Beverly Hills Hilton with Kim Kardashian.
Happy birthday, ‘Holic. Another year younger in spirit.
Carroll’s record against us is spottier than many think. Five goals in 13 matches, true, but 60% of them are accounted for by the hat-trick TTG recalls. Carroll has only been on the winning side twice and only scored in a winning cause once, back in November 2010.
Nor does Pellegrini have a stellar record against us, just one win in twelve games, with five draws and six losses. However, it is a different story against Unai Emery: six wins in 13 games, with three draws and only four defeats.
Leno,
Socrates, Kos, Mustafi,
AMN, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Kola,
Iwobi, Aubameyang
Lacca
Bench: Cech, Bellerin, Lichtsteiner, Monreal, Torreira, Ramsey, Nketiah
So 3 CBs and Guendouzi instead
of Torreira. No Ozil.
Hopefully AMN, Kola and Iwobi
can provide the ammo for
Auba and Laca
Screwed my scorecast up. Wanted to do Lacazette to score first and Arsenal to win 3-1, but managed to balls it so I have West Ham to win 3-1, with Laca to score first.
Still, 170/1 will take the sting out if it happens… Should have known it was was ballsed when they gave me the odds.
Mesut Ozil MUST leave this window. £350k a week to train is a joke, especially in light of the Ramsey situation.
I’m not going to cry over the loss of a player who isn’t as good as he thinks he is, but the wage he is going to be on is silly cheap by today’s standards, and in the context of Ozil and that other bloke whose name I can never spell’s wage.
Shoot Kola Shoot!!
We’re letting them have too many shots
and get too many crosses in
Disappointed, Bellerin isn’t playing. Still not 100%, I suppose.
Kola should have crossed first time to Auba who was racing in
We just don’t seem to have an edge
Can Nketia play wide at all?
Ramsey should have started.
No entertainment value to this thing.
Guess they are as bad as we are, maybe a mistake either side can spark some change
A half of football that lacked
quality to be honest.
We rode our luck with the free
header at the end there.
Need to be more aggressive 2nd half
Our best paid player…by a street… is deemed unsuitable to be in the squad for almost any game at a time when our wage bill is preventing us strengthening the side. You couldn’t make it up. What on Earth is going on at our club?
Down a goal immediately after restart. Shit defending by Kos and Xhaka.
It was coming, damn, we suck
Just for a change, dog shit defending.
Nothing new with our defence, but not one player is performing today, don’t think Emery can turn this, not with that bench
We are slower than a snail moving forward. Need to hurry it up and we don’t have much on the bench to kick start our attack.
60 mins 1 bloody shot on goal, pathetic
Things not working for AMN today.
Ramsey immediately looks our best player…not a massive achievement today but he’s working very hard
Play has improved now. Ramsey should have started.
And they are likely to score next
Auba’s touch has been shit all day
2 minutes to go and we pass sideways ?
Sorry for the rant
No way for the 4th, Manure can catch us now
Dire stuff indeed
Not sure where we go from here.
Difficult to take too many positives from that. We looked very poor going forwards.
6th, OM
We were deservedly beaten by West Ham and scarcely raised a whimper in defiance. I thought the team selection was bizarre, the defending mediocre with Xhaka to the fore with a very poor header. If Ozil can’t get into that team I’m astonished.
If we take the Emery -coloured glasses off I’m struggling to find where he has improved this team. We have the third worst defensive record away from home in the league. Our only players who did anything were Iwobi who worked very hard and Ramsey who we deemed surplus to requirements and are giving away for nothing. Elite clubs in Europe are queuing up to sign him .
Our club is in a very troubling situation at present. Another sixth place trophy beckons
Damn, we need players.
Wow, I didn’t know Kos is 33.
When Nasri is named MotM by the pundits here on this side of the pond, you know Arsenal were awful.
Arsenal definitely awful and also distinctly disappointing
You know you are alow when Sokratis looks your paciest player
Slow that is. Said a bit tongue in cheek to be fair.
First 20 minites I thought Laca and Guendouzi were doing great but they and the rest tailed off quickly.
When Emery accepted the job did he know we would not be able to buy players in January? Will we only be able to loan players in summer?
GSD, I fear the landlord has given you the proverbial hospital pass. Good luck with the report!
GSD, I’m sorry, but thank you! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>