Morning all.
European football for the 2022/23 season has kicked off. Man City breezed through their fixture but Chelsea suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb. Aubameyang made his debut for the west London club which according to reports, didn’t go as well as perhaps he or Thomas Tuchel hoped. Not as well as the new owner hoped clearly as he’s now sacked the German. What was it, £250m on players who probably thought they were going to be playing under Tuchel yet within just weeks, he’s out the door. What a classy club they are.
Whilst I’m quite please they lost, I really hope their form in the Champions League improves and make it through to the knockout stage. Same goes for Totts, Liverpool and Man City. No, I’m not going bonkers, I just don’t want any of them finishing 3rd and dropping into the Europa League. Better still would be Totts, Liverpool and Chelsea losing all their games and finishing bottom of their respective groups but I can’t see that happening. Saying that, whilst at the opticians today and chatting to the Chelsea fan testing my eyes, he was saying a win against Zagreb was a certainty.
One thing we all know is that in football, no result is a certainty pre kick off. Who’d have thought Man City would drop points at Aston Villa, against a team we truly battered in every department bar the scoreline, or Liverpool would fail to beat Everton. That’s the beauty of the game, or at least it is for the neutral.
Arsenal head off to Switzerland to face FC Zurich in the first of hopefully many Europa League fixtures tomorrow night. Domestically, Zurich have an awful start to the season and are without a win in their opening seven fixtures. They’ve come through the qualifying rounds in this competition but of course, it’s hard to draw any conclusions as the opposition hasn’t been that strong. Their last fixture was against Hearts which they won 1-0 to secure a 3-1 aggregate scoreline but it was only when Hearts went down to ten men did they score. The Hearts keeper Craig Gordon was struck by something thrown from the stand which isn’t good to read.
Our fixture kicks off at 5-45pm and Mikel Arteta is expected to make a few changes. Bukayo Saka could do with a breather, as could Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli in my opinion. I think Marquinhos, Vieira and Eddie Nketiah will start this one. Rob Holding, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney must be in contention to start too as well as Fabio Vieira.
But, is it risky to make a vast number of changes in the first fixture of a competition which is so important for the club this season? Zurich might turn out to be the whipping boys of our group but to take them lightly would be foolhardy. Not that I think Mikel Arteta would or will. Not now. The likes of Vieira, Marquinhos and even Nketiah must be desperate to start a game this season.
Arsenal need a win tomorrow for obvious reasons but also to bounce back after Sunday’s fiasco at Old Trafford. We played well but couldn’t make more of our opportunities created. Once that changes, one team we face is going to be on the receiving end of a battering. Hopefully Everton on Sunday as we get our league campaign back to winning ways, hopefully Zurich tomorrow night too.
It’s that time when fans can vote for their player of the month on Arsenal’s official website. The race for the August award is between Martinelli, Jesus, Odegaard and Saliba. Tough one but I reckon Saliba deserves it.
See you in the comments.
Afternoon Rico and all.
Going to be interesting to see who Arteta selects for tomorrow night’s match, I would like to see Jesus and Odegaard and maybe Saka start on the bench and if needed bring them on early in the second half.
Looking at how quick Chelsea sacked their coach; show’s how lucky Arteta was at the start of last season that he was coaching Arsenal not Chelsea.
Afternoon Geoff, all.
I think Arsenal are very different to Chelsea. There’s a plan at Arsenal whereas Chelsea just seem to throw money at random players just to get them through the door.
And it’s all Saudi money over there anyway Rico.
With the familiar shenanigans going on at Chelsea: Spend £250m; Drop £100m forward on loan; Sack manager; Sign new manager; it makes me wonder if Abramovich is still involved in some way? These are the types of move his guys used to pull.
His backroom staff have been booted out, but there is a familiar smell about this
From the previous post:
@kev I think that’s where I remember Ty from. Probably the away supporters’ trains up North. Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s we hardly ever took the coaches and when we started driving used to take an old banger up the M6 to games when it had petrol
@Cicero That’s the guy Northbank9. Quite a character. Had some amazing stories of Islington in the 60’s. Could write a book about it
There’s some really interesting stuff online from Eddie Symes about his time following Arsenal from the 1950’s. Well worth a look at his twitter account at least. Think he has a book published too.
At Chelsea Adam?
Yes Rico. The purchase was shrouded in mystery but it seems so.
Chelsea and Leipzig managers sacked after yesterday’s results. Complicated, no?
Afternoon, Rico and all.
I’m looking for a back-4 of Tierney-Holding-White-Coares, which would enable to have a rested Zinchenko-Gabriel-Saliba-Tomiyasu defense on Saturday.
I would also agree to rest Martinelli, Jesus, Saka and Odegaard, but if Smith-Rowe is indeed injured then we have only Nketiah, Marquinhos and Vieira (who is Fábio, not Pablo) to cover, leaving us a man short from resting the first team’s attacking 4. Similar applies to central midfield, and while Kev and I sincerely hope to see Matt Smith pairing up with Sambi Lokonga, I expect to see Xhaka again in the starting line-up.
I think everyone would deserve the award, even Xhaka or Gabriel, but my vote goes – not too creatively – to Jesus, as his goal involvements and consistently high ratings will be difficult to replicate every month.
You mean the new owner is not an honest American Adam? Lol
Afternoon Pb, just checking the post was being read. Lol
Have you watched Matt Smith play recently?
Allegedly Rico. 😀
Ha ha Adam, my guess is he isn’t…
Chelsea is what it is , it has a history of hiring and firing they only have their eye set on success. Whether Roman is still pulling the strings will always be a suspicion , but that will be a close kept secret .
This could be the match where Arteta holds the red rag to a number of supporters by making Xhaka captain on the night.As such depending on the way the match flows Matt Smith will wait until near the end for his debut.Marquinos however may well start.
With 5 subs allowed he should be able to shuffle things and get time on the pitch for a few of the fringe players.
I wonder if fans still hold a grudge against Xhaka though, he’s been so much better since Arteta arrived. I know he’s far from perfect but until he’s replaced properly, I think we’re a better team with him in it than without.
I imagine Lokonga is his future replacement, if he’s stays at Arsenal.
I haven’t seen full U21 games recently, Rico, apart from the Premier League Cup game against Swansea U23 (and Matt didn’t feature there), so I must admit I get my impression from match highlights, which don’t represent the real performance. Nevertheless my picture on Smith is being a young Özil: technically very gifted with great eye and right foot for through balls and defense-splitting passes, yet he is not too athletic, doesn’t score much, and not the most enthusiastic presser to put it mildly. Taking defensive contribution into consideration he is far from being the long-term prospect like Patino (who is 3 years Matt’s junior) but nether Charlie nor Azeez is available tonight, thus Smith is the closest to the first team level. Probably in standardized terms as well, but definitely when it comes to central midfield.
I only wondered Pb as you wanted Smith to play tomorrow so assumed you’d seen a bit him. I very much doubt he’ll start as it’s too big a jump for him imo but if we can get a few goals ahead, we might get to see him.
As JB suggested, he’s probably only in the squad because of his age.
Totts playing our cast offs tonight. Guendouzi, Tavares , Kolasinac and Alexis who unfortunately is not playing. Be nice to them get turned over
See them get turned over
Yep, would love to see Guendouzi get at a few, and Kolasinac.
Rico, I share your doubts over Smith playing a single minute tomorrow.
I cannot say this is his best chance, as the best (or only) chance to see academy players involved in first team games will be its second leg, the 6th group stage game on the 3rd of November. There is a good chance that not only our qualification, but even the group’s first place will be decide by then, and a home game against Zürich should be handled with a young squad. However if everybody is fit and available there will be no place for academy players, besides some un(likely)used spots on the bench.
Anyway, I don’t think Smith is included only due to his age, as Hillson or Lewis (who are both older than Matt) are not included. Smith was part of the matchday squad against United, trained with the first team the whole week, and I had the impression from JB that he expects him playing tomorrow along with Marquinhos.
I’d like to add one more name to my list of premiership managers likely to be the next one sacked, so to add to Gerrard, Lampard and Rodgers, after tonight’s events Naples I suggest Klopp might be in danger.
I meant age prevented him from being in the b squad Pb. Trouble is this season, all our “better younger” players are out on loan.
On that we have full agreement Rico.
Which might not be a bad thing in general, but taken into account that we sent academy players to the 2nd tier of Scottish(!), Dutch and Spanish football (including our 2 most promising prospects: Flores to Real Oviedo and Azeez to UD Ibiza) I am not particularly impressed apart from Balogun’s loan to Reims, and Patino plus BNC going to the Championship at the age of 18.
But you knew already that I’m quite difficult to impress. 🙂
Off to the land of cuckoo clocks, chocolate and crossbows for our young team, yep Xhaka to start in his homeland is a given and maybe a run-out from the bench for Matt Smith, but we’ll still see a strong team as we don’t want to ape Chelsea.
Go strong and win the group then we avoid the dreaded 2nd place play-off vs a 3rd place Champions League club. PSV seem our biggest rivals so we must beat them second match, but there’s a lot of strong CL teams who’ll drop into the Europa and Man Utd already in it and we’ve never beaten an English club in european footie, so I’m not confident of winning this competition.
Loaning players is not as easy to get right as we may think . The classic example is Gnabry but we have had a few others that have not worked out .either by no playing time ,clashes with work ethic , or just the style of football and being used as a stop gap to fill a shirt rather than developing their play.
We have tried loaning to the lower leagues in this country but how many teams operate similar styles to ours and does that help players blend into the Arteta style when they come back.
Over the years we have seen any number of players tearing up trees in junior ranks that go away and their careers falter and they disappear from football altogether. Owuso-Abeiye , J E T, , Lansbury as an example.
Man City have 2 at Girona , 1 at Marseille, Sao Paulo, and Vizela not exactly household names and 1 at Barnsley in League 1.
Chelsea , Liverpool and Totts have youngsters at Udinese , Degefors , Shalke , Chicago , Spezia , Blackpool and Napoli.
Loans are about player attitude as much as anything . If they have the will to progress then fighting to get game time is only the start of having to fight to get into our first team when they get back.
“Off to the land of cuckoo clocks, chocolate and crossbows for our young team”
There are plenty more Zurich cliches to add Kev:
– Gnomes
– Hoarders of Nazi wealth
– Money launderers
– Protectors of the corrupt
– German tax evaders
…
…..and the worst of the lot FIFA!
It looks like Brighton manager Graham Potter is to be appointed as Tuchel’s replacement.
Could Scott Parker, late of Bournemouth, move along the coast and become manager of The Seagulls?
How about Tuchel to replace Klopp?
Round and round goes the carousel. 😉
That’s true Pete, Switzerland is full of many and varied groups, such as WADA, the World Economic Forum (no I know nothing about them either), the World Trade Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organisation and the International Organisation for Migration. Jobs for the boys – and the girls and anyone inbetween or at either end ( I think I’ve covered all bases)…
Chavs announce Potter as their new manager.
I will do my best to screw them up.
Cirjan on the bench, Matt Smith on the bench, Cozier-Duberry on the bench.
Arsenal: Turner, Gabriel, Holding, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Xhaka, Sambi, Vieira, Marquinhos, Martinelli, Nketiah
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, White, Saka, Odegaard, Jesus, Saliba, Zinchenko, Cirjan, Smith, Cozier-Duberry
Afternoon guys.
New post up now