Morning all.
Arsenal women, the only English club with a Champions League trophy to brag about, went to France and thumped the current champions Lyon, 5-1 in their own back yard. Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord, with two goals each, and Frida Maanum scored the goals. What an incredible result for Jonas Eidevall’s players. Zurich and Juventus are their next two opponents in Europe.
The men face PSV Eindhoven this evening at The Emirates. PSV have drawn one of their three Europa fixtures which was at home against Bodo, the other two, both against Zurich were comfortable victories if the scoreline is anything to go by. 5-1 away and 5-0 at home. Arsenal’s journey so far hasn’t been quite as comfortable but regardless, the players have worked hard and got the results needed which is why we’re sitting top of the group.
PSV are likely to present the toughest challenge in this competition so far with their manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy, no doubt desperate to get one over Mikel Arteta’s team. Whenever van Nistelrooy’s name is written or mentioned, I strongly suspect that like me, every Arsenal fan thinks of one thing, his penalty miss. As a player, he was great but also ghastly. His antics got Patrick Vieira sent off in the same game as the penalty miss and the as they say, is history.
The Dutch club are second in the Eredivisie, just one point behind Ajax and so far this season, have scored 35 goals in just 10 domestic games. Correct me if I’m wrong but the Eredivisie is nothing like the Premier League where every game is hard rather that a handful. Nevertheless, it’s a warning that PSV will score goals if they’re given the opportunity. Cody Gakpo, linked to Arsenal along with other Premier League clubs back in the summer, is the one to watch. 9 goals in 10 games is good going. On the opposite wing, Xavi Simons isn’t far behind him with 8 goals.
Mikel Arteta:
I think it’s a really good team. I think what Ruud has done with his team, the way they play, you just see the amount of goals they are scoring in their domestic league, the way they are performing in the Europa League as well, they are a really dangerous team.
Van Nistelrooy:
They’ve had a great start. Ten games in the season, with nine wins, it’s an amazing start from them, the way they are playing. Arteta is developing his team with his style of play and he has done well with a young side – it’s a very promising team that’s a joy to watch. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to come here and test ourselves.
Team news. Both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Martinelli are doubts so I expect neither to be in the squad tonight but other than Mo Elneny and ESR, no other injuries were mentioned in Mikel Arteta’s press conference. In fact he gave little away at all really in terms of his team selection for this game, saying he’d decide who starts tonight’s game, today. I really don’t know why people bother to ask him about his team selection because he’s not going tell them but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a slightly stronger starting eleven than we’ve seen so far in this competition in order to give us the best chance of securing our place in the knockout stages. Anything but a loss later and we’re through.
Fingers crossed eh….
Wellcome back Rico
You have really been missed.
Sorry for my email yesturday.
Going to catch up now after seeing Forest win
Yes. Welcome back Rico.
Hi Rick, Adam. It’s good to be back. I think. 😂
So far so good today , Liverpool lost and Rico is up and running again .
However City have quite expectantly beaten Brighton so we need 3 points tomorrow at St Mary’s to maintain the gap and Forest just having their confidence boosted are next on the horizon.
Being top is not easy it adds a further level of pressure and Arteta has been hamstrung in some ways by the injuries to Zinchenko , Smith-Rowe , Elneny and Cedric which has restricted his ability to switch things about and rest some of the players that risk getting overplayed or are carrying knocks
We have at least 10 maybe 11 players going to Qatar and two of those are in the most of important positions. Turner has shown that he can be a good replacement should Ramsdale get a n injury but if he goes down too,.. we have Hein who is one for the future but probably not ready yet.
I guess all of us will follow the world cup hoping for a few injuries to everybody but us , we will be watching our players with trepidation.
Well done Nottingham Forest. They can get back to losing now though. Lol
I wouldn’t put my name in the same sentence as running Potter. Lol
Hopefully, ESR and Mo Elneny will be back after the World Cup which will be a bit of a boost. But yes, the competition could really hurt us. Hopefully not though..
I was beginning to think we had lost you Rico, I’m very relieved that we hadn’t.
Gerrard sacked, no surprise there just amazement that he was appointed in the first place. His managerial cv consisted of Liverpool academy manager and a spell at Rangers in the perennially two horse race that is laughably called the Scottish Premiership.
A very ordinary performance from Liverpool and a deserved defeat by Nottingham Forest.
Aubameyang back to his decidedly average self, two good chances against ManU two chances muffed.
now gone off !
neither team look special
Thanks Cicero. No surprise here either re Gerrard, I don’t particularly like him but another young English manager cast aside quite quickly which is a shame in so many ways.
Crikey, all go in the final few minutes..
Good result though for us if we can get three tomorrow
Fergie Time lives on!
Very much so, I hope we can finish our chances tomorrow.
Morning Rico and all
Let’s hope we can have a nice easy win today to keep the 4-point buffer.
Good to see your site up again Rico just intime for today’s match.
Morning Geoff, all.
I enjoyed the break 😂
New post up now