Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Most pointless international break in history slowly coming to an end

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Morning All.

Life is really starting to drag isn’t it?

I can handle the bad weather, can handle the COVID19 restrictions, but I can not handle dull as dishwater international windows.

Really. What is the point?

Tomorrow will be England’s 3rd game in the 2 week period. 1 a friendly, the other 2 glorified friendlies in the bollocks that is the Nations League.

The Nations League is an atrocious tournament.

The aim is to get the better teams playing each other more regularly in a competitive environment. The reality is it is just like the “International Champions Cup” that club teams play in during pre-season.

No one will ever really care about winning.

The World Test Championship can go in the same box as well.

Florian Balogun got an assist for England U20s yesterday.

Former Gooner Xavier Amaechi also nabbed himself a goal.

I remember there was a little bit of furore when Amaechi left Arsenal for Hamburg in Germany.

There was no denying he was a top young talent, and many expected him to break through at Arsenal as he came up through our youth ranks. But then he was overtaken by Bukayo Saka.

Saka is now playing regularly in Arsenal’s first team and recently got his 1st cap for the England senior team, whilst Amaechi is in Hamburg’s reserves and playing for England U20s. We backed the right horse.

The England senior team plays tonight and with Ben Chilwell out due to being an idiot and Kieran Trippier injured, it will likely be either Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Saka at left wing back.

At least I will be able to get a little excited over watching some Arsenal boys playing for England tonight, even though Gareth Southgate’s England struggle to excite anyone.

Other Arsenal news is Gabriel being named the clubs player of the month.

He has been very good, and it should be no surprise that he is named player of the month. New signings often win the award in the opening months of the season.

Matteo Guendouzi won it in August 2018 and Sead KolaΕ‘inac won it the year before.

It feels like that award might actually be cursed.

Last bit of news is Thomas Partey was pictured with an Arsenal shirt.

Not sure if these are official pictures, or just someone gave him a shirt and took a picture. Regardless, I am excited to see him play for the club.

Only a few more days to go before proper football returns.

We get through this together.

Keenos

England goal machine “invaluable” to Arsenal

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Eddie Nketiah equalled Alan Shearer’s record for the most England U21 goals when he netted against Andorra in midweek.

A bright start to the season for club and country has seen the Arsenal youngster demonstrate why he could be an important player at Emirates Stadium for years to come.

 

Nketiah’s record-equalling strike on international duty is not of great importance in itself. However, it is key in that he has demonstrated a genuine goal-scoring threat at the age of just 21. Granted, many of his international goals have come against opposition far below Premier League level, but you can only play against the team in front of you.

Indeed, Nketiah has made a similar impact at club level for Arsenal after he was recalled from a topsy-turvy loan spell at Leeds on New Year’s Day. In his first appearance under Mikel Arteta, he scored against Bournemouth in the FA Cup Fourth Round with a wonderfully taken strike. In the next round against Portsmouth, the Hale End graduate showed his striker’s instinct once again, nipping in at the near post to squeeze the ball in.

Appearing with regularity in Arteta’s starting XI after lockdown, Nketiah was rewarded for his energetic display at Southampton with a goal when his relentless pressing forced Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy into a mistake that left the centre-forward with an open net.

That goal conveys most effectively why he should not be underestimated under the tutelage of Arteta. His desire to do what is instructed of him to help the team to victory is rare in such a young player. Combine that understanding with his poaching ability inside the area and it is easy to see why the Spaniard and his coaching staff rate Nketiah so highly.

Tactically, he is an invaluable asset to Arsenal. In the same way Alexandre Lacazette looks to press from the front, Nketiah buzzes round the field tirelessly, intent and focused on winning the ball back for his side. Arsenal have two strikers who are willing to do the dirty work. This means they are more likely to produce a performance of high intensity for the full 90 minutes, which consequently increases their chances of victory. They struggled to do this last season, drawing as many league games as they won (14).

Goalscoring was another glaring issue for the Gunners last campaign. Arsenal relied far too heavily on skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored 22 of their 56 league goals in 2019/20, their worst goal-scoring record in nearly 25 years. Along with the dynamism that new signing Thomas Partey brings in central midfield, the option to rotate Nketiah and Lacazette should help Arteta as he seeks to ignite Arsenal’s attack.

Thanks to the presence of Nketiah, Arsenal also have the luxury of two goal-scoring number nines, a need their rivals have struggled to fill. Manchester United are paying Edinson Cavani, who arrived at Old Trafford on deadline day to complete a free transfer, around Β£200,000 per week. Spurs have also found it difficult to find a reliable, ready-made back-up option to Harry Kane. Their latest attempt to find such a player resulted in the signing of Carlos Vinicus on loan from Benfica, who they have an option to buy at the end of the season for Β£36 million.

If Arteta hadn’t given Nketiah a run in the side, he may have felt the need to add depth up front. However, he has been impressed by the young Englishman’s ability and application to this point and there is, without doubt, more to come from Eddie Nketiah in an Arsenal shirt.

Zac Campbell

She Wore in the USA

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Morning all.

You know it has been a quiet weekend of Arsenal news when yesterday’s blog was top of the most read on News Now and one of our most read blogs of the year.

The blog was written as I awoke and just contained a few snippets of Arsene Wenger’s book. The lack of news elsewhere following the end of the transfer window and the international break meant that there was very little to read Arsenal related.

There are a lot of quotes from Wenger’s book floating around Twitter at the moment.

It is getting to a point where I will not need to ask Santa for the book as I would have read it all in 280 character snippets.

Wenger’s publishers are genius.

By picking the week after the transfer window shut, when there is an international break on, to do all the media stuff that goes with releasing a book has meant that it is the most newsworthy thing out there. There is literally nothing else to talk about at the moment.

In the wider football world, we have the proposed “radical reform to the Premier League“. This is nothing to really worry about.

At every Premier League shareholders meetings, clubs get to present their ideas on how to improve and progress the league. This month it was Liverpool’s turn.

A lot of these ideas end up real “out of the box thinking” and are unworkable in reality.

Any major change will require the usual 14 teams to agree too.

Proposed changes such as cutting the teams in the league, scrapping parachute payments and giving nine clubs “special” voting rights will simply not get the support.

Why would teams vote to increase the chance of relegation? Or reduce the money they get from the Premier League if relegated? Even the likes of West Ham and Southampton, who were included as a club to gain “special” voting rights would not support these changes.

Last season West ham finished 16th.

Under proposal that would have put them into a relegation / promotion play off with 3rd – 5th in the Championship.

Southampton finished 16th and 17th in 2018/19 & 2017/18. That 17th place would have seen them relegated.

It would be asking turkey’s to vote for Christmas.

Like with a lot of news in the last week, this became huge headline grabbing due to the lack of real news out there.

A final bit of news.

We are delighted to announce that we are opening a dedicated USA She Wore Shop – sheworeusa.com.

She Wore USA

Due to Covid19, items from our shop to the States have been taking over 4 weeks to be delivered and shipping costs to the USA has doubled.

The dedicated American store will see items shipped from the USA, which will reduce delivery time and costs. We are also looking to manufacture as many of the goods available as possible in the USA.

Our full range of merchandise is not currently available on the USA store, so if you can not find what you want, please visit the regular shop – sheworeshop.com.

A quick thank you to everyone who has supported out shop over the years,

Quicker shipping. Quicker arrivals. Cheaper prices.

Have a good Monday.

Keenos