Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal set to face “biggest test of the season”

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This weekend will show just how far Arsenal have come under Unai Emery.

The first two games of the season – at home to Manchester City followed by a visit to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea – were a write off. Unfair game to judge the Spaniard on as the club moved into its new era.

Following that we have had 13 fairly routine games against sides we would expect to get a result from.

This does not mean that Arsenal’s 13 game unbeaten run has not been remarkable – 12 wins in 13 games is almost faultless – but it was very much results as how we would expect them.

We have a 100% winning record against sides outside the top 6 since January 2018, so it would not be unreasonable to expect Arsenal to have defeated Everton, West Ham, Watford & Leicester.

https://twitter.com/SheWore/status/1058290964991803392?s=19

Emery should also be hugely praised for turning around the clubs away form. 3 wins and a draw since that defeat against Chelsea.

In 2017/18, we got just 16 points away from home -4 wins and 4 draws. This season we already have 10 points. The draw to Crystal Palace might have disappointed some, but over a 38 game season every side will drop points on the road to a team they are superior too.

The game against Liverpool will be the first against a top 4 chasing side since Chelsea on the second week of the season. It is the biggest test so far of the Unai Emery era. One which will show if we have moved forward or not.

Worst case scenario and we lose, it will leave Arsenal on 22 points from the opening 11 games. At the same stage last season, we were on 19 points after 11 games. So regardless we have moved forward.

After 11 games last year, we had lost to Stoke City, Liverpool, Watford and Manchester City, and drawn to Chelsea. All 5 games were away from home.

The corresponding home game against Liverpool saw a 3-3 draw as Arsenal came from 2-0 down with 3 goals in 5 minutes to go 3-2 up; before Liverpool struck to share the points.

If Arsenal do lose, the media will jump straight on it in an attempt to show that nothing has changed at Arsenal. I imagine their revenue has dramatically decreased whilst we have been on this winning run (one social media channel has dropped from 30m hits a month to just 9m as a result of Arsenal not losing).

Like we saw with the draw at Crystal Palace, the media will use any slight negative result to paint Arsenal as a club still in crisis, still with major problems. They will chase the hits, the revenue.

But anyone that go’s to games regularly will know that regardless of the result tomorrow, a lot has changed at Arsenal. It feels fresh. It feels exciting. The fans mindset has changed. We are actually enjoying going to games again.

I expect Manchester City to run away with the title again. They are top of the league with Kevin de Bruyne yet to start a game. Having already face Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal away from home, the unbeaten season is a realistic goal.

That means Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are fighting it out for best of the rest. For second place.

Victory against Liverpool will put us into this race. It will confirm that we are battling for 2nd place – a huge step forward after last season and battling for 6th against Burnley.

Failure to win and it will mean Arsenal’s target is more realistically the battle for 4th.

It will show that we are not quite at the level of Liverpool or Chelsea year, and that they will fill the two places behind Manchester City.

That will leave it as a straight fight between Arsenal and Spurs for the final Champions League spot.

It is a race that I would expect us to win, even if we do lose to Liverpool tomorrow.

A 5:30 kick off will mean everyone can have a few beers before, so hopefully the ground is rocking by kick off time.

Up The Arsenal

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 1 Blackpool

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Arsenal (1) 2 Blackpool (0) 1
Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) Fourth Round
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 31st October 2018. Kick-off time: 7.45pm
(4-2-3-1) Cech; Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Pleguezuelo, Jenkinson; Ramsey, Guendouzi; Smith-Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Welbeck; Mkhitaryan.
Substitutes: Aubameyang, Holding, Iwobi, Torreira, Martínez, Willock, Nketiah.
Scorers: Lichtsteiner, Smith-Rowe
Red Cards: Guendouzi
Yellow Cards: Jenkinson, Guendouzi
Referee: David Coote
Attendance: 60,112
It now seems a world away when tonight’s visitors were stalwart opponents of ours; in fact, it was nigh on seventy years ago when both of us were competing regularly against each other in front of capacity crowds in London and Lancashire for cups and championships. Our very last Charity Shield match at The Old Place was indeed against The Seasiders, on 12th October 1953. All the obvious legends played on the day; Tommy Lawton, Joe Mercer and Jimmy Logie for Arsenal, whilst Stan Matthews, Bill Perry and Stan Mortensen stepped out for Blackpool, all of them possessed copious amounts of style and grace. We (the League Champions), beat them (the FA Cup holders) by three goals to one in front of 40,000 spectators on a drizzly Monday afternoon in North London to collect our seventh shield in nine appearances. Times change along with fortunes, and the once mighty Blackpool from Bloomfield Road now play in front of less than 5,000 supporters in Division One of the Football League (formerly the old Third Division). A sobering lesson for us all, methinks.
Our team this evening reflected perhaps the importance (in Mr. Emery’s view) of both opponents and competition, with several changes across the board. Blackpool, however were taking no chances at all, and their attitude to the match reflected this right from the start. They showed no fear and played a good game, despite Arsenal breaking out of defence quickly and narrowly coming close to scoring on several occasions in the first twenty minutes or so. The goal, when it came from Stefan Lichtsteiner on 33 minutes, was a stroke of brilliance from Mattéo Guendouzi when he slotted the ball into the space behind Blackpool’s defence for our centre-back to run onto and score. The rest of the half saw us increasing the pressure on the Lancaastrians, and when the half-time whistle blew, it must have seemed a blessing in disguise for the visitors.
However, five minutes into the second half, Emile Smith-Rowe scored from five yards after some sterling work on the left from Carl Jenkinson, whose welcome return to the side tonight was showing dividends at last; then things started to go slightly awry when our outstanding player on the night, Mattéo Guendouzi ws sent off for a second bookable offence, which was highly contentious. Down to ten men, Arsenal tried to regroup, but Blackpool were certainly not in any mood to let us off the hook. Their perseverance paid off with a well-taken goal ten minutes after our midfielder’s dismissal. Now the heat was on for the Gunners, with our oppoents battling for every ball, being first into the tackle. It was such an attitude that saw them too, have a man dismissed for a reckless tackle midway through the second half. The hallmark of a good side is always the quality of the substitutes, and this is where Arsenal showed their dominance. Bringing on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Iwobi, we simply halted Blackpool’s progress any further, even though they scored a late goal which was cancelled for being offside. In the end, our fitness and professionalism won the day, but Blackpool were worthy opponents and were desperately unlucky at times not to get more out of this match.
Arsenal still have issues in defence, even when we play our reserves in matches such as this. We need to be quicker of thought and deed and show more ruthlessness in front of goal if we are to progress in any competition this season. The visitors here on Saturday afternoon are Liverpool; knowing their style of play and results this season, we are starting to wonder whether our unbeaten run will end in three days’ time. Time will tell. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. 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.

https://twitter.com/shewore/status/1055795129905307649?s=21

Arsenal’s defeat to Cheltenham Town not a fair reflection on youngsters

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Last night Arsemal’s youngsters were trounced 6-2 by Cheltenham Town in the Checkatrade Trophy.

Unless you were one of the 400 magnificent travelling fans who made their way over to West England on a cold Tuesday night, you will probably look at a 6-2 defeat and question the ability and potential of the players coming through.

Last nights defeat was not a fair reflection on the current state of our academy teams.

Arsenal are current Premier League 2 Champions – the Under 23 league. This seasons campaign sees us in 4th place; just 2 points off top. The U18 team are equally as competitive; 1 point off top in the Southern League.

It is clear that we have some very good players for their age coming through.

So why did we get thrashed by Cheltenham Town?

Down to 10 men

After just 8 minutes, Arsenal found themselves down to 10 men and a goal gown after Robbie Burton was sent off for a challenge on Chelsea loanee Jacob Maddox.

From the subsequent free-kick, Chris Clement inflicted further punishment on Arsenal putting Cheltenham into the lead.

Arsenal played 82 minutes with 10 men.

Men against boys

When we say Arsenal were down to 10 men; the truth is we were down to 10 boys.

The Checkatrade Trophy is an odd competition. It pits Premier League U21 teams against lower league senior teams. It is men against boys.

7.8 Each Invited Club must ensure that in each Match:

7.8.1 at least six of the starting eleven players named on the Team Sheet are players who were aged under 21 as at the 30th June in the year in which the Season concerned commenced; and

7.8.2 no more than two players who:

(i) are aged 21 or over; and

(ii) have made 40 or more appearances in a First Team Fixture (either in the starting eleven or as a playing substitute)

The average age of Arsenal’s outfield players was just 18; they were up against a Cheltenham side with an average age of 24.

Key players missing

It was not just that Arsenal had out a young team, it was also that the U21 side was missing some key players.

Arsenal were without Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock and Julio Pleguezuelo, who have all joined the first team squad ahead of tonight’s League Cup game against Blackpool. They are 4 best players at that level.

Also  Jordi Osei-Tutu, Xavier Amaechi, Joseph Olowu and Tobi Omole are all injured. The later two both played against Coventry in the first Checkatrade game, and the first two would have started if fit.

So in a game of men against boys, Arsenal were without at least 7 U21’s that would have expected to have started.

The Forgotten 3

Alongside Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Willock and Pleguezuelo, there are 3 other first team squad members who would have been eligible for the Checkatrade Trophy.

Matteo Guendouzi, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are all under-21.

A few people have had a moan that the defeat shows that we do not have many top youth prospects coming through, yet in Guendouzi, Mavropanos and Maitland-Niles; we have youth prospects who are so good that they are no longer really considered youth prospects.

You add these 3 names to other key players missing and the XI that Arsenal could have put out against Cheltenham Town would look completely different:

Iliev

Osei-Tutu Mavropanos Pleguezuelo Omole

Guendouzi AMN

Amaechi ESR Willock

Nketiah

The side that ended up being beaten, when down to 10 mean, by Cheltenham Town was basically a “B Team”. None of the players who appeared would start in Arsenal’s strongest XI.

The fact that some of our kids are so good that they are knocking on the door of the first team squad, and in Guendouzi and Maitland-Niles we have two who have seen plenty of first team action, shows how good our youth team players are.

Arsenal have some very good youngsters coming through. The future is bright. and the defeat against Cheltenham was not a reflection of the players coming through.

Keenos