Off To Watford With Top Three In View
Sep 14th, 2019 by 'holic
I cannot lie. The loss of Alexandre Lacazette until October seems significant. He is the only forward we have who can play with his back to goal. I fear he will be badly missed. It happens and it is up to us to deal with it. Perhaps the second interlull will not be such a bad thing after all.
We know therefore we go with a slightly changed formation at Watford on Sunday. Some will suggest a 3-5-2. My guess is Unai Emery will want to persist with a four at the back, two holding ahead of them, and three supporting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Bernd Leno therefore starts behind an an unchanged four of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, and Sead Kolasinac. As Lucas Torreira has been back to South America expect Granit Xhaka (sorry) and Matteo Guendouzi to pair up ahead of them.
Nicolas Pepe must be a given on the right of the three. It’s a coin toss between Dani Ceballos and Mesut Ozil in the ‘ten’, and Reiss Nelson is likely to get the nod over Joe Willock on the left, but how good was it to read of Willock putting pen to paper on a new contract?
The results today, Manchester City’s defeat at Norwich aside, have made it imperative that we don’t mess this one up. A win will take us back into third place above the Middlesex Nomads and Manchester United. As a friend has just tweeted 11-0 will take us second above City. Right! Actually goal difference is a concern right now so cautious Unai may have to have a word with himself.
Watford may be rock bottom but could inflict the new manager bounce back effect as Quique Sanchez Flores returns for a second spell with the club. He didn’t do that bad a job with them the last time.
The ‘holic pound
Again, this could be anything, but hopefully we will be set up to present Aubameyang with the chances in behind that he craves. I am on 1-3 to the visitors at 13/1. Let’s do it lads, eh?
The ABW preview
The lads from Gooners in the USA joined Danny for the preview. It’s here.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
60 Responses to “Off To Watford With Top Three In View”
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Get in there. Agree with all that. Three-one will do nicely, sir.
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I think you are spot-on with the team Holic but Emery usually surprises us with a nonsensical , ill-thought out decision so we might see Ceballos in the hole and Ozil wide although the team picks itself once you factor in the likelihood of Xhaka appearing. Nelson and Pepe should start flanking Auba .
Saka, Smith- Rowe and Medley weren’t on the bench for the U23s today so we may have a young bench at Vicarage Road with Martinelli and Willock in contention .
Watford are very physical although two of their most physical players Cathcart and Deeney are out. I fancy us to take it 2-1 with Pepe opening his account. It will be a tough game though
Mixed debuts for ex( and current) Gooners today. Nacho scored as Sociedad beat Atletico Madrid . Elneny was sent off for Besiktas !
soz STILL AINT read the blog
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love you Dave. Currently banned on twitter, Fcyk thwm
Thanks Guvnor.
The teams looks about the team
UE will pick.
Hopefully Nelson and Pepe will
terrorise the Watford FBs and
we can keep the sheets clean
too. 2-0 will be fine.
Really important game for us today 🙂
Three points is all that matters!
TTG,
At least Elneny is getting game time
Holic
The only difference in Laca and the others is work rate, he will bust his balls and that is what I will miss later on the day!
Not loosing hope here, I think if we will stay disciplined especially at the back we have nothing to worry about!
Wouldn’t have picked Elneny
as a player to be sent off on
his debut. Still he made an
impression
Thanks for another fine preview,Guv’nor. A win today is a must after the last two disappointing results, especially the draw against spurs. Our away form has been a problem from Wenger’s time and Emery has done nothing to rectify it. We also don’t do too well against Watford as our players don’t like their over aggressive, physical approach. Also, Emery’s record against their new manager is not too good with one victory against three losses in seven games. Also, we will miss Laca’s industry and goal scoring ability. Given these factors I will take a 0-1 win. There are no easy games in the premier league as Norwich’s win over City showed. So, Arsenal need to grind out a result and get back to third in the table.
There’s a scent of 1-2 in the wind. No, wait, that’s the bloke next door burning sausages on his barbie.
The 8th at EHGC is a 455 Par 4. On in two this morning. Good omen.
Thanks Dave, I’m thinking 2-1 to us, Pepe on the score sheet today, wonder if we’ll see either of our full backs back in action at any point today?
Nice preview, ‘holic. Like most games managed by Unai, I’m dreading this one. I think we have enough resources to tear Watford a new one, I just don’t trust the manager to optimise those resources and give us a good result AND performance. My prediction? 2-1 to the Arsenal.
Thanks, Holic,
Usaual good sense and logic – 3-1, lovely jubbly !
But wait, Watford have a(nother) new manager ?
Qui-que, who, what Sanchez Flores – I’m sure I’ve seen that somewhere before … ? What are they smoking over there ?
Well, their tactics shouldn’t be a surprise as we can see their training ground over the fence from ours. They are dirty northern bastards though !
Come on you Reds !
BtM, the Ever Hopeful Golf Club perhaps .. ??
We must be going to win today, BBC two currently screening “She wore a yellow ribbon.
Nothing can go wrong……..
Ozil starts as does Xhaka
Arsenal: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Ozil, Aubameyang, Pepe.
Subs: Martinez, Chambers, Torreira, Saka, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli.
I wonder what this will look like. If it is Ozil and Kola on the left then if I was Watford I’d be attacking that all day long. Guendouzi will be very busy covering. It would be a big show of faith to play Ceballos at 10 whilst leaving Ozil out wide.
There are a lot of ways to set this 11 up. I hope we find one that works.
Strange selection. Willock in and Ozil out, and that makes some sense.
No clue what UE expects from
that live up but who cares just
win !
So he did pick Ozil on the left . As usual I wait on in hope rather than expectation
Come on Arsenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COYG
Smash those pesky hornets.
Can anyone explain why Watford walk out to the ‘Z-Cars theme’? I unerstand Everton using it but Watford? Sutely they should use Rocket Man?
After deep reflection I think
Auba is good at kicking the
ball in the net
Can’t argue with 2-0
Also I have no problem with
making Guen captain
I’m not at all surprised that Watford came out of the blocks quickly with a new manager and we looked a bit disjointed. But I’m equally unsurprised that we weathered it and came back with some great football they could not defend against.
We are playing our fifth game of the season and don’t look the finished article but we are doing plenty of things well and UE has set us up to make the most of our strengths, which we are doing. I really don’t get where the professed fears some fans have about his selections and tactics come from.
Apart from picking Xhaka, who adds nothing.
FFS… Sokratis what are you doing?
The total stupidity of trying to play out from goal kicks underlined. You utter cunts.
Every game someone does something stupid. It’s so frustrating.
Too right Cynic
We got off the hook a couple of times until this one, Guenduzi etc, ffs just kick it half way
AMN and Gendouzi are having a mare now
Hopefully that’s the end of Sokratis as first choice CB
What a strange sub
I don’t mind playing out from the back as much as some of you seem to. But obviously don’t try to go through the middle when they are pressing. And don’t ALWAYS play from the back so it becomes so predictable.
It does highlight that we have no one apart from Lacazette that we’d have any confidence to win headers up front. What’s the point of lumping long balls at Ozil, Pepe and Auba? Unless we are so poor at playing out that we are hemaeroging goals.
Wake up ARSENAL!
The whole atmosphere and momentum has changed after that blunder and their goal and we are looking a little lost. Emery’s substitutions are also a little confusing.
The subs have been a bit odd. That last one makes sense at least
There’s nothing wrong with playing out from the back in itself, but I don’t get why we do it in such a stupid way.
Why drop right on top of the keeper and try to play from there?
If we insist on playing out from the back, do it the old way. Get out of the fucking 18 yard box and play from THAT position.
I’d rather they just hoofed it clear though.
And that daftness is definitely on the manager by the way, as is the team selection, which saw us playing poorly until we scored.
You cannot have a lopsided team whoever you’re playing.
We might get away with it, but this Watford team is awful and we’ve made them look top six at times.
Typical Arsenal
What a shit penalty to give away.
What a shit performance. 🙁
Dumb and dumber both at their best. 2-2. Not surprising we are demoralized.
Bunch of brainless diva’s!
There is no fight in them we look clueless at the same time
I agree with you @ 44 Cynic.
Also thought the pen was harsh.
We do not deserve even a point on this performance, soulless
Mentally we have not improved a bit we look the same as we always have.
Are we really persevering with Maitland-Niles at right back, he is a real liability, and for fuck sake Emery, stop this stupid playing out from the back, this team can’t do it!
Leno
Emery is silly and I honestly think he is not the right manager for Arsenal.
We looked awful in the second half we turned up and did fuck all and surrendered 3 points!
Our defence is so bad, I’m almost missing Mustafi.
As soon as our injured defenders are fit, put them in the team. It’s a toss up who stays in out of Luiz and Sokratis, they’ve both been shite.
The Maitland-Niles project is dead and should be buried.
You can’t keep Xhaka in this team and you cannot play Ozil and Ceballos together.
Pepe continues to hugely disappoint.
You can bet your life that all of them are looking at someone else and thinking it’s his fault though.
And all of them apart from one would be wrong.
Taxi for Luiz >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We fucked ourselves. We need to get Luiz off our books. The Chelsea agent is doing a great job for them.
I was surprised that we were outplayed and they appeared to have more in the tank as the second half progressed. Unai took off all our creative players and that probably had an impact on the way we couldn’t create anything late on in the game. They had 31 attempts on our goal against 10 from us. Emery needs to wake up and rouse his troops. Our away form continues to cause deep concern.
Pepe hasn’t done anything to inspire belief in him. He appears to be physically swamped by the rough and tumble of the EPL. To get him scoring is another task for the manager.
Lots wrong with that. Taking of Ceballos instead of Ozil was ridiculous. Kola is a liability. Xhaka was so so poor.
I wonder if Emery is banking on the idea that if we persevere with our current setup then when we have Bellerin and Tierney we will be ready to start rolling teams over. But right now we don’t and we have to cut our cloth accordingly.
To draw from 2-0 up, entirely through our own doing, is a terrible result and the manager has to take a lot of the blame for that.