Category Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal return to Champions League knockout football

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For the first time since 2017, Arsenal are in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

On paper, it feels like the draw has been kind to us. Porto are certainly not at the level of others still in the competition. But that does not mean the game will be a walkover.

We all remember last season in the last 16 of the Europa League when we were knocked out by Porto’s countrymen Sporting Lisbon. And two years before that, we failed to breakdown a stubborn Villareal team at home in the semi-finals of Europe’s second competition. And let’s not forget that Round of 32 defeat to Olympiacos in 2020.

For a club with as much success as our own, our lack of European trophies is a black stain on the clubs history.

Our last 7 Champions League campaigns have seen us knocked out at the Last 16 stage, and whilst there is no shame in losing to Bayern Munich, Barcelona or AC Milan, there was shame in the manner of defeat. And in 2015, we were feeling like we are today against Porto. That Monaco should be a comfortable route into the quartet final.

It was the same in 2007 as well.

The year after we lost the final against Barcelona, we faced PSV in the Last 16. It was a tie we should have comfortably won but the heroics of Heurelho Gomes and Alex saw us dumped out of the competition.

I hate writing negative blogs on the day of a big game. But this serves as a reminder that there are no easy games in Europe at this stage.

Porto sit 3rd in the Primeira Liga, behind Sporting and Benfica. They are captained by Pepe. The Real Madrid legend turns 41 in a week.

The difficulty of facing Portuguese teams is they often contain a huge amount of younger, fairly unknown Brazilian players who have been recruited in to generate huge fees when they are sold.

The likes of Evanlison and Alan Varela certainly fall into this category – although the Porto have fallen behind their two domestic rivals in terms of recruiting from South America.

Porto qualified 2nd in the Champions League group behind Barcelona, losing just twice to the Catalan giants. Those defeats were tight games with Barca winning both by just a single goal. Shakhtar Donetsk and Antwerp were easily swept aside.

From 2006-2010 we faced Porto 6 times, winning 3, drawing once and losing twice. The most recent of those games was a 5-0 win for The Arsenal. But ultimately with those games nearly a decade a half ago, our head to head stats mean nothing.

We can not afford to take Porto lightly like we did with Sporting last season. Hopefully that loss last season is a lesson learnt for us. al mindset.

We just need to go into today with a profession. View it that we are facing a top European team in the Champions League.

If you are out there today, enjoy the game, enjoy the Superboc and enjoy the sunshine!

UTA

Keenos

Saka, Foden and Palmer…there is no debate

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Last week Rio Ferdinand said something along the lines of “Phil Foden is World Class. Bukayo Saka is not quite there yet”. He then proceeded to name Saka ahead of Foden on the left hand side of his England team.

Fans of Manchester City and Chelsea have tried to create a debate this season, comparing Foden and Cole Palmer to Saka. There really is no debate.

The experts will have you believe Saka is having a slow season. At the same time they will tell you Foden and Palmer have been sensational.

And this is what separates Saka from the rest. His “average” season is better than the others best season of their life:

Saka: 19 Premier League goals and assists

Palmer: 16

Foden: 15

Against West Ham, Saka got to 100 goals and assists for Arsenal. He got to the landmark quicker than Cristiano Ronaldo. And that also highlights a difference between the trio.

Saka is compared to Ronaldo, to Lionel Messi, to Mo Salah, whilst Foden and Palmer is compared to Saka.

Bukayo is the 2nd best right winger in world football – only Salah is ahead of him. When you take into account Saka is 22 and Sarah a decade older, it is only a matter of time until our Starboy is the best on the world.

2 or 3 years ago there were debates between Saka and Jadon Sancho. Last year it was Saka v Dejan Kuluveski. Now it is Saka v Palmer and Foden.”

Each time there is a pretender (and they are pretenders) to Saka’s crown, he proves he is on a higher level.

Saka is simply the best.

Keenos

5 games, 5 wins, 21 goals – the Arsenal machine roles on

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In my pre-match blog, I said we can’t expect a West Ham every week. We got one!

Yes, it was only Burnley, but another 5 goals is brilliant for our goal difference – we have now added 11 in the last 2 games and a 19 goals increase in goal difference in the last 5!

Make no doubt about it, we are in this title race.

5 wins since the turn of the year and double figures in our last two games. If this was City or Liverpool the hype would be huge.

We just need to keep doing our thing. Keep winning and see where we end up after 38!

Dion Dublin was on co-commentary for our 3 o’clock kick off against Burnley.

In the opening minutes, he said “Arsenal’s away form has let them down the season”.

Before the game only Manchester City (25) and Liverpool (also 25) had more away points this season than The Arsenal. The 3 points took us to the top of the away league.

“At times they have not been defensively great” was another nugget from Dublin during the 2nd half.

We have conceded 22 goals in 25 games and have the best defensive record in the league.

I do wonder if sometimes these pundits get their jobs for reasons other than their football expertise.

A couple of weeks ago Liverpool were claiming they invented post match celebrations. This weekend it was being made out that they are the only title chasing team to have ever suffered a few injuries.

Against Burnley, Arsenal were without:

Gabriel Jesus

Olexsandr Zinchenko

Thomas Partey

Takehiro Tomiyasu

Jurrien Timber

Fabio Vieira

Manchester City have had over half the season without Kevin de Bruyne, with seeing Haaland also missing a few months.

Liverpool will play the victims if they don’t win the league. They will point to a few injuries and blame the refs for not protecting players. All teams suffer injuries. It is not something new.

Wednesday is it Porto. Champions League knock out football is back for The Arsenal.

Injuries are not an excuse for teams that have spent £100s of millions on large squads of international level players. We just need to keep playing well, keep winning.

Keenos