Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Football authorities have 2 choices: Extend or Cancel

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Well yesterday we warned of short notice cancellations to games, and within a couple of hours of our blog going live it was announced that the next 2 weeks Premier League fixtures would be suspended.

This means there will be no Premier League football until 4th April – after the international break.

After the international break, there are 6 weeks of football left if the authorities still want the league season to finish on 17th May. That simply is not enough time to complete every game.

Having been knocked out of the Europa League by Olympiakos, Arsenal have no games currently scheduled for mid-week. That leaves 6 mid-week slots where games could be re-arranged.

We already have to re-arrange Manchester City, Brighton & Southampton. It is likely the FA will follow the Premier League’s lead and postpone next weekends FA Cup ties. This leaves us with 4 games to be re-arranged.

If Arsenal beat Sheffield United, the fixture against Leicester will also need to be re-arranged.

5 games re-arranged with 6 available mid-week slots. It is doable. But Arsenal are out of Europe.

Manchester City are still in the Champions League.

They already have 4 league games that need re-arranging: Fixtures against Newcastle, Burnley, Chelsea and Arsenal. The FA Cup game against Newcastle will make it 5.

On top of that they also need to re-arrange the Champions League 2nd leg tie against Real Madrid.

So that is 6 games they need to re-arrange, with 6 mid-week slots. But those 6 mid-week slots are only available if they are knocked out of the Champions League.

If Manchester City make it to the Semi-Final, that means they only have 2 mid-weeks with no football. 6 into 2 does not go.

They would have 17 games to play (excluding finals) and just 42 days to play them. That is a game every 2.5 days.

Manchester United face a similar fixture pile up.

They already had the games against Sheffield United and LASK in the Europa League to re-arrange. With this weeks game against Tottenham and Norwich in the FA Cup set to be cancelled.

That is 4 games that need to be re-arranged. If they make the Europa League semi-finals and beat Norwich in the FA Cup, they will have 9 games needed to be played in 4 mid-weeks.

Chelsea also face a similar situation.

Even if they use the mid-weeks prior to the FA Cup & Champions League final, there are simply not enough days in the calender to complete the season before the end of May.

Unless they are expecting Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United to play a game every 2-3 days, the Premier League will have no choice but to either extend or cancel the season.

Keenos

Fans need to be prepared for last minute game changes

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Tomorrow we play Brighton. Maybe.

With all the Coronavirus hysteria, things are changing almost hourly.

We could wake up tomorrow to find a decision has bene made to play the game behind closed doors, or that it has been postponed.

Arsenal’s mid-week game against Manchester City was postponed following the Olympiakos owner being tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the week.

This resulted in the self-isolation of anyone that had come into close contact with him within 14 days of the positive test. Numerous Arsenal players and staff members who told to self-isolate, which came to an end yesterday.

According to the BBC, just 5 players went into self-isolation, having been in contact with Evangelos Marinkis in the tunnel after the match. No player was tested.

We are in a fluid situation and things are changing quickly.

Whilst the UK has not followed France and Italy’s lead by banning mass gatherings, it will not be too long until this happens as cases continue to rise.

My advice is do not book trains for away games.

In 9 days time, we play Sheffield United away in the FA Cup. Anyone booking trains now must be prepared to lose the cost of their ticket if the game is postponed, or played behind closed doors.

It might be frustrating, but the train companies have no right to refund people for cancelled events, and clubs also have not liability towards fans who have paid out for trains or hotels.

For the foreseeable, plan to take private transport rather than public.

Get together with your mates and drive to games, or hire a mini bus if there are more than you. Alternatively contact The Mini Bus Crew, they always have seats available.

Staying away from public transport at least means if a game is cancelled, you do not lose the cost of a train ticket. Even f it means driving to a game and not being able to drink.

If you do decide to book trains, flights or hotels, that is your choice. You have accepted the risk. And you can not really moan if you end up losing your money.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be getting on a train to Brighton (will buy train tickets on the day) and the disruption this week does not affect the players too much.

Victory would see us go just 2 points behind Manchester United in 5th.

(Note: This blog was written prior to the Mikel Arteta news)

Keenos

Arsenal youngster set for summer exit

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Regular readers of this blog will know how much we support home grown youngsters.

It is always a delight to see a local lad get his chance and take it in an Arsenal shirt. Sadly for one reason or another, we have not produced enough young players over the last 20 years who have proved good enough for our team week in, week out.

Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere and Ashley Cole are the only academy graduates to have joined us at a young age to go on to make over 100 appearances since Ray Parlour in 1992 (note: Kieran Gibbs joined Arsenal at 15-years-old from Wimbledon).

All young lads coming through deserve extra support. They are often Arsenal boys living the dream.

But it is also important to know when a player is not going to make it. When it is time to cash in. Even if selling a home grown lad on the fringes of making it might by tinged with sadness.

Previously we discussed how Eddie Nketiah might be on borrowed to at Arsenal, but it is another Arsenal youngster who looks like he might be out of the door this summer.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is 22. He has been in and around the first team for 6 seasons having made his debut at 17 years old in the Champions League back in 2014. In doing so he became the second youngest player to have represented Arsenal in the Champions League, behind Jack Wilshere.

He has gone on to make 91 appearances for Arsenal, but could have played his last game.

Maitland-Niles was an ever-present in Mikel Arteta’s first 6 games; with Hector Bellerin out injured he was called upon to play right back – the position he has played much of his Arsenal career.

He was on the bench against Chelsea, but has since not been in the match day squad for the last 4 games.

Maitland-Niles was left out of the squad for Saturday’s clash against West Ham despite Bellerin not being fully fit. Sokratis, a centre-back, chosen to play ahead of him at right-back.

In the past, Maitland-Niles has indicated that he would rather play in central midfield than at right back. However with Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Dani Ceballos and Joe Willock ahead of him, his opportunities in the middle of the park have been limited.

David Ornstein recently commented on the situation on The Ornstein & Chapman Podcast.

“Mikel Arteta isn’t receptive to players indicating where they want to play, they would play where they are told to play for the good of the team… one of the suggestions I got is that he has been late for a couple of training sessions and certainly Arteta wouldn’t like that given the disciple and behaviour and respect culture is so important to him.”

The reported reluctance to play right back is in stark contract to Bukayo Saka who has excelled at left back in recent weeks – despite being a more attacking player.

In January Arsenal added Portuguese international Cedric Soares on loan. With his contract set to expire in the summer, he will likely join the club permanently providing experienced Premier League cover and competition to Bellerin.

Had Maitland-Niles got his head down, he would have had a career at Arsenal as a James Milner-esque utility man; proving cover at full back, on the wings and central midfield. This utility might have seen him break into England squads where he could cover numerous positions at international tournaments.

If it is true that Maitland-Niles has a desire to play in central midfield, he will have to leave Arsenal to get it, and get himself a move to someone lower in the league.

It will be sad to lose the English – in the same way it was tough to let Iwobi go. But if these players have desires to play regularly, or in certain positions, and they are deemed not good enough to do that an Arsenal shirt; the club should not stand in their way.

Maitland-Niles will end up at someone like West Ham or Everton, where he will prove whether he is good enough to be a Premier League midfielder.

What is clear is his Maitland-Niles’ at Arsenal is coming to an end.

Keenos