Morning all.

Before the season kicked off, Ange Postecoglou told Sky Sports that he usually wins silverware in his second season at a club. Before the NLD, he reiterated his point by adding:

I’ll correct myself: I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year. Nothing has changed. I don’t say things I don’t believe in.

Paul Merson’s response after Sunday’s battering by Arsenal:

I like Ange, I like him. But I’ve got more chance of winning Strictly Come Dancing than Ange winning something in his second season!

And we know what Merson’s chances of winning Strictly are…

It’s Champions League week this week with Arsenal’s women playing the first leg of their qualifying tie against BK Hacken last night in Sweden. The game ended in a 1-0 defeat which means they have it all to do in the return leg which takes place next Thursday.

Tonight it’s the men’s turn as they face Atalanta in Italy at 8pm.

The Gewiss Stadium holds just 25,000 fans and for European competitions only, is referred to as Stadio di Bergamo just The Emirates is referred to as the Arsenal Stadium in Europe as UEFA don’t recognise sponsors.

Until last season when Atalanta shocked Liverpool in the Europa League quarter-final at Anfield back in April of this year by beating them 3-0, I’d never heard of them. Or if I had, they didn’t stick in my memory. The Italian side then caused another big shock by beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the Europa League Final in May.

Atalanta are no strangers to the Champions League but have never gone further than the quarter-final stage. Other than their Europa League Cup win, most of their trophy haul has come from winning Serie B. Last season they finished 4th in Serie A, at the moment, they sit in 9th place.

A few familiar faces could line up against Arsenal tonight. Sean Kolasinac, Ademola Lookman, Ben Godfrey and Juan Cuadrado, all who have played Premier League football at some stage in their career. Gianluca Scamacca Is at the club too but an ACL injury means he’s likely to miss most if not all of the season. Gian Piero Gasperini was appointed manager Back in 2016 and has remained in place ever since.

After that incredible victory over Bayer Leverkusen, Gasperini said:

I think we wrote history, also for the way we won it. It was just extraordinary, we defeated Liverpool, Sporting who won the championship. When we faced Liverpool they were first in the Premier League. And now the German champions. Incredible. The boys were extraordinary, a memorable performance.

I’ve read a bit about how Atalanta play and they’re not a obvious pressing team apparently but what they do do is use their wingers to cut in and try to intercept their opponents passes out from the back. They move a lot in and out of possession without losing their shape. They don’t chase lost causes, which helps as far as preserving energy goes but they do close down opponents like flies on jam. (Alternative analogies can be inserted)

Gasperini usually deploys three at the back with the wingbacks flying up and down the flanks. They’re not afraid to face attacking pressure as they break hard and fast and can go over the top, around or through an opponents midfield. One thing they don’t seem to do is fire aerial crosses into the box.

Bayer’s defending for the goals was pretty shoddy to say the least and having watched some of the Liverpool defeat, Klopp’s team didn’t defend very well either, nor were they very good in front of goal. Regardless, Bayer are a good team which is capable of causing many opponents real problems.

Declan Rice is back tonight of course, Riccardo Calafiori and Bukayo Saka trained yesterday but Martin Odegaard won’t return for a while.

Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard’s injury:

After everything was scanned, they showed that there was some damage, especially in one of the ligaments in the ankle so we’re going to miss him. I don’t want to [put a timeframe on it] because I am not a doctor but it is something quite significant so we’re going to lose him for a while – hopefully not months but let’s see.

Sounds more like months to me as ligament damage takes a while to repair. He joins Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mikel Merino on the injury list.

Any chance of early rotation tonight, especially with the game against Man City just a few days away?

No we are in September so we have to put the players that we believe are the best to win tomorrow. That’s the most important and only thing for us. – Mikel Arteta.

Experienced creative midfielders are in short supply at Arsenal but the Leandro Trossard ‘experiment’ was far from being a failure in our last match. Who is there in the game who can replicate the skill and level our captain plays when he’s on form? Few I think and bearing in mind Trossard isn’t used to playing more central, I thought he did well against Totts. The more he plays, the more effective he’ll become I’m sure.

The one thing we do know about this group of Arsenal players is that whoever plays, they will give their all for the shirt on their back.

Enjoy the game guys, catch up later.

 

 

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