Arsenal v Napoli Preview

51 thoughts on “Arsenal v Napoli Preview”

• Seventeenho is back!!! I guess it will be just a one off for now but good to read your thoughts again… and they have been expressed very well indeed. I am off to the V&A museum in Dundee but will respond later today. 🙂

• 17ht, as a buddhist myself, i would say, OGAAT. For the lads, focus on the now. The last few games are winnable, and do it please.

  We have to put at least 2 goals past the Naples team to have a chance of going through, with a GD of 2 or 3 should do it nicely for us. We have the team currently, and we need all to turn up their momentum.

• HT …. great preview with all the imagery. I guess a Zen Buddist cannot be a football enthusiast of the likes of me, so concerned with results. To him the process is an end in itself. He is loftier than even the OGAAT.

  Yes, we found ourselves fighting on two fronts, unlike Hitler, not by choice. Perchance, after our Napoli and Watford fixtures we might be better placed to prioritize. Two good wins wouldn’t aid that decision but would be very welcome.

  Emery has been clever in his rotation of the players over the season that they might still be able to cope with our remaining congested fixtures.

  Against Napoli we should put all our eggs in the home basket. Simply roll the dice. We shouldn’t hold any dreams about our away form. So for today, if I was Emery I would have all my guns blazing.

  ~~~~~~~~~Cech~~~~~~~~
  ~~~~~Sokr. Kosc. Monr.~~
  Niles. Torreira. Ramsey. Kola.
  ~~~~~~~~~~Ozil~~~~~~~~~
  ~~~~~~~Auba. Laca~~~~~~

• Confirmed team news. See above. That’s 100%.

• Bench: Leno, Musti, Elneny, Douzi, Suarez, Iwobi, Mkhi.

• Alright. Did anyone else here know–
  “Lucas Sebastián Torreira Di Pascua”
  –was Torreira’s full name?

  jw1

• Well done PE for predicting correctly! 🙂

  Seventeenho, all good points. I guess finishing top four will mean there will be more funds to be able to compete in the CL, so I am not too worried about our ability to do so. I reckon we are able to play better football but it really requires either or both of Xhaka/Torreira to play in the DM pivot and Mesut to play in the hole. We can play Ramsey for Torreira (or possibly Ozil) so that gives us a bit of flexibility. However, I reckon Xhaka is now our most important player and if and when he does not play we look a lot more clueless. I am willing to give Emery time to get the balance right in midfield and no doubt he will buy one or two midfielders this summer.

• But there is also a part of me that believes Emery does not get it/ is not that interested in proper balanced midfield play…

• It is a mouth full, jw1 🙂

• Well done, PE…and maybe it shows that you should be doing the previews…

  A day on and I feel like maybe I should have kept quiet as my piece was more a meditation on what I’m seeing…when I’m able to watch it. Maybe it has to do with the way we’re “tearing down” (in order to rebuild?) AND moving the goalposts in terms of our ambitions…but I just don’t see too much good football being played. We’re not quite setting up (at home, for sure) like ManU did yesterday against Barca, but is it all that different?

  That said, we’re doing nicely in the first 10 mins against Napoli, appearing unafraid to push the ball forward…and almost making some actual shots on goal…

• Lichsteiner is even more done at Arsenal than my avatar guy?…

  Napoli starting to find their feet…

• RAMBO!!! That was nice work… AMN and Ozil got the break going then Laca nutmegged a defender to find AMN who laid off where Ramsey couldn’t miss…

• And a second is scored after LT11 nips in, pulls back and shoots! It might have been going just wide but the deflection is center of the net…

  We probably should have had a third after Auba poached as Napoli tried to play out of their half. Laca whiffs instead…

  Comprehensive thus far…

• Big chance for Napoli at the end of the half to pull one back but Insigne hits into row Z. It maybe proves that we’re still vulnerable although 2-nil is a good scoreline after 45. The half ends as another flowing move finds the Napoli keeper’s hands instead of the net…

  Very impressive (IMO) but it could have been even more…

• All good by the sounds of it (listening to radio). Torreira providing good balance?!

• Whoa… Another terrible miss from Napoli. As many good moves as we’ve had, we probably have to be most grateful that the opponent has spurned their pair of sitters, esp. given the away goal rule…

  As such, I wonder about “balance.” Over and over we’ve stolen possession near the mid-line and then poured forward…but maybe it’s made us vulnerable those couple of times they’ve been able to push the ball up the side and then cross. LT coming off for Elneny in the 77th, perhaps to address this issue?…

• Another (really) bad miss, this time from Ramsey… It was on a plate from Mkhi…

  On the plus side, the sheet remains clean into the 84th minute…

• When you play with one DM – Tor – it will only succeed if you press high and chase the ball back when lost with real ferocity. It sounded to me that the latter was missing in the second half and then the balance will soon also be undermined.

  Good win for Arsenal but still a lot to do. A goal there should do the trick though.

• A bit late in reading the post, but as I gradually work my way through it, you asked are we ready for the CL 17tino? And tbh we probably are not.

  We are in the Europa League because that’s what we are this season and last season, Europa League quality. If we qualify for the CL then it’ll be a long road back before we are 2006 quality again and able to compete for the prize.

  Great result tonight, the clean sheet was vital, it was conceding that killed us vs Atletico a year ago, so progress on that front.

• Good point PE about Emery’s rotation, we have a smallish squad and as it’s been thus for a few seasons, it will probably continue to be so, for the foreseeable future under the ‘leadership’ of Stanley Enos and Son. So going for everything isn’t going to work, but we’re in a decent position with two chances for the CL and if we make it more funds for Emery & Co to reinvest in the team whilst the focus of KSE is fixated on Inglewood.

  I guess guys, that that is the reason I look at our Academy and hope to see some rough diamonds who can develop into the next ‘big thing’ at Arsenal.

• My prediction was right.. a goal difference of 2.
  We needed that win and superb goalkeeping made that score sane.

  Now we have enough manpower for fighting on both fronts, and Kev, rotation keeps the squad fresh.

• I am not so sure about the squad argument, Kev.
  LB: Bels, AMN (we missed Hector) Possibly strengthen here as AMN is a DM really
  FB: Koz, Sok, Hold, Must, Mavro (we missed Holding)
  RB: Kola-Nacho (possibly strengthen here?)
  GK: Leno, ANother/Martinez?
  Midfied DM Pivot: Xhaka, Torreira, AMN (looks like Elneny is on way out so add one?)
  Hole player: Mesut, Suarez?, Guendouzi, Smith-R
  LW: Auba, Iwobi (buy?)
  FW: Laca, Auba, youth?
  RW: Mkhi, Nelson, Suarez(?) (buy)

  I reckon a RB and another attacker who can play on the wing is the priority but the squad is pretty strong as it is..

• Good Morning, 17ht, TA, et al,

  I am slightly behind the times in reading and responding to your enjoyable Post 17ht, because I thought BK was slowly shutting down, and I check occasionally to see what’s going down – or up?

  Anyway, I have often thought previous 17ht Posts had little nuggets of wisdom in them that applied nicely to sport/football/involvement and they seemed apt in an increasingly commercialised environment. Thank you.

  Reading your latest epistle, it appears to me that, like me, you sometimes struggle with the need/wish/desire for our club to win competitions, through mastering individual games – with the proviso that they should also be entertaining. Your comments about early season games where after a starting stumble then led to 20 odd unbeaten games you still felt they were (almost?) unwatchable was the clue.

  I too want to see Arsenal win at both the macro and the micro level, and by doing so go on to win championships/cups etc — but if it is at the cost of being bored to tears, or thinking ‘it was not a skilful game played by expert footballers/manager but more a throw of the dice’ then that is not for me.
  The corollary is that not winning important games and thereby not getting close to winning championships – then that is not for me either.

  What is key here, is that to achieve a winning team requires footballers and a manager of the requisite standard. Without that we, the supporters. face an endless footballing existence of suffering, and the cause of the suffering is the desire/craving for something that is possibly unachievable unless steps are taken to address the suffering.

  I am not a Buddhist, and I am probably completely wrong in reading into your post my understanding of what you seem to be saying — apologies all around if that is so.

  You are a gifted writer of Posts and succinct comments and I can only hope you favour us with more of the same, and in doing so maybe you will reach your personal nirvana. 👍

  Sorry I missed you.

• TA,

  Have you got your LB and RB back to front in your comment @ 9:31?

  I am always interested in your views on players, and one of the things that has always intrigued me is that, I think like you in so many ways, but I have very different opinions on the attributes of various players.

  These opinions are very subjective, and the only real proof is that a player who is ‘on his way up to the top’ or is already a top player is obvious and there is no credible disagreement.

  But that leaves a huge tranche of players who are so/so and ‘do a job’ but is that really what a club with ambitions to be a top team wants?

  Rating some of them is difficult. They may be in decline because of age, or through injuries, or may be players who are forced by team circumstances to play in positions that are not their best and so on.

  It is a fact that Arsenal have a number of such players, as do all teams I suppose, but Guardiola/Ferguson/Klopp do not accept that, and are ruthless in acquiring players of the standard required to win. And rightly so.

  We are not going to agree — are we? 😀😀

• Probably not RA 😀

  Leno, Koz, Sok, Hold, Nacho, Tor, Xhaka, Bel, Ozil, Auba, Laca. Top quality in every position imho.

• And a very good opinion it is too.

  But I would prefer alternatives in some positions. 😁

• haha, no doubt you would, RA! 🙂

• If I could make one change to that near perfect 11 for Arsenal it is Auba on the bench and Gareth Bale in. That is where I would spend our money this summer (and should not be too expensive as he will 30 then).

• I like Gareth Bale, but can you imagine the wages TA?

  I’d much prefer us to go down the youth avenue and try to spread our meagre resources as far as we can, cutting the wage bill this summer or trying to, is a priority imo, even if we make CL.

• I reckon we need the goals and so experience is key, Kev. I love Laca but I don’t think he is getting the right service from his fellow partner, so the combo of Bale/Laca is very appealing to me. Ozil would also have a ball. 😉

• Id rather go all out for the French/African wing forward at Lille (I think?) what’s his name, Pepe.
  He’d cost a lot of dough Total, but he can play wide right/left and through the middle.
  If Arsenal were to make one big deal in the summer, then he’d be my choice, but I do like Bale and wouldn’t be upset if we got him – but I couldn’t see him joining the Arsenal tbh… 🙂

• Hey fellas… I guess I did mention Bale in the post, so this is my payback, it seems. I think Kev is correct about the wages…and not crossing the North London divide. He’s no Sol Campbell, after all… 😉

  I hate to interrupt the back and forth, but I’m in a pretty strange sleep cycle at the moment and some longer writing might help. (If you do the math, you’ll see it’s an absurd hour where I live.) I guess it’s payback for yesterday when my flexible schedule allowed me to spend a foul-weather days taking a couple of naps and watching the football (and some golf) but also pushing myself out the door to walk the dog a couple of times. I think Arsenal playing pretty well and getting a good result helped make it an OK day… Now I’m hoping that writing about it gets me a little rest before the timer fires up the espresso machine… (More winkies…)

  I would agree that we’ve got a set of *pretty* good players…and, as I suggested in the post, when they score first and can play to prevent the other team scoring, we can do some exciting things when they turn the ball over to us and we surge forward on the break. From yesterday’s match, however, I think we should be grateful that our poor finishing was matched by theirs. Maybe it helps make my point. In the Europa League it works, in the CL (elims or better teams in the groups) maybe not.

  I’d also argue that Emery has got this set of players pretty well drilled. At one point yesterday I thought, maybe they’re so quick to the ball near the center line because they dread (as much as I do…) the thought of having to play a bunch of pointless passes around the back. Regardless, the football the team tries to play looks SO much better when the other team needs to come forward with the ball.

  Aesthetics matter, I think, and the goals were good. A team effort for the first, an individual one for the 2nd. I’m still haunted by the way we got carved open on those two balls out wide then back in, but it goes to show that I was drawn enough into the match to actually care. That hasn’t been the case for big swathes of the season, I must report, and RA (thanks for the praise above…) is right: checking in on how I *feel* about my team is probably why I choose to (periodically, these days) write about Arsenal.

  That said, I also think there are plenty of other equally valid approaches. Kev (and others) scouting the youth ranks with a (very) sharp eye makes a lot of sense. Like he says, if cutting the wage bill is the message from ownership, we ought to be bringing a few youth players forward season after season for quite awhile. If they play well enough, however, will they (and we…) reap the rewards of them signing on at the wages they can command? (Probably not, I fear…)

  That’s one question for the cab driver. Another is whether or not there seems a change, perhaps a generational change, in the in-stadium fan support. The stadium looked pretty full for last night’s match and it MUST be good that all the games matter as we head deeper into April and then on into May. I literally couldn’t get a ticket back in (Autumn) 2006. What’s it like these days? (And what will it be like at the start of next season?…) It would be nice if the club didn’t act cynically (i.e., raise prices for season ticket packages) if we (somehow…) get up for CL football. That seems unlikely, but so too does the (new?) fan-base being too taken by surprise whichever way this campaign turns out… Anyhow, I’d love a local’s perspective…

  That’s about all I’ve got. Watford isn’t until Monday night… That’s good for that match (OGAAT, after all…) but it makes for a quick turnaround for the 2nd leg in Naples and a compressed week (or 9 days…) ahead of Crystal Palace (home) and Wolves (away).

• 17ht and TA,

  2 upcoming away games this coming week, which is important for our fourth place challenge and also our Champions League comeback.

  I would like the lads to end up both 4th and win the UEL in the end of the season, which can still be done. The winning mentality is extremely important here.

  On the squad that TA and RA was talking about, i would like the team to add one more to every position in the squad, for depth purposes. Players like Sagna and others left the club for top clubs to sit on the bench. Maybe with an injection of cash from oil rich countries we can do the same?

  And come on, Bale in will cause a can of worms to be opened.. mind the consequences will ya.

• Hi 17tino, I’m glad that you’re getting your Arsenal mojo back, you can take the Americano out of Highbury, but you can’t take Highbury out of the Americano. 🙂

  I’ve had periods in my Arsenal life when I thought, ‘that’s it, sod them, I’m gonna focus on something else’ – as when Arsenal got knocked out of the FACup at York City, Retsub will know what I mean, Arsenal were really pathetic in those days, you guys have had it easy. 😀

  Anyway, I can see Arsenal upping their game on the sales side of the playing staff, it’s an area we’ve not been very good at in recent years, check out Liverpool, they’re really good in that dept as a rule. So that might mean selling some of our younger players to finance the signing of players who the manager wants?!

  Take Eddie Nketiah for example, who every Arsenal fans likes, including me, does the manager trust him, and if so then why doesn’t he use him?

  It could be that the coaching staff think that whilst Eddie is good, EPL quality even, they feel he might not be quite good enough for Arsenal, or the Arsenal that Emery envisages.

  So will Arsenal loan him, increase his value and then maybe sell him (with clauses inserted of course) and use the funds to maybe sign a full back? Safe in the knowledge that we have John-Jules and Folarin coming through the Academy…

  I might be well wrong on that one in particular 17tino, but you get my drift.
  Now I have to go to work and you should probably get some shut eye. 😉

• not highly likely, Kev, even though I seem to remember Bale is an Arsenal supporter. Wages I don’t see as a problem at all now that we are not paying Ramsey’s next season.

• Sleep, What’s That?… Well, it’s the title of a punk rock EP from the 80’s East (San Francisco) Bay scene (from which emerged Green Day)… My brother is the bass player… Surely, it’s not to everybody’s taste, probably (including my own…), but maybe TA (or someone else…) will get something out of it… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NwthqjuoaQ

  Here’s the thing, JK, there’s still a lot of oil in North America but our guy (Stan Kroenke) seems determined to not spend a dime of his own money on this particular project. (If you want the truth about what’s what in London, just ask your cab driver…) Unfortunately, my experience tells me that many wealthy people, as they age, seem even more intent on watching their bottom line (numbers) grow. You’d think they’d want to spend it and enjoy things (the accolades, maybe?…) while they’re still around, but no…

  Unfortunately, I believe that this philosophy–at least in this transitional moment at Arsenal (with the responsible economist/accountant AW and his “values” now gone, though still being paid, as I like to always point out–is actually trickling down into Emery’s decision making. Offering then rescinding a new contract for Ramsey is probably not an Unai decision, but limiting Ozil’s playing time, I believe, was not about trying to maximize results. (Guendouzi may turn out to be a fine player, but, playing him ahead of Mesut and/or AR seems questionable…) I also have to say that the cynic in me wonders if keeping Auba away from winning the PL golden boot doesn’t also aid in keeping the amount of pound sterling a bit lower in any contract extensions the club might (be forced to) offer him.

  So, I have to give even more accolades to Kev for his appreciation of the academy products, almost all of whom (as he notes…) will move onto greener pastures. The new austerity means they will get more opportunities in the first team, however, at least in the autumn (group stages) in Europe and in the Energy Drink Cup and some might make the leap forward (much as Bellerin, Iwobi and AMN have) into the bigger matches. (Question: is there any chance that Reiss Nelson will be coming back from Germany or will Sven be Gnabry-ing him up for Bayern?…) I’m not up on my FFP jokes, er, rules, but the academies were always used as a write-off, I believe, against transfers and overpaying the first team. For Stan, my bet is that it’s just a nice little subsidiary business…

  And speaking of Sven… Does the club have a new “head of recruitment” or are we just using transfermarkt.com, like all the other (more involved) bloggers do?…

  OK, that should get me to the (US) market openings… Time to check MY bottom line…

• Nice base, Seventeenho! 🙂 Is that really your brother playing?

• My reading of the info on that youtube page says it is (my brother)… Bass is how we spell both the fish and the instrument…over here at least… 😉 I think my brother’s biggest cultural accomplishment was being credited as an influence by Mike Dirnt, the guy who plays the bass here…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPPgeDhGzKY Of course, his part doesn’t start until 2:00 in, and maybe that video is too political… There’s only one genius in that band, according to my brother, at least…

  Nothing much else to discuss?… I guess you don’t get too perturbed about the money issues at our club, eh, TA? To me, the situation feels awfully depressing…

  But, like I said in the post, I’m *open* to Arsenal winning all their matches and spending some this Summer…and I wasn’t sleeping when I wrote that either (even if I believe I was dreaming)…

  😀 Happy Friday…

• Which money issue at our club, teenho? Come on guys, the club spent a lot of money on players in recent years and we kept Ozil. We got Tor, Laca, Auba, Sok, Mkhi and as long we keep buying these sort of players every year whilst holding on to those who want to stay, you will not hear me complain.

• Thanks for that 17tino, I spent a good hour and a half listening to Green Day tracks last evening, it kept me going through the quiet period.

  I’m not sure that I suggested that Arsenal will sell all of our youth players 17tino, personally I’d love to see our entire squad made up of home made players, a la Ajax, but realistically that isn’t going to happen. I was just musing over the possible policy of developing players who we can sell for good fees if they’re thought not be quite what is required at the time.

  It was out there last night, fortunately…

• It was ‘busy’ out there etc, I must be tired…
  Night

• Eris, PE et al, the following squad has a look of ‘We mean business’ about it;

  Arsenal’s Dallas Cup squad: Balogun, Clarke, Coyle, McEneff, McGuinness, M. Smith, Swanson, Hillson, Daley-Campbell, Spencer-Adams, Cottrell, Alebiosu, Dennis, Flaherty, Matthews, T. Smith, Greenwood, Azeez, Ogungbo, Musah, Taylor-Hart, Butler-Oyedeji.

• Kev … my amazement how you keep track of the high turnover in names.

• Couple of homegrown PL players who might make good additions to Emery’s scheme this Summer. One is already rumored at the edges of the media– being Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser (£16M). His engine would fit nicely on the LW– with 6 goals and 10 assists to date. Looks like he’d be great up front of an attacking press. (Also seems flattered by the Arsenal rumors.)

  The other I like is Leicester’s James Maddison (£26M). Every time I catch one of their matches– he’s in the thick of things. Good motor– has a Ramsey-esque knack for the goal and assist (with 7G/6A) this season.

  Both these players bring all round skillsets. With the pressing capabilities to make UE’s expressed plans work.

  jw1

• Quite another interesting coincidence HT. Don’t know if we’d ever discussed this previously.
  My oldest brother (Larry, who passed, sadly, in 2010)– too, had an influence on a bassist of renown. Larry was recognized as a collaborative partner writing with Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report and Jaco’s Big Band in the late-70s and 80s.

  https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2010/05/26/larry-warrilow-long-time-jaco-pastorius-collaborator-passes/

  Very much miss that man.

  jw1

• Only good news this weekend Liv 2-0 Ckl.

• TA …… A MAIL IN YOUR BOX.

• TA …. A MAIL IN YOUR BOX.

• Sorry to hear about the loss of your brother JW…

  PE, I got the info from Jeorge Bird, from the snippets I’ve seen Musah is very good as is Greenwood, also McGuinness looks a very accomplished defender, big lad as well.

• Thank you PE, will issue tomorrow. 🙂

• New Post 🙂

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