Morning all.
One from AllezKev this morning.
Arsenal don’t play again until April Fools Day, as it is known in the UK, April 1st when everyone indulges in practical jokes and Arsenal play Stoke City. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Arsenal gave the Potters a good old hammering and helped send them on their way to eventual relegation and ruin – how we would laugh!
That Stoke match will be the first one of the eight remaining fixtures we have left to negotiate in this most turbulent of seasons, a season that has seen change behind the scenes and may well see even more off the field, in the summer.
There is currently an outside chance that Arsenal could close the 6 point gap we have with an equally troubled Chelsea and could even overtake them into 5th place in the Premier League table. Then again there is the outside chance that Burnley could close the five point gap that they currently have with Arsenal, overtake us and push us into 7th place instead. The reality of the situation is that we’ll almost certainly finish exactly where we are and where we probably deserve to be. We are after all a Cup team.
Interspersed between those EPL games are the far more important UEFA Cup ties, with its carrot of Champions League football hanging there tantalisingly for the winner. At this stage a year ago Jose Mourinho prioritised the UEFA Cup and won the trophy, rotating his squad and sacrificing league points for the greater good of lifting a European trophy, so will Arsene Wenger do the same?
To me it’s a no brainer to rest and protect your best players, saving them for what in essence is five cup finals.
Aubameyang will start all of the EPL games as will Petr Cech and whilst Wenger should use some of those eight league fixtures to keep our best players ticking over, as too much inactivity can be just as damaging as too many games. He also really needs to get some value from his remaining league games by using our young players, allowing them to gain more experience, especially Reiss Nelson whose contract situation has all the makings of a disillusioned youngster jumping ship in the summer of 2019.
The Stoke game at home is followed by CSKA at home, but I’d guess that Wenger will play a relatively full strength team to get them back on track before the Ruskies arrive. The following league game is again at home vs Southampton and is prior to our long journey behind the Iron Curtain, so there should be some wriggle room for Wenger to rest players and play our youngsters.
The return UEFA Cup game in Moscow, with all its importance and noise will be on the 12th April and then just days after, on the 15th of April we face a long slog up to Newcastle, surely the perfect opportunity to rest our senior European players and use the youngsters allowing the likes of Ramsey, Koscielny, Monreal and Ozil recovery time.
It all makes perfect sense to me, that’s if we manage to get past CSKA of course…
It really needs for Wenger to find a happy medium …………………………………….So hands on the table , don’t touch the glass.
And no knee knocking either…
Thanks Kev. Good time to play a few more youngsters as long as it doesn’t interfere with what they are trying to achieve in their own leagues/competitions.
If he chooses to do that though, tell us and then at least we’d know he has a plan.. He won’t do either though imo.
Good post Kev, but I think you have offered us the ‘common sense’ solution with half an eye on winning the ropey cup. Sound idea. Such a good idea that you can be certain Wenger, with all his years of experience, won’t do any of those things. AMN will get the odd game or subs appearance but as for the rest, not a chance! Once recognised for his ‘give youth a chance’ policy, sadly that ‘project’ disappeared with the failure of ‘project youth’, many, many years ago. There are several real ‘players’ in the age teams, but none of them have been given an opportunity to shine, unless of course you include the Forest cup game, what a shambles that was. Sadly, the next few games, post Forest, with all the first teamers present, we didn’t win many, if any of the subsequent games. The reasons given, we were a little over confident, (Forest) and then we became a little lacking in confidence, then we didn’t become bad players overnight, etc etc. He doesn’t inspire much confidence in anything any more, in my opinion!
So good idea for concluding one of the worst seasons on record for the Arsenal, Mr Wenger may have a chance to redeem himself and a little of his tarnished reputation. Will he take it and follow your excellent advice? I very much doubt it because, his thirty years in management tells him he knows best and, Alan Hansen got it right, you never win anything with youngsters!
And whose fault is it that we are complacent ahead of games which in reality, we ‘should’ be winning. Ah, the lord master himself…
Game time is important for Nketiah and Nelson and a few others but not all at once . As you say there are 8 games left in the league and we need to pick up points realistically to fininsh where we are in the league. Our nearest rivals are Burnley which makes our last fixture at home a bit interesting. Hopefully it won’t become a must win match to ensure Europa league next year.
Looking at both teams fixtures in no particular order we have 4 home and 4 away as do they. Ours being Burnley themselves , West ham , Southampton , Stoke. Theirs are Bournemouth , Brighton , Chelsea , Leicester .
Away teams to go to Arsenal have Huddersfield , Manchester United , Newcastle Leicester and theirs Arsenal , Stoike , West Brom , Watford.
To overtake us they must win at least two more games than we do., our slip ups would on paper be ManU away , and possibly Leicester and they must win out the whole programme.
I think there is wriggle room for a few young ones to get on the pitch but not for 5 minute cameos.
Eddie and Nelson along with MN’s are the three I’d like to see play more, Bielik too but I think he’s injured..
Bielik is injured but also out on loan I think Rico…
I’m afraid that I tend to go along with Wavy, I don’t think that Wenger will do anything other than play the usual suspects in the EPL.
I can see it now, the team get back from Moscow then 3 days later slap it up to Newcastle, where they’ll be knackered and probably pick up a couple of hamstrings.
I think project youth is better at Arsenal than other top EPL clubs. Not that Wenger can take much credit for it. But we have some promising lads on the verge of the first team.
Jack injured then. The ox getting a game.
I just have no enthusiasm for England under boring Gareth. I doubt very much if we will even go to Russia.
I see Perez wants to return to the club after having a nightmare loan period abroad.
It’s dificult to think ahead, but thats no different to other teams fans. You don’t get any manager spell out his plans to the fans or the media. They all keep their cards close to their chests.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wenger announce his leaving in May, but he’d be a fool to let it out now.
Morning All
I guess that now England have won in Amsterdam that the tabloids will start banging on about England winning the World Cup….
Morning Kev and all.
Thanks re Bielik, I guess next stop will be a new club for him. What a waste..
I see the England fans fancied a bit of trouble…
Morning Rico and all. These morons who use a football match for their violent stupidity are due for a rude awakening when they kick off in Russia. If we go that is.
Afternoon Adam, I got lonely so left… 😉
Apparently it was the police’s fault…
I heard that England fans got drunk and started throwing bottles.
A great advert for the country…
I can’t see too many of those England morons going to Russia, £108 for the visa is a lot of beer money for them.
I wonder how many Russian nut jobs will make the trip to the Emirates?
Morning Kev. Been having a look at our young (and not so young) players out on loan and am not inspired. Where is the next Ashley Cole??? Likes of Jenkinson and Perez should be moved on. Goalkeeper at Getafe, move on, ffs if he cannot get a game there he is no good for Arsenal. The list is endless. Another is Cohen Bramall, not a chance. Reiss-Nelson, AMN and Eddie MUST be given more game time or they will not extend contracts. Oh get rid of Jack, Rambo and the ridiculous dresser Bellend. I hope the new backroom staff have got all this under control without Wenger interference. Would like to know what you guys think.
Afternoon all…………………finally back, got a new lap top and some technical stuff to get internet down in my annexe.
This angel must be from the seed of Goonster !
😆
https://twitter.com/swearing_scouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Farsenalarsenal.net%2F2018%2F03%2F23%2Finterlull-injuries%2F
Paddy, I’d like to see Lucas Perez back at Arsenal. I’m not so anti Bellerin as a few others, yep he’s been average the last 18 months or so but he’s one of a few who i think would improve under a more disciplined coach.
Martinez is an odd one, his loan has done him no good whatsoever..
Hi Paddy, I’m with Rico, I wouldn’t get rid of Perez, not sure what to think of Martinez, as he had a good pre season, Getafe is another example of a rubbish loan, I’m not sure whose responsible, the club or the player/agent?
There needs to be a serious overhaul of the clubs policy on loaning out players.
What good has the loan of Bramall to Birmingham been, a complete waste of time.
Some of the other loans have been a complete total joke of Gnabry proportions.
I don’t see the point of loans kev, wonder how our players compare with other clubs who are on loan
Rico, I just think that the club has to be more careful about who they loan to and get guarantees about how much time that they’re on the pitch.
Some loans are a shop window.
Going abroad often seems a bad move Kev, we should stick to the PL etc..
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/arsenal-shares-usmanov-kroenke-takeover-14453836
Interesting Rico, but that site is always manufacturing rumours, just like the Daily Cannon, which also steals stories from other outlets and makes up completely fictional stories. I wouldn’t believe a thing they say…
From what I’ve heard, Usmanov has been looking at investing in another country and in a football club there.
Can’t see Wilshere making the World Cup now, doubt if he’ll be fit for our next game vs Stoke.
I hope he’s back in time for CSKA…
He denied that though didn’t he Kev? I know what you mean about the site though and they don’t even name the newspapers who had a similar article earlier…
At that kind of value two things come to mind, a, Kronke knows his money in one of the safest and most profitable companies in the world and or b, Even Usminov may feel priced out of the market at £2blln +.
Unless something extraordinary happens politically I can’t see either of these two foreigners selling up any time soon.
So, we’re stuck with them just as we are stuck with Wenger
. I mean it will all come to an end eventually but we will not live long enough to see the crowning of the new order!
Well expressing those thoughts has just deepened my malaise and depression for all things Arsenal.
Hey ho!
Agree, won’t do him any harm having the summer off though, especially if he’s staying put.
Wavy, It’ll all change one day. Wenger soon hopefully..
Night Kev and Wavy. Have a good evening…
Morning Rico and all.
I wondered how the ghastly Aussies beat us so easily and where all that reverse swing came from when we couldn’t shift it from barrel straight. Seems the World is a little wiser this morning. 🙂
Morning Adam. I’ve been reading about that. Disgraceful, what a load of cheats. And to think the Aussies were bragging when all the time they were cheating..
Rico. It’s an interesting story and Smith is refusing to resign. Long may it roll on and on.
And on…
Adam, I suspect the pressure will become too much and he’ll resign in the end, all those involved or with knowledge should be sacked imo. No place for cheating in sport. I recall an Aussie telling us that quite often…
Apparently Smith has been stood down and even that charming gentleman David Warner has too.
Oh yes I had forgotten that. 🙂
The irony….
Good, but they all need sacking..
? The irony indeed…
New post up now..