Today I should have been writing a pre-match blog previewing our home game against Wolves.

I planned to moan about us having to play twice within 48 hours; but how our exciting youngsters and good form should carry us through against a Wolves side with just 1 win in 7.

Then the news broke on Boxing Day that the game was to be suspended due to Wolves not having enough players.

Over the last few weeks, games being suspended due to Covid have been a frustration of mine.

We see teams getting games called off due to 5 or 6 players ill. In Wolves case they have 6 players with Covid. Is this really enough to get a game called off?

During the course of a regular season, there is always a team that has more injuries than others. When we played Leeds United a couple of weeks ago, they had 9 injuries. The game went ahead.

Why does having 6 players with Covid get a game postponed whilst a team with the same level of injuries has to play on.

Some will say “it’s an illness” but the Premier League do not postpone games due to influence or food poisoning.

And Premier League teams have large squads.

Before the season commences they submit an A list and B list to the league. In the case of Wolves, these two lists contain 76 players.

So out of 76 players registered to play in the Premier League, less than 10% have Covid. They still have over 60 players to pick from.

And these are all senior players. Over the age of 16.

The problem for those Premier League sides applying to get games postponed is not that they do not have enough players available; but they do not deem their younger players to be good enough.

Why should games be postponed due to a club not having good enough players? If that was justification to postponed games, Norwich City wouldn’t have played a game this season.

And Wolves in particular is an interesting case.

The argument being used at the moment seems to be that sides do not have 13 outfield players and one keeper available to them.

They have 6 players with Covid and a further 6 injured. But we should disregard the injured players as that happens during the course of the season.

As discussed above, Wolves have 76 players registered to play in the Premier League. So they could field 13 outfield players and a keeper if they were forced too.

If the argument is that they can not field the 14 total players from their List A due to injury and Covid, then this is their fault.

Wolves only named 21 players in their List A. You can have 25.

They named their full contingent of non-home grown players (17) but just 4 home grown players.

Two of their senior players are keepers, leaving them with just 19 “senior” outfield players.

That means Wolves only need to have 7 players out injured or with Covid to then be able to claim that they do not have enough players to fulfil a game.

Yet they made the active decision of not having enough senior players through their squad. Had they had the full 25, would they have been able to fulfil the game?

The answer is yes.

Had they had 25 List A players, with 12 out with Covid and injury they would have 13 fit players. It would therefore only require one promotion from List B to have the 13+1.

They have literally decided to have a smaller squad.

It is an advantage to have a smaller squad if everyone is fit as your wage budget can be shared amongst less players. That allows you a better quality of player but a lower quantity of player.

But it then means if you get a few injuries you do not have the strength in depth to back them up.

It seems the decision to not have a big senior squad is currently being rewarded.

The Premier League cocked up by beginning to allows teams to postpone games and it opened the flood gates.

Crystal Palace requested their game against Tottenham be suspended due to Covid; And then made just 1 change from their previous game.

For me, every team can fulfil every fixture. Their List A & B squads combined gives them more than enough players.

The Premier League should have enforced their own rules. If a club decides to not fulfil a fixture, they forfeit the result.

That would punish the likes of Wolves who made the active decision to not have enough senior players and do not think their List B players to be good enough to play for them. Or it would force them to rely on those youngsters, majority of whom are over 18.

If Wolves wish to postponed the game, Arsenal should be awarded a 3-0 win.

Keenos

We have a HUGE range of Arsenal bottle openers available (is 7 huge?). There is still time to grab yourself one. We will be posting these up until Mondayhttps://t.co/j9tDa3d1pW pic.twitter.com/nlji8hDs4y

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) December 16, 2021

Norwich City (0) 0 Arsenal (2) 5

Premier League

Carrow Road, Norwich NR1 3JE

Sunday, 26th December 2021 Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Pablo Marí, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Mohamed Elneny, Eddie Nketiah, Charlie Patino.

Scorers: Bukayo Saka (6 mins, 67 mins), Kieran Tierney (44 mins), Alexandre Lacazette (84 mins), Emile Smith-Rowe (90+1)

Yellow Cards: Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 65%

Referee: Graham Scott

Assistant Referees: Richard West, Derek Eaton

Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Lee Mason; AVAR Simon Long

Attendance: 27,244

For this Boxing Day match in Norfolk today, Mikel Arteta has made one change from last week’s win over Leeds United having fielded a much-changed side for the Carabao Cup victory over Sunderland. Sadly, our flying full-back Takehiro Tomiyasu has had to sit out today’s match with Rob Holding being recalled, whilst there is still no place in the squad for much-talked about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

A fairly strong start by the lads in this freezing cold Boxing Day fixture at Carrow Road, and after just six minutes, we warmed up by opening the scoring with a superb strike from Bukayo Saka, who received the ball from Martin Ødegaard after some good interplay between the lads. He received the ball on the right hand side, switched the ball to his left foot and hit a low, sweet strike past the Norwich goalkeeper. The early goal buoyed our confidence, and we started to dominate proceedings carefully and confidently. The home side appeared to wake up and started to bring the game to us, but our defenders were able to neutralise their strikers adequately. We manged to pin Norwich City back into their own half, with strong play that followed some good goalscoring chances from Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Martinelli that unfortunately came to nothing. After twenty-seven minutes, having already scored, Bukayo Saka weaved some real magic out on the right wing before delivering a great cross for Alexandre Lacazette who was inside the Norwich City six-yard area, but he headed the ball wide. Our England striker is having the time of his life on the right wing, beating players at will, before supplying crosses for our strikers to run in on. A few minutes after Granit Xhaka was booked for a pointless disagreement with Max Aarons, we grabbed a second goal, just a minute before the break. Martin Ødegaard placed a beautiful through ball into open space for Kieran Tierney to run onto from the left wing, and with a beautiful low left-footed strike, he scored our second goal of the first half, ensuring that we went into half-time two goals ahead.

We kicked off the second half in a composed and controlled manner, and we continued exactly where we left off at the end of the first half, confident and alert. The match started to get a wee bit scrappy when some unsavoury challenges were being dished out by both sides, all of which were passed over by referee Graham Scott and the VAR team. The scrappiness of the afternoon appeared to fire up the home team, who started to look dangerous, but overall it was nothing that our defenders couldn’t handle. Gabriel Martinelli scored a seemingly beautiful goal on the hour, but it was disallowed for offside. Thomas Partey was booked for a professional foul, and by now the match appeared to level out somewhat with failed attempts from both teams. After sixty-seven minutes, some intelligent jinking from Bukayo Saka on the right-hand side of the Norwich City penalty area led to him scoring our third goal of the afternoon with a deceiving low shot that had goalkeeper Angus Gunn beaten all the way. Thomas Partey was replaced by Mohamed Elneny with twenty-eight minutes of the match remaining, and as the game was levelling out, Bukayo Saka was substituted for Nicolas Pépé four minutes later, followed by Emile Smith-Rowe, who replaced Gabriel Martinelli after eighty-one minutes on the clock. Almost immediately, the class of Emile Smith-Rowe was there for all to see, when a clever ball into the Norwich City penalty area found Alexandre Lacazette, who was pushed in the back by Ozan Kabak. A penalty was awarded, and Alexandre Lacazette coolly slotted the ball away with some aplomb. Martin Ødegaard was unlucky not to score when his dipping shot from a free-kick just outside the home side’s penalty area went over the bar. Emile Smith-Rowe scored our fifth goal of the afternoon with a simple tap-in from close range in the first minute of injury time, and after that, the match wound down to its natural conclusion.

An excellent Boxing Day win here at Carrow Road, in which we looked professional, ruthless and slick against a hapless Norwich City, who looked completely lost at sea for large sections of the game. Our strikers were superb, the midfield dominant, and the defenders had very little to do. Perhaps the Wolves match in forty-eight hours will give us a better indication of our progress, who knows? Either way, at the time of writing, we are fourth in Premiership, just three points behind Chelsea. A very statisfying afternoon indeed.

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: who knows?. Be there, if you can. 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.

Sergioe Aguero (and Lionel Messi)

Barcelona’s plan this season was to have Argentine due Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero as their striking options.

Financial issues let Messi to join PSG on a free transfer whilst health issues have led to Aguero’s early retirement.

That has left the Spanish giants with on-loan Luuk De Jong and Man U flop Memphis Depay upfront.

Barcelona have scored just 28 La Liga goals this season – 11 less than league leaders Real Madrid.

They need someone to fire them up; both on and off the pitch. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could be that man.

But they have no money

Barcelona’s big problem is they are financial screwed. They reportedly owe over £1bn.

That led them to spend just £10m over the summer on transfer; signing Emerson Royale who they then immediately sold on to Spurs doubling their money.

Their 3 big signings – Aguero, Eric Garcia and Depay – were all free transfers.

They do not have the cash to pay upfront and no club would give them credit or allow them to pay in installements.

With Aubameyang’s issues and high wages, Arsenal might look to get rid without a fee – either a free transfer or an 18 month loan deal with no fee.

There are not too many players of Aubameyang’s level that Barcelona could afford.

And they can afford to pay Aubameyang

One of the biggest questions surrounding an Aubameyang exit is “who could afford his wages?”

Despite not having money to buy players, Aubameyang’s wages could be covered by Barcelona.

Aguero retiring would have freed up some wages for them – and the Argentinian has likely had to repay any signing on fee.

There is also the money Barcelona had set aside for Messi.

With no transfer fee, Barcelona will find the money to pay Aubameyang’s wages.

And Auba will want to go

One of the issues with Mesut Ozil is no half-decent club came in for him; hence why he ended up playing for a mid-table team in a 3rd world league.

Ozil preferred to play fortnite in London than take a mover to a lesser side earlier than what he did.

Barcelona, despite their troubles, are still a huge club. One that kids like Aubameyang would have dreamed playing for when they grew up.

He would not take too much persuasion to join Barcelona.

A loan deal suits all parties

From Barcelona’s point of view, they can not afford a transfer fee on a big name January signing. Aubameyang is the best and biggest name they would be able to afford.

With 18-months left on his Arsenal deal, Arsenal would be happy to just get his wages off the books and Aubameyang away from the club.

Whilst Aubameyang would be attracted to another stage of his career that has taken him from Italy to France, Germany and England. Playing in front of the Nou Camp in the famous colours of Barcelona.

An 18-month loan deal with no fee and Barcelona paying 100% of his wages makes complete sense for all parties involved.

Keenos