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A Cods piece

Oct 26th, 2026 by

And so to Highbury for our Fourth Round Carabao Cup tie.

No, dear reader, we are not time-travelling, but voyaging to the Fylde, specifically, the northwestern corner of that west Lancashire coastal plain. There, wedged between the Irish Sea and the River Wyre, lies the early Victorian port and seaside resort of Fleetwood, founded by Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, landowner, baronet, MP and translator of Victor Hugo. 

Barely a mile from the town’s semi-circular North Euston Hotel, which Sir Peter built in 1840-41 to serve rail passengers between London and Scotland who had to switch from train to boat at Fleetwood to complete their journey, as early engines were thought incapable of traversing the Lake District’s fells — Queen Victoria was one such traveller in 1847 — lies Highbury Stadium, home to our opponents on Tuesday evening, League Two’s Fleetwood Town, the Cods.

And, yes, they also play in red and white.

Out of the mud

Highbury Stadium opened in 1939, long after advances in Victorian railway engineering had reduced Sir Peter to penury. It took its name from Highbury Avenue, which ran alongside Memorial Park, where the ground was laid out. 

A novel camber, like that of a crown bowls green, was built from 25,000 pieces of turf to avoid the notorious waterlogging of the club’s old seafront pitch on the site of a former barracks square and swimming pool behind the North Euston Hotel. One local councillor described it as ankle-deep in mud (the pitch, not the hotel). A former player, England full-back Herbert Jones, called it the worst he had played on. Given the general state of pitches in the 1930s, it must have been atrocious.

Highbury Stadium was also a municipal economic development scheme. In addition to providing local youngsters with opportunities to play the game, the town’s corporation wanted to keep their fathers spending their money locally on Saturday afternoons and evenings, rather than in nearby Blackpool and Preston, both of which offered the lure of First Division football. 

The corporation also hoped that the ground would attract First Division clubs for seaside training, putting money in local hotels and attracting more holidaymakers. One model could have been Herbert Chapman taking his Arsenal teams to train at Brighton’s old Goldstone Ground in Hove, with the town using the visits to promote tourism.

The ground cost the corporation £4,000 to lay out, equivalent to £340.000 in today’s money. However, it balked at paying for stands and dressing rooms, saying local supporters should stump up some money, too. In May 1939, the club voted to become a private company with capital of £2,000 to fund the building work. 

However, the 24,000 inhabitants of Fleetwood subscribed only half the hoped-for capital. In July, the corporation provided a further £1,000 towards grandstands and cut the rent by more than half, as part of a £90,000 five-year town improvement plan that World War would soon render moot.

Small-town football club finances were as brutal then as now. To pay its annual rent and rates to its corporation landlord and cover its other costs of playing in the Lancashire Combination, the club would need a match-day gate of £46 at its new home; in its final season at North Euston, it averaged £22 10s (£22.50 for younger ‘holics who may need to google the pre-1950 usage of LSD) and recorded an annual loss of £96.

Thus, it may not surprise you that the club is now in its fourth incarnation since its founding in 1908, with the previous three folding due to financial difficulties. Its amateur predecessor had disbanded in 1899. History is prologue.

Matt Lawlor

Fleetwood’s head coach is Matt Lawlor, who was born five miles south in Poulton-Le-Fylde, as was The Police’s guitarist Andy Summers. 

Now 38, Lawlor has been coaching since he was 26, combining training disadvantaged kids in Manchester with a playing career in non-league football. In 2019, at 32, he hung up his boots and joined Fleetwood as a youth coach. 

He has since held several roles with the club and its Irish sister club, Waterford, including spells as caretaker manager at both. He was appointed Fleetwood’s caretaker head coach for the third time in January, following Pete Wild’s sacking, and was confirmed in the role in March. He is said to be being tactically astute and a strong motivator. He comes across as likeable and grounded. A future at a higher level seems likely.

With early-season defensive resilience deserting them, Fleetwood sit 18th in League Two with 14 points from 13 games after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Exeter City. The trapdoor to non-league football lies just two points below.

The opposition

The Cods’ squad mixes journeymen old pros with flotsam and jetsam from the academies of bigger clubs — Zech Medley, formerly of this parish, was one such before moving to York City in the summer — and young loanees who still cling to the dream. Its average age is 24. Spoiler alert for BtM: there are two full internationals.

Lawlor favours setting up in a 3-1-4-2, although that will likely look like a 5-4-1 for most of Tuesday’s tie. 

Jay Lynch, a 33-year-old Mancunian who came through Bolton’s ranks, is first-choice glove-butler. Lawlor says he hates soft defending and there will be no mullarkey in front of Lynch. Centre-back Toby Mullarkey is on loan at Carlisle United.

The back three will likely comprise Shaun Rooney, a 30-year-old Scot who has won domestic cups with St Johnstone and is in his second spell at Fleetwood after being released by St Mirren in 2024; Rhys Bennett, a 22-year-old who made his loan from Man U’s U-21s a permanent move in January; and Finley Potter, also 22, who joined Fleetwood in 2024 from Sheffield Utd’s U-21s after a year on loan at Barnet. Potter has three England U-18 caps.

The trio have yet to concede a goal in three Carabao Cup ties (v Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and Sheffield United).

Jake Batty, a 21-year-old Scouser who came through Blackburn’s Academy and has three England U-17 caps, will likely play left wingback. His regular counterpart on the right, Lewis McCann, is suspended, creating an opportunity for one of two home-grown youngsters, 20-year-old Crispin McLean and 19-year-old Raff Cirino, Blackburn-born and a two-cap full international for Montserrat.

Another Sheffield Utd youth product, 25-year-old Harrison Neal, is usually the single pivot in Lawlor’s 3-1-4-2, but he will likely be paired with Ireland U-21 international Adam Murphy, on loan from Bristol City. The midfield will be completed by Mark Helm, a 25-year-old who came through two academies, at Man U and then Burnley. There will be no virtue in Fleetwood’s midfield; Matty Virtue moved to Swindon Town in the Summer.

Up front, Ronan Coughlan, a 30-year-old Irishman who had previously played his senior football in the Republic, will likely lead the line. He is the club’s leading goal scorer this season with five. 

Completing the starting XI will most likely be Ched Evans, the 37-year-old club captain with 13 Wales caps, although he has not played international football since a conviction for rape in 2012 that was expunged after he was found not guilty at a retrial in 2016. He was an unused Manchester City sub when we lost 3-0 at the Etihad in 2008.

If Lawlor wants younger legs, he could start Will Davies, a 27-year-old Ipswichian who joined last year from Sutton and is the team’s token Southerner. If he decides to bolster his midfield, the nod could go to Josh Robertson, a promising midfielder on loan from Brighton who captained the Seagulls’ U-21s to the Premier League 2 title last season.

For the bench, Lawlor also has recent England U-18 forward Aaron Loupalo-Bi, on loan from Fulham; Josh Thomas, a former Wales U-21 striker returning from injury; and Danny Andrews, a 35-year-old defender now in his third spell at Fleetwood, his 13th club after 10 free transfers and five loans. Such is life in the lower leagues.

The Arsenal

Naming our starting XI is a mug’s game. This mug’s guess:

Arrizabalaga
Timber, Salmon, Mosquera, Hincapié
Guimaraēs, Zubimendi
Dowman, Merino, Eze
Gyökeres

We should beat a team 85 places below us in the league pyramid, regardless of the side Arteta selects. Conditions will be very windy and possibly wet; Highbury will be full to its 5,327 capacity for the first time in over a decade; Lawlor will have his Cods pieces up for it (Matron!); and cup upsets happen. Yet the gulf in quality should see us through to the last eight by a margin of three or four goals.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.

Posted in Match Preview | 11 Drinks »

A Day To Remember

Oct 25th, 2026 by

I was reminded early in the morning that yesterday was the send off for Mr Friar, the most loyal of servants of our great football club. So it was with slightly heavy heart that I set out early for the ground to meet up with a few friends in the Supporters Club. After watching Villa deservedly beat Asterisk FC, and having chatted to Dan from Melbourne, who was making his first visit to the Emirates, we wandered towards the ground early in order to be in position for the paying of respects to Mr Friar.  Walking over the Ken Friar Bridge, It was lovely to see that it had been bedecked with pictures of the great man, in place of the usual former players, a lovely touch. The statue of the young Mr Friar at the end of the bridge had also been covered with floral tributes, scarves and the like. What a beautiful sight.  Pre-match the announcer addressed the crowd and there followed a minute’s appreciation of a life well lived, a life of service to our great club.  It was very moving.

We started very fast indeed and it was clear that, after two tough away trips inside a week, Arteta had instructed this, in order to try to break the deadlock early.   And lo, it came to pass, that in the 7th minute, a well delivered corner from Ødegaard, flicked on by Gabriel could only be parried by the increasingly erratic Pickford to the feet of Konsa who did the honours at the far post.  

There followed a short period where Everton came back into the game, and had a couple of efforts requiring a save from Raya and then an intervention from the irrepressible Ben White.  We quickly regained control though, and Madueke in particular turned it on. One smart turn and shot, after a knock down from Gyökeres – who I thought played well and didn’t stop running all day – whistled past the post with the keeper rooted to the spot. Ødegaard too had returned to form. Having shone in Munich he continued in the same vein all game. One run in particular lead him to bamboozle 5 Everton defenders but resulted in his shot being deflected wide. Before half time, a piece of poor defending by White – possibly weather induced as the wind was blowing a gale – led to Barry making a goal attempt. But Raya was out so quickly that the effort was smothered at birth.

After three substitutions seeing Gyökeres, Merino and MLS going off to be replaced by Havertz, Guimarães and Calafiori we made the game safe.  Bruno passed on to White, making a bombing run on the outside and he dinked in a cross to the far post for Gabriel to head home from point blank range.  It was no more than we deserved, and the game was over. Although we still got the opportunity to see Downman come on. He will terrify defences. In one move on the right he nutmegged two of the Orc-like defenders Moyes is so keen to employ, resulting in a free kick to Everton, presumably for being embarrassed in a public area by a minor.  The referee was pretty appalling all day but by this time, even his bizarre decisions were just creating mirth on the North Bank.

The performance was very much in keeping with what Mr Friar would have wanted to see – fast, flowing football, an opposition reduced to offering very little and two good goals. Farewell Mr Friar. You will be missed and remembered in equal measure.

Posted in Match Report | 32 Drinks »

On Noni, On Max and On Team

Oct 23rd, 2026 by

David Moyes currently being my least hated opposition manager puts me in the difficult position of saying I don’t really wish Everton a terrible outcome in Saturday afternoon’s contest against Arsenal at the Emirates.  I just hope his side loses, and the mighty Gunners walk off the pitch with all three points secured.

Everton

Last Saturday, the Toffees hosted Chelsea and their 0-2 loss dropped them to 5th place in the table with 10 points.  That’s still not at all a bad position for Everton to find themselves, considering that they were flirting with relegation in recent memory, and that West Ham, the side that Moyes managed most recently before returning to the Toffees for his second stint in charge, were indeed relegated last season not too long after the departure of Moyes, who, in my opinion at least, had done an excellent job there.

Knowing Moyes, against Arsenal we are likely to see his side turn out in a defensive line-up and frame of mind.  It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Everton set up in their usual 4-2-3-1, but to turn it into a 5-4-1 out of possession.  Moyes is likely to employ a back three to maximize his side’s capabilities of blunting the Arsenal attack.  The Scot could use his wide centre-backs to press into Arsenal’s triangles out wide, while also trying to keep tight in the middle, hoping to achieve just that aim. A possible possible starting XI for Toffees could be:

Pickford, Rohl, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Armstrong, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish, Barry.

On Everton’s right side Rohl could keep his place as he’s able to drop into a right-back role, allowing O’Brien to tuck in more centrally at times.  Despite not playing much recently O’Brien would also help from set-pieces, but Everton are likely to be defending for large portions of the game.

If both those players are in the lineup it could mean that Aynsley Maitland-Niles misses out on his return to the Emirates.  In the four Premier League games AMN has started for Everton at right back, he has yet to end the game on the pitch.   It’s plain enough that Moyes isn’t 100% sold on the former Arsenal man, but Everton’s disappointing summer transfer window has left them without a clearly preferable option.

Arsenal

Arsenal’s left-hand side is generally considered to be weaker, especially with Tzolis out injured.  Eze started on the left last week at Forest, before Madueke came off the bench to score.  But Bukayo Saka suffered an injury in midweek Champions League play putting him out for several weeks at the very least, meaning that Madueke is likely to start in Saka’s normal place on the right.

My source for the seriousness of Saka’s injury of course being Trev in the last drinks:

“Instant sharp pain in a muscle is not a good sign and the quads are clearly integral to absolutely everything a footballer does. I’m guessing from Saka’s reaction it has to be a grade 2 tear – in which case forget all about 3-4 weeks. At least this break might give his other ongoing issues a chance to repair. My personal instinctive fear is that Saka might be a nice Christmas present for us but we may not see him until early January.”

In other words, the rest of our attack needs to step up big time, starting with Madueke and Eberechi Eze who replaced Saka in Munich and made an instant impact by scoring to put Arsenal ahead.  Max Dowman is another option, of course, to play on the right side of attack, remembering that Max scored his first Arsenal goal in our 2-0 win against the Toffees in this same fixture last season, but it is not likely that Arteta will put him too brightly in the headlights just yet.

On his options for replacing Saka, Arteta said:

“They’re all important; we know that. I’m extremely happy with how Ebz reacted to the previous game and the impact that he had on the team and the performance that he put in.”

But whether Eze, Madueke or Dowman starts this game in Saka’s place is hard to predict.  Madueke does have the most experience deputising there, however, so my prediction for Arsenal’s starting XI in this game is:

Raya

White Konsa Gabriel Calafiori

Ødegaard Bruno Rice 

Madueke Havertz Eze

The Holic Pound

I am tipping Eze to score in his second straight game and for David Raya and pals to keep a clean sheet giving us the happy scoreline of Arsenal 2-Everton 0.  

Enjoy the watch wherever you may be this Saturday, and may your day be a happy one. 

Posted in Match Preview | 36 Drinks »

Two Giants Fight to a Tie

Oct 22nd, 2026 by

It began with another fiercely early start. We awoke at half four on Tuesday morning to catch the first tube of the day to Heathrow. Whilst we are very lucky to have a direct link to such a major airport, it is still a very painful and tedious 90-odd minute journey across virtually the entire length of the Piccadilly Line. But it would not be the only tedious 90 minute journey we would be subjected to. More on that later!

After a hearty full English breakfast in terminal 2 (just the £56 for two breakfasts and a couple of teas!), it was time to board the plane. It’s a short flight to Bavaria so not too uncomfortable. We arrived at our hotel at about 2pm and after quickly unpacking we set off for Zur Festwiese , which we have previously visited during Oktoberfest. It was slightly less busy on this occasion! Whilst we were downing far too much beer, we got chatting to two Bulgarian Gooners who had travelled from Sofia and had tickets in the home section! It was a nice reminder of how massive our global fan base really is, and the dedication of a lot of these supporters having to pay thousands of pounds to watch our club over land and sea. Much pleasant conversation was had.

After a quick kip, which was much needed, we enjoyed another hearty meal at Augustiner Keller with a friend from back in our native N21 who is living and working in Munich for the year. Another Gooner of course! 

On the day of the game we enjoyed a late breakfast before a few hours of sightseeing. We visited the Jewish Museum which details the history of Jewish people living in Munich and their wonderful contributions to the region as well as stories of the many persecutions to which they were subjected. Very interesting and of course somewhat harrowing at times. Certainly somewhere I’d recommend visiting. 

Pre-game, we met up with friends and enjoyed Wiener Schnitzel (and a delightful apple strudel for dessert) and a stein or two before getting on a very packed metro to the game. As expected, the Arsenal boys were in great voice and the Bayern fans made good hosts as the Germans tend to! 

It really is a bloody long walk over the bridge from the metro station to the Allianz Arena. Its famous bright red lighting could be seen for miles and the anticipation of visiting one of Europe’s most iconic sporting venues was building. We walked up the many steps to the away end in the upper tier where you are often housed on the continent. There was still just under an hour to kickoff so there was time to witness the atmosphere building. 

We named a strong side as expected. Madueke began on the left after his winner off the bench at Forest as Eze dropped to the bench. Bayern were without the suspended Olise as well as Musiala and Kimmich. Of course there was still Harry Kane to worry about. 

We started well but ten minutes in, we suffered a major blow as Saka, who had started brightly, abruptly pulled up with what looked like some sort of groin or quadriceps strain. He looked in serious discomfort and worryingly went straight down the tunnel. I very much doubt we will see him again this side of Christmas. 

Saka was replaced by Eze and Madueke shifted to the right. After both sides traded a couple of decent chances we went ahead midway through the first half. Ødegaard played a sublime defence splitting pass over the top to Eze who ran onto it and finished superbly on his left foot. The goal was initially ruled out for offside but after a painful VAR check the goal was awarded and the away end went wild! Get in!

Our lead was short lived, as ten minutes later Harry Kane played his own defence-splitting pass to the rapid Alphonso Davies, who slotted home calmly on his right foot. 1-1. A fabulous goal but perhaps Timber could’ve tracked his man better.

A half in which both sides traded some decent chances and the second half followed in a similar vein. It looked as though Bruno Guimarães had restored our lead as his crashing header was tipped onto the woodwork by Manuel Neuer but it somehow stayed out. Moments later, David Raya made a similar stop from a towering header from Upamecano. On the hour mark it was time for Harry Kane’s customary penalty. In fairness it was a definite handball from Timber and it may well have been going in anyway. Unsuprisingly, Kane dispatched the penalty with distinction. 2-1 Bayern. 

We responded as well as we could and our set pieces were looking more like the ones we enjoyed in our title winning campaign. On came Gyokeres for Havertz and, to his credit, the Swede made an impact. There was some nice interchange on the right between Madueke and Rice, the latter played a one-two with Gyökeres before slotting home calmly into the corner. 2-2. Timber may have won it late on with a rasping drive but a draw was a fair result with two of Europe’s elite sides played out an exhilarating tie. So much for boring, boring Arsenal! 

Unusually, we were let out of the ground straight after the whistle, but we may as well have been kept in as the queues back to the metro were horrendous. From the end of the game, it took us around 90 minutes to get onto the train which was packed to the heavens. We finally got back to our hotel at 1am, more than two hours after the end of the game. From what we could see, there was essentially one metro station to serve 75,000 people. How the Bayern fans put up with that on a weekly basis I have no idea. So much for German efficiency!

Other than that, it was another great trip. Good food and drink, plenty to see and do and a high quality football match to top it all off. The atmosphere inside the ground was fantastic to witness and be a part of. Even if the stadium facilities weren’t up to scratch, the bowl itself was quite the sight and sound. Certainly one more ticked off the old football bucket list. 

It is testament to how far we have come under Arteta that we can come to these places and compete fully even with injuries. It wasn’t so long ago we were routinely losing 5-1 to this lot. Those days are long gone. If we are to win it this year at last, then we will almost certainly need attacking reinforcements in January. But another deep run should be achievable at least. 

Posted in Match Report | 23 Drinks »

Not another party night in Schwabing

Oct 20th, 2026 by

Remembering Bayern’s (let us use this ubiquitous moniker for FC Bayern München, our august opponents in this week’s Champions League clash) utter domination in German football over the last couple of decades, one can be forgiven to assume that this has always been thus so. Well, quite the contrary, Bayern’s path to sustained excellence arrived through years of darkness and ignominy.

In 1963 when the DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund – German Football Association) created the Bundesliga, it wanted only one club per city, and 1860 München — Oberliga Süd champions that year — got Munich’s place. Bayern were left in the regional league. Under coach Zlatko Čajkovski and president Wilhelm Neudecker, a generation of local youngsters — Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier, Gerd Müller — won promotion in 1965. Two years later they lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup; in 1969 they were German champions. In a classic storybook fashion, insults became the inspiration.

The journey of German football in general, and Bayern München specifically, is that of an outsider. Football did not enter Germany through either the factory or the athletic establishments, but the classroom. In 1874 the Braunschweig teacher Konrad Koch introduced the game at the Martino-Katharineum grammar school, and a year later he published the first German rulebook — still closer to rugby than to the game we know. English merchants, engineers and students carried it further, into the port cities, Berlin and the commercial towns of the South-West.

There was fierce cultural resistance. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s patriotic gymnastics movement Turnbewegung – which prized collective discipline over competitiveness or individualism – was all the rage, and the passionate followers, including many patriotic minded Germans, derided the “English disease” for its “vulgarity” and “individualism”.

Football, the beautiful game, naturally, inevitably, won its argument at the end. Students and sons of the burgeoning middle class started forming their clubs away from the patriarchal and traditional Gymnastics associations. And post world war the shorter working hours as well as the formation of the new urban leisure culture helped transform formation into a spectator sport. Quite the pity then that so many of the Weimar-era set literature and films focus on the cabaret and the theatre, while young men might have been equally hankering after a well-fought match between FC Nürnberg and VfB Leipzig. A lesser known fact: the Gropius – Itten split in the Bauhaus movement (after which Itten left and Gropius brought in László Moholy-Nagy) has as much to do with a game of football – where the vegetarian-violent Itten almost broke Walter’s neck – as the whole functionalism-individualism difference of opinions. How do I know? I heard it from someone who heard it from someone who had a grandfather, who used to work in the garden of the Gropius residence in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Maybe.

The above paragraph may or may not be historically accurate, it definitely is not recorded anywhere. But Bayern’s foundation and evolution are known to be historically accurate and well-recorded.

For its first half-century, the capital of Bavarian football was not Munich but Franconia, especially Nürnberg. FC Nürnberg was founded in 1900 by young men playing on the Deutschherrnwiese meadow. “Der Club” became the first great power of German football, winning five national titles between 1920 and 1927 and nine in all. Next door, SpVgg Fürth — born in 1903 as a football section of a gymnastics club — took titles in 1914, 1926 and 1929.

In the Bavarian capital, football grew out of the gymnastics clubs and the student milieu around the university and the bohemian, cosmopolitan district of Schwabing – at various times residence of Paul Klee and Thomas Mann – and that iconoclastic spirit was reflected in how the club was born. In early 1900 the footballers of MTV 1879 wanted to join the new national football structures; the club’s general meeting refused. On the evening of 27 February 1900, eleven of them walked out, gathered at Café Gisela in Schwabing, and founded the Fussball-Club Bayern München. The first couple of decades were all about survival and building an identity. Bayern’s rise to prominence came under the stewardship of Kurt Landauer, the son of a Jewish merchant family. Under Landauer and the Austrian-Jewish coach Richard Dombi, Bayern won their first German championship in 1932, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2–0 in the final in Nuremberg.

You don’t need me to tell you what must have happened after that. Landauer was forced out; after the November pogrom of 1938 he was held at Dachau, then emigrated to Switzerland, while several of his siblings were murdered. The regime mocked Bayern as a “Judenklub”. Landauer came home in 1947 and became president again.

Bayern’s famous first three European Cup (predecessor to the current Champions League) final wins might haven’t happened if not for a moment of unlikely inspiration. One minute from defeat in the European Cup final against Atlético Madrid, Georg Schwarzenbeck — a defender who almost never scored any goals — struck from 25 metres to make it 1–1. Bayern won the replay 4–0 two days later and then retained the trophy in 1975 and 1976, beating Leeds and Saint-Étienne in finals. Without that one shot, maybe the Beckenbauer-Müller-Maier generation would now be remembered as Germany’s best team that never conquered Europe. As Noni Madueke proved last weekend, taking shots is essential if winning matches is the goal.

Since then, of course, Bayer has gone from strength to strength, winning three other Champions League trophies (all in this millennium). Their record against English clubs is a mixed one though. Especially if we keep the focus limited to the three most historically consistent and successful English clubs in Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. Against Arsenal, Bayern holds the overall advantage, with 8 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats in 15 matches (goals 31–18), including back-to-back 5–1 wins in the 2017 round of 16 (10–2 on aggregate) and the 2024 quarter-final win (2–2, 1–0), though we won the most recent meeting 3–1 in London in November 2025. Against Manchester United, Bayern have 6 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats in 13 matches (goals 21–16), and United’s two victories — the 1999 final and the 3–2 at Old Trafford in 2010, which still saw Bayern through on away goals — are the only times they have beaten Bayern. Liverpool are the true bogey team: in 7 meetings Bayern have never won, with 4 draws and 3 defeats (goals 5–11), losing the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final, going out on away goals in the 1981 European Cup semi-final, losing the 2001 UEFA Super Cup 3–2 and falling 3–1 at home in the 2019 round of 16. Taken together, that is 14 wins, 12 draws and 9 defeats in 35 matches against the three clubs.

Can we improve our record against them this Wednesday? We are on an excellent run in the Champions League over the last couple of seasons. Our last season’s unbeaten home-or-away – the penalty shoot-out defeat counting as a draw for the match record – record has been extended by two more matches where we had seen off obdurate defending first by Napoli and then by Lille. Both of those two teams had set up in a manner very similar to how most of the teams in the Premier League play against us – deep defensive blocks, all players behind the ball, ceding control and space in favor of cutting out all passing lanes and not allowing any run behind the defenders.

Kompany’s Bayern, at home, will obviously not follow that formula. Many of their players would feel that they have a point to prove after their comprehensive away loss at Arsenal last season. Moreover, the crazy 3-3 draw at the Vikings FK last week means that they will be at their best to ensure no points are dropped at home. Even with Olise (red card) and Musiala (injury) absent, in Kimmich, Karl, Diaz and Kane they have genuine match-winners. With the talisman Neuer out with injury, Jonas Urbig is likely to retain his position in the goal. Kompany’s default formation this season has been 4-2-3-1, with the typical building up from back relying on ball playing abilities of Saliba’s international team-mate Upamecano and the German central defender Tah.

With Tzolis, Hincapié and Saliba still on the path to recovery, we do not have as many options as Mikel ideally would have preferred across all positions. It is somewhat paradoxical, but even though Konsa has been very good and getting better with each match, I think Saliba’s absence is felt the most in the entire structure of our team. While the temptation to retain the Rice-Guimarães connection in the midfield will be strong, one wonders when exactly Declan is going to get that rest to allow him to stay refreshed over the season. Maybe Zubimendi will start at home this weekend at PL, and in this match will be used to see out a positive scoreline. Myles will definitely take the place of Calafiori, and Timber starting with White on the bench.

This is my preferred starting line-up:

Raya
Timber – Konsa – Gabriel – MLS
Ødegaard – Rice – Guimarães
Saka – Gyökeres – Eze

With Max, Kai and Madueke to come in early in the second half if we need goals. Mosquera, White, Calafiori offer robust defensive cover, Zubimendi-Merino valuable midfield options. I am quite certain that Mikel’s line-up will not agree with this one!

If we keep the foundational strengths of our football – resilience, control, calmness and intelligence – consistently applied, I think we will create enough chances in an open match. A highly competitive 2-1 away win will do perfectly.

Come on Arsenal!

Posted in Champions League, Match Preview | 31 Drinks »

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