Morning all.
Ray Wilkins, great footballer, lousy pundit. England and Chelsea fans loved him, Utd fans too as he’d played for them as well as a number of other clubs. He didn’t quite make it to 100 caps for England but he was great for his country. I doubt he’d have looked for a reason to skip an international fixture, unlike some of the footballers today. Since retiring from playing, he’d been involved in coaching/management for a number of clubs but Chelsea was always the club he held most dear. 61 years old is too young to die for anyone regardless of what they have done in life or for a living but when it’s someone we’ve all seen on our television screens for a long time, it affects us all in one way or another.
But as Ray Wilkins lost his battle with life, yet another much younger life was taken in London taking the death tally to 52 since the turn of the year. Most of these youngsters have done nothing wrong, they are victims in the wrong place at the wrong time, victims who didn’t in any way deserve to die. The world is a mess and London is worse now than New York apparently. It’s madness, as is 78 year old man getting arrested for murder when all he was doing was protecting his family and his home from an armed burglar who together with an accomplice, broke into his home around midnight.
My thoughts are prayers are with all the family and friends of those who are grieving the loss of those they love. As we all know though, some of us because we too have lost loved ones far too early in life, the world doesn’t stop for our broken hearts.
Football doesn’t that’s for sure although I’d imagine they’ll be a minutes silence prior to tonight’s Europa League fixtures kicking off, certainly at The Emirates Stadium.
I think this tie is going to be tough and in front of our own fans, well, whoever turns up, the ideal scenario would be to get a few goals, keep a clean sheet and then head to Moscow with a fighting chance of getting into the semifinals. Arsene Wenger has spoken about how he thinks the crisis we were going through is over. He’s talking about the four losses on the trot, I’d say it’s the last four seasons, and some. However, he’s really playing down our chances ahead of tonight:
“We’re in the quarter-finals and have to be very realistic. “We don’t live in dreamland. We have to go step by step and give absolutely everything to go through. It’s about how well we play together, the quality of our game and how we want to play football.
“There is some extra pressure to do extremely well in this competition, but that is part of being where we are. We have to see it as an opportunity we want to take and keep our priorities right.”
Whatever that means, let’s hope it works wonders eh. As much as I want to see the back of him, winning the Europa Cup would be great for the players. Petr Cech is fit again after missing out at the weekend which looking back, now looks like he may have been rested with Ospina given a game to keep him happy, especially if Cech starts tonight’s match. Lacazette is ready to take the central role up front which should see Welbeck back on the left and the rest will probably be those who Wenger deems to be his strongest.
“Ideally you want the away leg first, but in Europe you don’t get to choose. You have to accept the problems, solve them and sort them out. No one has the ideal way. If we want to go far we have to accept playing first at home.
“Before the match both teams have a chance to win. Russian teams always have a good technical level. They have a good culture and a long history in the game. Personally I have always had difficult games against Russian teams and CSKA are a strong side. I watched the match they played in Lyon and they played extremely well and created many chances. For me this tie is 50/50.”
Not just Russian sides I’d say, but those on the south and north coast of England too. And London, Manchester and in the Forest of Nottingham…
Anyway, let’s hope for a good game and a positive result…
Morning Rico and All
Couple of years ago reading about how Senrab
youth had helped a lot of top pro’s get on the ladder,
I was amazed to read that Butch Wilkins played a
few games for them,no way I thought?
I new most of the the young players around
that time,I played in the same leagues.
I was wrong of coarse.
Butch never came from the EastEnd but he became
friends with an old rival of mine(Westy) who was training
with Chelsea,the coach at Chelsea thought it would
be a good idea if Butch could get a few games with
Westy’s team Senrab,not only that he moved in with
the family in Bow.
Butch was about two leagues above everyone else
at the time I’m told.
I see Butch come on against Norwich to make his debut
he looked fantastic that day running with the ball and
shooting from all over the place,He looked the new Bobby
Charlton.
R.I.P..Ray Wilkins.
Watched the big game last night,we seem a million miles
away from that.
Morning Fred.
Pains me to say it but you’re right. Klopp is assembling a really good team, including Ox. If his improvement in such a short time doesn’t tell the board how past it Wenger is, nothing will. Ox, Walcott and a few other younger players have been ruined by their moves to Arsenal.
Giving Gazza(Ivan) 20% pay rise tells us
what’s important within the club Rico.
Take my hat of to the Arsenal fans giving
the club the empty seats protest.
Even if Arsene go’s,could we trust this lot
to get the right man in.
I could go back to the old days to be honest,
just to hear that sound of Peanut’s,Peanut’s.
I think Ivan is trying though Fred, I really do. He’s just not trying hard enough…
Same old though eh, we won’t know who is the real rat until Wenger goes…
UEFA seem so hot usually on all things that happen in and around stadiums during Champions League evenings.
So it’s with some surprise that UEFA have seemingly ignored the unsavoury incidents in and around Anfield last evening.
The Man City coach attacked, windows smashed, flares let off inside and outside the stadium, the Police admitting that they knew what was coming but still failed to do their job, Anfield turned into a kind of Galatasaray ‘welcome to hell’ environment, the home crowd clearly overly aggressive, yet nothing from UEFA, silence….
But then it’s Liverpool, you know, the club whose supporters got English teams banned from Europe, the club whose supporters murdered Juventus fans in Heysel, the club who have smoke blown up their arse by the English media, one of UEFA’s favourites, so expect it to all be swept under the carpet….
The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy….
They should be thrown out Kev, disgraceful behaviour..
Afternoon all……………..top notch as usual Rico. Dont know what to expect tonight, but hope we get a comfortable lead for the second leg.
Only chance of CL so best team available for me, so if Wenger has a thing about Ospina playing in cup games then he needs to change it.
Lovely baking sunny day for a BBQ so should be good for the Mother in Laws cremation at 4:30pm
Aftenoon rico and all..
Disgraceful behaviour by the bindippers. .
You would think those morons would learn a lesson or two from the Hillsborough tragedy. .they really have shamed the families of those victims and the entire football world. .
The game was entertaining though. .high tempo and pressing well executed by the Liverpool players …the mancs had no answer. .
apperently AW priority for tonight game is to keep a clean sheet. .well ..we will see
Afternoon all.
Keep a clean sheet! 25 years ago it would have been a nailed on certainty. Now, most unlikely, more a question of how many we allow them to score!
Wenger’s been playing with his dream catcher again. What a buffoon!
A draw would be okay. A win would be good. A big win would be better. A defeat would be curtains. We shall see what we shall see!
One thing we can be certain of is that no matter what the result the old ancient will talk a load of unintelligible tosh in his post match summary, as usual!
Lovely day here. Blue sky here from corner to corner.
A player takes off his shirt in a CL game showing some kind of political statement, like independence for Catalonia and UEFA act immediately.
A referee suffers intimidation and UEFA act immediately, England wear a poppy on their shirts and the sky falls in, Liverpool fans have a riot and UEFA look into it on May 31st.
When everyone has forgotten about it, swept it under the carpet, job done!
I just wonder if the attack on the bus had anything to do with City’s performance in the first half hour.It must have been a tad unsettling. perhaps Liverpool should volunteer to replay the match in a less hostile atmosphere.
Can I take my tongue oput of my cheek now.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Elneny, Welbeck, Iwobi
What’s up with Ospina ?
Evening guys..
Had a feeling Cech would start tonight…
Nice goal…
Hi Kk..
Clean sheet? ??
Stunning finish…
Should be pleased but am actually pissed off that we didn’t kill that off in the second half. Plus Jack didn’t look fit at all!
Just how I feel Bob. Could have been into double figures..
Anyone else think that the team have a mental block against killing teams off.
How many times have we seen them rip a team to pieces then relax and regret it later. We all know that any team is able to score against us and shipping a couple in Moscow is not beyond belief. We could have ,should had made it unnecessary to play next week.However we see chances mixed and players smiling and laughing amongst themselves as if it’s just all too easy and really doesn’t matter.
Until they learn to grind teams under we will always be open to slip ups and embarrassment.
Chances missed
Seemed to me that the performance dipped after Iwobi came on…
RIP Eric Bristow…..
Night guys.
Morning Rico and all. Agreed. Henrik’s departure lost us a bit of fluidity. I have never really ‘got’ Iwobi and that didn’t change after last night’s game. Jack is also a concern for me. He seldom plays the ball without wanting to beat a player first and he loses the ball in dangerous areas. The question is whether the club could do better (all sentiment aside). I think they probably could at the moment. He has huge potential but produces his best very rarely.
Morning Adam and all.
Agree re Jack, love him for being an Arsenal player but something is not quite right with his style of play, certainly not the last couple of games. Whether that’s down to him or the tactics I don’t know but he could certainly do with releasing the ball quicker. When we play the two touch game, we look so much better.
He’s got a great left foot and needs to do more with it.
If Ozil had a bit more of a physical presence, he’d be one of the best footballers out there imo.
New post is up now by the way…