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Strike out the Lillywhites

Oct 29th, 2024 by

And so to Deepdale, the long-standing home of Preston North End, for Wednesday evening’s fourth-round Carabao Cup tie.

Deepdale was initially a cricket ground. Preston North End CC leased a field on Deepdale Farm in 1875, and the cricketers started playing football three years later to keep fit during the winter after a failed flirtation with rugby to the same end. Preston North End FC was formally founded in 1880.

Deepdale was also used for baseball. Preston North End Baseball Club, run by the same men who ran the football club, competed in the professional National Baseball League of Great Britain’s sole season, 1890. Aston Villa, Derby County and Stoke were other football clubs involved, as were the county cricket clubs of Gloucestershire, Essex and Staffordshire. 

The same summer, PNE’s amateur side won the Amateur Championship Baseball Cup of Great Britain, sponsored by US sports equipment maker Spalding, whose eponymous founder, Albert Goodwill Spalding, was a tireless proselytiser of the game in Britain. It gained some traction in Yorkshire, which had 90 teams at one point, and the East Midlands. Older ‘holics may remember that Derby County used to play at The Baseball Ground.

Preston holds that Deepdale is the oldest ground continuously used for football. There are other claimants to that accolade. The original stadium hosted its record crowd of 38,000-42,000 (accounts vary, but contemporary ones cite the lower figure) for our top-of-the-table league visit in 1938. It was demolished in four phases around the turn of the Millennium and morphed into the modern 23,000-seat Deepdale of today. We last visited in 2017 for an FA Cup tie won by an 89th-minute Olivier Giroud goal.

Rock bottom

Preston was the inaugural winner of the Football League in 1888-89. Its team went unbeaten, winning 18 of 22 matches, and lifted the FA Cup without conceding a goal. Thus, it was the first team to do the double and the first Invincibles. Its starting XI contained seven ‘Scotch professors’, the skilful pioneers of short-passing ‘combination play’ lured by the lucre of the Football League clubs from the still amateur game north of the border when English football was still getting over being little more than a rugby maul without handling.

Preston would win the league again the following season, but their unbeaten run ended in the second game, a 5-3 defeat at Villa Park. Yet by the time we first visited Deepdale in September 1901, all that history was history. Preston had fallen into the Second Division, and over the decades that followed, they would spend as many seasons out of the top flight as in. Their only additional silverware was a solitary FA Cup in 1938. 

Following the retirement of the legendary Tom Finney, they again dropped out of the old First Division in 1960-61. It would only get worse. In 1985-86, they had to apply for re-election to the old Fourth Division and nearly folded. The Lilywhites have since stutteringly climbed back to the Championship, where they have settled since 2015 after nine Play-Off attempts across the second, third and fourth tiers. 

After a 3-3 draw at the weekend against Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle, having let a 3-0 lead slip, Preston currently lie 16th in the Championship, with three wins (all at home), five draws and four losses.

Heckingbottom

Ex-Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom replaced Ryan Lowe in the Deepdale dugout after the first game of this season. Heckingbottom has vacillated in the league between the 3-5-2 he favoured at Bramall Lane and 4-2-3-1. However, he played a 4-4-2 in the second and third rounds of the league cup against Harrogate Town (thumped 5-0) and Fulham (beaten 17-16 on penalties after 1-1 at full time). In the only two games Heckingbottom has managed against us, both last season, the Blades got beaten 5-0 when he used a 4-4-2 and 3-0 using a 3-5-2.

Former England U-21 keeper Freddie Woodman will be their best-known name, although some ‘holics may recall midfielder Sam Greenwood. He was with our U-18s for two years before moving to Leeds in 2020. He has moved across the Pennines on loan.

If Heckingbottom goes with a back three, it will probably comprise Jordan Storey, Liam Lindsey and Welsh veteran Andrew Hughes. All three are good in the air and have plied their trade in the Championship and Leagues One and Two, although Lindsay played 64 games for Partick Thistle in the Scottish Premiership. Former Stuttgart centre-back Patrick Bauer, who also has top-flight experience in Portugal, is out injured.

Three of club skipper Ben Whiteman, Edinburgh-born Northern Ireland international Ali McCann, Dane Mads Frøkjær-Jensen and Icelandic international Stefán Teitur Thórdarson, who arrived from Silkeborg in the summer for 830,000 euros, will provide the core of the midfield. At wing-back, Brad Potts, newly returned from injury, will likely get the nod over Josh Bowler, a Forest loanee who missed the Plymouth game because of illness. Potts would drop to right-back if Heckingbottom goes with a back four.

Robbie Brady, who has 68 Ireland caps and played over 150 Premier League games, would have been a shoo-in to start on the left but did his ankle ligaments against Plymouth. With Potts back, Kaine Kesler-Hayden, a promising youngster on loan from Villa, will likely switch from right wing-back to left. Ryan Ledson, who scored the winner in the penalty marathon against Fulham, is an option from the bench. 

Heckingbottom floods the midfield with bodies and tends to make extensive tactical substitutions there during games, so there is a good chance of seeing most of them.

Upfront, Greenwood or former US international Duane Holmes will play behind another Dane, Emil Riis. First-choice centre forward Milutin Osmajic, a Montenegro international, is serving an eight-game suspension for channelling his inner Luis Suarez and biting Blackburn Rovers’ Owen Beck. Welsh international Chad Evans and Ireland international Will Keane, both ahead of Riis in the PNE pecking order and both of whom have played in the Premier League, are long-term injury absentees. 

Despite not appearing since last month, Osmajic is still Preston’s joint top scorer alongside Riis, Greenwood and Frøkjær-Jensen — with two. Goals have been a problem — only 13 scored in 12 league games, while the defence has conceded 17.

The Arsenal

Arteta says he will play a strong team, but after the exertions of the Liverpool game and with a trip to Geordie Arabia in prospect, he will rest legs regardless. Gabriel and Calafiori likely will not be available, but Timber is. I can see him, Partey, Rice, Havertz, Trossard and Martinelli all starting on the bench, along with the lesser-spotted Zinchenko, Raya (but not Neto, who is cup-tied) and some youngsters (Nichols, Kacurri, Kabia). Predicting team selection in these games is always a lottery. I’ll take a chance on: 

Setford

White, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly

Jorginho, Merino, Nwaneri

Saka, Jesus, Sterling

Preston will be typical Championship opposition, full of hard-working battlers in their mid-to-late twenties, good players whose careers haven’t quite fulfilled early promise. They will be short of Premier League quality, especially with Brady missing. They haven’t lost at Deepdale this season under Heckingbottom. Their one defeat came under Lowe. They are unbeaten in five, and will see this game as a free hit. We’ll have to put in a shift, but we should have the quality to beat them by at least two or three goals.

There is no VAR for this game. It will all be on the man with the whistle, Peter Bankes, from Merseyside, you’ll be shocked to learn, although he has given us only six yellow cards in eight games, of which we have won five.

A final note for CER, C100 and other travelling ‘holics: Preston’s Victorian Black Horse pub in Friargate is a semi-finalist for CAMRA’s Pub of the Year, 2024 award.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.

Posted in Match Preview | 22 Drinks »

Proud Of The Team

Oct 28th, 2024 by

Well, things started well… there was good news when the team was announced, as Trev’s suggestion that we might see both Saka and Timber in the line-up proved on the money. That meant White lined up next to Gabriel in central defence, with the Dutchman at left-back and Partey slotting in at right-back.

The game began with more effort than quality, both teams full of energy but not settling into their rhythm, until the ninth minute when Saka showed just how valuable he is, chasing a well-timed ball from White, bamboozling Robertson with the cut-back before firing his shot high into the net at the near post past a helpless Kelleher.

The Emirates was rocking. What we needed was to put our foot on the ball and keep the lead for a bit. However, we were a bit cagey and it was clear both sets of players knew how big the occasion was.

Timber looked rusty, misplacing a couple of passes, but he was up for the battle with the evergreen Salah.

Merino let a ball slide under his foot, and we were lucky the talismanic Eygptian curled his resulting effort wide. We did not take advantage of the reprieve as three minutes later they were level.

Partey would not have been thrilled when he got the nod to go toe-to-toe with Luiz Diaz for the afternoon, but he put in one hell of a shift against the skilful Columbian. Not a natural right-back, he was always going to have a few hairy moments though.

Unfortunately, after doing well to put the ball behind for a corner, it was the Ghanaian who got on the wrong side of Van Dyke, who nodded home Luiz Diaz’s near post flick. It is the sort of cheap goal that you cannot afford to concede in a big game, and it was entirely our own fault. It is hard not to think that Saliba would have cleared it though.

We were the better side for most of the half, although Liverpool had a couple of spells were they kept the ball, and they have skilful, hardworking players who have seamlessly transitioned from the tutelage of one excellent coach to another.

Both teams had good positions that they failed to convert into clear chances. Saka looked very dangerous, and the opposition resorted to fouling him repeatedly. Anthony Taylor was lenient in letting the game flow, but his decisions favoured the away side who were on the back foot.

Quite how Van Dyke did not get a yellow for not one but two petulant off-the-ball kicks at Havertz is beyond me: he deliberately kicked out at a fellow professional with no intention to play the ball or even gain an advantage, just to hurt him; the ref gestured to show he had seen the incident clearly… and issued no card.

It was a blatant and spiteful action from Van Dyke. We get punished for every minor infraction; how do other teams get away with stuff which is actually bad?

It was therefore not without a sense of justice that I watched a hugely lengthy VAR check (is there any other kind? And, given it was an offside call and presumably just a matter of drawing the lines, what the hell were they discussing for so long?) eventually deem that Van Dyke’s foot had played on Merino when he stooped to head home his first Arsenal goal from one of a series of excellent dead-ball deliveries from Rice, regaining us the advantage just before half-time. It was well deserved.

We did not come out on the front foot for the second half, and this time it was Liverpool who had the better of proceedings, albeit our reticence was influenced by the fact that we were ahead on the scoreboard.

Anthony Taylor seemed to give every 50-50 Liverpool’s way, and persistently failed to give us free kicks for the same things he was giving them to Liverpool. Havertz was kicked and pulled but got nothing from him. I really don’t mind letting things flow in these big games, but it has to be consistent for both sides, and it did not look like that to me.

We were not aided at all when Gabriel had to go off barely five minutes into the half, being replaced by Kiwior. Timber lasted barely twenty minutes more, Lewis-Skelly coming on for him. Perhaps it was always a big ask for him to play the full match (especially up against Salah) but we getting a rough run of luck with injuries at the moment. A back line of Partey, White, Kiwior and Lewis-Skelly is not even close to first choice and in the end it cost us.

With less than ten minutes of the ninety remaining, we broke forwards and the ball came to Martinelli on the left. I love him as a player, but today there were a few times when he received the ball in great positions and failed to make it count. He lost the ball too easily and Pool had it up the other end in seconds, Kiwior sucked towards it but unable to make an interception, leaving Salah alone to run into the space and receive the pass inside before firing past the despairing dive of Raya.

This felt a bit like the kind of goal we used to concede in Europe, one born of leaving too much space as we attacked without caution, but perhaps it was not as tactical as all that and the simple truth is that Liverpool would not have scored that goal against our usual defence because they are just better defenders. Hardly rocket science to suggest that the second-string aren’t as good, and to be fair, they were all decent on the day and worked hard, but we will have to hope that Arteta has a full complement to choose from more often than not.

We took off a tired Saka (much quieter in the second half) and Martinelli for Nwaneri and Jesus, and we found new impetus going forward.

We had a couple more half-chances but nothing worth recounting until we reached injury time, when we had a goal disallowed.

Kiwior made a clumsy challenge, which I can absolutely see could be a foul, except for the fact that it was exactly the sort of challenge that Taylor had been letting Liverpool (especially Nunez) get away with all match. My problem is that he clearly sees the foul, does not blow his whistle, waits until Havertz wins the next challenge to go through one-on-one with Kelleher, and then blows his whistle and points back to the first challenge. Why the delay?

Look, maybe he is just taking a moment to make up his mind. But after the run of decisions we have had lately, I think all Gooners watching this sequence of events, seeing the referee not award a free kick until the moment that the move has developed into a goalscoring opportunity for us (especially after the way he had refereed the match until that point) are going to be wondering quite why we are seeing actions that go against our team refereed differently to ones performed by our team?

I just don’t know what the rules are or how they will be applied game by game. All I know is that however they are applied and regardless of how unjust it appears, the referees will be justified and vindicated in all they do in the media. This is making PL football tough to watch at the moment, especially when the quality of the refs in our Champions League matches this season have provided such stark contrast with their competence and professionalism.

However, despite the lingering sense of injustice, the thing that has most stayed with me is how proud I am of our players. Despite the injuries and suspension, they put in a shift, to a man, against a top side with a referee helping them out, and still didn’t lose the match.

Saka was quality. Trossard played some lovely stuff under pressure. Rice worked his socks off. Merino is improving with every game. Kiwior may not be quite as good as some of his colleagues, but it took a lot of nerve to come into that backline, especially after a mistake last week, and he made clearances and showed character to put his foot on the ball and pass it out. Lewis-Skelly impresses greatly, as does Nwaneri. Raya was good, getting fingertips to one Salah cross that made all the difference. Every player pulled their finger out, and if we keep doing that then we will have a great season.

Right now, it seems like things are going against us, but it will get better, and we will look back on this tough period as the making of this group this year. This may yet be a vital point.

Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Until next time, ‘holics.

Posted in Match Report | 45 Drinks »

Time to stand up and be counted

Oct 26th, 2024 by


Arsenal vs Liverpool. One of the great fixtures on the English football calendar. There have been cup finals, title deciders and everything in between.

Sunday’s encounter should be no different as both sides hunt down the three points to keep the pressure on our common enemy. Liverpool have enjoyed a near-perfect start to life under Arne Slot, winning every game in all competitions bar a shock home defeat to Nottingham Forest in September. They truly are an elite side and any expectation that Liverpool may struggle to adapt to life without Klopp appear to have been quashed.

But back to those great historical Arsenal/Liverpool clashes of the past. In 1964 history was made as Arsenal and Liverpool played out the very first BBC MOTD broadcasted game in which we lost 3-2. In 1971 we met at Wembley in the FA cup final this time triumphing 2-1 in what proved to be one half of Arsenal’s first ever league and cup double. Charlie George’s long-range winner is still played on the big screens at the Emirates before every game over half a century later. if you’ve seen the goal, you can understand why as it truly is one of the all-time great FA Cup Final goals.

But perhaps the most famous meeting between the sides came 18 years later in 1989 as Arsenal travelled to Anfield for the final game of the season. We all know the story of course but let’s set the scene once more.

Due to the Hillsborough disaster, we didn’t travel to Anfield until 26th May, after everyone else’s season had finished so it truly was the final day. The nation was watching. Arsenal knew they had to win by two clear goals to take the title from Liverpool who were of course the dominant side of that era. They seldom lost at Anfield let alone by two goals. It’s fair to say no one really gave Arsenal a prayer. But George Graham simply told his side to keep it tight in the first half. If it gets to half time 0-0 that’s ok. We can nick a goal early in the second half and continue to keep it tight before throwing the kitchen sink at it late on. And that’s exactly what transpired. We got to half time at 0-0. It was cagey affair with both sides focused on not making a mistake. Alan Smith got a goal early in the second half. Then came the most incredible climax to a league season in English football history. Lee Dixon’s ball found Alan Smith. Michael Thomas was making a late run into the box from midfield. Could Smith find the right ball? He could just about, as Thomas got the first touch which flicked off the defender back to Thomas who now had a clear sight of goal. It seemed to take Thomas an age to get the ball out of his feet but when he eventually did, he flicked the ball over Grobbelar and into the back of the net cue bedlam in the away end and in pubs and living rooms across North London.

In terms of tomorrow’s game, we have been struck with a boatload of injury problems. Saka and Timber are major doubts, and Calafiori got a knock against Shakhtar in the week. Ødegaard obviously remains a long-term absentee. Saliba is suspended following his ludicrous red card in the defeat to Bournemouth last weekend. In terms of team selection, I’d expect White to start at right back with Kiwior accompanying Gabriel at the back with Zinckenko at left back. Having the Ukrainian up against Salah is far from ideal but the only alternative is playing Myles Lewis Skelly there which I just can’t see Arteta doing.

In midfield I think it will be Rice and Partey with Trossard in the ten. I wouldn’t mind seeing Merino for Partey but I expect Arteta to keep him on the bench as he looks to get up to speed with the pace and intensity of the English game.

In the absence of Saka, it’s a toss up between Jesus and Sterling on the right. I think Arteta will prefer a natural winger for a game of this magnitude, so I think we’ll see Sterling start again. Martinelli, who always plays well against Liverpool, will start on the left with Havertz down the middle.

In theory we are slight favourites but given a loss will put us seven points behind Liverpool and six behind City there is real pressure on us to win here. I don’t think the title can ever be over in October but given our next two games see us go to Newcastle and then Chelsea, anything but three points will rack up the pressure on Arteta and the players significantly.

If you’re going to the game bring your dinner but if you’re not you may want to hide behind the sofa for this one. I’m going for a morale boosting 2-1 win.

COYG!!!

Posted in Match Preview | 28 Drinks »

A Matter of Perspectives

Oct 23rd, 2024 by

Matchday three in this new format Champions League – and I must confess that it is a format I am starting to enjoy, the whiff of danger and unpredictability palpable in the air, as each game takes on a unique importance of its own, is particularly satisfying – has thrown up some memorably exciting matches full of feisty encounters, goal-fests, scintillating come-from-behind wins, high-octane football. 

And then there was our beloved Arsenal, serving out a singularly laboured and joyless performance at home, in front of a surprisingly subdued home crowd, and by the end of the match was almost grateful to be able to get away with the three points that everyone associated with the club – maybe even some players themselves too? – had taken for all but granted before the ball was kicked.  

While the entire spectrum of emotions – ranging from relief to apathy to disappointment to angst – can all be understood and empathised with, for this report I would prefer not to dwell on any of those, and neither would I try to draw any conclusion about the team, the tactics, the outcome of the upcoming weekend’s pivotal league match or the long season ahead. It was one of those performances that every top level team have in them even in their most successful seasons, and coming after the international fixtures and then last weekend’s tiring and tiresome loss away at Bournemouth, just returning to winning ways without conceding any goals is acceptable enough not to require any further dissection. 

And, truth be told, other than the blatantly obvious ones, the match presented – at least to me – no particular pattern from which to glean any insight about any individual or the collective. The obvious ones being that in absence of Ødegaard, our midfield lacks creative inspiration and sometimes even the ability to dictate the pace of the game, and if you add to that the unavailability of Saka, our overall creativity drops significantly. We still remain a robust, hard to beat, defensively superb, physically and tactically effective team, and find just that enough bit of quality in our passing and movements and in our set-pieces to eke out victories consistently, but with both Martin and Bukayo out of the starting eleven, we are not a potent attacking force. This I always knew to be the case, and the lukewarm 1-0 victory against the Ukrainian champions didn’t present any evidence to the contrary. 

I would rather take this opportunity to express what I thought was an admirable effort by the visiting team. As bt8 elaborated in his excellent preview, Shakhtar Donetsk – nicknamed Hirnyky, “гірники”, or “miners” as  Shakhtar “шахтар” in Ukrainian literally means “miner”, the name a nod to the origin of the club among the coal miners of the Donbas region – was already living an itinerant existence after the invasion of 2014, and their lives, footballing or otherwise, have been made all the more difficult after 2022, almost impossibly so, along with lives of the rest of the Ukrainians, ordinary or extraordinary. As Mikel Merino said so eloquently in his pre-match interview, it is impossible to imagine for us the daily experience of living through this particular hell of uncertainty and suffering.

Just to play this away match at London, they had to start on Friday from their base in Kyiv, with a break over the weekend in Lviv, before crossing the border to Poland and arriving on Rzeszow to fly from there. But in the pre-match interview their manager Marino Pušić clarified unequivocally that they would rather compete than complain, and even though they started tentatively in the first half and were facing genuine problem to pass through Arsenal’s aggressive front-footed pressing, as the match progressed they started to play with conviction and guile, and sensing an Arsenal not at their very best, became more adventurous towards the end than most would have expected. If they had managed to score an equaliser at the end, I don’t think it would have been undeserved. If not for Raya’s excellent one-handed save, we might have dropped those two points. 

Shakhtar in the modern era has had a bit of a Balkan connection. Arguably their best player in recent history is Darijo Srna, the Croatian right back. The Croatian national goalkeeper Pletikosa played for them for a few years. As did our very own Eduardo, of course. That connection seemed to have been reflected in their current managerial team. Pušić, a Dutch-Bosnian, was born in Mostar. And his right hand man, Mario Stanić, was a Croatian international. Once Shakhtar started to feel confident, especially in the second half, their style of play with crisp and quick passing, rapid movement, sudden switches in attack and creative wing play reminded me a bit of the Croatian international teams. Shakhtar, obviously, didn’t have enough quality in the final third for their good build-up play in the second half to count. And then they came up against two imperious central defenders in Saliba and Gabriel who, without having to exert themselves too much, were still just too good for them. 

Arsenal’s player of the match – and I would say the player of the match – was Gabriel Martinelli. After an inconsistent start to the season, he is (thankfully) coming back to his sharpness in and around the penalty box, and Shakhtar’s right back Konoplya found him nearly impossible to contain in the first half. In the second half, the central defenders Bondar and especially the captain Matviyenko did well to help out Konoplya in handling Martinelli. 

The only goal of the match came from a typical Martinelli movement. He gathered the ball facing the Shakhtar goal, Calafiori made a fine overlapping run to drag Konoplya away just for a short moment, but that was enough for Gabi to move inside and get his shot away. The finish was sharp and powerful enough to beat goalkeeper Riznyk, but unfortunately for him the ball ricocheted off his back into the goal. 

Arsenal 1 (Riznyk OG, 29’) – Shakhtar Donetsk 0

This was a well-deserved lead as Arsenal had started sharply, especially in our pressing and willingness to move the ball quickly through vertically, and it felt like there would be an enjoyable attacking display for the entirety of the match. There were some moments of brilliance, especially from Martinelli and Havertz, and Jesus looked tidy enough even though not yet at his pre-injury best. Trossard, despite having some nice moments on the ball, was uncharacteristically wayward in front of the goal especially in the first half, and that tame penalty in the second half which Riznyk saved so easily underlined his day.    

Shakhtar’s starting eleven had two Brazilians – far cry from the pre-2022 days when a few Brazilian stalwarts started their European club football journey at Shakhtar – on the left side, more experienced Pedro Henrique as the left back and young Equinaldo as the left winger. Equinaldo gave Ben White a few difficult moments, and I don’t think White is back to his full fitness yet. His yellow card was unnecessary, and even though Mikel later claimed that his decision to take White off at halftime was because of that card (to avoid having to play again with 10 men, just in case), I suspect that White’s fitness may have played a part in it. The resultant move to RB for Partey, now rapidly getting back to his best form and excellent in his familiar midfield role in the first half, reduced our attacking potential noticeably. 

Shakhtar had chosen to start this match without their regular captain and the anchor in defensive midfield, Stepanenko, who was on the bench, and their first half performance betrayed a lack of nous in holding on to the ball and occupying space in the middle of the field. However, in the second half Bondarenko and Sudakov combined well, and with Partey removed from the midfield duels, Rice and Merino both playing well within themselves, the Ukrainian champions started to see more of the ball, and had a much better control of the midfield.  The match ended with possession stats distributed 56%-44% in Arsenal’s favour, and passing accuracy comparison of 89%-87%. Much of that evening out happened in the second half when Shakhtar started playing their football with greater confidence and freedom, and Arsenal became less dominant in midfield. 

It was good to see all the Ukrainian flags in the crowd, and the Shakhtar players evidently enjoyed the spirited support of their compatriots. These players gave a good account of themselves, especially on the ball, and can be really proud of this performance. Best wishes to them for the rest of their matches this season.

The refereeing was refreshingly good. No unnecessary drama, no controversy, no strange attention grabbing decision, nothing for either side to complain about or feel aggrieved by. 

Three games into the CL, 7 points on the board, with zero goals conceded. We can and will play better. We have a couple of tough away matches coming up in the competition, against Inter and Sporting, where we will need to raise our performances. Let us hope Ødegaard will be back to full fitness by then. 

Posted in Match Report | 35 Drinks »

A Spot of Euro Footy for What Ails Ye?

Oct 21st, 2024 by

Just to assure everyone that not all is lost after our string of recent domestic disappointments featuring the unwelcome interventions of PGMOL officials, I will begin this Shakhtar Donetsk preview by pointing out that no PGMOL officials will be involved in this contest.  That’s right, UEFA will assure it by appointing UEFA-sanctioned officials who have no particular known or identifiable agenda against Arsenal.  Thank you very much indeed for this welcome relief!

UCL’s revamped “league phase” resumes this Tuesday evening when Arsenal will host the defending champions of Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk. The Arsenal-Shakhtar rivalry has a bit more history to it than you might remember, not to denigrate the memory of any fine ‘holic who’s reading this of course, but my research brought up a few tidbits I had long forgotten.  

We have played the Ukrainians four times in this competition, including twice in 2010/11 group play when each club won at home.  Shakhtar won 2-1 in November with the winner scored by ex-Arsenal favorite Eduardo, after Arsenal won by 5-1 at home one month prior on goals by Song, Nasri, Fàbregas, Wilshere and Chamakh to overcome the obligatory Eduardo score for the visitors.  Arsenal previously faced Shakhtar on two other occasions in the 2000/01 competition, when Arsenal overcame two early Shakhtar goals in September at Highbury to win by 3-2, with one goal scored by Wiltord and two late ones by Keown (of all people), before Shakhtar defeated a Lee Dixon captained Arsenal side away by 3-0 in December.  The picture above features Arsenal’s Rosicky and Shakhtar’s Mkhitaryan, who made his Ukrainian league debut in September 2010 when he was substituted for the very same Eduardo, one month before the last occasion when the Ukrainian side faced Arsenal. 

Oleksandr Zinchenko was captain of the Shakhtar youth team before he moved to Russia with his parents in 2014 due to the war in Donbas.  Until 2014 Shakhtar’s home was the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, but due to the Russian invasion the club was forced to move their domestic home games to Lviv from 2014–16, to Kharkiv from 2017–20, and to Kyiv from mid-2020 before moving back to Lviv for the last two seasons as the war continued to rage.

Shakhtar

I haven’t researched Shakhtar’s current players but suffice it to say that their squad is still highly competitive at this level despite all the hardships the club has been through during the last decade. In their two UCL contests this season Shakhtar drew 0-0 at Bologna before defeating Atalanta in their “home” match (played at the home stadium of Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany) by 3-0, so Shakhtar and Arsenal are level on four points apiece in the table, but Arsenal trail their opponents on goal difference. 

In this season’s Ukraine league table Shakhtar sit fourth after their away win last Friday at Kolos, six points behind leaders Dynamo Kyiv after nine matches played.

As to the mentality of the Shakhtar team coming into this match I recommend this BBC article by Alex Bysouth that was published today: War, exile, hope – how Shakhtar continue to overcome adversity, and in particular this description of the trek that the club will have made to London for this game: “Champions League football at least gives Shakhtar a chance to play away from the threat of war, but travelling abroad brings its own challenges.  When they face Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday it will be on the back of a long-haul journey.  On Friday, Shakhtar travelled from their base in Kyiv to Lviv by coach, stopped over for a day to train and then on Sunday went across the border to the city of Rzeszow in Poland, from where they flew to London.”  As Shakhtar’s chief executive Sergei Palkin commented, “When you arrive you are already less competitive than your opponent because of physical conditions, mental conditions.  To spend two days in a bus, in a plane, is very difficult.”

Arsenal XI

The Gunners come into Tuesday’s match having drawn 0-0 away at Atalanta on 19 September, and defeated PSG 2-0 at home on 1 October in their first two Champions League matches this season. With their European pedigrees our new recruits Merino and Calafiori could be decently equipped for this kind of match so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arteta putting them right into the fray, but Ukraine’s own Zinchenko could also be an interesting choice at left back for the Gunners.  Unfortunately, news reports indicate that Bukayo Saka remains a serious injury doubt so I wouldn’t expect to see him risked for this one.  Instead of Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus could come in on the right wing, leaving us with a team that looks something like this:

Raya

White  Saliba  Gabriel  Zinchenko

Rice  Partey  Merino

Jesus  Havertz  Martinelli

Saliba’s dismissal at Bournemouth was Arsenal’s third Premier League red card of the domestic campaign, after Trossard and Rice were previously sent off for delaying match restarts.  But Saliba’s ban does not apply for this European match, so he should retain his starting spot. Let’s hope some Euro footy is just the tonic that Saliba and the Gunners need to refocus their mentality going forward.  Barring any unexpected interventions from UEFA officials, I would expect Arsenal to bounce back from their defeat at Bournemouth, and to emerge with a comfortable win in this one.

Enjoy the match, ‘holics.

Posted in Match Preview | 44 Drinks »

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