Morning all.
Good old Paul Merson, footballer turned pundit, well, he talks a lot for and on Sky Sports but I’m sure he means well.
Just like football fans, he and the sports panel predict the outcome of the matches each weekend and to be honest, they’re not often very successful. Last weekend was probably one of the worst for our old midfielder as he had Aston Villa down to beat Liverpool 1-0, and we all know what happened in that game!
Anyway, 3-0 would do for me, although I’m not sure it’ll be quite as easy as many might think.
Hull are sitting in a good place in the Championship, no doubt desperate to make a Premier League return and with a league fixture taking place on the same night as we face Barcelona, Steve Bruce is ringing the changes. Two are forced as on loan Chuba Akpom and Issac Hayden are illegible to play. On loan Utd player Nick Powell will make his debut and other squad players who haven’t featured much of late will also be given a start.
Arsene Wenger has already confirmed changes for today and with Barcelona coming to town in a couple of days time, I doubt we’ll see Coquelin, Alexis, Ozil, Monreal and definitely not Petr Cech.
No doubt Hull will defend with their lives, then try and hit us on the break. Abel Hernandez is the Championship’s leading goal scorer so if he starts, he could cause a few problems. Right-back Moses Odubajo likes to get forward so Gibbs/Monreal will need to be on his toes.
This is the third consecutive season that Arsenal and Hull have been drawn against each other and each time, Arsenal have come out on top but one only has to recall the final in 2014 to know that Hull can be a very dangerous side so they shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Today is the kind of day when the Arsenal squad players need to stand up and prove themselves against a side who are mean in defence and a side which regardless of being in the Championship or making changes, still contains a number of footballers who were not long ago, playing in the Premier League.
This will be Arsene Wenger’s 100th FA Cup match and to date he’s won 71 of them.
Best he makes it 72 today and we march on towards another trip to Wembley…
Morning all!
Hope we win today
Hopefully we’ll come through unscathed. We can’t afford even minor knocks to any players. Would love to take FA Cup again, and feel it is much more realistic than a Champions League win against Barca.
Agree Iceman – Barca might be the big game but this one today is equally if not more important… imo
Morning all, can’t see anything other than an Arsenal win, with perhaps a few scary moments thrown in for entertainment value…..
SHE WORE SHE WORE……
Battle of the squads Bt. Which group will want to prove themselves more….?
Hull will be up for this despite so many changes…
True Rico, Hull have nothing to loose, but I still doubt Arsenal will loose…..
Any team news yet?
Catch up at kick off…
Nowt yet Bt, hope you are right…
Catch you all later…..
SHE WORE SHE WORE!!!..
Arsenal starting XI: Ospina, Chambers, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Flamini, Elneny, Campbell, Iwobi, Welbeck, Walcott
Substitutes: Macey, Bellerin, Monreal, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sanchez, Giroud
according to the Evening Standard
Hull starting XI: Dean Jakupovic, Davies, Bruce, Maguire, Tymon, Taylor, Meyler, Maloney, Elmohamady, Powell, Diomande Dean
Substitutes: Kuciak, Odubajo, Huddlestone, Hernandez, Diame, Aluko, Robertson
According to me
Arsenal XI: Ospina, Chambers, Koscielny, Mertesacker Gibbs, Flamini, Elneny, Campbell, Iwobi, Welbeck, Walcott. Subs: Macey, Bellerin, Monreal, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis, Giroud.
Good Afternoon Lovelies and Hunkies.
I like the look of that line up. Its strong and well balanced…..and its a testament to Iwobi’s skill that he has been preferred instead of Ozil instead of the Ox. Then again it might mean that AW wanted to rest the Ox for the game against Barca.
I just hope that the team which plays grabs the chances offered…..we need DW, TW and JC to put pressure on Alexis, Ollie and the Ox.
I also thought that Chambers would have started in the CB position instead of Kos/Per. I have a sneaking feeling that Gabriel and Kos will be the CBs against Barca.
Gabriel is injury for more two weeks
We need to get a two goal cushion by halftime. That would render Hull’s big guns useless. If we get a good lead by HT Bruce will not risk playing them. But if its still 0-0 then Bruce will go for it in the last 20 mins.
We should have had a pen. But then again, remind me who the ref is???
No pen then…..
COYRRG’S!!
Didn’t take Dean long to start cheating
Powell is a strong lad…
That is another chance by Danny.
We have already had the customary shot by Elneny which was handled by Hull defender inside the 6 yrd box. Seems that the coaching staff has not yet managed to stamp out Elneny’s addiction to shooting. 😉 lol
iwobi has got the Elneny bug. he shoots from distance as well.
The commentator keeps mixing Iwobi and Danny lol
Taken Dean 25 minutes to give us s decision
Ball keeps falling to Flamini in the box and his first touch is pony
Bloomin heck, Deans booked a Hull player…
And another… He’ll need therapy later…
Jack spotted in the crowd, texting! Says it all really….
Danny was pushed from the side…..that shouldhave been another penalty.
I didn’t think it was….
Has shooting been banned from the game?
This is the problem if you don’t score early against these teams. They get organised and we don’t have any one with vision out there
half time….
Good performance but we don’t shot.
The usually…
Hope we can score early in the second half and then thw second for be more confortable until the end.
Agree Bob, all a bit boring in and around the box. We need a bit of magic from somewhere/someone…
We have had 61% possession. We have had 5 shots on target and 2 off target. Plus a legitimate penalty and another which I saw DW pushed. And we are still 0-0.
The team is playing well but we need to shoot more.
Campbell having a shocker
Here comes Fatty…
Keeper doing their usual out of skin match.
So close Campbell. Good save..
Huddlestonne on.. Lol
Dean has made sure its cards even as well
I would take off Flamini for the Ox, plus Campbell for Ollie.
Looks like the big guns are needed….
Alexis and Giroud
Keeper having the game of his life….as per usual at the Emirates lol
Another superb save…
Points for passes ?
Lucky Kos imo…
Probably best to take kos off now..
Might be sensible to sub Kos with Utd up next.
AW should take Kos off and put on Bellerin with Chambers going to CB
Quite like Elney. Keeps stuff simple and keeps the ball moving..
Would have been nice if he had touched him
Kos on thin ice now , Dean’s great chance . Wrong substitution
Ffs Sanchez..
We don’t even look like scoring…
Sanchez even worse than Campbell
We will not score today.
The reason we won’t win the league is we cannot score goals
Maybe hull will score for us Dev. .. lol
Another barn door day….
Ox should have buried that.
We won’t will we?
No…
Poor performance, poor finishing yet again.
We are still in it… 😉 😉
we played against the keeper today. 23 shots, 11 of which were on target. 65% possession.
And we still do not score.
Players earning fortunes should not mess up in front of goal so often. We must be the easiest team in the world to defend against. Shocking shocking shocking
The lack of goals in this team ia a real worry…
Our fixtures probaly must change again…
By the way, we have now 2 games a week until middle/end of March….
Not scored in the first half was “mortal” because the subs had the mind half in the game and other half on tuesday.
We don’t shoot, we don’t score goals. It’s the basic of the football.
It’s the Wenger way, pass, pass, pass….. Boring stuff..
God almighty that was pure frustration , Shoot when it’s not on and pass when it is. Cross when there’s no-one there pass inside when there is. Why move the ball quickly if you can take 3 passes to get to the same place. Tuesday we have Barcelona , God help us.
Spot on Potter.. Do these players have the ability to think for themselves?
Well get thumped on Tuesday…..
it’s another game and other competition
In those games, the ideally is score with those who played, normally when some are second choices.
The mean line-up have his head in next game against Barcelona, one of the most important teams of the world and game will be brodcasting to every place.
Before and between the internacional fixtures, the performances usually are not the best.
Nevertheless, we have more games to do. We still in 3 competitions, however in the Cahmpions League we have 1% of chanches to go through.
hope we can rearrange the fixtures for not playing twice a week.
1% Jm, that’s generous… Lol
Well done Reading, they beat West Brom 3-1 in the cup. Chuffed to bits…
Oh well, no point in chatting to myself.
Catch up tomorrow…
Don’t go getting all humpy now , at least like Kev and adam we were at home in the dry. I am sure they will be along later.
Not humpy at all….
Thought you’d gone
Gone doesn’t mean I don’t moderate.
That’s a;right then ,promise not to say anything naughty.
Drab, wet day, Shockingly uninspired performance. Awful result.
Thanks for your help Adam, much appreciated
The Hull fans celebrated at the end, as if they had won, and I suppose after their results against Arsenal over the last couple of seasons, it’s understandable.
The Hull goalkeeper was easily the star of the show, making some excellent saves behind the bus parked by Steve Bruce.
Our lack of a cutting edge was exposed by Bruce’s tactics, although Welbeck did ok I thought.
Walcott was, well, Walcott, whilst Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain did absolutely nothing to convince me that he is worth a massive pay rise!
I thought that Chambers had a steady game, Iwobi did ok, not sure about Elneny, he looks to me as if he needs to bulk up a bit as he is finding the physical side of English football a tad difficult.
We certainly didn’t need a replay, but at least we’re still in the hat…
rico, nothing wrong with chatting to yourself, I do it all the time and look how I turned out !
Rather we went out with a strong line up and make a good thing of progressing, instead of holding players back for a competition we can’t win.
Spot on Scott, fcuk the league !
Football is a game played between two teams of 11 vs 11 where the opposition have the ref giving them a helping hand besides being allowed to hire Manuel Neuer to play for them against Arsenal.
or else…..
Football is a game played between two teams of 11 vs 11 where the Gunners forwards seem to put a temporary spell on a shit goalkeeper and turn him into a worldclass one for 95 minutes.
Sad to say this Arsenal team couldn’t score in a bed of fanny’s !!!
Nite Gooners.
57 – Arsenal Matches Mike Dean has refereed
9 – Total penalties he has awarded in all of those 57 matches (3 for Arsenal, 6 for Arsenal’s opponents)
60 – Chelsea matches Mike Dean has refereed
20 – Total penalties he has awarded in those Chelsea matches (11 for Chelsea, 9 for the opposition)
51 – Man U matches Mike Dean has refereed
24 – Total penalties he has awarded in those Man U matches (16 for United, 8 for the opposition)
33 – Percent chance that Mike Dean will award a penalty in a Chelsea match
47 – Percent chance that Mike Dean will award a penalty in a Man U match
16 – Percent chance that Mike Dean will award a penalty in an Arsenal match
5 – Percent chance that Mike Dean will award a penalty for Arsenal in an Arsenal match
31 – Percent chance Mike Dean will award a penalty for Man U in a Man U match
31 – Percent chance Mike Dean will award a penalty in any match he has ever refereed
20 – Percent chance that Howard Webb would award a penalty in any match he had ever refereed
23 – Percent chance that Howard Webb would award a penalty in an Arsenal match
5 – Percent chance that Howard Webb would award Arsenal a penalty in an Arsenal match
24 – Percent chance that Mark Clattenburg will award a penalty in any match he has ever refereed
29 – Percent chance that Clattenburg would award a penalty in any Arsenal match he has ever refereed
100 – Percent chance that if Clattenburg awards a penalty, it will be for Arsenal¹
From season 2010/11 to date. Penalties awarded:-
Man city 42………………………………………………..Liverpool 39
Chelsea 38………………………………………………..Man Utd 36
Arsenal 28………………………………………………..Spurs 36
Everton. 24
Interesting.
Apologies to our neighbours :- Spurs 26
Does that show who has the divers, who cops the favours?
Or both??
Morning all.
Morning Scott and all..
Without seeing the penalties it’s hard to decide whether the players cheat or the ref is useless/a cheat..
Morning Rico and all. Yesterday was a dreary one all round I thought. We were back to the days of the square and backward pass. Hull were about as negative as it gets but we were pathetic really.
All who went should get a refund.
Morning Adam. If only someone would shoot when they are in acres of space…
So true Rico.
We had nothing.
Even though we dominated possession and had plenty of chances, we still lacked spark.
Very disappointing.
Morning All
Morning Rico
Morning Adam/Scott
Just been going through the fixtures and the only space available to us for the FACup replay vs Hull is March 8th/9th…
If we hopefully go through, that would mean West Brom (h) on March 12th being moved.
Progression into the FACup S/F means the Sunderland (a) on 23rd April being fitted in somewhere, with Euro 2016 looming…
And if, by some miracle, Arsenal get through against Barcelona, then it will really be fcuked up…
The final third play was really slow… I actually thought Elneny did well. He and Coquelin together could work well imo.
Hi Kev, I can not see us getting past Barca.
If we had Santi back and Alexis was firing, maybe, but it isn’t happening.
Rivo, Elneny has a long way to go, I reckon, but he has plenty of potential.
He is very smart, though.
Keeps things extremely simple, and works hard.
He’s a ripper of a buy, imo.
Morning Kev.
Can’t see us beating Barca… 😉
I liked the way he kept the ball moving Scott and as you say, keeps it simple. No flicks and tricks like…………. 😉
Rico, I know and I wish Aaron would get back to basics….it made him the player we all saw.
Scott, so do I.
Scott, I’m not interested in the CL this season.
Winning that competition is a bit of a pipe dream.
All those two games vs Barcelona can achieve, is cost us points in the EPL…
All I can really focus on is the EPL title
I agree, Kev.
Be the kings of England before we worry about taking on Europe.
I’ll be honest, I’d much rather the stronger team had played yesterday and rest them on Tuesday but I doubt they’d have liked that one bit. They want to be playing the best I guess….
New post up now.