Author Archives: keenosafc

North London Derby: A Family Affair That Pulls No Punches

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Regardless of the situation, Arsenal’s next game is always the biggest of their season. It’s the fixture fans look ahead to with a perfectly terrifying mixture of dread and delirium. A game that, if won, sends your spirit soaring for days on end but if lost, hits you harder than an angry Roy Keane. That game is, of course, the north London derby.

Growing up as an Arsenal fan in the middle of the 2000s, Chelsea were the new kids on the block, threatening to upset the Gunners’ status as the Pride of London. As a result, I didn’t particularly understand the rivalry between the red and white side of north London, separated by the Seven Sisters Road and the Tottenham High Road over 4.5 miles. Throughout Chelsea’s emergence under José Mourinho, Spurs were still a long way off being considered among the best teams in London. Their league position of fifth in 2005-06 was their best for 16 years.

During this period, the north London rivalry was ignited by Sol Campbell’s infamous switch from the High Road to Highbury in 2001, yet Spurs still struggled to lay down a marker on the pitch, failing to beat Arsenal for seven years between 1999 and 2008. I truly felt the sting of a north London derby defeat in 2008, when a sorry Arsenal side were thumped out of the League Cup after a 5-1 humbling in the second leg of the semi-final. Juande Ramos’ men went on to win the competition, beating Chelsea in the final for their first trophy since 1999.

This is when it all changed. My father, who is a Tottenham fan, actually had a legitimate case to say that, for the first time in my life, Spurs had enjoyed a more successful season than Arsenal. It hurt. The hurt has been compounded each season since 2016/17, when Mauricio Pochettino guided Tottenham to their first league finish above Arsenal in 22 years, has been a painful one for the sole reason that Arsenal haven’t finished above Tottenham.

In the present, both sides are ironically, almost identical. Both have had new managers, Mourinho and Mikel Arteta replacing Pochettino and Unai Emery respectively. Both are out of Europe, having lost games against RB Leipzig and Olympiacos they should have won. Most revealing of the two clubs’ current situations is the fact that they both sit outside of where they should be, the top six. They are almost neck and neck in the table and if Tottenham beat Bournemouth on Thursday evening, they will move above Arsenal into 7th.

Arsenal and Tottenham are at a crossroads and Sunday’s clash could be the catalyst for change. A win for either side will not only give them much-needed momentum to finish the season strongly but, crucially, a better chance to secure a place above the auld enemy. A draw will suit neither side, with both teams desperately attempting to make up ground in the race for Europe having been mired in mid-table mediocrity for much of the season. Therein lies the story of the north London derby: a great game for the neutral but a stomach-churning, suffocating spectacle for Arsenal and Spurs fans.

Zac Campbell

Matteo Guendouzi in exile: Should he stay or should he go?

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Since signing from Lorient in July 2018, Mattéo Guendouzi has been under scrutiny on an almost constant basis for reasons good, bad and now ugly. Following an on-pitch altercation with fellow Frenchman Neal Maupay at the final whistle, with the Brighton striker having scored an injury-time winner for the Seagulls, Guendouzi has been training alone, exiled from the first team.

This begs the question: do Arteta and Arsenal keep faith or is time to send him packing?

Not so long ago, the France U21 international was being heralded as one of the cornerstones of Arsenal’s midfield. Those who had been tried and tested before Guendouzi’s arrival were accused of lacking toughness and tenacity, a trademark of Arsenal midfielders in years gone by. Guendouzi impressed enormously throughout his debut campaign with a mixture of rugged determination off the ball and a composure beyond his years when in possession. He was everything the club had been crying out for since Patrick Vieira’s departure in 2005 but his attitude has let him down too often and, as a result, the incident at Brighton may be the last we see of him in an Arsenal shirt.

Since his appointment at the end of 2019, head coach Mikel Arteta has made it a priority to change the culture of the club. Learning his trade as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City, it is not surprising that one of Arteta’s key principles is his demand for professionalism of the highest standard. Consequently, he made it abundantly clear on returning to Arsenal that any player not willing to adhere to his values and vision were more than welcome to play their football elsewhere. This was a rude awakening for some players, who’s standard had dropped during Unai Emery’s disastrous final month at the helm. A notable wake-up call was given to Ainsley Maitland-Niles who, after publicly voicing his displeasure at playing as a right-back, was dropped by Arteta for the final five games before the suspension of football due to the coronavirus pandemic in March. However, since the resumption of football last month, Maitland-Niles has featured in four of the Gunners’ six matches, realising that he must conduct himself well both on and off the pitch in order to compete for a spot in the starting line-up.

Worryingly for Guendouzi, his skirmish with Maupay is the latest in a succession of indiscretions he has committed over his short career. He was reprimanded at Lorient for a row with manager Mickael Landreau that saw him cast from the first team for over three months. Earlier this season, he was given a warning by Arteta about his conduct following an incident at a team event during their winter break to Dubai.

Fast-forward to the present day and it is difficult to see a future for Guendouzi at Arsenal. Given his personal issues and the fact that if Arteta were to sanction a sale, he could leave for £40m, a significant profit on the £8m it took to bring him to north London two summers ago. Despite the current situation,  Maitland-Niles’ revival serves as an example to the wavy-haired Frenchman that, should he be willing to show remorse for his previous actions and a desire to improve on and off the pitch, a place in the Arsenal squad is still up for grabs.

Zac Campbell

Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 1 Leicester

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Arsenal (1) 1 Leicester City (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Tuesday, 7th July 2020. Kick-off time: 8.15pm

(3-4-2-1) Emiliano Martínez; Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Hector Bellerin, Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka, Kieran Tierney; Bukayo Saka, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pépé, Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Matt Macey.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (21 mins)

Red Cards: Eddie Nketiah

Yellow Cards: Shkodran Mustafi

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 38%

Referee: Chris Kavanagh

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restructions

Tonight we entertain the enigmatic Leicester City, who are currently sitting third in the Premiership table. It is vitally important that we continue our winning run at The Emirates tonight, as we need to put pressure on Wolverhampton Wanderers (who we defeated on Saturday) and above them, Manchester United, in order to grab a Europa League place for next season. Let’s go!

Arsenal certainly had the best of the early exchanges tonight, and we showed confidence in all departments of the team. Emiliano Martínez made two important early saves from the visitors, the best of them being a snap shot from Marc Albrighton which he kept out of the net with his feet! Leicester City started to move the ball around a little faster with more aggression and certainly more purpose, which left them wide open for a quick attack from our chaps. Kieran Tierney struck a beautiful shot from twenty-five yards which Caspar Schmeichel parried, but a couple of minutes later we broke out of defence, with Bukayo Saka receiving the ball on the right from a long ball that came his way via Dani Ceballos; he slotted the ball across the Leicester penalty area and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang simply tapped the ball home for the opening goal of the match. The goal quickly livened up the proceedings, and on the half hour mark, Bukayo Saka was unlucky not to score, when his strongly taken shot was parried by Caspar Schmeichel for a corner. Now the wind was certainly in our sails, and we started to expose the weaknesses in the visitors’ defence time and time again. Alexandre Lacazette, by rights, should have scored, and had it not been for the alertness of the Leicester goalie, he would have found himself on the score sheet. We moved the ball around very well, despite being hampered by the North London rain, and we kept continuing to probe the Leicester goal with intelligent shots which came from clever midfield play, mainly from the peerless Dani Ceballos, who was playing with great freedom and awareness. The wet conditions meant that there were one or two unfortunate accidents just before the break, and by the time the referee blew for half-time, both sets of players looked like they were ready for a hiatus.

The second half started off just as lively as the first, with some interesting end-to-end play being created from both teams. A foul on Alexandre Lacazette just outside the box led to a well-taken free-kick from David Luiz, whose shot was turned away by Caspar Schmeichel for the first of three consecutive corners. Emiliano Martínez made a superb match-saving save from Kelechi Iheanacho ten minutes after the restart, and it was becoming obvious to everyone that the conditions were starting to ruin what would otherwise be a far more open match than it was. However, we still managed to exert pressure on the visitors, and a potential second goal by Alexandre Lacazette was chalked off for offside just before the drinks break. Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah replaced Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka with twenty minutes of the match remaining, which gave us pace, strength and fresh legs where it was needed out there. Ridiculously and pointlessly, Eddie Nketiah was dismissed just four minutes after arriving on the pitch for at best, what could be described as a strikers’ tackle. Being down to ten men, Arsenal now put their shoulders to the wheel and changed formation to accommodate the loss of a man. Dani Ceballos was replaced by Lucas Torreira on the eightieth minute, and five minutes later, taking advantage of the extra man on the pitch, Jamie Vardy grabbed the equaliser. With eight minutes’ injury time, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and suddenly the match became more frenetic with both sides sensing the urgency to grab the winning goal, but it was not to be, and the scores finished even on a wet and controversial evening.

Overall, we deserved to get more out of this match than we ended up with, and if Eddie Nketiah had not had been dismissed controversially, then we may well have ended the match as the victors, as we did have enough chances to win this match quite comfortably. Still, although it’s two points dropped, we still come out of this game with a point, which is certainly better than nothing. Kieran Tierney and Dani Ceballos were superb tonight, as was Emiliano Martínez; with the North London derby coming up on Sunday, we need to go into that game with the winning mentality that we have shown of late, and if we do that, then there’s no reason why we cannot return home with three points. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Tottenham Hotspur at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 782 High Rd, Tottenham, London N17 0BX on Sunday, 12th July at 4.30pm(Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.