Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal and Manchester United set to repeat Alexis swap deal?

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After Wednesday’s blog discussing the need for more balance in the team, one name popped up a few times in my mentions who would be potentially ideal.

Anthony Martial

It is easy to forget that the Manchester United winger is still just 22. He is a year youger than Raheem Sterling, and just a month older than Leroy Sane.

The Frenchman is on par with both with regards to natural talent.

He has had a tough time under Jose Mourinho which has clearly affected his confidence. But this is a player who hit 19 goals in his debut season in England. A figure that puts him between Sterling (23) and Sane (14) for most goals in a season

The statistics for the 3 are not too far off each other. Obviously they can be looked into deeper, breaking down per minute, etc, but I really do not have the energy for that.

Sane is the stand out player when it comes to stats, but he also come to the Premier League as a more established player, where as Sterling broke through as a baby at Liverpool and Martial joining Manchester United as a teenager.

Martial  was always going to have an uphill struggle to justify what seemed like a heafty price tag back in 2015, and this still unfairly hangs over him. Yet two summers on from his big money move from Monaco, is the £36m Man U paid for him really that expensive?

A year later City paid £37million for Sane. He might have been a year older than martial at the time of signing, but had pretty much played the same top level games (Sane 47 Bundesliga games & 11 goals; Martial 49 Ligue 1 games & 11 goals).

Martial was merely the first. He set the benchmark of what players considered as the most talented teenagers in football would cost.

Whilst there has been plenty of talk and speculation over the destination of Aaron Ramsey in recent weeks, and months, Anthony Martial’s contract is also set to expire at the end of the season.

Like with Ramsey, it looked like the two parties were close to agreeing a new deal over the summer, but I am unable to find an article confirming it is complete.

Martial and Ramsey swapping clubs would suit all parties. Arsenal need a wide man, Man U need a central midfielder.

Ramsey would suit Manchester United more than Arsenal at this moment in time. Likewise Martial would fit into the Arsenal time like a glove; providing the width and pace we currently miss in wide positions.

Instead of losing a player on a free at the end of the season that they do not really require, both clubs would be gaining a player that they do want.

From Aaron Ramsey’s point of view, Manchester United are probably the only Premier League club who could match his reported £200k wage demands and offer him the first team football he desires.

As for Martial, Arsenal could dramatically increase his current £75,000 salary to the £115k region, keeping him within the current wage structure.

Martial would get the play time his talent deserves and a coach that promotes free flowing attacking football.

It is a deal that the more I write about, the more I speculate, just makes sense.

Keenos

Match Report: Qarabag 0 – 3 Arsenal

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Qarabağ FK (0) 0 Arsenal (1) 3

UEFA Europa League, Group E, Matchday 2 of 6

Baku Olympic Stadium, Azerbaijan

Thursday, 4th October 2018. Kick-off time: 5.55pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal; Guendouzi, Elneny; Kolasniac, Smith-Rowe Welbeck, Iwobi.

Substitutes: Bellerin, Lacazette, Özil, Martinez, Torreira, Mustafi, Xhaka.

Scorers: Sokratis, Smith-Rowe, Guendouzi

Yellow Cards: Holding

Referee: Davide Massa (Italy)

Attendance: 68,500

Tonight we play the defending champions of the Azerbaijan Premier League, who sadly didn’t manage to qualify for the UEFA Champions League in the summer; after a process of elimination they now find themselves playing us in Group E of the UEFA Europa League. The team known as “The Horsemen” are currently occupying third position in their league, and normally play their matches at the 5,800 capacity Azersun Arena, but for the purposes of European competition travel to the 68,700 capacity Baku Olympic Stadium where we will be meeting them on the field of battle tonight. Qarabağ FK are 66th in the UEFA club rankings table (Arsenal are in ninth position), and have played 86 matches in various European competitions; their playing history of 32 wins, 22 draws and 32 defeats must surely speak for itself,

With some of our top players missing (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through illness, Aaron Ramsey because his wife is about to give birth to twins and Henrikh Mkhitaryan due to political shenanigans between his home country and Azerbaijan), we started the match in the best possible way, despite sporting a highly unusual and contrversial 3-4-3 formation. After just four minutes, a Mattéo Guendouzi corner was headed goalwards by Nacho Monreal; somehow Sokratis got in the way and clumsily guided the ball into the back of the net. Not ones to look a gift goal in the mouth, Arsenal kept going and for the next ten minutes or so, looked as if we were going to increase our goal tally. Not so. Qarabağ stepped up to the plate and not only ran at us, but their strikers were finding gaps in the midfield to break through, which caused a problematic situation in our defence. Emile Smith-Rowe was desperately unlucky not to score with a chance from a fluid movement that he initially started, but all in all we were mighty glad when the half-time whistle blew.

On our return for the second half, Nacho Monreal was substituted for Lucas Torreira and things started to step up a bit. Mr. Emery dispensed with this ridiculous 3-4-3 idea and went back to a more familiar formation which oscillated somewhere between 4-2-3-1 and 5-3-2 depending on the danger. Anyway, three minutes afer the restart, Emile Smith-Rowe scored his first goal for the club, and a well-taken finish it was too, with a tasteful flick from Danny Welbeck into the path of Alex Iwobi who glided the ball into space for Emile Smith-Rowe to tuck it away for the second Arsenal goal of the night. A few minutes later, the Arsenal Academy graduate made way for Mesut Özil, and on seventy minutes Alexandre Lacazette replaced Alex Iwobi as well. Although Qarabağ had some interesting ideas with regards to the interraction of the ball between their midfield players, all their clever play was in vain, when Mattéo Guendouzi put the match beyond doubt eleven minutes from time, to not only seal our victory but also ensure that we sit comfortably at the pinnacle of Group E in the Europa League, equal on points with our next opponents, Sporting Club of Lisbon, who we meet in the away fixture on 25th October.

Despite a very good and satisfying win, we have an extremely annoying habit (that doesn’t go away) of losing concentration at vital points in the match and simply gifting opportunities to the opposition, which if not addressed will come back to haunt us one day soon, probably against Liverpool in November, unfortuntely. Bernd Leno was exposed at times in the first half, and his skill plus agility managed to keep out Qarabağ adequately. Despite all this, the lads played well (particularly the Academy boys, Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith-Rowe), and our inspired substitutes from an ever-confident bench are starting to look just as strong as the starting eleven. After all, eight wins in a row across all competitions at the highest level in this day and age is nothing to be sneezed at, and the chaps must surely feel confident going into the London derby against Fulham on Sunday lunchtime. Can’t wait! 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

Arsenal look to make it 8 from 8 as a strong squad travels to Baku

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8 wins in a row.

That is what The Arsenal are looking at if we beat Qarabag in Azerbaijan tonight (17:55ko in case you did not realise!)

It is a terrific run of form we are currently in.

The last time we won 7 in a row was at the beginning of the 2016/17 season when we beat Hull City, Nottingham Forest (League Cup), Chelsea, Basel, Burnley, Swansea and Ludograts. That run ended with a bore 0-0 draw away to Middlesbrough.

If we make it 8 wins in a row, it will be our longest winning run in all competitions since the 2007/08 season. That year we won 12 games in a row.

Some might point to average opposition, a League Cup win against Brentford and Arsenal being in the Europa League as reasons why we have won 7 in a row thus far. But you can only beat what is in front of you.

Looking at the previous 7-run winning streak, we only really played Chelsea. And whilst Basel and Ludograts were in the Champions League, they were not exactly competitive competition.

Likewise in the 12 game winning run of 2007/08; we beat Manchester City before the money (they lost their last game of the season 8-1 to Middlesbrough before before being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group) and a Tottenham side that finished 11th.

To go on long winning runs, you need favourable fixtures – we saw the same with Liverpool winning their first 5 games of the season. They did not really play anyone decent, yet were being hyped up by all and sundry.

But you need to win your games, regardless of who you are playing.

In our current winning run,  Watford have beaten Tottenham and West Ham have drawn with Chelsea and beaten Manchester United. Arsenal won both games.

A 5 run winning run in the league is actually the current longest run of any club in the top 4 divisions of English football, yet not much about Arsenal is being mentioned in the press.

In September it was 6 out of 6.

Unai Emery has given the club a breath of fresh air. Surely after his sides performance in September, he has to be a shoe in for the Manager of the Month?

Qarabag are certainly not going to be a walk over.

Currently unbeaten in the Azerbaijan Premier League, of which they are defending champions, Arsenal are making a 6 hour 2,859 mile journey to Baku.

Chelsea beat them 6-0 and 4-0 in the Champions League last year, but they held Atletico Madrid to 2 draws, and only lost by 1 goal in each game against Roma.

Emery has selected a strong squad to travel out to Baku.

Sokratis is returning to the squad after his short injury, and will join up with Shkodran Mustafi, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal.

Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Alex Iwobi have also made the trip in what looks to be our strongest available starting XI.

The highest profile absentees seem to be Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aaron Ramsey, who were not pictured in the clubs official photo release, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan who has been left home for “safety reasons”.

Petr Cech has not travelled to Azerbaijan and will be out for up to a month with a hamstring injury. Other players currently sidelined are Konstantinos Mavropanos (groin), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (fractured fibula) and Laurent Koscielny (Achilles).

Matteo Guendouzi, Mohamed Elneny, Eddie Nketiah and reserve goal keepers Dejan Iliev and Emiliano Martinez.

All in all Emery is given the side its best chance to make it 8 from 8 and take a huge step towards securing early qualification for the knock-out rounds.

Keenos