Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

David Ospina, New Tottenham Stadium & Race for Top 4

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David Ospina

Over the weekend on loan goal keeper David Ospina suffered a horrific head injury whilst playing for Napoli.

Arsenal already have one goal keeper that plays in a protective cap, it is not yet unclear whether Ospina will have to follow the lead of Petr Cech.

I am actually surprised this kind of injury does not happen more often to goal keepers.

When you consider how often they do dive at the feet of opponents, putting their body on the line, serious injuries are irregular.

Irregular enough not to make any changes; however there is an argument to be made the goal keepers should all have to wear protective headwear. I do not think it will come in now, but it might be something that happens in the future.

Hope Ospina recovers well and Napoli continue with their plan to sign him permanently.

New Tottenham Stadium

Nearly a year late, Tottenham have finally announced when the first game in their new stadium is.

I feel it is a disgrace that the Premier League are allowing them to play games at the new ground this season, meaning that they would have had 16 away fixtures at Wembley and 3 at the new ground.

Hopefully they suffer from the new stadium slump and end up 6th.

It is also laughable that they have been praised for “freezing ticket prices as a thank you for their fans loyalty”.

The pricing structure for the new ground has already caused anger from Spurs fans; who feel they have been lied to and priced out of games. The cheap tickets are so minimal that they are not worth mentioning and fans are paying up to 33% more for a similar ticket in the old ground.

Is it really something to celebrate that they are freezing ticket prices on tickets that would have been used 3 times this season? Is it really something to celebrate that the side who have the highest ticket prices in the country for an unopened stadium are freezing ticket prices?

I guess when you have so little to celebrate in your recent history, you end up celebrating things like “the most expensively build stadium in English football history.”

And I will not comment about Tottenham spending years petitioning TFL and the London Mayor to get the name of White Hart Lane station named. They so desperately want to be The Arsenal…

Race for Top 4

Last week I blogged that Arsenal would need 75 points to finish in the top 4. A few people replied that we would need closer to 80; ignoring the historic fact that only once has a team reached 75 points and not made the top 4.

They seemed to ignore that Chelsea and Manchester United are not the title winning teams of the past. They have lost games, and will lose more games prior to the end of the season.

This was shown in the defeat Chelsea suffered at the hands of Everton.

Manchester United to win 7 of the last 8 games is an unreasonable expectation. Especially when they are still to face Manchester United and Chelsea.

With Chelsea’s defeat to Everton, it leaves Manchester United as incumbents of 5th place. They are on 58 points. For them to reach 75 they would need 17 points from the last 8 games.

That would be 6 wins or 5 wins and 2 draws. Taking into account the two aforementioned big games at home, as well as having to face Wolves and Everton away, 5 wins will be a tough task.

At the weekend Manchester United lost away to Wolves in the FA Cup. This highlights why Arsenal should not take needing 15 points from the last 8 games lightly.

We still have to travel to Everton, Wolves, Watford, Burnley, and Leicester. All mid table teams where 3 points will not be a given.

Arsenal need to win their remaining 3 home games – which will bank 9 points. I would then hope we can get 2 wins from those 5 away games, but it will not be easy.

The next round of games could be a big one for Arsenal; as Tottenham travel to Liverpool and Arsenal are at home to Newcastle.

This could see Arsenal move above Tottenham and in pole position to grab one of the 2 remaining Champions League spots.

A later sees Wolves host Manchester United (again). If Man U lose, they are facing being 2 points behind Arsenal having played a game more. At that stage they will have 5 games to go, and would need to win 4 out of 5 to challenge that 75 point mark. and still have Chelsea and Manchester City to play.

Plenty of twists and turns to come I am sure of it.

Keenos

Arsenal Supporters’ Trust and Kickaround Magazine support Islington schools

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The Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) has launched an initiative alongside Kickaround Magazine which will see every primary school in Islington receive free football magazines aimed at children.

A donation of a six-issue  subscription of Kickaround Magazine has been made to all 47 primary schools in the Borough of Islington by The AST.

The aim of the donation is to support all school children in the local community to Arsenal Football Club.

It gives every primary school in Islington and its pupils access to the magazine which has been prized for its quality writing and diverse content. It is hoped the donation will assist schools who are constantly experiencing tighter budgets, whilst encouraging reading for pleasure and a continued love of the beautiful game.

Kickaround, which launched in 2018, is the children’s football magazine from the team behind cult publication When Saturday Comes, and puts literacy and learning through football at its heart.

The AST is the official supporters’ trust of Arsenal Football Club. A volunteer organisation, funded by member subscriptions. Its sole focus is related to matters Arsenal it is totally independent of the Arsenal Football Club.

Nigel Phillips, the AST Treasurer says: “We are delighted to be able to bring this brilliant magazine to so many young readers in the immediate vicinity of Arsenal Football Club. We really hope that the children are inspired to read more about the great game of football through the physical magazine rather than relying on devices – and hopefully it will encourage them to turn off their screens and go out and play as well.”

Tom Hocking, Editor of Kickaround, says: “It’s an incredible gesture from Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, who have shown how football can be a force for good in their local community. We launched Kickaround with the aim of using football to inspire young people of all abilities to read about and get involved in the game we all love. We’ve had amazing feedback from parents, teachers and, most importantly, the young readers themselves about our fresh approach to creative a children’s football magazine. It doesn’t matter who you support or play for, football has the power to bring us all together and improve lives. This partnership with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust certainly does that, and I hope our magazine can make a real difference to the teachers and pupils across Islington.”

The first issue that the children will receive, which features an article on Arsenal Women’s Super League title race and a pull-out poster of Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, will arrive at the chosen schools this week along with an illustrated Giant World Football Map to display in classrooms or libraries.

The AST will also be supporting a football writing initiative for older readers in the Islington Borough in the coming weeks.

SheWore



Barcelona centreback wanted by Arsenal

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Samuel Umtiti is a fabulous player.

He would tick almost every box when it comes to what Arsenal need in a new central defender.

Left footed, left sided, he would provide the cover inside of Saed Kolasinac to allow the Bosnian left back to bomb forward.

At just 25-years-old, he has both the experience and youth to come in between Sokratis & Rob Holding / Kostadinos Mavropanos. An instant improvement to our defence, he would be a short term partner for Sokratis whilst being a long fixture in the heart of Arsenal’s defence.

He is everything you need in a modern defender.

In 2018, ESPN FC journalist Sam Marsden was effusive in praising Umtiti, opining that, “As well as reading the game as if it was a children’s book, timing his challenges to the millisecond and putting his body on the line in the name of a block, [Umtiti] is a daring defender…He takes risks, feeding the ball between the lines, and rarely picks the wrong option.”

I talk about Umtiti because speculation is building that Arsenal are targeting the French defender this summer.

The source of the speculation is questionable.

It comes from Darren Arsenal on Twitter.

Darren is one of the few people on Twitter that I follow, and he is not one of those ITK attention seekers who regularly come out with transfer speculation to gain followers. He does have some insider information, although he called Mikel Arteta wrong in the summer.

https://twitter.com/DarrenArsenal1/status/1107030839164993536

I have no reason to doubt the validity of his comment, however whenever speculation starts with an individual from Twitter, it has to be taken with a huge pinch of salt.

When I saw the comment at the weekend, my first thought was “brilliant, he would be ideal”. But in writing this article, there is a big concern – his injury history.

If Arsenal signed Umtiti, he would have to get his play acting out of the system from day one.

He has an embarrassing tendency to take a dive in defence, to roll about on the floor feigning injury. Whilst this might work in La Liga and the Champions League, referees in England are a little bit less sympathetic. They will see through his play acting and wave play on, telling him to get up.

His knee problems are a huge concern.

Umtiti has started just 8 league games for Barcelona this year. The two previous years he started 24 games out of 38.

Each year at Barcelona he has suffered numerous injuries ruling him out of games. It is his latest 3 injuries that our most concerning, however.

His last 3 injuries have all been knee problems – seeing him miss over 30 games for Barcelona. The knee problems in 7 months. It is clearly a reoccurring problem, and one that would make him a big risk to sign.

I have long been of the opinion that Arsenal should cash in on Shkodran Mustafi and Calum Chambers this summer, with the ÂŁ40-50m in combined transfer fees paying for a single top class defender. That sort of money would secure you Umtiti.

But with his injury problems, can Umtiti be relied upon to be first choice for 38 games a year? And if not should we really be investing big in a player with his injury history?

Were we to go into next season with Sokratis, Umtiti, Laurent Koscielny and Holding, you would be very concerned that three of the 4 have recently had long term lay offs

Koscielny has his long term Achilles injury. He perhaps only has 1 or 2 years left in him. Whilst he can not be relied upon for a season, he is a good, experienced option to have as 4th choice.

You then have Rob Holding who is out long term with a knee ligament injury.

Who knows when he will return? How he will return? And if he develops a long term reoccurring issue?

To then add Umtiti into the mix would be a risk. There would be a high chance that all 3 could be injured at one time; leaving Arsenal with just one senior central defender (I exclude Mavropanos, he is not a senior squad member and has also faced his own problems).

It will then be up to Arsenal to assess the risk, decide if he is worthwhile pursuing.

There is no doubt that, when fit, Umtiti is one of the best defenders in world football. That he would be ideally suited to play on the left hand side of Arsenal’s central defence. That he is a quality player that we could then build the next 5-8 years around.

But there is doubt over his injury record.

Keenos