Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Who is in line to start v Nottingham Forest

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Who is in line to start v Nottingham Forest

When Arsenal have been drawn with lower league opposition in the early stages of the FA Cup, Arsene Wenger has rotated his squad.

This policy has proved correct for Wenger, as he has never been  knocked out of the FA Cup at the 3rd round stage, and only ever once lost to a lower league side – the 5th round defeat to Blackburn Rovers in 2013.

I have spoken before about how Arsenal should prioritise the cups over the league in the second half of the season. That winning silverware is more important than finishing 4th.

That being said, Arsenal have a very busy January – from December 28th to February 3rd, we are due to play 11 times. That is just 36 days (I think). With FA Cup games, and the League Cup double header against Chelsea, we need to rotate the squad.

We play Nottingham Forest on the Sunday, then Chelsea in the League Cup semi-final on Wednesday, before visiting Bournemouth next Sunday.

Wenger will want his first team for the Bournemouth fixture. It will be interesting to see how he shuffles the squad for Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.

Will he play 2 separate sides? The first XI in one fixture, the 2nd XI in another? Or a mixed XI with key players split across the 2? Or will he play his second XI in both the Nottingham Forest and Chelsea games, giving his first team a 10 day rest before Bournemouth?

What is for certain is David Ospina will start in goal against Nottingham Forest. I imagine he will also play against Chelsea.

The make up of the team will be further confused by the formation.

In the last round of the League Cup, we went to 4 at the back with Rob Holding partnering Calum Chambers. We have recently returned to 3 at the back in the league.

With Laurent Koscielny likely to be rested as he continues to have his career managed due to a troublesome Achilles, we will certainly see Per Mertesacker return in the middle of the defence. I doubt Wenger will risk Shokdran Mustafi – who is still returning from his own injury issues.

Having played the last few games, I would not be too surprised if Chambers drops out with Rob Holding starting alongside Mertesacker. Partnering Holding and Mertesacker in a back 3 will either be Krystian Bielik or Julio Pleguezuelo.

My opinion is that whoever does not start between Holding / Chambers and Pleguezuelo / Bielik will be in line for a start against Chelsea (with Mustafi coming into the middle).

It will be interesting to see what Wenger decides at wing back.

Mathieu Debuchy will be in line to start ahead of Hector Bellerin on the right. On the left, Sead Kolašinac and Nacho Monreal are almost certainly out injured and, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles on first XI duties our options are limited. Utility youngster Josh Dasilva might get the nod, or Wenger might choose to go for someone like Chiori Johnson.

I do not expect Granit Xhaka or Jack Wilshere to start in the middle of the park. Wenger will surely go for the experience pairing of Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny. Do not be too surprised to not see Wilshere until the Bournemouth game.

Another interesting talking point will be who plays behind the striker.

Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez will both surely be rested. The worry is Wenger will go with Theo Walcott who does not suit playing narrow, behind a striker. But he does need match fitness, even if it is to prove he is ready for a transfer. Personally I would prefer to see Reiss Nelson get a wrong out.

Alex Iwobi was dropped for the game against Chelsea in the cup, he will surely come back in, playing behind Danny Welbeck.

All in all, it should be a strong XI filled with internationals. Beating Nottingham Forest should not be a problem.

Expected XI:

Ospina

Holding Mertesacker Pleguezuelo

Debuchy Coquelin Elneny DaSilva

Walcott Iwobi

Welbeck

Now I am off to Hooters

Keenos

Fake awards and calendar records

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What is it about all these fake records the media are inventing? It is getting ludicrous.

A few years back we had the “Most points in the calendar year” awarded to Arsenal by those in the media. The majority of us scoffed at this. You do not win trophies for the most points in the calendar year, but the most points over the season.

Then a year ago, you had an award given to Spurs for “most points over the last two seasons”. They finished 2nd and 3rd without a trophy, but they got the most points over 2 seasons. Well done.

Just at the end of last year, Harry Kane broke the “most Premier League goals in a calendar year” record.

Firstly, it highlights how much these records are made up by the media by the fact that it was a Sky-era only record. Secondly, Alan Shearer held the previous record, of which he was unaware of until 20 years after he “broke” the record.

And now Kevin De Bruyne is a record breaker.

Kevin De Bruyne sets assist record.

Was the headline. I wondered what record he had broken. It being January and all, it can not be a calendar year record.

“Kevin De Bruyne became the first player to register 10 assists in Europe’s top five leagues”. That was the record. The first player to register 10 assists in Europe’s top five leagues.

Not the first person ever, not the first person in history, just the first person this season. What a record to hold! What a load of Buzzcocks.

I fully understand why all these records are being created by the media.

In an era of 24 hour news, revenues driven by advertising rather than buyers, media outlets need the clicks, the listeners, the watchers.

This leads to the dumbing down of the media. A picture of Kim Kardashian with her arse hanging out will get more hits than an investigative article into the corruption of unions in the UK. This clickbait thirst has led to the rise of fake news.

Football fans have dealt with fake news for decades.

For years, transfer speculation has been a key income stream for the media. Write an article on XXX joining XXX and the hits will go through the roof. Especially if the club you are trying to link the player with is Arsenal or Manchester United. Fake news gets the hits. The more hits, the more revenue.

And this leads back to fake records and awards.

Young journalists trying to break through in the industry are not KPI’d on the quality of their articles but their quantity. I know someone who works in the field and they have to write 3 news articles a day.

Eventually they get to the point where they are literally making stuff up just to fulfil the 3 articles a day. They create these records to give themselves something to write about.

Then these articles are picked up by other junior journalists who basically rip off the original article to complete their daily quota.

Suddenly every media outlet has picked up on the fake record, and is reporting on it. Then it hits social media (although chances are the originator stole it off someone else) and the record becomes a “thing”.

I watch cricket and they come up with records as tedious as Highest 6th wicket, 2nd innings partnership for England at Melbourne. The difference is cricket is a game for statistic geeks.

The final nail in the coffin for this blog was the award the Daily Mirror gave to Spurs:

Keenos

Chelsea Result, Refereeing Standard, Fabregas v Gibbs & Marcus Alonso

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Chelsea Result

2-2 was a fair result.

Both sides had their chances.

Both sides showed why they are so far behind Manchester City.

Personally I was non-pulsed about the result.

Some will say that the draw will mean that if Spurs win tonight, we are cut adrift in the race for the top 4 – 5 points behind Liverpool in 4th and 4 points behind Spurs in 5th, but I honestly do not care about top 4.

I would rather win trophies, then finish top 4 and celebrate the mythical Top 4 trophy.

Previously I have discussed about how opinions changed. From 2006 – 2013, Arsenal were heavily criticised for finishing top 4 but not winning trophies. Now we are criticised for winning trophies and not finishing top 4.

I would happily finish in 6th place if it means more silverware.

As I explained last night to a few people, in 1993, does anyone care that we finished 10th? Was it deemded an unsuccessful season for George Graham, finishing mid table but winning 2 trophies?

No it was not. So why now would it be seen as a failure if we finish 6th and win some silverware.

Ultimately football is about winning trophies.

It is more important to win the League Cup then finish 2nd in the league.

Refereeing Standard

Arsene Wenger has been charged by the FA for daring to criticise the decision of Mike Dean to award a non-existent penalty. It shows how arrogant the FA are that the man who gave an opinion that everyone agrees with is charged, whilst the man who made the mistake gets no punishment.

This season we have had a lot of decisions go against us.

The twitter above estimates that the decisions that have gone against us have cost 15 points. Last night was another game when a non-existent penalty was given, causing us to concede and equaliser.

When you look at Spurs, their offside goals, the dodgy penalties, the players making leg breaking challenges, not being sent off and then not having retrospective action against them, you can’t help but start to believe the conspiracy theories.

It might not be deliberate, but in the subconscious of referees, they see Spurs as the good guys of English football, the saviours, whilst we are the opposite.

I am not a fan of VAR. But as more and more obvious decisions go against us, I being leaning towards it.

It is an undeniable fact that refereeing decisions have cost us points this season. And Wenger is charged for pointing out the poor decisions.

Fabregas v Gibbs

2 days ago, I wrote a blog about how I was booing Kieran Gibbs. Just for a bit of a laugh, and for that blog I got hammered for – which was probably also justifiable.

I also note the lady in question who I was winding up also tweeted. Interesting how quick she went from people infront of me were booing to no one was booing infront of me. Cowardness.

Just to clarify a point, some people decided to pick up on a single point of that blog, that I was saying if you are not from Islington, you are not a real fan. Clearly I was not saying this, and it just shows that there are some people out their with an agenda against me who decided to twist what I was saying to just criticise.

Also interesting was a lad from Australia who said my blog was racist. Odd little blog, probably never been to a game, you are the fan I despise. Why not support a team in Melbourne? A local team. Back them?

Anyway, I digressed a little. Sorry about that.

Yesterday fans cheered and clapped Cesc Fabregas.

So I get criticised for booing a former player, and probably some of them same fans then cheers Fabregas.

Yes, Cesc was a former player, and former captain – and the best young player I have watched – but he turned into a petulant little twat who refused to play for us and decided to go to the Spanish Grand Prix rather than have the decency to turn up to the last game of the season and thank the fans for their support.

He does not deserve our applause. A club with fans with more balls would have booed his every touch. But our newer fan base, the middle class happy clappy post-Euro 96 fans simply have no idea.

If you applauded Fabregas yesterday, you are a bit of a mug.

Marcus Alonso

No amount of goals will make up for the fact that you killed a girl going 70 mph in a 30mph zone whilst drunk.

Scumbag.

Keenos