Strong Gunners Team Look To Progress
Feb 13th, 2019 by 'holic
The Arsenal jetted out to Belarus this afternoon (Wednesday) for tomorrow’s match against Bate Borisov in the Europa League round of 32. It is a strong squad and there seems little doubt that Unai Emery is using the lack of a fixture this coming weekend to give his first team squad a good work-out.
Looking at the eighteen who have travelled my guess, and it’s no more than that obviously, would be Petr Cech starting behind a back three of Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, and Nacho Monreal. Wing backs Ainsley Maitland Niles and Sead Kolasinac could flank a pairing of Granit Xhaka and possibly Matteo Guendouzi.
The attacking trio will be interesting. Denis Suarez could be in line for a first start behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. That would leave the bench looking a good blend of youth and experience. Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichsteiner, Lucas Torreira, Mohamed Elneny, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi, and Eddie Nketiah.
Interestingly neither Sokratis Papastathopoulos or Mesut Özil made the plane despite taking part in training today. The former may be a sensible precaution but the latter is once again provoking Chinese whispers on social media. Aaron Ramsey did not recover from his knee injury in time and obviously we are also missing long term absentees Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, and Danny Welbeck.
One other face who will be there is Alexandr Hleb, late of this parish before jetting off to the sunny side of the street in Barcelona. At 37 he is surely nearing the end of a long career of unfulfilled promise. It is effectively the close season for the hosts as Hleb himself admitted.
“The usual preparation is under way. We held a training camp in Turkey and got into shape, as far as possible at the current stage. It is clear that we did not achieve ideal conditions in such a short time. We are not yet ready 100 per cent, but the coaching staff decided not to force anything, realising that the guys had to rest after a hard season.”
The ‘holic pound
We played Bate last season in the group stage winning 10-2 on aggregate. Given their lack of competitive football (The Belarusian season is in the summer due to the inclement weather in winter) the bookies are heavily into a Gunners win by a handsome margin. The champions of Belarus for the last thirteen years are 8/1 to win and 4/1 to draw the match.
Has Unai brought a strong team to kill the tie in the first leg? I have looked for my usual value punt and have taken a boosted 45/1 against us winning 1-5. Now watch us struggle to a 0-1.
Win a North Bank print
It’s competition time on Goonerholic again and we are delighted to offer Twitter ‘holics the opportunity to win this wonderful North Bank print from Matthew J I Wood Design & Illustration.
It is one of a range of atmospheric Highbury prints on sale at matthewjiwood.com and this one is just what I need for the North end of the box room/studio/editing suite!
Thanks to Matthew for letting one lucky Gooner win a copy. In order to be in the hat just retweet the pinned tweet at the top of my profile page on Twitter, then follow @matthewjiwood and @TheGoonerholic. We will pick the lucky winner after the competition closes at midday GMT on Saturday.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
50 Responses to “Strong Gunners Team Look To Progress”
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Numero Uno.
Now to read the Guvna’s pearls.
Cheers H!
Fine preview, sir. I hope Hleb remains the most frustratin dribbler on the planet. He makes Alex Iwobi look almost as productive as RP7. Your bet strikes me as somewhat optimistic, given our current form, and I’ll have what you’re drinking, Guvna. ?
Oh, come, come, Bath. The Guvna’s being overly cautious. This has a ring of six around it. Enjoy.
Was it Arseblog that dubbed Hleb “Dribbly McNoscore “? Though I do recall a fabulous drag back and then top bins goal – against Reading?
Evening gentleman, and you are all that.
It’s a scoreline that once paid for a new iMac, bath.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_2eKLHD6A
Thanks for a thought-provoking preview Holic. This would be a good game to rest Torreira and probably a good one to blood Suarez in the no. 10 role. I think that it has 3-0 written all over it….probably to us! ?
I’m intrigued by the Chinese whispers on Twitter. I won’t be popular but I consider 90% of what’s on Twitter complete bollocks . My mate tells me he has heard all sorts of odd things about Ozil and I have to say I think it is almost certainly cobblers.
Finally I was given by my lovely daughter and lovely wife the James Durose Rayner trilogy for Christmas/ birthday and am almost through book one. Immensely entertaining especially as the hero has got a butterfly mind like me informed by odd Arsenal stats like me, but he has considerably more sex than me….considerably more.
I would recommend it to Gooners who like an interesting read laced with Arsenal history , some of which is very obscure. I used to really like Jon Sammels in a manly sort of way but the writer rates him even more highly than I do.
I met lots of Dortmund fans in London today and wished them well. Most said ‘ So you are a Gooner too!’
Thanks TTG. Jon S actually was heavily involved in the writing of that first book. All three contain the direct recollections of those who were in the club during that era. The Alan Hudson one too is an eye opener in places.
Holic
Thanks for the update. I met Jon many years ago and he was a credit to the game and our club.
Sadly Dortmund look a shadow of the club I thought they were. Maybe there is a reason these young wingers from England look so exciting in the Bundesliga because it isn’t very good .
TTG @7- Spuds are playing really well and have absolutely blown Dortmund at 3-0. The away game at Spurs will be a real test for us.
Bundesliga very weak league,
and against the much tougher leagues like EPL,their legs are gone around 75- 80 minute mark,gasping for oxygen last 10.
Playing on big pitch at Wembley wore them out,hence the 2 late goals.
Remember this is without their 2 main players,so impressive win by our neighbors.
Crowd of 71,000 at the game,cracking atmosphere,DVD already being cut. !!
Clive/ Ksn
Thanks for your comments. Dortmund were missing more of their team than Tottenham but in the second half were very poor. Totts were good tactically and will have Kane and Alli back for our match .
I think Clive has hit the nail on the head Re the stamina issue. We will see how Bayern cope against Liverpool. I’ve never quite taken Dortmund seriously since Sanogo scored against them in the CL for us!
TTG
Worth pointing out also that they only play 34 league games a season and have a winter break.
No wonder they are soft.
????
Thanks Guvnor, seems a fair summary of the
current situation, any win is fine but if we kill
it off 1st leg that would be handy.
Your team is fine with me although I might
prioritise giving Mkhitaryan game time over
starting Suarez.
Good result for Spuds but will only make it
funnier when they get done 4-0 in Dortmund
🙂
Holic’s suggested team was a pretty good guess but Suarez is on the bench ( again ) as is Auba and Torreira and Nketiah. Emery clearly likes Iwobi and Mkhitaryan who start and does not trust Mavropanos who’s not in the squad. We may get the opportunity to see Lichsteiner who is in the 18.
A fairly conservative line up but
hopefully we will bring Auba on as
they tire in the last 20 minutes
and rack-up a few goals.
If we settle and play well then I
hope for 4 or 5. If not, then I
suppose it’ll be another nervy 2-1
like Cardiff and Huddersfield
OM. I will have a slice of that Dortmund 4-Tottenham 0 scoreline, and a drink of your choice is on the bar in any case. 🙂
Ugh, Stewart Robson again. Truly BT Sport, you spoil us.
Xhaka. Yellow card. Ninth minute.
Why don’t they just dial it in?
Countryman.
The UEFA website is currently not featuring Stewart Robson.
Just so you know. 😉
The UEFA website has made the somewhat odd comment, however, that Guendouzi should be thinking about adjusting his studs. Not the best choice of a sentence for pairing Guendouzi and stud in my opinion.
Bate growing into the game and have created the more clear cut chances. Arsenal have more possession but are less penetrative probably because Bate defend deep.
Our passing is bad as usual. Mustafi passing to their players twice and Iwobi being doing his best headless chicken routine. COYG.
Not surprising we go down off a set piece. It was coming.
What must Tottenham fans be thinking watching this!
Losing 1-0 against a pub team
45 minutes of my life wasted.
i’m working, watching for a lot of it out of the corner of my eyes. i saw the location of the freekick, the time, and thought one of two things would happen: they’d score, or we’d have a break and miss hit the final ball.
man, from what i did watch we were terrible that half. i realize it’s a tractor field of a pitch, but xhaka, in particular, has to weight his passes…these darts of 10 yards to feet just don’t work.
COME ON YOU GOONERS!
Holic pound still on.
Another changed team and another sloppy display , are we progressing ?
What is Iwobi supposed to be doing or what is Emery asking him to do , sorry but to me we are becoming worst individually and as a team
Martin Keown on the UEFA website:
“The goal was a case of who wanted the ball most and that has to be in your DNA as a defender. That hasn’t been there this evening. It’s been a problem for Arsenal for some time.”
Oh dear not a great watch. Miki and Laca fail to take their very decent chances, Guendouzi keeps loosing the ball, the Bosnian failed to get in front of the goal scorer at the free kick and we go in at half time one down. The pitch is dreadful but that is no excuse for the lack of purpose on our part.
We need to sharpen up in the second half and hope that Bata run out of steam in the last quarter.
COYR
3 degrees. What are you wittering on about mate?
Flat back 4
Auba on and let’s see if Suarez has something about him
This is bloody awful.
Hope the subs can do something.
Anything…
I suggested the change above before he did it. Our second half performance so far has been beyond woeful
As the match has worn on it is clear that we are the pub team. Sad.
Whatever mate.
Of more relevance, fuck me, this is dire and an awful watch.
Are they trying to drum up the numbers at the Emirates at 6pm next Thursday?
Laca sent off. Totally unnecessary. Bate have played smarter and taken their chance well.
Can’t argue with that red. Just completes a wonderful night.
Iwoebi is shit.
couldn’t agree more ksn, totally clueless player not worthy to wear the shirt
but then there have been many of them in the past 10 years
We will overcome them in the reverse fixture but today we were slow, predictable, lacking vision, creativity and penetration; in short we were shit.
Stupid boy Laca that’s all we needed, a three match UL ban. We got what we deserved an embarrassing defeat against one of Europe’s minor sides , now Emery will need to play his strongest side in the second leg.
We couldn’t even master Bate?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Does he have a strongest side, Delia?
Some Arsenal fans travelled out there in the freezing cold to watch that. Poor wretches. It is a real low point in my time ( 61 years) supporting the club. Laca was deservedly sent off but it was an indication that he cared.
I wanted to have a go at our performance. Rubbish.
I wanted to have a go at Stewart Robson’s performance. I did not think anything could make our showing worse but he proved me wrong by some margin.
Then I read the 3 degrees @ 33. I’m amazed they have the brainpower to type.
That brought me some much needed perspective. We’ll probably win the second leg comfortably but until then it could be so, so much worse.