Morning all.
I didn’t realise moving to the New Forest would see me bombarded with text messages not only when Southampton win, but when Arsenal stumble to victory. Streaky wins, favouritism from the officials and how our players cheat their way to victory by deploying every dark art in the book – all thrown my way. It’s all friendly banter of course from workmen who seem to have been at my home as long as I have. I managed to get my own back a little yesterday when Fulham were disallowed a goal because Jarred Gillet got a decision wrong, not that he usually gets many right of course, but Southampton usually avoid him being a Championship club. Anyway, with the Hants club in the draw tonight, part of me hopes we draw them at home but the other part of me dreads us drawing them away. Mind you, they might get me a ticket if we do…
Fingers crossed we draw Port Vale at home. Our home I mean, not theirs although the latter wouldn’t be too bad. Now the players have had 95 minutes on a bumpy and worn pitch, they should be better next time around.
I loved the fact that 16year-old Max Dowman and Marli Salmon started against Mansfield Town and considering the robust approach by the home team, I thought both handled themselves really well. Both will grow physically and mentally and in all likelihood will become even better players than they already are. Whether or not Mikel Arteta will field a similar starting eleven should we be drawn against a Premier League club remains to be seen of course.
The draw takes place this evening at The London Stadium just before West Ham play Brentford in the last tie of this 5th round. The quarter-finals take place on the weekend of the 4th and 5th April.
Kepa Arrizabalaga spoke about them, Jaden Dixon and the performance after the game:
Wow – at 16, they play at the highest level. And how they play – they play so well. They’re special kids who are used to training with us, they’re used to being around us. They had the opportunity, I think they took it, and I’m so happy for them.
We lost some important balls, but I thought we also had some opportunities to kill the game, which we didn’t do, and we gave them the confidence to be in the game until the end. It’s something we have to improve, we have to be more clinical in both boxes. That’s something we have to focus on for the next games, because they’re very important.
Kepa is right, our youngsters are special and every game now is important. Hugely so. Eight Premier League games of which five are at The Emirates. Two of the away fixtures are in London and you don’t need me to tell you where the other one will be played. Before we head to the Etihad on April 19th, we face City at Wembley in the League Cup Final after which there is an international break.
As we all say though, it’s one day at a time and one game at a time for Arsenal and that takes place on Wednesday in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen. It’s an early kick off for UK viewers, 5-45pm.
Talk about going from one extreme to the other eh.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Gooners, morning Rico, good post.
The end of the comments from yesterday’s post had me thinking I’d stumbled onto a Battersea Dogs Home blog, Rico you’d love my neighbour Jason, he’s got 4 dogs and a cat (that stays out of the way) they always greet me with a cacophony of noise whenever I’m in the garden. My old cat never ventures into their garden for some reason?
Hey Stu, your boys took one hell of a beating, not sure putting them into bat was a wise choice.
Morning Kev, thanks.
Cats can be smart then. lol
Jason sounds like a good one.
We gave up on pets when the last two sadly passed . We now have 2 dogs and 3 cats on boot hill in the garden although the neighbour’s cats think they own the place , I often think about loaning a friends springers for a week or two and reset the area.
Strange kick off time and will the drug company Bayer close early to allow the staff to get there .
Their manager Hjulmand is reportedly under pressure following inconsistent domestic results, though he remains in charge ahead of key fixtures, including a Champions League clash against Arsenal. So all may not be happy in their camp , I am sure that Mr Hincapie will know more about that.
Tonight West Ham play Brentford who are on the cusp of European football qualification and the home team are one good result away from changing places with our near neighbours .
It will be interesting to see how this affects the team selections tonight.
Why the draw takes place before the match tonight I can’t imagine , surely it is better to play the match and then find out who you are going to face .
I too think it’s bonkers to have the draw before tonight’s final cup game.
Foster a Jack Russell for a couple of weeks Potter, that will sort them out. Lol