Jonker busy, Gnabry back & Should we expect a glut of goals?

Morning all.

First up, great to see Serge Gnabry get 67 minutes playing time for the under 21’s last night. Having him back in the first team squad can only be good and both Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will have to up their game.

Staying with the Academy, young Chris Willock and Ben Sheaf have signed their first professional contract with the club having turned 17 years old. Seems Andries Jonker his sorting his lot out…..

Tonight we face a side who are in all sorts of problems. Their manager has been in the press for all the wrong reasons and his team sit bottom of the league with just 17 points and look favourites for a return to the Championship.

Having started so well in the Premier League, in fact they were 7th at one stage, Leicester have gone on to fall away rapidly.  They can’t buy a win and have lost eight of their last 10 away league games. Together with Qpr, they have managed to keep a clean sheet just four times this season which is the lowest in the league.

Not only do Leicester struggle to keep a clean sheet, scoring goals is also a problem and have managed to find the back of the net just 21 times.

The last time we played Leicester at home in the league was back in the 2003/04 season, the very last game of that campaign and a 2-1 victory secured our Invinsible title. What a season that was eh but haven’t we fallen away since then…..

As we fight for the top four trophy, they are fighting for survival and sometimes that can cause an upset, so I hope the players remain focussed and don’t just expect to turn up and win.

Leicester should be cannon fodder, this is the type of game in which we really should stamp our authority from the first kick of the ball until the final whistle. We need goals and plenty of them.

The return of Alexis Sanchez to the squad is great news and hopefully the rest of the team have had a rocket up their jacksie after Saturdays pathetic showing.

Arsene has compared our Chillean to Ian Wright…

He is a bit like Ian Wright. He has the enthusiasm of Ian Wright. He is quieter than him but that is not difficult and he doesn’t get booked!

He is dynamic and he does both parts of the game. He’s important in the team because of that, because he wins you the ball back quickly as well

Alexis is more with the Spanish players of course but he is loved by everybody. He is very friendly and bubbly every day.

It was difficult for him not to play [at Tottenham], if it was the last game of the season he would have played.

We are at home and have won our last seven fixtures in all competitions. Our last showing was a ruthless 5-0 thrashing of Aston Villa I hope the buys can replicate that feat. In fact a similar scoreline would see us jump up to 3rd place if the neighbours don’t beat Liverpool at Anfield. Southampton have a tricky fixture against West Ham tomorrow night.

No doubt Stan Kroenke and Arsene Wenger will be getting twitchy about the top four situation and history suggests that this time of year is when the results start to improve as everyone wants to be playing Champions League football next season.

We’ll see I guess but as we all know, 2nd place is still up or grabs but to get there, we need to raise our level, work a lot harder and every player has to put a shift in.

Hoping for a big win tonight but with this Arsenal team, you just never know what to expect….

I’ll also be hoping the Dippers get at least a draw…. Ouch, that hurt….

Have a good Tuesday…

COYRRG’S!!

179 thoughts on “Jonker busy, Gnabry back & Should we expect a glut of goals?

  1. Wavy says:

    Good read Rico.
    As you say we are igniting for the fourth place trophy and they are playing for the fourth from bottom survival plate!
    They probably won’t score but……so we have to get more goals than them tonight. And there we have a statement of the obvious. Yer, I’m on fire today

    Happy match day all.

  2. tsgh says:

    A fine post..

    Serge in my opinion has been missed; he is arguably the best winger we have at the club even though he is not a winger; tactically he is like a 25y.o; shame he has similar DNA as Abou coming from Cote D’Ivoire.

    Cheeky man you are Scott; Jan was a fine coach- its the fied chicken I liked that did not help… 😉

  3. tsgh says:

    oh… I see. 🙂

    Most continental coaches are awesome…

    I have a young nephew who is 13 and lives in Belgium and the coaching he gets is amazing according to his dad.
    Unfortunately, he is at an age where video game comes first for him…

  4. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Good Morning Hipsters and Swashbucklers.

    Nice Post Lady Boss. Do we expect a goleada tonight??? I do that for every game, Chavs, Manure and Shitty included. If the Spuddies can put 5 past the Chavs, than we with the team we have can do so as well. If Shitty can put 6 past Manure, than we can do so as well. so I go with that hope for every game. However, with this team you never know as you rightly said.

    Yes…..I EXPECT a glut of goals tonight. And not concede as well.

    Gnabry is back. But it will be a while before we see him playing with the first team….unless he becomes a b2b midfielder. A feeling I have had for a long time since I saw him playing. I feel he is more suited to that role than to the role of a winger.

    I hope the dippers and WHU get a draw form their games vs the Scum and Southampton.

  5. potter says:

    1 point each at Anfield tonight would be my preferred result providing we get three against Leicester . That gives us a 2 point lift against the other two and a 5 point buffer against Liverpool. A lot of goals for the goal difference would be handy but the points are more important.

  6. rico says:

    They were definitely out on Saturday Scott… lol

    Draw for me too up there Potter but if one has to win, I hope it’s the home team as we have to play them at home… 3 points are a must…..

  7. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Continental coaches, especially those who are teachers as well by trade are more equipped to teach young kids than some of the English coaches I have seen. Once we had a couple of coaches over from the FA (around 12 years ago) and literally I was LMAO. It was so boring. The coaching was good but it was very basic and not creative. With young kids between 8 and 10 years it must be enjoyable, full of agility, combined with skills and full of FUN.

    Ah yes…..I used to enjoy tying BALOONS to their shoe laces , put around 15 in an area of 10×10 metres and tell them to try and burst each other’s balloons. The last one standing with a balloon tied to his foot wins the game. Those who go out of the game must go to the side to juggle and do ball tricks.

    Ah yes….I used to enjoy giving each kid a ball and they have to dribble the ball but at the same time tag a player/steal his bib or kick another kid’s ball away while still dribbling yours.

    And that my mates……is how you learn ball skills and make them enjoy football.

  8. Joaquim Moreira says:

    yes, Devil “a goleada” tonight!
    We must look for ourselves now, get points , score goals wth a clean sheet.
    We can´t forget we are ain Fa.Cup and Champions league also, and the others, mostly are in the other european competition except MU. At te end, tis can made the dfference.

  9. Wavy says:

    A word of caution.
    Don’t underestimate Leicester City! They are not as bad a team as their league position would suggest. They have goal scorers, good pros who know how to play the game! They will fight for every ball and we must match them and better them.
    I get the feeling that we are a little over confident. The result, in our favour, is not a foregone conclusion!
    They have often proved to be our bogey team, home and away. Remember the game at their place earlier this season, we were cruising and then crashed, should never have drawn, but we did! For as long as I can remember they have done well against us.
    Then again, given our general form lately we should win by 4! So nothing to worry about, really!
    Have a nice day all, and an even better evening!

  10. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Wavy….I am not overconfident. Its what I want and expect. I expect us to respect them and expect us to score a glut of goals as well. And by respecting them means keeping it tight at the back and take all the chances in front of goal.

  11. AndrewH says:

    Hi rico, House, good post.

    I know its easy to think Saturday was pathetic, but without an extremely good header at the end, wouldn’t we have thought, job done, not great but defensively looked fairly tight. Its easy for one moment to cloud our thoughts. And Giroud actually had a far easier heading chance but fluffed it.

  12. HenryB says:

    I enjoyed the Post, Rico, thank you. 🙂

    I know nozzink but when the blood is up, and the guys are smarting from an embarrassing defeat, it often encourages them to go all out and then when leat expected the opposition get a lucky or breakaway goal.

    My wish/advice is that we go about tonights game calmly and professionally and remembering that patience is the recipe for success.

    [I wish I could take my own advice sometimes.] 🙂

  13. HenryB says:

    AndrewH,

    I tend to agree with you. It was a tale of two headers, Kane beat Kozzer to the ball, when he should not have, and scored well, because no one was on the back post – Giro at the other end had a ‘free header’ in front of goal, and almost hit the corner flag.

    Such is football, such is life.

  14. rico says:

    Hi Andrew, thanks and to you Hb…

    Wavy, so will we win or not then? 😉

    Andrew, Kos could have put a bit more effort into getting his head to the ball before Kane….

  15. allezkev says:

    Yes, we don’t wanna be going all gung-ho tonight, but an early goal would be nice, and a clean sheet for the defence to rebuild its confidence from…

    I’m looking at 3-0, but more goals in the Leicester onion would be very welcome, goal difference and all…

  16. rico says:

    Thanks Kev…

    You serious about the earlier post, no problem if you are as it can easily be done… 🙂

    Early goal like against Villa would be ideal, might just open them up when going for an equaliser…

  17. tsgh says:

    Ditto above Wavy…
    Their 2 CB’s- Morgan and Liam Moore are very solid defenders. AW missed a trick there not signing either instead of Chambers last summer…
    Hopefully, our old boy Upson starts tonight.. 🙂

  18. Wavy says:

    Palms of hands facing skywards, shoulders lifted, quizzical facial expression, (in best traditions of the French shrug), “who can say? Who will win, or what the score will be?!”

  19. allezkev says:

    Hiya Coach, just finished my tea break…

    I wonder if Bielik will get a run out in either of the next two games…

    The fixture list is gonna be more congested after Boro, so Wenger has to manage his resources wisely…

  20. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Aye mate……he has to use them more wisely and rotate. For example….no good playing Ozil and Cazorla together. alternate them and rest them. Likewise with Theo and Danny. Same with Ox and Sanchez. AW has so many permutations that most likely he will get mixed up in them.

    Its the same in midfield where he can juggle a bit especially when Arteta returns.

    The only problem lies in two places…..Jack when he returns (and what he will or will not do with the ball) and Debuchy (who is out long term and it could be murder to expect Bellerin to play for the rest of the season there)

  21. allezkev says:

    Wilshere to feature in the Boro game, either as a starter or from the bench.
    Welbeck as centre-forward with Akpom on the wing from the start, seems the way to go, for me…
    Gabriel to earn his wings vs Boro…

    How far off fitness is AOC, anybody?

  22. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Bielik will play if we are safely ahead with a 2/3 goal cushion. He will sub Aaron or Santi with around 20 mins to go. But he will not replace Coquelin unless the latter picks up an injury.

  23. allezkev says:

    Coach, doesn’t Arteta and Debucy come back in mid-April..?

    Is Hayden fit yet?

    Gnabry will be like a new signing… 🙂

    Wenger will need them all if we go on towards two Wembley fixtures.

    Whilst it’s looking likely that we’ll progress beyond Monaco, so at least two more CL games to add to the midweek mix…

  24. Rick says:

    Afternoon Rico and the House.
    A header from Kaylen Hinds has given our U17’s a 1-0 win over River Plate and see us playing Aspire or PSG in the semi final on friday.
    This was an outstanding performance by our lads one we should be proud of.
    Through out the game they were the victims of some very bad challenges from the Argentinean side but managed to keep their cool and did not retaliate.
    A mass brawl broke out at the end of the game between both sets of players
    but in the end we finished with honour River Plate in disgrace.

  25. Hell Raising Devil says:

    against Boro it would be ideal to begin with Danny and Akpom up front. Maybe Theo on the left as well.

    And yes….I would still play Ospina as keeper. I like Ches….but imo he needs to sort his head out.

  26. Rick says:

    Some news after last night
    Serge has said he is now pain free and wants to get back in the first team as soon as poss He also said he is rusty and needs a few games under his belt.
    Let him play in the next 3 u21’s and then he should be ready.
    Kev Isaac is out untill April , and the Ox for another fortnight.

    Beilick was not included in our P/L squad so cannot play for the first team.

  27. Rick says:

    So am I Rico.
    But the highlights of last nights game show he is not fully match fit.
    I think we should give him untill the end of the month and then we will see the real Serge.

  28. rico says:

    I’m not convinced he will be Rick…

    Be interesting to see how the FA dish the money out, it sure is an awful lot. Dreadful really when one looks at the bigger picture and what goes on in the world….

    Wonder what Sky pay for CL and other matches…..

  29. Rick says:

    Yes I think he could Kev but I get the feeling he will not play for the first team untill he has played for the U21s or the Youth Team in the youth cup.

  30. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Rick, that River Plate captain, was a nasty piece of work. along with plenty of his team mates.
    Thought the boys played well throughout the whole game. Great result.

  31. Wavy says:

    Palms of hands facing skywards, shoulders lifted, quizzical facial expression, (in best traditions of the French shrug), “who can say? Who will win, or what the score will be?!”

  32. Wavy says:

    Palms of hands facing skywards, shoulders lifted, quizzical facial expression, (in best traditions of the French shrug), “who can say? Who will win, or what the score will be?!”

  33. allezkev says:

    Yes Rick, I am parked in Highbury Station Road, killing a bit of time before I have to feed the blasted parking meter…

  34. allezkev says:

    The Evening Standard is suggesting that Sanchez will start tonight, and Gibbs for Monreal…
    Must be tactical?

  35. Hell Raising Devil says:

    That formation 4-1-4-1 formation nor a 4-2-3-1.

    Imo it is a 4-1-3-2 formation with Theo and Sanchez more advanced than Ozil, Cazorla and TR07.

    That means that AW will rely a lot on Bellerin being a right winger with Monreal holding slightly back.

  36. bradster says:

    I see this being a low one. I think we needed Giroud for this one. It’s gonna be pass pass pass around their box with no penetration.
    I took the bet yhis will be a 1-1 draw.

  37. Hell Raising Devil says:

    That was quite similar to the 1st goal by Kane against us. Morgan lost Kos and gave him half a yard of pace. Around the 6 yard box that is suicidal. On Saturday the same happened with the spuds first goal. Shows how tight you need to be with opposing players.

  38. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Bellerin needs to be careful. He is leaving acres of space behind and while he is very technical and good going forward he must be careful defensively.

    Well done Theo. 2-0.

    Lords and Ladies…..just notice that Ozil had a hand in both goals. Twice he tested Schwarzer and twice what followed resulted in goals.

  39. Hell Raising Devil says:

    I would leave out Sanchez for the 2nd half. I would put Welbeck instead.

    As I pointed out when I saw the line up AW is playing a 4-1-3-2 formation today. And as I expected Bellerin would be deployed more as a winger than as a FB. However, this is hampering the team imo. We are being stretched on our right hand side and while it helps in the attack, if you see the Coquelin’s heat map it shows that he is playing more on the right than on the left side of the pitch. Monreal is not going up as much as Bellerin and he is more sound defensively.

  40. scottfromoz says:

    Rico, he can still do it, he’s that good.
    Well, he was last season hahahahahaha.
    Bradster, I’ve been feeling this pain for years….what is sleep, anyway lol

  41. Hell Raising Devil says:

    That was a lousy goal to concede.

    Leicester are coming into the game. Our players need to be careful not to loose concentration.

    That was dirty by Vasilevski. Only a yellow??? that was blatantly intentional on Ospina.

  42. Hell Raising Devil says:

    That has to be a howler of laughable proportions…..OG booked for standing outside the penalty area when Schwarzer kicked the ball.

    LOOOOOLLLLLLLLL

    The ball hit OG and the ref compounded the keeper’s mistake by making a worse mistake.

    That was an idiotic yellow.

  43. Judge me in May says:

    What a painful second half to watch…
    We definitely need a viera type of a midfielder as our lot got pushed and shoved all the time with minimal physical contact…
    We can’t rely on the corrupted incompetent PGMOL to do us any favour..
    Sanches had an off day and didn’t get any protection from the useless ref..
    Le coq did very well imo and hopefully he continues to improve..
    Walcot with all the frustration he brings, took his chance and scored the winning goal..
    Ramseys season so far has been very disappointing.. He should never have got married..
    What a lazy lacklustre performance from Le quiff..
    He should be ashamed.. In fact he should be fined a week salary..
    Top work ethics from monreal and the defence in general..
    Midlsborough are top of the championship and will be up for it in the cup..
    We need to raise our game and hopefully Le Prof picks the right team and tactics.
    Good result at scouseland..
    Night gooners..

  44. allezkev says:

    Mike Jones is simply the most inept referee that I have seen in years…

    Leicester got away with a litany of fouls and handballs.

    And Jones punished us for everything.
    All what was missing was the obligatory soft penalty for Leicester as required by Jones’ puppet master at the PGMOL…

    Rosicky and Carzorla worked their nuts off, but I can’t say the same about Theo.
    Yes he scored a poachers goal, but I’m not sure of what else he did before being subbed…
    Wenger said that the team were nervous, well I wonder if they pick up that nervousness from him, as the Arsenal team being ‘nervous’ has become a nasty habit…

  45. scottfromoz says:

    My dad watched, and he has no real intricate knowledge of the game, but said Leicester consistently got away with fouls whilst we gave away plenty for doing little.
    A few months back, I told him that’s a weekly situation and laughingly suggested I was biased.
    Now he watches regularly and wants to know how these pricks get away with it.

  46. Wath says:

    Morning Scott,

    Seems your mate Aaron could be on his way to see you for a nice long holiday…!
    Someone mentioned him getting married and hence his poor form lol

    Maybe it’s true 🙂

  47. rico says:

    Morning Scott and all…

    Good result at Anfield, need to make sure we beat the dippers at home now, although we’ll have to play a lot better than we did last night….

  48. scottfromoz says:

    Hi guys.
    Aaron again…damn.
    Then there’s Alexis.
    Plenty of Gooners condemned Wenger for not playing Sanchez on the weekend, yet with even more time to recover, it’s obvious the guy still isn’t healthy enough to play.

  49. frednerk says:

    I’m I on the wrong page,
    Morning all anyway.
    This squad has not moved on like we hoped,
    saturday showed us that,
    is it the players,
    is it team the selection,
    My opinion is wenger has’nt got a clue.
    We all know now the players
    wanted more balance in the team,
    What is balance,
    is to stay compact,
    is to play a big guy up tops,
    is to have width and speed,
    is it plan A or B we are seeing.
    We were second best saturday,
    that was no good.
    Last night wenger changed it again,
    put it like this,if the BFG did’nt play,
    that team last was like looking at a
    bunch of midgets running around,
    Big grown men.

  50. Wath says:

    I hear ya Scott, You Mrs told me your great with the dishes though…………..! Were you a juggler…?

    Sanchez got a bang to the knee Scott, wasn’t his hammie…! Aaron’s is hammie reportedly.

    As for Theo Rico not sure what his problem is….. It’s never been any different but it’s oh so obvious when others do put in a bit of a shift and he don’t…!

  51. allezkev says:

    It was kinda predictable last night, as soon as it was suggested that we’d win by 5, 6 or 10 goals…

    I knew it was gonna be closer, but not ‘that’ close!

    As soon as Leicester scored our confidence slipped away.

    Wenger has filled this team with players who are too soft and too nice.

    We need a couple more, I hate this term but it’s applicable, warriors… Players that’ll get in the face of the opposition and that’ll pressurize the referee.

  52. rico says:

    Morning Fred, with Alexis and Theo we had both width and speed but needed Welbeck or Ollie in the centre. Everything we tried went through the middle which was packed with Leicester players. Too much pass, pass, pass and getting nowhere…

  53. rico says:

    Wath, you have a point, he’s a lazy so and so. Theo should have ripped their defence apart last night but to do that, he needs to move about a bit.

    Does he? No..

    Morning Kev…

  54. scottfromoz says:

    Fred, we won, so of course we have moved forward.
    We beat Citeh two weeks back, so how you come up with that comment is beyond me.
    Not so long ago we’d have conceded another last night and Leicester played some decent football….and wrestling, but hey let’s ignore that bit as referees are no excuse, and no factor at all, right?
    Yeah, right.
    You’d swear we lost reading that.
    Wath, haven’t you heard the song…the knee ones connected to the…hamstring 🙂
    Sanchez wasn’t his normal self, so the lad needs to be told when he’s fit.
    I love his enthusiasm though……
    Kev, let’s see Gabriela as one thing he appears to be is a hard nut…hope he gets a run out ASAP.

  55. tsgh says:

    There is nothing wrong with being nice and cuddly.. 🙂
    Have you not read about the smiley assasins Wath? 🙂 Micko and Bt know them.

    Lets be honest this team is where we are and should be. in my view its either AW’s fault or the fans expect too much…

    I am not a scout but lastseason and over the summer I mentioned Liam and Morgan as defenders/CB’s we should be buying but instead AW bought Chambers…

    Its like IG, Fox and Dick took money to Southampton for Morgan Schneiderlein and their board said to those stooges… why don’t you keep £10m and then we will give you a young English player who was good in the first part of the previous season but got found out afterwards.

    Morning all btw….

  56. potter says:

    Beating City was a good result but doesn’t herald anything great. Their last 6 results are DWDLDD , not a great return 7 points out of 18 , all this since Yaya went to Africa . He will be be back soon but who knows he might bring back a bug like his brother did all those years ago. They are seriously out of form . I didn’t see last nights match but I have the Sky hour long coverage recorded to watch later . Trawling reports though at one end we are too weak at the other the now admitted Ferguson kick em off the park tactics were implemented and Untold went into refereeing meltdown . Still 3 points , lets go home.

  57. tsgh says:

    I am with you Scott.
    The issue is that as an ardent AW supporter, I expected him to make decisions that would get folks of his back…
    He continuously shoots himself in the foot.

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