Category: Uncategorized

Well that was a good game of football. A typical European night against an unexpectedly very strong Sporting side. It turned out that only our strongest team would have been able to overcome the Portuguese warriors, and if we were indeed serious about progressing in this competition then this was a tactical mistake by Arteta. I know we have the PL title to fight for and I respect Arteta’s choices, and I still enjoyed this European night tremendously.

The teams were equally strong over the two legs and it was decided on the dreaded, cruel penalties. As a Dutchman I have come to despise penalty shootouts, and I still feel that it would be better for the referee to flip a coin at the end of the 120 minutes.

I think we can pull some conclusions on a few individuals who were given the chance to impress us over both legs.

Reiss Nelson: I think his biggest problem is a lack of presence and ability to make the game his. Yes the service could have been better but there is a strong feeling that he will go the same route as Iwobi and Willock. Good PL worthy player but, unless he really shows us a different side to his game, I think he will move on this summer. This is a personal judgement and I respect that others will see it differently.

Vieira: everything is there but just like Nelson he lacks presence and natural dominance. Yes he needs bulking up but it is also important to see pictures quicker and act on them in a flash. This is where Odegaard is so impressive and Vieira is a level below this currently. I think it will come but a loan to Marseille or Stade de Reims next season may be necessary.

Rob Holding: that was a phenomenal performance by Rob. He never made me think I wish Tequila had not gone off.

Tomiyasu: a great cover for Ben White but I think he is finding it hard to not play automatically every week. He is not having much luck either this season if and when he is on.

Zinchenko: as others have pointed out, the Zinch can be a bit hit and miss at times. Sometimes he is phenomenal but he can also be erratic and undisciplined. His strong points are his presence and motivational skills and that is clearly why he is in the team, but yesterday’s game was a great example of how his misplaced passes can get the whole team frezzled.

Ramsdale: no complaints from me. That was a once in a lifetime goal and Aaron is not to blame at all. The penalty saving attempts could have been better but this is probably not one of his strengths (as yet). He has plenty of strengths though, and he clearly is our nr1 goalkeeper. The save with his face was unbelievable.

Jesus: it was great to see him back and for the first 30 minutes he was simply awesome. It will take a few weeks before he will be fully up to speed.

ESR: the fact that he did not come on in this game is telling a lot. I love the guy but it looks like he is not going to contribute much this season.

A loss always hurts even when we clearly did not give the game enough priority, and our opponents enough respect imho. But what is done is done and now we will move on to the League for 11 beautiful battles.

Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners.

By TotalArsenal.

Having watched a bit of CL football this week I must say again how much more I enjoy the Thursday Europa games these days. Napoli are a brilliant team to watch and certainly the surprise of the season, but other than that it is boring, predictable, groundhog day football. Which teams have made it to the last eight? Man City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Benfica, Napoli and defending champions Real Madrid. The only shift is the dominance of the Italian teams, with just one Spanish team – the gazillion time winners of the competition – and one German team in this season’s last eight. What’s the chance that the last four will be close to Man City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and one ‘surprise’?! Last year’s eight were: Chelsea, Real Madrid, Atletico, Man City, Villareal, Bayern, Benfica and Liverpool. Clubs from almost the same four nations as this year. Bah, boring as hell.

The big money is of course in the CL competition but for a Romantic like me it is much more fun to watch the battles between the Europa League teams. It is so refreshing and the footie is often really watchable. I look forward to Feyenoord v Shakhtar but would also happily watch the two teams starting with Union, Real Sociedad v Roma promises should be a fine battle, as does Freiburg v Juventus. These games are so fresh and exciting; they are full of potential surprises. All European football, including the EC1, used to be like this. Yes, sometimes a team would dominate because they assembled a great set of players and had a world class manager at the helm, but also they would be usurped by new teams and then would disappear from the top for a while. Football was full of surprises and in principle anyone could win the EC1 for most of the history of European club competition.

I want once more the wonders of Nottingham Forest and Villa, Feyenoord, Red Star Belgrade and Celtic to happen, but I know that battle has been lost a long time ago. So let’s all wonder whether Real will win the cup with the big ears, as Leo Beenhakker once called it, for a sixth time in the last ten years….

Predicted line up v Sporting

Turner

Tomiyasu, White, Gab, Tierney

Jorginho, Xhaka

Odegaard

Nelson, Leandro, Martinelli

Hopefully Gabriel Jesus will get the last 30 minutes to play, maybe even more. Partey, Tequila and Saka to help close the game at the end.

Now that is a team and a game to look forward to!

Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners!!!!!

By TotalArsenal.

Imagine having to pick Arsenal’s best 45 minutes of the season at the end of May! Many games have been decided in just one half of them, just as the boys did on Sunday v Fulham.

This is no coincidence. The management team study opponents and they produce bespoke game plans. Often they work in the first half and now and again they need tweaking during the break, but what is often the case is that one half is much better, and also more decisive, than the other. Arsenal played some awesome halves this season.

I was listening to a Dutch football podcast this week, and the experts made an interesting statement about Arteta. It was something like this: this guy works not 24 but 48 hours per day and teams will be copying Arsenal’s tactics, style of play etc for years to come. They also believed that if Arsenal were to win the league this season it would be a bigger achievement than Leicester’s few seasons ago.

I have written before that we should count ourselves very lucky to be Gooners, AND that we have Arteta and a sensible and supportive BoD and owner.

Just watch, if you can, the first half at Craven Cottage again for the sheer dominance and effectiveness of the plan. Everyone knows that Saka is our most dangerous attacker. Teams prepare well to stop him, but they will need to commit a few chess pieces to do so. He will always remain dangerous, though, and his threat-level alone is a big factor in all our games.

As a result there was a lot of space on the left and the lesser known Arsenal attacker, Trossard, had space, time, vision and trickery to win us the game with a superb triple-assist show.

The boys clearly targeted a couple of areas where they believe Fulham were vulnerable with devastating effect. The Fulham manager tried to deal with our threat from the left but that meant leaving space elsewhere, and he clearly had no answer to Arteta’s tactics.

The second half was a silent truce: you get the points, we safe face. Arteta could rest and introduce new players, we kept a clean sheet and closed the goal difference gap by three goals. With a big game on Thursday this made sense. Fulham away after a Thursday evening game in Lisbon was on paper a big test, but Arteta and the boys made light work of it.

Ooh to, Ooh to be, Ooh to be A Gooner.

By TotalArsenal

To rest or not to rest? As always on EL night, that is the question.

Tierney will be unavailable tomorrow, this boy has no luck at all. That makes 6 (Hein, Tierney, Elneny, Jesus, Nketiah, Trossard) MA can’t pick, including 3 forwards.
Kick-off time at Craven Cottage is 67 hours after final whistle in Lisbon. They’re a (very) good team, Fulham, so I don’t see how we can expect a win if our usual starters are not given a rest tomorrow (except in midfield where there is no choice but playing the big boys – not to mention the experience in “game management” they’ll provide us with).

Which might leave us with (4-4-2 with “diamond” midfield):
Turner
Tomi-Rob-BigGab-Kiwior
Jorgi
Tom-Granit
Fabio
Emil-Reiss
(12 subs are allowed: Ramsdale-White-Saliba-Walters-Zinchenko-Smith-LewisSkelly-Saka-Odegaard-CozierDuberry-Martinelli-Hillson ???).

I, for one, think such a side could get a draw at least. Marseilles have beaten them twice in the CL, with Kola-Tavares-Guendouzi-Sanchez, all of whom would be 3rd choice in our current squad.
What I’ve seen of them in those 2 games might be misleading, but they looked terribly undisciplined (they ended up their two games against Marseilles a 10-man team). Don’t know if this is a terrible downside in the way their players are “educated” but they looked like a whole bunch of BrunoFernandeses in full brat mode …

They have 2 excellent players upfront though, Trincao and “Pote” Gonçalves – typical Portuguese forwards, fast, unafraid, lethal with both feet, the kind of players who can hurt any team, especially on the break.
Is that enough to risk adding one of our first-choice players to our injury list? I don’t think so …

I like the EL a lot, I’d love the trophy to end up in our cabinet, but our place in the 2023-2024 CL is secure now, so winning it is not as vital as it would have been if we weren’t 18, 20, or 21 points clear of the 5th, with only 12 games ahead of us.
Now, if things turned really sour, the 5-change rule will come handy, and there’s always the 2nd leg in our brand new, vociferous London fortress …
So, let’s put our trust in them and the 11 lads above will do us proud!
COYG

By Le Gall

My NYC gooner buddies along with Total and Kev know, that Reiss is my boy this season… kind of the same way as Nketiah had been last year.. and I’m not an automatic lover of all our academy players… for example I’ve been pretty tough on Emile.  

I have been saying that we should re-sign Nelson on a an inexpensive deal as a spare winger this summer for next few seasons, as cover for 4 competitions.

This is the perfect time to explain why.

The raw talent has always been there and I saw signs early this season that he’s giving exactly what Arteta expects of his players.  Basically like the Nketiah transformation from poacher to all around classic striker who works his tail off.

On talent, he was one of the  highest rated forward prospects of all young English players in the country. He and Eddie were killing it at youth level assisting each other and scoring for fun. Back then I think the hype may have gone to his head and made him a less hard worker, and he’s actually admitted as much in interviews this season. He only started to impress in last years loan from what I hear. Of course there have been many frustrating injuries as well. 

Now, this season coming back to us, from preseason, he’s looked aggressive working off the ball, has kept a great attitude even in small opportunities. He now plays more direct, with force, less cuteness and has clearly bulked up in muscle, as Eddie did. He’s followed the blueprint to impress Arteta. 

I was so sad when he pulled up with the hamstring most recently, because he was about to get a lot more playing chances with Jesus out and before Trossard came. You could see in his face that he was dejected. Nketiah hugged him as he was limping off in that game. They both knew what it was doing to his chances to make a case for himself to stay. 

It’s taken a couple years for me to read Arteta through his small comments. As I knew he’d start Vieira against Bournemouth from recent quotes. 

I sensed Mikel really wants to give opportunities to Nelson to reward his hard work, even early in the season.

To me, even aside from his heroics when he scored 2 replacing injured Saka, and against Bournemouth, I think he’s looked dangerous and very active on and off the ball when he’s had game time.

 I don’t think the manager is paying lip service when he talks about his players, and I think he really is a supporter of Reiss. If we don’t end up keeping him, I know the boss will feel bad about it.

I hope he’ll get a few more chances to play soon, with Jesus needing to be reintroduced gradually, and whatever is the story with Eddie and Trossard’s fitness.

This might make a great academy gunner story.

By JYNC

Well that proved to be less easy than, and then as easy as, expected. For almost all of the first half the Toffees kept the Gunners at bay, and they were even dangerous when going forward. We expected them to sit very deep all the time, but they mixed it up a bit.

And then there was guitar as the famous ACDC song has it. Bukayo received the ball, spins and then thundered the ball in the right top corner with his ‘weaker’ right foot. Boom, 1-0 to the Arsenal.

A couple of minutes later, Saka is cheeky and most alert to steal the ball and feed the hungry Martinelli. The Brazilian is in the same space that Bukayo was in just minutes ago. Will he do the same as the young Englishman or will he go low? It is the latter and Pickford gets beaten again. 2-0 to the good guys.

The second half is no contest other than that of beautiful football: it is totally one sided. The ball glides across the pitch like a steam iron over a cotton shirt, and everything has a glorious smoothness to it. The Toffees want to go home. The Gooners just want to sing and watch this exhibition forever and ever.

For a while there is no end product but then no nonsense Trossy feeds dynamo Ødegaard and with a little luck the ball finds the net. And late on Eddie finds Marti for his well deserved brace. 4-0 to the Arsenal and it could have been more.

Eight very short observations:

1. Trossard is so mobile and has already doubled his season long assist count. A shot in this team’s arm.
2. The Øde is such a pressing machine. He beats the drum for our team.
3. Saka is so special. He looks after himself and his energy levels incredibly well. He is almost even with PL goals and assist this season: 10 goals, 9 assists. Such a balance between being selfish and a team player. Wow, WOW!
4. Jorginho, what a vision and what a team fit-in by Arteta!
5. Tequila produced some very fine mid-long passes. I have not noticed this before as much, but this man can pass a ball.
6. So good to have Partey back and what a second half exhibition of midfield play he offered us.
7. Ramsdale had little to do but he made a strong and vital safe in the second half. To be focused for ninety minutes is not easy but Aaron does it every game. And that’s why he is our Nr1.
8. How good is the Zinch?! He was everywhere on the pitch and he can do simply everything possible on it. Wowowwow.

By TotalArsenal

The most significant unimportant points (01/03/23) – Everton game preview

It’s a cliché that all victories worth the same 3 points and all points count the same, but I feel that today we have a vital game to win. Not simply for the cementing our lead on the top of the table, but to show that our shocking defeat 3 and a half weeks ago was merely a statistical outlier, and we are back in business big time.

In today’s preview, I try to organize all relevant information ahead of the early afternoon clash at the Emirates after our surprise defeat at Goodison Park, whether they support our 19^th victory of the season or they challenge it. Albeit not all arguments should have equal weight, I hope the sheer surplus of PRO arguments should be a promising sign before the game. Let’s get going!

Signs that Arsenal will WIN the game today:

• PL TABLE: Arsenal sits on the top, and Everton is the 18^th (with the same points as Bournemouth below them, but a much better goal difference).
• LEAGUE POINTS: we have accumulated 57 points in 24 games, while they collected only 21. That is almost 3x the efficiency (ppg) on our side.
• HISTORY: Arsenal have won 8 of the last 9 home matches against Everton, including our Pre-season friendly in Baltimore.
• INJURIES: with Nelson and Smith-Rowe back in training we are without the services of Jesus and Elneny – which Arsenal are quite accustomed to – while Everton will most likely miss Calvert-Lewin, Townsend, Gardner and Patterson. Partey is available again, as we saw him again against Leicester.
• PL FORM: Arsenal won 9 of our last 13 league games (D2, L2), while Everton lost 8 of their last 12 games (W2, D2) – surprisingly drawing against Manchester City at the Etihad on New Year’s Eve and beating us 25 days ago.
• SQUAD VALUE: due to the recent run of games and smart investments Arsenal player worth is €803M (according to TransferMarkt), while Everton worth is only €368M, despite having 2 more players in their squad, making us 2.2x more valuable.
• TRANSFER WINDOW: Arsenal managed to reinforce the team spending 60M on 3 players, two of them have already proved their fee (worth about 75M combined), while Everton lost one of their best players and joint top-scorer Antony Gordon for a decent 40M, but without anybody coming in.
• FORMATION EXPERIENCE: Arsenal always plays in 4-2-3-1 (sometimes referred as 4-3-3, but I think Odegaard would easily qualify for a CAM), while Everton has tested 10 different formations this season.
• SMALL DEFENDERS: apart from the huge Yerry Mina, the other defenders are around 183-184, about 3-4 inches below the aerial threat of Saliba and Gabriel. Everton conceded the 2^nd most goals from corners.
• DYCHE vs. ARSENAL: Sean lost 11 of his 16 games against Arsenal; his 0.56 point per match ratio is only superior to his 0.29 PPM vs Manchester City (and on level with Chelsea and Liverpool). We are simply too creative for him.
• JORGINHO: Partey did train with the rest of the team, but after his knock against City there is some chance that Arteta would keep resting him today, giving the opportunity to our latest signing to win the supporters and show Potter what he is missing for the lousy 12M. The Brazilo-Italian was my MotM twice in our last 3 games, so probably doesn’t need much more evidence, though.
• REFEREE Michael Oliver is a slimy w@nker, but we won all 3 PL games this season which he officiated, awarded 2 penalties for us, 1 against us, booking Arsenal players 3 times while the opponents got 9 yellow cards in these games. Everton’s statistics with Oliver is 3 points from 2 games, no penalties either way, 4 yellow cards collected as the opponents were booked 5 times.
• EXPERIENCE AGAINST BUS: Arteta’s Arsenal have struggled against ultra-defensive, bus-parking teams in the past, but this season we have a breakthrough, as both wingers (featuring Trossard), our AM Odegaard as well as striker Nketiah – who is not poaching Eddie any more – are equally dangerous and hard to mark.
• REVENGE: Our players will increase their already impressive efforts to show that our defeat at Goodison Park was a mere temporary slip, including the awful display. There are not many teams our boys have something to prove against, they did twice against Tottenham, they failed twice against City; as far as I’m concerned only this game is left, maybe our visit to Newcastle in May.
• EVERTON ON THE ROAD: they have only won once away from home in the Premier League this season (1:2 against bottom-feeding Southampton) all the way back in October, losing six and drawing the other four.
• STAMINA & BENCH: Everton scored their 6 of their 17 goals in the first half and conceded 14 of the 32 total, indicating a team being more active in the second half. That should suit us having a lot of hungry young players and an overall strong bench, especially if Arteta is willing to utilize it.

Signs that we may lose some point(s) against Everton:

• BLUEPRINT: the Toffees not only ended our 13-game unbeaten streak (W11, D2), but did so in style. We hardly had any chance and the single goal they scored is flattering us (xG: 2.09). They might know what tactics are effective against Arsenal, but at least they think they know.
• CURRENT HOME FORM: after our 7 wins out of 7 home games in 2022 we won only one in the next 4. While we are proud that the Emirates is a castle hard to capture, our recent results are a bit disappointing. (Actually, our away form is the deciding factor in the competition so far, as we have now picked up at least seven more points than any other team in the league away from home this season.)
• MOTIVATION AGAINST LEAGUE LEADERS: it is a known and common phenomenon that bottom clubs often outperform themselves against top teams to demonstrate the little difference in the Premier League. (This is less common in other leagues.) They did it once already.
• EVERTON vs ARSENAL: historically the Toffees have four wins in their last five clashes with Arsenal, which is one more than they had in their previous 26 matches against us. Maybe we are more predictable than we thought, or their physical style just doesn’t suit us…
• BOUNCE BACK EFFECT: Teams after the manager is sacked have a tendency to shine in their next game. My guess that’s the players both trying to impress the new coach and/or showing the fans that the previous run of poor forms was the fault of the previous manager, not theirs. Everton won 2 of their 4 games with Dyche already, but that effect should cease at some point.
• DYCHE vs. ARTETA: albeit the newly appointed manager was trashed by both Wenger (0 point in 7 games) and Emery (0 point in 3 games), against Arteta Sean had W2, D3, L1 in 6 games indicating a draw later today.
• IWOBI’s FORM: Despite Everton’s poor league performance, Arsenal academy graduate and former gunner Alex Iwobi is in a fine form. In all the 4 games under Dyche Alex was rated above 7, even though he was playing 2 different positions, and not the one perfected under Lampard.

The number of signs that we will win today is 15 (compared to the 6 counter-arguments), but there haven’t been more than 2 goals in an Everton-game since mid-January. So I predict a 2:0 home victory, and reiterate my hope that Eddie Nketiah will find his goal scoring ways.

I hope our title-aspiring campaign continues with a confident win over relegation-pressed Everton, while Manchester City might lose points hosting Newcastle on Saturday, and United when visiting Liverpool on Sunday. I appreciate and support the little teams, but let Goliath win this time.

COYG!

By Peter Barany

I don’t know about you but I really feel, for the first time, that Arsenal may win the title this season. It’s still a long way to go and hard away games across the North are still to come, but these last five games have told us so much of our young team. They have cojones with bouncebackability.

The away loss against Everton was painful but this will happen once or twice in a season. It was a psychological thing. Then we played our socks off and had poor VARing going against us v a very strong Brentford, followed by an overall deserved loss v Citeh. Just one point from nine was painful and worrying. Would we collapse?

I must say I was worried. The next two games were away v Villa and Foxes. If we would drop points in the first game, we may drop more in the second one. We had to overcome the Villains. The second half in Birmingham tells you all you need to know about the desire, backbone and togetherness of our team. If we are to win the league, this half will be seen as the big turnaround.

We played v well v Leicester too. Arsenal were unlucky not to score more, but this time it was our midfield and defence that made the difference.

Trossard and Jorginho are making a huge difference, adding experience and efficiency to our game at a crucial period. Partey will be back soon but Jorginho offers something that seems to really be what Arteta has been looking for for a long time. We will find out who of the two will start in the next few games.

Leandro has really impressed me with the way he has fitted right into the team. His movement is excellent and so is his first touch and passing. But what has most impressed me is his fearlessness and directness. His assist was a beauty and he clearly was robbed of a goal by a revengeful VAR official. How many of these ‘fouls’ are committed in each game and go unpunished? We took it on the chin and still went on to win the game. Very impressive.

Next up are the Toffees and we have a few scores to settle with them. Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners!

By TotalArsenal

A team to nettle (25/02/23) – Leicester City game preview

I’m sure you know the feeling when there is a poor team – either of squad depth or just a weak run of form – but they regularly manage to screw us. As if they were some kind of nemesis or Achilles-tendon to us. Well, this game is not about them. It’s exactly the other way around.

I’m talking about Leicester City. Saying that they are a decent team would be an understatement. And I’m not merely referring to their recent silverware, but even as a mid-table team they have a tendency to beat top-6 clubs. Yet they keep struggling against us. We came up victorious in each of our last 4 games (leading at half time every time), winning 5 out of the 6 games since 2020. And apart from last year’s 4:2,we haven’t conceded more than 1, often even keeping a clean sheet.

Before analyzing their squad and style, let me explain you why I admire them, as I really do. It doesn’t happen to me very often,but I there is a lot to appreciate about them.

• First, they make many smart investments. They don’t spend big – had only a single signing above 35M – yet they could attract top talent.
• They have a very capable scouting network. They identify future stars in an early stage of their development, so they can sign them for next to nothing (Mahrez: 500k, Schmeichel: 1.7M, Vardy: 1,2M)
• Even when they spend big(ger), there is often a huge development potential to that player (Kante: 9M -> 100M, Ndidi: 18M -> 60M, Maddison 25M -> 60M, Söyüncü: 8M -> 45M, etc.)
• They know they cannot keep all their best and highest performing players, but they don’t sell them all and at the same time. There is a conscious sales and succession planning at the club.
• Even when they sell their talisman players, they do it at a very high price – well above their market value. (Maguire: 87M, Fofana: 80M, Mahrez: 68M, Chilwell: 50M, Drinkwater 38M)
• While they scout from all over Europe, they have built a formidable contingent of Belgian players that can support each others’ induction process. Tielemans, Praet, Castagne and Faes are a quartette of fine footballers.
• They have a historically strong academy (currently struggling both U21 and U18 level) that provide gems to the first team like Harvey Barnes, Ben Chilwell, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and others.
• This also means that they give opportunities to youngsters from their own academy like Daniel Iversen and Luke Thomas.
• Leicester are loyal to their players, they don’t replace the squad every 3-4 years. Vardy is with them since 2012, Amartey, Mendy and Ndidi are also part of the team for 6-7 years.
• They are loyal to their managers, too. Apart from the unsuccessful stint of Craig Shakespeare they gave plenty of games and opportunities to their recent coaches/managers in the last 13 years: Eriksson, Pearson, Ranieri, Puel and Rodgers all had their chances for at least a season and a half, which cannot be said of Chelsea or Manchester United.

With all that said, there is strong probability that we will defeat them at the King Power Stadium in a few hours. They seldom make unwise purchases, but putting the Perez craziness aside they managed to purchase Danny Ward for almost 6 times his market value. He was a decent backup to Kasper Schmeichel, but as the main goalkeeper he is the worst in the UK and possibly in the top 5 leagues. For my fellow nerds: Leicester has the the second lowest (worst) xGA-goals stat  at -4.3 (interpret: they conceded 41 goals although the quality of the chances created by the opponents would only amount to 36.7), indicating a very poor goalkeeper, as we could see in the second round at the Emirates back in August. Their attacking department is compensating it by having the highest goals – xG stat in the entire PL, but I don’t think that will be enough today.

We should focus our defensive efforts mostly on Maddison. He is a great player and in a good form. A combination that doesn’t apply to anybody else in East Midlands at this point. Vardy has an outstanding scoring record against Arsenal (11 – more than any other club), but he hasn’t scored since October – his only goal this season – and was only a substitute in their last 3 games. Barnes had some decent games against Brighton, Villa and Tottenham, but he is probably not yet at the level to decide a game of such magnitude. The sad truth is that Leicester hasn’t won a game against the team sitting on the top of the table since 1998 (drawing 2 and losing 16 times). Their previously mentioned winning streak was (unfortunately) ended by Manchester United in the last round, so they are exactly in the opposite situation as Arsenal, as we have just returned to our winning ways after a 3-round detour.

Arteta met Rodgers 7 times already – only against Pep and Klopp did he try his best more – and the 5 wins plus a draw (2.29 points per game on average) is pretty convincing to me. As does our 11 goals scored in the last 4 encounters against the Foxes. We scored 4 goals (with an xG of 2.86) in the last round at Villa Park, so I predict an away win by 0:3 today. Yes, we are playing away from home, but behind only Southampton is Leicester City the least fearsome hosts in the PL, picking up only 12 points (W3. D3, L5) in 11 games.

I will not predict our line-up, even though Mikel might face some decisions at LB, LW and DM positions. Some fans even foresee Trossard starting at LW and Martinelli up front at the expense of Nketiah. However I am willing to take the chance and predict Eddie starting and scoring. As the return (second coming) of Jesus is near, he has to start reminding Arteta and the fans of his qualities if he doesn’t want to stay the substitute but promote himself to competitor.

Let’s have a great game and bring home all the points. COYG!

By Peter Barany

Big Title Battle

Canons Roar Gooners Galore

ARSEnal Victor!

Fine fellow BKers. I am saying it all through a haiku today. You know the lineup. The boys know what to do.

Have a go at a haiku yourself. The rules are simple: three lines total, five syllables in the first and third lines, and seven syllables in the second line.

Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners.

TA.