This Wednesday night will see the Gunners take on West Ham in a game that provides an opportunity for us to leap-frog them in the table and strengthen our chance of a return to the Champions League at the end of this season. If we accept, and I think sadly we must, that the top three are already away and gone, then the games against West Ham, Man Utd and possibly Leicester, Wolves and the marshdwellers are the ones that may matter most when the dealing’s done at the end of the season. Indeed, many have already got this one down as a must-win game for us and whilst I can’t quite agree on ‘must’ as we are still only 16 games into the season – we could quite easily win, lose or draw this one and finish 4th or 10th come May – it would definitely be a welcome win. Despite the loss at Old Trafford, we are ahead of the curve in our particular mini-table at the moment with pleasing drubbings being handed out to the spuds and Leicester. The team itself should be in far better heart after a decent win against Southampton (excepting Auba obviously) and another home victory would go a long way to banishing any lingering away day blues from our recent trips North. An important one then but who will start?
The Starting XI
First things first and we know for sure one player who will not be in the Starting XI. As the club tersely announced today…..
Following his latest disciplinary breach last week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will no longer be our club captain, and will not be considered for selection for Wednesday’s match against West Ham United. We expect all our players, particularly our captain, to work to the rules and standards we have all set and agreed. We are fully focused on tomorrow’s match.
Short and to the point. It is difficult not to regret what has happened and at the same time accept that the club has made the right decision. Clichéd it may be but, no player is bigger than the club is as true now as it has ever been. Various media have of course been quick to conclude this is the end of Auba’s career at The Arsenal and that he will be gone in January. Perhaps he will, certainly he’ll be gone to AFCON, however we don’t have to look far to see an example of a captain booted out of the job and yet still here and in the side. If we don’t get a result against West Ham, Auba could feasibly be straight back in the side for our next game. Personally, I’d like nothing better than to see Auba back in the side and knocking goals in left, right and centre for the rest of the season but we are just going to have to wait and see how this will play out now.
As you would expect this was a hot topic at Mikel’s presser today, however rather than regurgitate the many questions and answers I will summarize the main points below
- Auba was informed of the decision face-to-face by Mikel
- The dressing room has accepted the decision as it is clearly in line with our agreed standards
- The captaincy will remain within the current leadership group
- It is very painful situation but we had to do it and would have done it even if Auba had scored 10 goals in the last 5 games
- MA will not discuss details of his conversation with Auba
- It is still too early to say what will happen next. Time is needed for everyone to digest the situation
Moving on to the rest of the team MA confirmed that all our players are clear of Covid currently and available to play, excepting those with already existing injuries – i.e. Kola and Leno. MA has already talked about the need to rest players at times during the busy December schedule. Will he choose to do so for this game? On the one hand we have the importance of this game but on the other we have the fact that naming an unchanged XI will mean three matches in a week for the players. I believe we will go with the unchanged option though it would be no surprise if there are one to two changes. That leaves us with……
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu — White — Gabriel — Tierney
Partey — Xhaka
Saka — Ødegaard — Martinelli
Lacazette
It is a side I like though a place will have to be found for ESR sooner or later. CM is a problem but I am simply going to refuse to write anything further about Xhaka. Not a very good attitude for a blog I must admit but sod it how much more can we really say about a very average trundly midfielder.
Onwards then to the opposition.
West Ham
There was a time in the mid-70s when I didn’t really mind West Ham as they played decent football in a period of often dour defensiveness and apart from the occasional cup-run and the annoying Alan Taylor they weren’t really a threat at the business end of the season. The Cup Final in 1980, a couple of trips to their thuggishly infested home ground later in the 80s, and the disgusting public and unpunished murder of Arsenal supporter John Dickinson in 1982 swiftly put an end to any such ambivalence. Thankfully, these days football is a far safer sport for supporters and West Ham are now, in their current incarnation, ensconced, shamefully it must be said, at the tax-payers expense in a shiny new stadium. Though their epic journey from ignorant hooligans to grubby parasites has not been without recidivism – additional security measures were required in the ground to protect the West Ham board from their own supporters – they have at least managed to put together a fairly decent side with their ill-gotten gains. They did well last season (for them), and currently sitting in 4th, with wins over Liverpool and Chelsea in their last six games they appear at first glance to be on course for another Top 6 finish. However, it is also worth noting that those actually somewhat fortunate wins over Liverpool and Chelsea are their only wins in the last 6 games and with Antonio struggling in front of goal it may be the lack of a top-class striker is starting to find them out. Certainly, they looked to be lacking a spark in their 0-0 draw with Burnley at the weekend. Nevertheless, I expect they will be a good test for our young side as although the oddly well-respected Moyes’s teams never actually win anything they also rarely cave and are usually vaguely well-organized at the back. I expect them to keep things tight and we will have to watch for the likes of Fornals, Bowen and Lanzini on the break but we have a good recent record against them – winning 7 of the last 10 in the league and I hope to see us make that 8 of the last 11 tomorrow.
The Holic Pound
Conscious that I have waffled on longer than usual I will cut straight to the point. 2-0 at 12/1. Seems about right at those odds, though I should warn you I nailed the score against Southampton and two in a row does seem unlikely – about 25/1 now I come to think of it.
Anyway, as always, I hope you will all enjoy the game wherever you may be – COYGS!!
Nice one, OM. I like your scoreline. Lightning can strike twice.
I think ESR will start. Perhaps Saka will be given a much-needed rest or at least an escape for one game from having lumps kicked out of him. However, Arteta must keep Ødegaard central, where he is much more effective than on the right. Then there is the question of whether Laca’s legs can take a third game in such short order, although we shall need a skipper on the night.
Arteta’s controlled stare while his brain whirrs was much in evidence during the pre-match press conference. I would be intrigued to know what those in the bar who are experienced in judging body language in meetings made of it. My inexpert two cents is that there is a lot more to the Auba situation than a couple of incidents.
Thanks Matt – great job !
Ned, I would imagine you’re right about the Auba situation for things to have come to such a public pass. Some are very critical of Arteta for making it public but personally I don’t blame him in this case. Aubameyang is paid an absolute fortune and is the club captain from whom the others are supposed to take their lead. By all accounts he is a serial offender where time keeping is concerned and Arteta has clearly lost patience. If he were to make a “small injury” type excuse, no-one would believe him anyway and the crowd could well be on the manager’s back for not selecting him.
I haven’t seen Arteta’s presser yet but I’ll let you know what I think about his body language as soon as I have.
If anyone likes doing the goals for and against averages for both the home and away sides over the season so far, we should just win it 2-1. That would do me very nicely thank you !
Good stuff, Matt. I for one, do believe that this is as close to a ‘must win’ fixture as we could have this season. I think you have correctly identified the five clubs who are likely to be competing for the 4th, 5th and 6th places this season. We cannot allow the Spammers to establish a clear points gap between us at this stage of the season so it’s certainly a ‘must not lose’. Moreover, given the off-field stramash involving our blank-firing erstwhile captain for which you have summarised the coach’s view well, we need to demonstrate that we have the mental strength to brush that distraction off and produce another impressive performance without Aubameyang that will hopefully sustain the team’s belief through the busy Christmas schedule and the ACN in January.
I think your team selection is close to Arteta’s likely selection but like Ned, I expect ESR to start and Saka to get at least 45 minutes rest. I certainly want to see Martinelli get another start and Laca is nailed on if fit. I think our unspectacular midfield pairing is a fixture for Arteta.
2-0 would do very nicely, thank you.
This is a very well-constructed preview OM . You touch on all the key issues and I also think Ned is completely right about Auba. I suspect ( and it is no more than that ) that his awful form last season and most of this is linked to his desire not to be at the club. Arteta and Edu have a real difficulty in unloading him at his age, in his current form , on his salary . There are suggestions of swap deals with Dembele or Coutinho . That runs totally contrary to our recent transfer philosophy although there may be a feeling that Dembele is in a similar situation to Odegaard . But he is a mega-earner . Coutinho is sadly a bit of a crock.
As for tomorrow I’m not over optimistic but our second half was good on Saturday . Declan Rice will relish the midfield battle against us. I’d venture we might win 2-1 with no confidence whatsoever and that we may see quite a bit of Nketiah tomorrow and in the next few games .
bath@3: you expand my vocabulary yet again, this time with ‘stramash’.
Trev@2: I am with you on the club going public on this to the extent it has done. Arteta was right to say that once the decision to discipline Auba had been taken, the correct thing to do was to be transparent with the fans, even if the manager kept the details close to his chest.
That will not stop the speculation about why Auba reportedly went to France last week, or recollections of him missing an important team meeting when he was at Dortmund when he was trying to force a move away from there.
Excellent job Matt, and even with the last minute edits to keep us all up to date on Auba and the fluctuating captaincy. Goonerholics Forever has once again been made proud. 👍🏼
Mavropanos is not finding it easy to contain Bayern tonight . Bayern lead 5-0 with Serge Gnabry notching a hat- trick. Gnabry looks the sort of young player we ought to be developing. Er you say what ….?!
Dembele is on £287,000 a week at Barcelona, which is more than Auba’s £250,000 a week. I think the club would swallow that if it were a straight swap of the 24-year-old for the 32-year-old. However, Barca desperately needs cash, and would probably demand some payment for a player still valued at around £20 million even though his contract runs out in the summer. Secondly, Dembele is right-sided AM, not an out-and-out striker, which is what we need until Martinelli, Balogun or even Khayon Edwards establishes themselves upfront for the first team. Would Dembele come to be Saka’s backup? And wouldn’t even Edu have second thoughts about paying upwards of a quarter of a million a week for a squad player, unless Arteta has Pep-like visions of playing a team full of false nines?
TTG@7: If you can’t make it at West Brom, what else can you do but slink off to the Bundesliga?
That’s interesting info on Dembele Ned and another mega salary . No wonder they haven’t got a pot to piss in . I also recall he is quite injury prone too.
If Auba can be offloaded I suspect we might see a loan deal for Jovic . He scored at the weekend against Atletico
These mega salaries are a real spanner in the works. All the top clubs are trying to unload expensive players who are not nailed-on starters, and all those unwanted players want to go to CL teams, who are all trying to cut their wage bills.
Auba will probably get loaned out to a club that can afford to pay him £125,000 a week with us covering the other half his wages due under his contract until it expires in the summer of 2023. Or he will move on a free and get a contract cancellation payment that will cover the gap between what he will earn at a new club over the next season and a half and the £20 million we would have paid him. Either way, it will be an expensive departure.
I figure Auba’s contract extension was all about hoping he could provide us some goal production in his dotage while thanking him for his exploits gone by. From that point of view will we really be missing anything unexpected??
Thanks all for the kind words gentlemen.
There are a number of possibilities with Auba now….
1) He knuckles down in a professional way, works hard to recover the lost trust and comes back to be a regular goal scorer for us again
2) we find a buyer in January or the summer and sell/swap for whatever we can get
3) contract is cancelled and he moves on a free
4) contract is cancelled, we have to pay him off and he moves on a free
5) he’s loaned out and we get his wages off the books
6) he’s loaned out and we subsidize the loan
7) he sits around sulking and being a generally negative distraction
I have tried to put them in our order of preference though there are more cons than pros from no 3 on it seems to me. It all depends on how Auba reacts in the coming days/weeks really. It’s a shame as he has been a good buy for us and though I’ve never met him he comes across as a likable guy.
Arseblog has a really fair assessment of Auba’s situation at the end of his West Ham preview. A recommended read.
Great stuff in the preview, Matt.
Agree with you Ned that there is more than meets the eyes.
And while I am not yet convinced by Arteta on the football side of things, in the particular Auba situation, I am now thinking there isn’t much wrong with how it’s being dealt with.
I think you have to take into account Aubameyang’s history.
People can change, evolve, etc., but repeated patterns of behaviour cannot be ignored.
I tend to favour individualised approaches to a large extent rather than disciplinary one size fits all, but it doesn’t work for everything.
The problem (and it’s not confined to football) is if you keep indulging people’s whims (for lack of a better word, but it doesn’t quite convey my exact thinking), they will never realise what they are doing is not actually acceptable in most societal environments.
Maybe he needs an electroshock and the 1) in your possibilities could still happen, Matt, but that’s is an ideal world. While I think we all wish it, I remain highly skeptical on this outcome for now.
bt8@14: Thanks for the heads up. Blogs on Auba is well worth the read.
Nice preview Matt. Going to be chaos at the stadium tonight as 60,000 covid passports get checked!
In other new ACON may be cancelled
Excellent preview Matt!
And a very measured and balanced comments on the latest leadership brouhaha. Time waits for no one.
A win today will be crucial in keeping our top four hopes alive, not only in terms of the position at the table but also in building confidence towards a sustained run of results.
Ollie, good to see you in regularly now 👍🏻
Interesting news about the possible cancellation of ACON. My first thought was that it could be a boon to our season, but then started to wonder about the odds of ACON getting cancelled and the Premier League season not suffering a similar fate. 😲
Cheers Matt, excellent preview!
I would prefer a Xhaka free team but I know he will start.
For the Aubameyang argument I think he has much to digest He was awesome at the FA Cup winning run but a lot has changed since then.
Our tactics are completely different now. Ha can not play his favorite game running for the long balls and taking snapshots. He has to come back defending, playing for the team, distributing the ball to others. And even he listens to MA and does his best its a new thing for him and it takes time to be good at it and he is not scoring goal. I can understand that he became fustrated.
I just hope the ACN will refresh him mentally and he come back in his former self.
COYG
If AFCON is cancelled, this article suggests it would be better for us than for 15 other Premier League clubs, but best of all for Liverpool.
Cheers Trev.
It is good to see familiar (and some maybe less so) faces and that the discussions are still sensible, in good humour, etc. A rare thing on the internet these days, and the legacy of a great man.
Hope to be back at a match and share real drinks again too.
And what Trev said @19.
Indeed Ned, Liverpool would be the main beneficiary.
I have also read that European clubs are considering not releasing their players anyway.
Wonder if they could cancel (not just postpone) the World Cup next year… 😉
Beeb article on Auba includes this interesting curiosity: “ Perhaps surprisingly, Arsenal’s win percentage without the striker is markedly better than it is with him, even dating back to his arrival. They have won 49.1% of matches when he has played, and 64.6% when he has not.”
An article on a second act for Dru Yearwood, released by our Academy as an 11-year-old now making a career with New York Red Bulls.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/59598645
Brilliant post Matt! Best description I’ve read of the East End Murdering Scum I’ve read in a long time.
#RIP John Dickinson.
Same team as against Scummers by all accounts
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Lacazette
Subs: Okonkwo, Holding, Tavares, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Lokonga, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Nketiah
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Lanzini, Bowen, Antonio
Subs: Areola, Alese, Ashby, Kral, Noble, Okoflex, Vlasic, Yarmolenko, Benrahma
What SSY said @31!
top post, matt. it was a pleasure to read, and i appreciate your approach. not being from england i have only heard of the ruckuses that used to occur in the 70s, so i appreciate the context you bring to the game.
COYG!
Spot on with the team selection, OM. Hope you land a twofer with the score.
Scruz@33: OM is right about West Ham’s old Boleyn Ground. It was a nasty place to visit back in the day, starting with being channelled down a narrow alley leading to the turnstiles.
Hoping for a season defining positive result for the Arsenal tonight.
Drinks on the bar, fellas.
COYG
cheers, ned, i’d always heard west ham, milwall, and a couple of others were a bit of a nasty visit for arsenal fans (among many) back in the day.
and here’s a round on me, for all and sundry. let’s see the holicspound come home!
i wonder if auba will be in the crowd, or if he’s going to avoid the whole thing and watch from home.
claps for ray.
COYG
We are clearly not going to get anything from Taylor tonight.
Bath, I wouldn’t exclude getting something in particular: a red card.
Wasn’t Saka fouled in the box a while ago?
that was a fun half of football, quite good from our eleven. they’ve barely had a sniff, we’ve been good in all phases of the game. really making it happen down their left. i love tomi’s looping crosses, the defense doesn’t quite know what to do with them. that can lead to another goal (after mø’s last game).
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
Heh @ Ollie! Indeed.
I hope we get a break in the box in the second half and can keep up the energetic pressing.
One time Partey keeps it low, hits a defender, was on target I think
Incredibly, Taylor gives us the penalty and they are down to ten…
@46 whisper it Ollie shhhhhh
Get in ESR, yeaaaaah
Hotter stuff
Get in!!!
Was a bit nervous after Laca missed that penalty I must admit
Ollie way back @15
Think so too, 1) is an optimists hope at best
Great win!
ned@34, twofer indeed. well in matt.
what a great game. i am so happy to see us play like that. lots of grinta, lots of skill, lots of awareness. really pleased.
can’t wait to read your birds-eye, c100. and 21cg’s report!
fourth place sounds like a trophy, eh?
Brilliant finish from ESR and he really is stepping up in front of goal this season
Well in for the twofer, OM. Team and score.
Cheers sg@53
It’s good to be a gooner😃
That was a very good day at the office. The team played really well for long phases and didn’t really let West Ham get much of a sniff.
Great performance, dodgy penalty but he only just caught the ball and it was a leg sweeping challenge so I do get it. But never a pen.
Love the retro trackie top but the blue one is even better. Not on the website at the moment though.
agreed, matt. of course, even in the darkest days it’s always good to be a gooner. 🙂
ned, my thoughts exactly. there was only one little period where ramsdale was put under pressure, and kt3 kept antonio in his pocket. and that one shot, but really, things were largely one way even before the second yellow.
A mature performance.
OM you got the perfect score
Uhhh
That’s as good a game as Laca has played in some time. Great team effort for 90 minutes. Dare I say disciplined performance?
KS @45. Partey’s volley was perfect technique and right on target but for the block. He played a good game.
What an excellent performance – hard work, quality pass and move, driving at the opposition, a couple of lovely goals, deserved a couple more, clean sheet, Laca and Partey looking better than in the last few weeks, even Xhaka put in a shift despite a couple of dozy moments AND a clean sheet. No Banquo at the feast!
Onward and Upward!
Cheers las, Ned😉
We did look a good side tonight, too good for them anyway. It’s a shame that Laca missed the penalty as he deserved a goal, led the line very well.
I have nothing to add, it’s all been said by you all above.
Just maybe ask Matt for the lottery numbers…
Great reaction to the penalty issue from Moyes. Very classy to say the ref probably got it right and his player didn’t. Brilliant. He could have cried his eyes out and didn’t. Wish more managers would show some honesty.
Very classy from Moyes.
For much of the match, some of the best football from Arsenal in a long time.
Very enjoyable night . We played really well and are developing as a team . Two impressive performances in a row with two clean sheets
I agree re Moyes Cynic.
A classy and honest response. It wasn’t a clearcut decision and I wouldn’t have given it if I’d been reffing . I think a red card for two relatively innocuous yellows is a sign of a very different culture in modern football . Very harsh . Having said that I wasn’t at all impressed with West Ham . They haven’t got much squad depth .
Martinelli’s goal was extremely well taken and he made the finish look a lot easier than it was. Saka was my MOTM. Laca had his best game in ages (bar the penalty), but there were no poor performances. Tomiyasu reminds me a bit of Nacho Monreal in putting in the same consistently high standard of performance game in, game out.
This is Knees Up Mother Brown’s conclusion on the game .
Not every West Ham reaction was as classy as Moyes
“”Although Arsenal left the field with three points in the bag, one wonders whether any Gunners fan could have been genuinely satisfied by the manner in which their team secured the victory, having resorted to “any means possible” to gain the win that took them above West Ham in the table.
While the consistent diving, attempts to have opposition players cautioned and general shithousery are sadly all part and parcel of the game at the highest level in the modern game, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta somehow managed to sink to a new low when spotted ordering one of his players, who had left the field with an injury, to crawl back into the field of play so that the match could be halted.
It was that kind of night. A bad one for West Ham United, and particularly depressing for a sport once described – laughably now, it would seem – as “the beautiful game”. “
Spammers can fuck right off with their lying connivery.
Divers.
TTG@73: This Gunners fan, for one, was genuinely satisfied by the manner in which the team secured the victory.
This one too, Ned. Here’s an interesting tidbit from the Sky match report: “Arteta … went with the same starting XI for the third straight game, the first time Arsenal have done so since April 2016 under Arsene Wenger.”
Maybe he feels like he’s hitting on something.
My 2-cents on the penalty is that it was a penalty, if not the most egregious foul you will see by a long chalk. Coufal went in with both feet and the upper one brushed the top of the ball, which means it was at Laca’s lower shin height at least. The ball squirmed out behind the defender. If unimpeded, Laca would have got to it. Going in with a high foot is ‘reckless’ and thus earns a yellow. Second yellow means a red. Them’s the rules, even if their application seems harsh. Taylor could have just awarded a penalty and not given a yellow card, which he probably had the discretion to do, and I doubt many would have complained.
No room for boredom
We ARE the action elite
(f*ck Lundgren)
@78
A post worth more than 2-cents Ned as it sums it up nicely.
At least a guinea, though it never would have been a pen
in old money.
On MA getting Gabi back on the pitch, why would we want to
play on a man down? Wham wanting to play on when we’re a
man down is hardly a shining example of the beautiful game
either.
Ned @78 . I have the same view on the penalty incident.
Leicester v Spurs players out with Covid so far:
Leicester: Vestergaard, Ayoze Perez, Lookman, Amartey, Iheanacho, Choudhury, Benkovic.
Spurs: Gil, Royal, Son, Skipp, Scarlett, Moura.
Excellent summing up Ned. I’ve changed my view after seeing how out of control he was. Moyes summed it up very well
Ned @78, spot on, mate.
The ref turned pundit in the BT studio drew exactly the same conclusion after initially thinking it wasn’t a pen as he believed the defender had taken the ball.
Props to Antony Taylor for getting it right without video review, I apologise for doubting his ability to be even handed.
Props also to David Moyes for calling it the right decision.
Wet Spam fans can ‘do one’.
>>>>>>>