Tag Archives: She Wore

Match Preview: Arsenal v Aston Villa

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It is Sunday the 22nd of September and that only means one thing, we are back in Premier League action. We are finally back at the Emirates Stadium where we will be facing Aston Villa. It has been a long three weeks, and everyone is buzzing to be back home.

We have won our last five outings against Villa, scoring 18 goals and not conceding once along the way.

Aston Villa currently sit 18th in the Premier League, winning one, drawing one and losing three times. Villa played West Ham last Monday; where they quite frankly failed to impress. Despite their opposition going down to ten men, Villa still saw the Hammers dominate possession and concede a hefty amount of shots.

Arsenal currently sit 10th in the Premier League with the chance to jump a number of clubs if they are able to win against Aston Villa. After an abysmal performance last Sunday against Watford, where we squandered a two goal lead, we enjoyed a very successful trip to Frankfurt on Thursday where we kicked off our Europa League campaign in style; beating them by three goals to zero. This made us the first English team to beat Eintracht Frankfurt at their pod. It was very much our youth players that inspired us to the win in Germany – despite the hostile atmosphere – they were excellent.

What can we expect from Villa? Well we can expect Villa to be very defensive in pursuit to frustrate Arsenal – hitting them on the counter attack. Defensively Villa are strong but have looked vulnerable at times. They have a new keeper in Tom Heaton who is a fantastic shot stopper and very experienced; 6″2 Tyrone Mings just in front who was amazing for Villa last year and has carried that form on into the new season. Going forward they have the attacking power of Jack Grealish who will cause many problems all afternoon. They will be using the pace of Wesley up top to get in behind Arsenal’s defence.

What can we expect from Arsenal? Well the majority of fans will be hoping for a very attacking side to enable us to break down Villa. Not only that, this is an incredible chance for us to increase our goal difference, currently having scored and conceding eight. As for the team, we are still very suspect at the back. It is unknown who will be played at the back. Rob Holding is definitely in contention to start, he travelled to Germany after declaring himself fit but was not apart of the 18 man squad. Both Luiz and Mustafi put in a good shift against Frankfurt, and fans are urging to see Chambers playing CB. Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney are unlikely to play after both featuring for Arsenal U23’s on Friday night against Wolves. There are alot of options for the midfield, and there are also alot of goals to be scored for the Gunners, especially considering we are playing at the Emirates. Up top, Aubameyang will start again as Lacazette is out until October, with Pepe; Nelson; Smith Rowe; Martinelli; and Saka all in contention to start out wide.

Come on Arsenal, you’ve got this!

Jack

Written by Jack Skinner ~ Insta @oooh.to.be.a.gooner

Stop pining for those that left – Support those that stayed

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This morning Arsenal are linked with Donyell Malen following his fantastic start to the season in Holland.

The 20-year-old Dutch International has been in blistering form with 9 goals already this season in all competition. PSV Eidenhoven have reportedly put a £50m price tag on him following interest for Liverpool.

His bright start to the season and headline grabbing price tag has led to the usual over reaction from Arsenal fans.

“Why did we let him go?” They have cried. “Another mistake by Wenger” they moaned.

Malen left Arsenal back in 2017. Joining PSV for less than £1million.

The then 18-year-old engineered a move out of the club under the guidance of his agent – Mino Raiola.

Many Arsenal fans who saw him play were disappointed that he left, as he was clearly a talent. But they also understood the situation.

Here was a player who had come to Arsenal at 16-years-old from Ajax. Within 2 years of being at the club refused to sign a new contract and decided to move back to his native Holland to find 1st team football.

It actually took him a season to find that 1sr team football as he spent a year at Jong PSV – the reserve team of PSV Eidenhoven.

He was a talent within Arsenal’s youth team, but he was by no means the brightest star.

Capable of playing across the front 3, Malen was in direct competition with the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Stephy Mavididi.

Malen often found himself playing 2nd fiddle to those 3 players. Usually only playing within his age group when they moved up a group or were involved in the senior team.

Only Mavididi – who has since joined Juventus – was older than Malen.

Back in 2017, Malen was down the pecking order for the 1st team action he demanded.

2016/17 none of Nelson, Mavididi or Nketiah got any senior game time as Chris Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Chuba Akpom were the youngsters given the chances in the cup games.

So Arsenal had a talented young player; who was not more talented than players the same age. Whilst the club did not want him to leave; they also did not stand in his way.

Malen has had a good start to his season. 5 goals in 1 games against Vitesse. Scoring for his country. It has led to many saying Arsenal made a mistake with him.

But then remember he is playing in Holland. Take the top 2 or 3 out of the Dutch league and is what’s left much better than the Championship? Or even League 1?

Last season Nelson – who is younger than Malen remember – had a good season on loan in the Bundesliga. What would he have done if he was on loan in the Dutch league? 20+ goals?

And then we have Nketiah – who is younger than Malen remember. He is currently on loan to Leeds who are topping the Championship.

Nketiah is at 4 goals in 6 games in all competitions. What would behave achieved if he was in Holland?

Mason Mount spent a season in Holland. He scored 14 goals in 39 games.

The next season Chelsea decided to continue his development by sending him on loan to the Championship. They clearly saw England’s 2nd division as being more competitive than Holland’s top.

Mount scored 11 in 44 for Derby last season. Proof that the Championship is the tougher league.

So we shouldn’t be getting our knickers in a twist of Malen scoring 5 goals against Vitesse. For every Luis Suarez that comes out of the league, you get 2017/18 top scorer Alizera Jahanbakhsh who failed to score a league goal for Brighton in 2018/19.

Last season the joint top scorers in Holland were Luuk de Jong (0 goals in 12 games for Newcastle) and Dusan Tadic (ex-Southampton). Robin Van Persie and Klaas Jan Huntelaar were joint 6th top scorers with 16 goals each.

We should be supporting the likes of Nketiah and Nelson; rather than pining for Malen.

Both Nketiah and Nelson are home grown lads who want to be at the club. They want to pull on the red and white of Arsenal.

Instead of supporting these lads, I see fans criticising them.

Following the victory over Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday; Nelson came in for a lot of criticism. “Not good enough”, “Saka is better”, “Emery doesn’t fancy him”. Nelson didn’t even play!

Malen may well become a world beater. He also may well end up at someone like Norwich bouncing between the Premier League and Championship.

We as fans have a habit of criticising our own whilst looking envious at others.

The likes of Nelson and Nketiah, Saka, Willock and Smith Rowe should be getting the support they deserve.

I would rather us continue developing those that we have rather than demand the club sign a player who has already left us once.

Back the boys at the club.

Keenos

Match Report: Frankfurt 0 – 3 Arsenal

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Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 0 Arsenal (1) 3
UEFA Europa League, Group F, Matchday 1 of 6
Commerzbank-Arena, Mörfelder Landstraße 362, 60528, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
Thursday, 19th September 2019. Kick-off time: 5.55pm

(4-2-3-1) Emiliano Martínez; Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka; Emile Smith-Rowe, Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Dani Ceballos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nicolas Pépé, Reiss Nelson, Mattéo Guendouzi, Gabriel Martinelli
Scorers: Joe Willock (38mins), Bukayo Saka (85mins), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (87mins)
Yellow Cards: Calum Chambers, Sead Kolašinac, Joe Willock

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 50%
Referee: Davide Massa (Italy)
Attendance 51,500

Tonight was a night for youth, and the faith that Unai Emery finally had in his youngsters to step up to the plate and deliver a result in one of the most difficult and dangerous of European footballing arenas. With a performance such as this, it is very hard to pick out an outstanding player, let alone a goal that was any better than the others. Whatever happened between the players when they discussed the debacle of Sunday’s match at Vicarage Road over the course of this week, one can merely speculate, but whatever it was, the resulting post-mortem certainly worked, and although it was a bit rocky at times, the result was everything.

Eintracht Frankfurt came out of the blocks menacingly at us, and at times it did look as if we were going to concede a goal early on, but for the amazing skills of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, we could easily have been in deficit. His positioning was inch perfect, his saves were sublime, and it has to be said that Bernd Leno must be looking over his shoulder wondering when Martínez will take his place after a performance such as this. The match was incredibly open with both sides chancing their arm throughout, and it seemed that it was a matter of time before somebody, anybody, would score. Thankfully, with just seven minutes remaining on the clock before the break, it was us, and to be fair, with the chances taken by our forwards in the match so far, it just had to be. The wonderful Bukayo Saka ran towards the Frankfurt defence, passed the ball to young Joe Willock, who took a shot that deflected off of a player, spun towards the goal and ricocheted down from underneath the crossbar and into the net. Who cares? They all count, and we went into the half-time break in the ascendancy.

The second half started fairly much the same as the first, with the home side under pressure from their own crowd fighting to bring the scores level, but in every case, the defence held somehow. The pace quickened, tackles were reckless, players were getting tired, and ultimately booked for their troubles. As usual, Unai Emery brought his substitutes on in the later stages of the game; Nicolas Pépé for Emile Smith-Rowe (60mins), Dani Ceballos for Joe Willock (72mins) and Ainsley Maitland-Niles for Sead Kolašinac (80mins) and fresh legs made a difference. Shortly after Dominik Kohr was sent off for a second yellow card, we struck again, and what a goal it truly was. After a Frankfurt attack, Emiliano Martínez threw the ball out to Granit Xhaka, who ran 30 yards before passing it to Bukayo Saka, who did no more but steady himself, look to see where the goal was and deftly stroke the ball with a skill that belies his years into the corner of the net. Two minutes later, a pass from Bukayo Saka put Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through on goal, and this time he made no mistake in putting  us three goals to the good. A few minutes later the final whistle blew, we ran out 3-0 winners on the night, and incredibly, top of Group F as well.

All in all, a superb performance from everyone, particularly the academy boys who more than justified the manager’s faith in them here in Frankfurt tonight. But our defensive issues remain; time and time again the defence looked fragile, and it not to be forgotten that Eintracht Frankfurt had 24 shots on our goal, just seven short of Watford last Sunday, and none of us wish to be reminded of what happened in that place then. But a win is a win, and the confidence we must surely get from this victory in Germany tonight will toughen us up for the long Premiership campaign that lies ahead. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Aston Villa at The Emirates on Sunday, 22nd September at 4.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.