Tag Archives: Manchester United

The Truth: Mertesacker’s “absence” and Manchester United’s ticket allocation

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First thing to do this morning is nip something in the bud quickly.

Per Mertesacker went the NBA London Game on Thursday night rather than to Arsenal v Tottenham in the FA Youth Cup.

This decision has led to huge criticism by many uneducated members of the media and fans. Most are looking for easy hits or RTs on Twitter.

Mertesacker is the Academy Manager.This means he oversees the operation at Hale End – where members of the Arsenal Academy train.

The U18s are not considered part of that academy. Once you reach U18 level, you move across to London Colney to train with the first team

You can not expect Mertesacker, Unai Emery or whoever to go to every game, every time. They have other things to concentrate on, and are allowed a life outside of work.

Going to the FA Youth Cup does not fall within Mertesacker’s contract parameters.

Now he might have gone out of interest, or to see how an U16 performed if they are stepping up a level, but on this occasion he decided to go to a basketball match.

A huge basketball fan, the NBA London Game is a once or twice a year thing.

So let’s just ignore the white noise and fake news surrounding his “absence”.

In other news, Arsenal are set to donate around 600 tickets for the FA Cup fourth-round tie against Manchester United. This after a dispute between the clubs over ticket allocation.

FA rules dictate that home clubs must make 15% of tickets available for the FA Cup. This is 9,000 tickets at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal have given Man U just 5,000 tickets, citing safety concerns.

Every club must get a safety certificate for every game. They must have this signed off by the local council and the police. In the past (when we play Tottenham in a mid week cup game, for example) the police have stopped us giving away the full allocation as they can not guarantee the safety of all fans.

Whether the council or police are behind the drop in allocation, or Arsenal are just hiding behind Health & Safety is not clear.

There is also a bigger story at play here. One which is rarely written about. And that is the fact that Manchester United never give visiting teams a full allocation for cup games.

The FA have approved Manchester United to give visiting teams a lower allocations for FA Cup ties at Old Trafford, where around 11.7% of the 76,000-capacity is handed over to the away team. This usually happens without much comment from the media.

This is potentially tit for tat with Arsenal. “We do not get full allocation when we visit you, so why should we give you full allocation”.

The same happened against Tottenham in the League Cup.

Spurs never give Arsenal their full allocation, yet a lot of fuss was made when we failed to give them theirs.

One problem with the 9,000 tickets is they are then lower and upper tier, with club level and executive boxes filled with Arsenal fans in between.

In the past when away fans have got upper and lower tier, there have been stories of those Arsenal fans in the middle tier being spat on, coins thrown and urine poured over them. This is clearly unacceptable and Arsenal’s first priority is the protection of its own fans.

Back in 2014  Everton (a club with a reputation for throwing urine) only got 9%

The FA responded to complaints stating the 15% was “subject to the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) agreeing to that ticket allocation number.

“The SAG is made up of services such as the local council, police, fire brigade and the club amongst others and issues the stadium’s health and safety certificate.

“In regards to the Arsenal v Everton Sixth Round tie at the Emirates on Saturday 8 March, the local SAG has chosen to allocate just under 9% to the Everton supporters.

“Although we appreciate the disappointment in the SAG not granting the full 15% allocation, it is nearly double the amount of tickets that Everton would have received for the Premier League fixture at the Emirates back in December.

“The FA does not have any input into the decision of the SAG and cannot change it as this is a matter of health and safety.”

So here is an idea. If you want to have 15%. Stop throwing coins, spitting on, or throwing urine at fans below you.

Today is Chelsea. Not much to say except we need 3 points.

Keenos

4 points gained or 2 points lost?

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With O2 being down, it will be a while until I can upload the match report from last night. In the mean time, here are some ramblings and thoughts.

Everyone felt a little deflated at the final whistle yesterday. A mixture of how far we have come under Unai Emery and how far Manchester United have dropped this season raised the bar of expectation.

We have not won at Old Trafford in the league since 2006; so those expecting us to run out easy winners were misguided. You will always take a draw in Manchester, but can not help feeling it was 2 points dropped rather than a point gained.

We had chances to win the game (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan) and both of their goals were due to defensive lapses.

It is hard to be too upset with the poor finishing, however, as we have certainly benefited in games this season with opponents being unable to hit a barn door with a banjo (Everton springs to mind).

Overall, 4 points from the double header of Tottenham and Manchester United is a decent return.

It perhaps shows the difference between ourselves and Manchester City. We are happy with 4 points from those 2 games, Manchester City would aim for 6. That’s what £2.7bn gets you.

4 points is what you would expect if you are challenging for top 4, and realistically that is what we are doing this season.

Prior to the start of the season, I expected Manchester City to run away it this season. Liverpool would finish second and it would be a 4 way battle between Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham for the last 2 Champions League places.

Liverpool have kept up with Manchester City more than I expected they would; and Manchester United have fallen away.

That leaves a 3 way battle for 3rd. 2 points between Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal. Chelsea’s defeat to Wolves yesterday shows why they are battling it out with Arsenal (who dropped points to Wovles at home) and Spurs (who lost to Watford) rather than with Liverpool for second.

Liverpool’s advantage over Chelsea and Arsenal at the moment is continuity. This is the 4th year of Jurgen Klopp (still yet to win a trophy). He has been able to build the team he wants, playing the style he wants. Arsenal and Chelsea, Emery and Maurizio Sarri, are both 6 months into their new future.

I really feel for Rob Holding.

Yesterday was his 9th Premier League start in a row, and he was making a case for being Arsenal’s premier defender. People were starting to talk about buying a partner for him next summer, not a replacement.

Emery has described it as a “big injury”. Caused by Manchester United turning into Stoke City, attempting to kick us off the park.

Holding was caught late by Marcus Rashford, and seemed to catch his studs in the turf and twist his knee. The Old Trafford pitch was atrocious.

It is not yet clear how long Holding will be out for.

Aaron Ramsey is a little harder to feel sorry for.

He has a history of picking up these sort of minor injuries a couple of times a season, that see him miss 3 or 4 games. It is one reason why the club should not have offered him a deal making him the second highest paid player.

He also seemed to get his studs caught in the stodgy Old Trafford pitch.

With Laurent Koscielny hobbling off against Portsmouth in the EFL Trophy earlier in the week and Kostadinos Mavropanos a long term absentee, it leaves Arsenal with just 2 fit centre backs.

Nacho Monreal is returning to fitness, but is doubtful for the visit of Huddersfield. Arsenal will probably return to a back 4 in that game. Once Monreal has returned it will give us the option of playing a back 4 (with a more solid left back) or moving Monreal to the left hand side of a back 3.

Ramsey is less of a concern. Arsenal have an array of attacking talent; with Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi available depending on whether we want to go one up top with 3 behind, or two up top with 1 behind.

The only problem is the bench.

With Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil out, we will be reliant on youngsters on the bench – Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah.

We have a nice run of fixtures coming up in the Premier League until the game against Liverpool on the 29th – by which time you would expect Ramsey, Ozil, Koscielny and  Monreal to be back.

After 0 points from the first 2 games, Arsenal are now on a 20 game unbeaten run, and just 2 points off 3rd place.

15 games in, hopefully the talk of Arsenal not playing anyone can stop. We have played everyone in the top 9, and have only not played Brighton (10th), Huddersfield (17th), Southampton (18th) and Burnley (19th). They are our next 4 games.

4 points from the last 2 games in hindsight is a good return. It will be an even better return if we can get 12 from 12 prior to travelling to Anfield.

Up The Arsenal

Keenos

Tottenham, Manchester United and the FA Cup

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I am still coming down from yesterday.

Having taken yesterday off work, I strolled in today do 100 questions from colleagues as to how was the game and Arsenal were brilliant.

This time of year the games come thick and fast, and this week we have a mid-week games. Tomorrow it is another huge test with Manchester United away.

Arsene Wenger’s demise was defined by a lack of victories on the road to top teams. Unai Emery has a good chance to chalk up his first 3 points against United.

Jose Mourinho’s team are in total disarray. They are in 7th place, 16 points off top – last season they finished 19 points off Manchester City.

Whilst I am confident about tomorrow, I am also aware that Manchester United – and Jose Mourinho – often raise their game against Arsenal.

Our player of the season this season has been Lucas Torreira. Mourinho will employ the very basic tactic of sticking Marouane Fellaini as a number 10 and hitting him with high balls. Torreira will have no chance and United will then battle for the knock downs.

It is a basic tactic, but one which could work. Especially as we are without Granit Xhaka who misses his first Premier League game since the 2016/17 season.

The big news yesterday was the draw for the Emirates FA Cup third round. Arsenal will travel to either Solihull Moors or Blackpool.

We will find out our opposition for the match on December 11, when Solihull travel to Bloomfield Road for a second-round replay, after the sides drew 0-0 at the weekend.

Solihull Moors, managed by former England goal keeper Tim Flowers, play at Damson Park on the outskirts of Birmingham. With a capacity of just over 3,000, it is likely the fixture will get moved. Gander Green Lane (the home of Sutton United) held over 5,000 when we played them a few years back.

If the fixture is not moved, Arsenal will receive about 450 tickets. It will mean a ballot of the away scheme.

We played Blackpool at home earlier this season when we beat them 2-1 in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Halloween.

An away trip to them would be a good old day, as long as it is not ruined by TV. The last train back to London is at 19:32 via Preston. Easily Makeable if we are Saturday 3pm. But if it is moved to the 17:30 kick off time, it will be impossible to make it home.

On the Sunday we have planned engineering works. That means bus replacement services and 5+ hour journey times.

Friday and Monday would be a day off work and not getting back until the next day.

A night out in Blackpool would not be too bad, if it was not just a couple of weeks after Christmas and New Year.

Hopefully the TV companies take into account the travelling fans. They often point out that the FA Cup is dying, but football without fans is nothing. The TV companies are part of the problem.

So it is a case of cracking through today at work, before settling in to enjoy the game against Manchester United tomorrow.

Keenos