And so to the King Power Stadium for the early Saturday game, just a mile from Richard III’s crypt in Leicester Cathedral, which provides a cheap and cheesy headline. Cheap and cheesy might also be a Walker’s crisp flavour, right up there with Cajun Squirrel.
Before our first visit to Leicester, on Monday, January 7, 1895, up to three inches of snow had to be swept from the pitch. Teams of men with brushes were set to the task after a heavy overnight snowfall with the country in the grip of Dickensian wintry weather.
The Woolwich Arsenal eleven travelled up that morning by train. They needn’t have bothered. Out of sorts and out of form, they were down by two goals after 11 minutes and three with 20 minutes to go. Young Scottish inside left Peter Mortimer scored our goal a couple of minutes from time.
Our fourth loss in five games left us mid-table in the old Second Division. Early season hopes of promotion were dead. Leicester Fosse would finish fourth in their debut season in the Football League, missing qualification for the Test matches, a Victorian version of the playoffs, on goal average, a Victorian version of goal difference that would last until 1978-79.
Like many places and institutions in and around Leicester, its football club owed its name to the Fosse Way. This Roman road between Exeter and Lincoln ran through Ratae Corieltauvorum (now Leicester, but how prescient of the Romans to anticipate Vardy). The club was started in 1884 as Fosse FC by members of a chapel bible class and former pupils of Wyggeston Grammar School, whose lengthy list of distinguished alumni includes Sir David Attenborough.
The founding XI, mostly still teenagers, lived in or around Fosse Road, which tracked the old Roman road. Fosse played its first game in a field off Fosse Road, winning 5-0 against Syston Fosse, a team from a small town northeast of Leicester, through which the Fosse Way had also run.
That was the only time the Fosse played there before moving to a succession of grounds in the city, including the county cricket ground at Grace Road. In 1891, newly admitted to the Midland League, it settled at the Walnut Street Ground, whose entrance was off Filbert Street, the name the ground would adopt from the turn of the century. There are still Brazil and Hazel Streets and an Almond Road nearby. Nuts!
Like many Victorian-era teams, the Fosse acquired a geographical anchor to their name during the passage from local to regional and eventually national football. Royal Arsenal and The Wednesday are other examples. However, the club’s accounts for 1893-94, its last season in the Midland League before election to the Football League, were still in the name of Fosse FC. The Fossils, as they were inevitably nicknamed (Foxes is post-World War Two), played in the Football League as Leicester Fosse until the First World War, after which the club, having fallen into financial straits, was reformed as Leicester City.
And the rest, as they say, is for another day.
The opposition
Thirteen games into his tenure at the King Power Stadium, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record reads: P13 W 3 D1 L 9, although Old Horse Face has good cause to feel aggrieved that the most recent of those losses, in the FA Cup last weekend, was a miscarriage of offside. In the league, the Foxes sit atop the relegation zone, a point clear of Ipswich but two short of the salvation of seventeenth, currently enjoyed by Wolves.
At Leicester, van Nistelrooy has gone with a 4-2-3-1, not the 4-3-3 he deployed with some success with PSV in Eindhoven.
The young Dane, Mads Hermansen, is his preferred glove butler to Wales’s Danny Ward. Hermansen will likely be behind a back four of James Justin, who has one England cap, Wout Faes, who has 25 Belgium caps, Jannick Vestergaard, who has 51 Denmark caps, and another young Dane, Victor Kristiansen, who has 17 caps for his country.
Van Nistelrooy has been rotating his centre-backs, saying he has been picking the pairing best suited to the opposition. Yet, there is a sense that his two best players in the position, last season’s regulars Faes and Vestergaard, do not have the chemistry of the best pairings. He needs to find it: Leicester have conceded 53 goals in 24 league games, more than twice as many as the team has scored.
Vestergaard and Kristiansen have had knocks but should be fit to play. If not, the nippy but error-prone young Italian Caleb Okoli, who was called up by the Italy squad for their Nations League games earlier this season, or ex-Wolves skipper Conor Coady, who reportedly tried to return to his former club in the January window, would step in in the centre. Luke Thomas, a Hoffenheim target in January, or the versatile Woyo Coulibaly, a January signing still waiting for his first start, are the cover at full-back.
Boubakary Soumare and Wilfred Ndidi are van Nistelrooy’s preferred double pivot. Ndidi strained his hamstring in December and only returned last weekend. He did not complete the whole game, and Leicester’s defensive performance noticeably dropped once he left the field.
Nonetheless, van Nistelrooy will start him, and his stand-in, Harry Winks, signed from the neighbours in 2023, will drop to the bench. Plan C would be Oliver Skipp, a £20 million purchase from the same marshy quagmire last summer.
Leicester’s attacking midfielders—Jordan Ayew, Bilal El Khannous and Bobby De Cordova-Reid—have experience, quality and experience, in that order. Stephy Mavididi, Facundo Buonanotte and Kasey McAteer will come off the bench.
The veteran Ayew, signed from Palace last summer for £5 million plus £3 million in add-ons, has over 100 caps for Ghana and is joint second in Leicester’s goal-scoring chart this season with four, behind only the beloved Jamie Vardy. Belgian-born and raised, El Khannous, 18 years younger than Vardy, is already well-established in Morocco’s national team. Bristol-born De Cordova-Reid, another summer signing, on a free from Fulham, remains a regular in the Jamaica national squad, but has been in and out of the Leicester side since suffering Achilles heel problems in November.
Buonanotte, a 20-year-old who has earned a couple of Argentina caps in friendly matches and is on loan from Brighton, would be the next choice, followed by either McAteer, a young Ireland winger whom Sunderland attempted to sign in January, or Mavididi, formerly of this parish.
The closest Mavididi came to a first-team game in red and white was twice being an unused substitute in a league cup match. We sold him as a 20-year-old to Juventus’s B team for £1.25 million; the Old Lady sold him to Montpellier two seasons later for four times that. Montpellier moved him on to Leicester for £1 million more than they paid for him.
Another formerly of this parish, Bless Akolbire, has been named to Leicester’s PL Under-21s squad list, but the 18-year-old, a box-to-box midfielder, is unlikely to be on parade for the senior side on Saturday.
Up front, Vardy is likely to return from injury. He is the Foxes’ top scorer this season with seven goals plus three assists. From the bench, when those speedy but ageing legs tire, van Nistelrooy can call on Zambian international Patson Daka, for whom Leicester paid Red Bull Salzburg £25 million in 2021, and Odsonne Edouard, on loan from Palace but who has not played a minute under van Nistelrooy and was barely used when Steve Cooper was still manager.
The Arsenal
Before the Havertz hamstring news, I had drafted this paragraph as, ‘Refreshed and revived from a week in Dubai and unencumbered by domestic cup involvements, the team can now focus on the two prizes that matter. There are 14 games to go in the league, each a must-win, and up to seven in the CL, pretty much the same.’
At least the second sentence holds.
Nine of the team pick themselves. Calafiori or Lewis-Skelly and Sterling or Merino are the questions. One plus is that van Nistelrooy won’t have any better idea of how Arteta will set up without Havertz than I do. Trossard has mainly played as a false nine in a 4-4-2 when Ødegaard was out, which does not help the second-guessing. Thus:
Raya
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly
Ødegaard, Partey, Rice
Nwaneri, Trossard, Sterling
There is not much more to say. We must win. The game is a potential banana skin. Vardy is eternally tiresome: he has scored more often against us than any other team (11 goals in 17 games).
Some Leicester fans are planning to stage a protest on 14 minutes over how the club’s transfer business is being run (theirs, not ours, I assume, but one can’t be sure). It would be nice to think that we would be a goal up by then (Nwaneri nodding in a corner, having been given a piggyback by MLS — Nicolas Jover’s innovative solution for replacing Havertz’s height) and settling in for an uneventful three points.
It will be more of a grind than that. Yet, 2-0 should be doable against a team that has lost its past four home league games without scoring.
Enjoy the game ‘holics, far and near.
Your usual erudite and informative pre match summary Ned
2 zip will do me.
In the hazy days of my youth, mid sixties ? I remember going to Filbert Street to see the debut of one Frank McLinntock, after he joined us from Leicester.
The rest as they say, is history.
That is McLintock with one n not 2.
Age will not weary me, spelling will.
Wot Clive said @1 about the preview Ned,
Though my own hazy memory of Filbert St is in the 80s when Leicester
boasted a strike force of Lineker and Smudger. Fortunately,
Lineker missed at least two hatfuls and we escaped with a draw.
Alan Smith joined us from Leicester of course, and while not the
great Frank McLintock he also earned his place in the pantheon.
As for the team it may be that Calafiori will start as MA
will look to add height for the set pieces. Or Jorginho for
his passing as we look to work our way through their defence?
Be good to see Benny back too at some point.
Thank you NBN, for bringing history alive with your usual élan!
Somewhat around the same time while the Romans were building roads around Leicester, they were also buying peppers from the Malabar coast with payments in gold. Many centuries later, people from Leicester (and other places in Britannia) will come to take much of that gold away. Such are the links that bind us all. 🙂
Vardy I am guessing will get his inevitable goal against us. So we will need to score at least two, which I think we should be well capable of. Let’s keep Ødegaard stationed closer to their box, and lead the press. And have Nwaneri-Rice-Partey take more shots at the goal.
Your team is likeliest. Time for Sterling to create a few fond memories for us all Arsenal
supporters. Starting with a goal in this match.
Come on Arsenal!
Thanks for your usual superb preview Ned . I think your team is the best guess any of us could have at the starting line-up .
The U21s won tonight and Butler – Odeyeji and Kabia were not in the squad . I suspect they will be on the bench . I don’t think Arteta will pull any huge positional surprise unless we are desperate for a goal. If we are against Leicester it does not augur well for the rest of the campaign. I like your 2-0 Ned . Nil against will need to be a regular feature if we are to keep the season alive
As above, another excellent preview, Ned. Once again I am closer to knowing how much I don’t know.
I have fond memories of Filbert Street. An aunt used to live outside Leicester in the 70’s and when we visited we used to go there to watch a Leicester team with such luminaries as Nark Wallington in goal, Steve Whitworth at full back and Islingtonian Keith Weller, with whom my dad still keeps in telling us he went to school off the Caledonian Road. Ahh happy days.
Anyway, rose hued reminiscences aside, let’s batter them. It’s still the arse end of the Fosse Way in my opinion.
Thanks for your usual great Preview, Ned. Come on you uninjured Gunners!
Holy Moly! The game starts in less than three hours and it’s the middle of the night here. Best not to go back to sleep for fear of missing the kickoff up Fosse way. Coffee here I come. A timely reminder for post-Dubai to wake up and smell the same.
Post-Dubai Arsenal, that should have been. My excuse for that omission is the pbvious one. Lack of coffee (soon to be corrected).
A top, top preview, Ned. As ever, you provide a wealth of unfamiliar historical information and a shrewd eye for detail. I can’t disagree with your likely team though, personally, I would prefer to keep Sterling on the bench to save someone’s legs late on and in his stead add a surprise ‘forward pivot’ to the centre of our forward line, in the form, perhaps, of Merino, Calafiori or Jorginho, who happen also to be rather good in the air. Any kind of win at all will delight me.
COYG
Excellent,Ned – with all the usual, amazing detail !
Good to see that Comedy Monk is stirring in the face of adversity – or advardysity, or something ….
Big Willy has reportedly offered to play as a Nine, with all other options still in, or just out of, hospital. Can’t really see Arteta going quite that radical but we’ll see. He’ll just have to go with who’s available as he can’t really be that fossey…. That’ll be my coat – thank you !
Ned has nailed the starting XI, I hope he has nailed the score too!
Butler-Odeyeji has made the bench, as has Ben White.
Coffee cup now in hand after I actually managed to catch a few more winks prior to waking desperately expecting that I had indeed missed the kickoff. But NO! A good omen? Fingers crossed for that and the Calafiori hat trick.
Hat trick from the bench? Even better, and so be it.
Arsenal XI: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Trossard
Subs: Neto, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Merino, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji
Nice one Ned. As good as always. Cheers!
UTA!
Thanks for the kind words, all. Glad to hear you enjoyed the rambling down Fosse Way. I opted for Sterling in a 4-3-3 over Merino in a 4-2-2-2 only because I thought Arteta would want balance at the front and Sterling can run at Justin, who is having a so-so season. Let’s win this thing.
Yearning for Sterling to do something.
Trossard can’t keep the ball or do anything with it, Sterling can’t do anything with it, Nwaneri has been great but nobody to receive it
Not a half that will live long in the memory, Leo miskicked our best chance but it’s a bit of a struggle up front as expected.
Once you don an Arsenal shirt you have my support ( although I will criticise if appropriate) . But Raheem Sterling is stretching my principle . He really is nicking a living.To think I was excited when he signed !
Merino for Sterling and straight to CF with Leo moving to the left.
Let’s hope it works
Sterling’s level is more Championship, League 1 these days and even then I think he’d struggle.
Well done MLS, saving some bacon
Also Vardy still doesn’t get booked for just running up and kicking people.
Our new CF does his job!
Oh my words.
And then he does it again! The new Alan Smith! He gets the ball, he scores a goal
Two excellent crosses on the goals from Ethan and Leo.
Defence was fairly solid too and we didn’t let weasel elbows rat face add
any to his tally. On we go and still in there fighting
Almost forgot a rare double for Castle Ned, team and score. A large one on the bar for you sir 🥃
Could be 1 point behind with a game in hand next week.
Plenty of nines would have been happy to have finished those two chances as well as Merino did.
OM@30: 👍 The monks know!
Late to the party, delayed by the beckoning greens (and worm casts). Excellent preview and prediction, Ned.
We were lucky not to go in one down at half time and, until Mikel rang the changes around 70 minutes I had the nil-nil butterflies fluttering inside.
Nwaneri MOTM by a mile for me. Trossard and Sterling together doesn’t work. Merino’s introduction was (quite obviously) key to the outcome and that finishing front three looks like our strongest until the Martinelli and Saka cavalry come over the hill.
Joe Cole likening Nwaneri to Messi in the outro………….also expressing concern that he shouldn’t be overplayed. Two sensible comments on one day from him. A first?
Come on Wolves. Nobble Salah, grab a goal then park your bus.
I think Joe Cole was a very credible analyst today . He understands the game well .
That was a massive win and it was significant that it came with a new number nine . Merino’s movement was excellent and the delivery for the two goals was superb .Nwaneri played magnificently. He was as good as Sterling was awful . It was a solid team performance and hopefully we have found a structure upfront . Merino is good in the air but he also showed good striker instincts ( he stayed onside for example much better than Raheem who frankly has tanked ) When Saka returns it will be interesting how Mikel deploys him with Nwaneri . Nwaneri is more two-footed than Saka and we might see Bukayo playing on the left .
Well lads
TTG@36: Spot on about Sterling. His game was built on explosive speed. That has gone, leaving him looking somewhat ordinary. Reminiscent of late-era Walcott.
A tedious toothless 80 minutes where we failed to test the Lesta keeper and frankly were lucky not to be two down were followed by a very important brace. Props to MLS for averting Lesta’s likely tap in before Merino’s arrival. Ethan, hitting woodwork twice, was far and away our best player and really our only hope until the arrival of Merino. Sterling was execrable and I would happily drive him to the channel tunnel (with a bull-whip). Merino took his two chances very well – like a true striker. The set ups by Ethan (wand of a left peg) and by Trossard, following a lovely run by Calafiori, were first class but don’t underestimate how easily DB59 would have missed those chances.
Job done – onwards.
I keep seeing references to cavalry coming over the hill. Don’t get your hopes up too high. Martinelli may be back in a month but Saka will be lucky to get more than a few cameos off the bench in April and May. Ethan – Merino – Trossard/Martinelli will be our most effective and most likely forward line for the remainder of this season.
Bath@39: Just to add to your notes of caution, Merino came on after the game had started to open up. He didn’t have to do the hard yards, as they say in ‘Merkan football, when Leicester were still operating a well-disciplined low block, which contributed significantly to the tedious toothlessness, as you put it.
Good points Ned, @38 & 40.
One of my roles is to play the same gramophone record over and over but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to it. Mikah Biereth scored his second hat-trick since moving to Monaco from Sturm Graz in the window . We’d sold him to Graz for £4m but had a sell-on clause . I think we got just over £6m for him in total. That’s derisory . He’s now being mentioned as one of the up and coming strikers in Europe with a very significant transfer value .
The lad never played in our first team but how useful would he be now ? If we’d got a fee akin to Balogun or Nketiah we could at least feel we banked the money but this way we’ve made a very disappointing deal and potentially missed out on utilising a very good young striker . Our summer business really wasn’t very impressive in some respects was it ?
Scratch away TTG 😄
But I would just mention our summer signing won us the game yesterday and another summer signing played an important part in the build up to the second goal.
The assist for the first goal came from MotM Ethan Nwaneri, one reason he is playing now is that we created the space for him by taking the tough decision to let ESR go to Fulham last summer. Oddly, no one mentions that when reviewing our summer business.
In some respects our summer business was impressive wasn’t it?
Having, tongue in cheek, said that I would also say that of course TTG’s point about Bieroth is reasonable but we are never going to get everything right and we can’t keep everyone.
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