Greetings to all as always, I trust you’ve all been well? First off, and this is truly tragic, I missed out on my hat-trick (three trophies in three blog posts) because I was unable to do a post in the aftermath of our Community Shield triumph over Jose Mourinho. Sadly I had family commitments to attend to and actually did not watch the game, and in light of this travesty I will soon be responding to all family/event invites with some sort of disclaimer:
“Thank you ..................................... for your invite to your seminar/conference/wedding/baby shower/family get-together (kindly tick as appropriate). I will be happy to attend, and look forward to seeing you there.
N/B:
Kindly be advised that this RSVP is null and void in the event that the timing of an Arsenal FC football match in any competition whatsoever coincides with that of the above-mentioned event. Any inconveniences caused are highly regretted, and your understanding is highly appreciated.
Regards,
Lloyd.”
I think that will clear everything up, don’t you? If you have any suggestions on how to improve this RSVP, do get in touch. Also, now that the league is here with us once again *acknowledges cheers in the background* there may be a few changes to this blog in terms of the weekly content and indeed the timing and frequency of the posts. I’m still working out the kinks, and again any suggestion/feedback to this end will be greatly appreciated.
MATCH PREVIEW: ARSENAL vs. WEST HAM UNITED
We welcome Premier League football back to the Emirates with the visit of West Ham under new boss Slaven Bilic. The Premier League season might only be beginning, but the Hammers have already played six competitive fixtures due to their participation in the earlier qualifying rounds of the Europa League. They might have been eliminated from the competition owing to a 4-3 aggregate defeat against Astra Giurgiu, but Bilic rested nearly his entire first team for their return leg fixture against Astra so they will be fresh and well-rested for Sunday’s league opener. It’s quite ironic however that West Ham made it to the Europa League via the Fair Play League, but then proceeded to have a player sent off in each of their three Europa League qualifiers. But anyway. We’ve not had a shabby pre-season ourselves, winning all five games, scoring 15 and conceding just once against a Singapore Select XI, Everton, Olympique Lyon, VfL Wolfsburg and Chelsea. Did I mention that we kept successive clean sheets against the 2nd placed clubs in France and Germany, and the English league winners, winning three trophies in the process? I did? Oh well.
West Ham have not only been active on the field in pre-season, but off it as well in the transfer market. A new manager notwithstanding, they have brought in a raft of new signings, chief among whom is Dimitri Payet. Payet clocked up seven goals and 21 assists in the Ligue 1 last season, so we’ll need to be wary of him going forward. Our head-to-head record, however, makes for brilliant reading. We’ve won all our last six games against the Hammers whether home or away, scoring 19 and conceding five, and the last time we failed to pick up three points against West Ham was a 0-0 draw back in 2009.
Injury-wise, we have Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere out while they will be without Andy Caroll and Enner Valencia. With our squad depth the best it’s been since the Invincibles’ era, it will be interesting to see what line-up Arsene Wenger goes with tomorrow. Will it be Mathieu Debuchy or Hector Bellerin for instance? Kieran Gibbs or Nacho Monreal? I’m not sure how much we can read into our pre-season fixtures, but against Lyon it was Debuchy/Gibbs while against Wolfsburg it was Bellerin/Monreal, and against Chelsea it was Bellerin/Monreal once again. Bellerin and Monreal might have the edge in terms of fitness and form, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the four fullbacks will be utilized over the course of the season. Who will partner Francis Coquelin in the middle? Probably Aaron Ramsey just as it was in the Community Shield, and I also expect Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to start on the right once again. Will it be Walcott or Giroud up top? Giroud’s qualities might be better suited for West Ham, but I thought the same against Chelsea but Theo started instead.
Overall, we need to hit the ground running in the league. Last season nerves were frayed by the time Ramsey popped up with a late winner over Crystal Palace, and we would definitely do well to avoid a repeat of the horrendous start which saw us ruled out of the title race by October. We might not keep a clean sheet (we’ve only kept one clean sheet in the last six against West Ham), but something like 4-1 would do just fine.
OF INTEREST THIS WEEK:
We completed the pre-season treble after a 1-0 win over Chelsea secured a second successive Community Shield win, and beating Jose Mourinho (on my birthday no less) was as sweet a win as any. I thought the line-up that Arsene went with was of interest, particularly shifting Santi to the left and starting Ramsey alongside Coquelin, Bellerin/Monreal, and starting Walcott over Giroud up front. Alexis Sanchez has only just resumed training this week and will likely play no part in tomorrow’s game, but when the Chilean returns and is restored to his normal berth on the left, I wonder what will become of Santi/Ozil/Ramsey… more on that in my mid-week post. The key now will be translating our excellent pre-season form into valuable Premier League points, and we would do well to exercise caution seeing as last year we blitzed Manchester City in the Community Shield only to then make our worst start to a league campaign in 32 years.
The club confirmed that Jack Wilshere suffered a hairline fracture in the lead-up to the game against Chelsea, and while not requiring surgery, will still be out of action for six to eight weeks. Whether it’s just down to bad luck, I don’t know, but Wilshere has a terrible injury record especially with his ankles. Sort of like Diego Costa with his hamstrings. A lot has been made of Wilshere’s playing style drawing tackles that lead to such injuries. It was Paddy McNair’s nasty challenge that led to Wilshere’s absence from November to April, and reportedly another challenge in training has resulted in his latest injury. Wilshere’s direct dribbling style and tendency to hold on to the ball does invite such challenges, but we already know that his style will not change. I just hope that his recovery goes as planned and he’ll be challenging for a place in the first team soon enough.
That will be all this week… cheers to you wherever you’re reading this from, and enjoy the football. Till next time.
*Photo credits: Arsenal Media*
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