A run of three straight defeats in the league suggest the FA Cup could well be a welcome diversion for Arsenal this weekend. With Manchester United crashing out to a last minute winner from Dirk Kuyt, one highly credible winner of the Cup has been eliminated. Considering City are also watching on from the sidelines, the biggest contenders for the Cup this year are an inconsistent Liverpool side, a fairly topsy-turvy Chelsea team and some motley crew from another bit of north London. This could well be a year to focus in on the FA Cup…
The injury situation going into this game is certainly more positive than it has been recently. Sagna is back in full training, so he’s available to play unless he’s severely lacking in match fitness. It’d be great to give him a start and see how he gets on – if he can’t last the ninety, he can always be substituted. Sagna’s return makes life considerably easier considering Johan Djourou is ruled out of this tie with a hamstring injury. Also back in the squad is Coquelin, who will certainly be involved to give Song a breather. Arteta and Henry are both nearly back with the squad training, so will probably be involved in our next fixture. Fears of an injury to Chamberlain have also been allayed, with the youngster only suffering from fatigue, so certain to be involved against Villa. Kieran Gibbs has been ruled out of this match.
Szcznesy
Sagna Squillaci Mertesacker Miquel
Coquelin
Rosicky Benayoun
Chamberlain Park Arshavin
There’s certainly an element of guesswork to this line-up. In goal we’ll probably have Szcznesy given Mannone’s loan and Fabianski’s injury. The defence will probably be shuffled to allow a rest for one of Koscielny and Mertesacker, with Squillaci coming in. While Vermaelen is fit for leftback duties, I imagine he’ll be rested with the Bolton away game in mind. Sagna’s return at right back will allow a natural replacement with Djourou out injured, though Nico Yennaris could start with Sagna coming off the bench to gain fitness.
Further forward, Coquelin’s return to fitness allows Song to get a breather, while Rosicky and Benayoun come into midfield to give Ramsey a breather. Chamberlain continues on the flank, though I’ve put him on the right to give Walcott a breather, and allow Arshavin to play on the left. Park starts to give Van Persie a breather.
Such a high number of changes represent a bit of a gamble: we’re weakening our side against Premier League opposition. That said, while silverware would be fantastic, top four is the be-all and end-all for the club, and gambling with players’ fitness and/or risking those on the injury threshold isn’t wise with Bolton away looming. That said there are plenty of first choice players in there – Sagna, Mertesacker, Szcznesy – alongside strong incoming players such as Chamberlain, Coquelin and Rosicky. The likes of Vermaelen and Koscielny can be on the bench to shore up the defence if we’re leading as the clock ticks down, whilst Theo and Van Persie can come in if we’re making a meal out of winning the game.
Overall, given the number of changes I fully expect this one to be a bit of a nail biter, and we’ll probably nick it by the odd goal. I’d love to say we’re going to win it with a solid performance and a comfortable 2-0 score line, but given low confidence and a potentially mix and match line-up, a narrow 2-1 victory seems best to bet on. Hopefully I don’t miss any goals – the game kicks off in the UK at 4pm, and I’m refereeing a game that should kick off at 2pm, so most likely I’ll have to roll into the pub in a slightly dishevelled fashion in full Lancashire FA refereeing gear having missed the first fifteen minutes. Enjoy the game though!
@Phil
So does that mean the university football doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of the FA but Sunday League (and saturday and Wednesday leagues) does? Is there any set period for promotion? Can a referee go from Level 10 to level 5 in one year? Can a referee go straight from Level 10 to level 3? At what level would a referee be eligible to ref the U-18 and reserve leagues?
Sorry again..but this is something that would be of some help.
@ Adam, I think you should only read scores at the end
.You might want to live until arsenal wins FA Cup this year .
What a match huh? There are two ways to look at it I suppose, but either way, you have to acknowledge that the team showed plenty of fight to win that game. For the rest, it just shows what we miss in terms of results. A bit of luck and the referee doing his job. We got lucky with Walcott’s goal, and the referee rightly awarded us those penalty kicks. If we had some luck and even more importantly, fair decisions, we would be near the top of the league let alone fighting for 4th..
However, today also showed what we lack. We can’t seem to score against an opposition who sit deep and deny us space, and hope to play us on the counter or get a set piece. We do need to be more effecient because we miss the few chances that we do create.
I guess.. I am delighted by the result. I still think we need to do better. A referee won’t give us a penalty, let alone two, every match, no matter how much we deserve them. We also need to defend better. I was disappointed especially by the first goal. But all in all, I am proud of the team..and I think Koscielny and Rosicky were my favourite performers on the day. Well done boys.. Lets keep that winning feeling going.
Shard – this unviersity league used to be under the jurisdiction of the local FA in regards to getting officials, but because it was such a low priority it rarely got officials, so the organisers (it is a commercial thing run by the uni sports centre) decided to appeal for their own pool of refs.
As to your more specific questions – I don’t know! I presume that if person X was an outstanding ref and consistently performed, they would get promoted very quickly, as quickly as they got reviewed for each level, potentially. How often you can get reviewed I don’t know – check out some FA websites, I’m sure the info is there.
As an aside – were Walter decide to ref in the UK, he would have to start at the very bottom, despite being qualified to a much higher standard than that in Belgium. It is a very strange rule, one which I don’t think would stand a legal challenge – think EU freedom of movement of labour laws. Imagine a French Chief Exec moving to take over a role in an English company – they wouldn’t have to start at the very bottom and work up, their experience and quality would allow them to get a top job, regardless of geographical borders.
Allowing for differences in language and culture, I think allowing foreign refs to work in the UK would be fantastic – if the best ref in the world is born in Austria, they will only ever earn X, versus a much higher amount in the UK at the very top of the game £100,000 , give or take! Greater competition would boost standards as well as financially reward those who deserve it!
@Phil
Thanks for that..And a GREAT point there.
And on the mash-media front, it’s so very good to see stenographers like the Guardian Sports desk’s snarky Jacob Steinberg – their in-game blogger for our FA match – have to admit, at the very end, that “a phenomenal 15-minute period at the start of the second half turned the match in their favour.” After slating TH for having “Arseneled up” his last chance on the ball, Snarkmeister Steinberg concedes this much to us – yes he had to type the word “phenomenal.” And it would have to appear directly underneath their nastiest accompanying photo; chosen to set the tone at the outset of the match by showing our last match’s unpopular changeover from Ox to Andrei with Arsene standing in the background as the boos came down. But Le Prof & Cie turned the tables, we did! And while Steinberg and the Manchester Guardians (the original name of the paper, btw) tried to have this photo define the match blog to be, our brilliant comeback ruined the keyboard-warriors’ Kool Aid party. Living well, mates, is the best revenge. Go Gunners!
Bob,
Well said; that’s what makes the come-back and performance all the more sweeter! Get in there you Gunners and Gooners!
this is a bit worrying
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/7464825/McLeish-calls-for-FA-action
Eck does not like us very much does he, and unfortunately he has friends in high places. If the FA can ignore Taraabt on Arsh, they can ignore anything!
Mcleish, you are out of the cup, you are a shit manager stuck in the English dinosaur era, you cannot play anything beyond kick and rush, and once more, you are a serial relegationist. Get over it!
On another note, how easy have the Spuds draws in this competition been this year, even tho they nearly messed up against Watford!
How about Koscielny taking the ball from his CB position in his own half, taking the ball down the pitch, and drawing the penalty in the area for Robin to score the game winner? Great comeback by the Arsenal!
Mandy Dodd,
If the FA did nothing against Lescott for his forearm smash against the Spuds, then i don’t see them doing anything against Robin. That inconsistency will be grounds for immediate appeal. Besides, was it obvious that Robin meant to do it?
I remember Rooney getting away with far far worse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IjVU6Twg2lg
@Johnny Deigh,
Precisely; nice link.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the English players get away with alot more dirty stuff on the pitch whilst “Johnny Foreigner” get’s punished during or after the match!
Incidentally, big rumour going around the Ems today that Hazard will sign for Arsenal this summer! Finish in the top 4 and it’s a done deal regardless of what Chel$ki want! Happy days!
@DC
Why would we need to sign Hazard? We many young players coming through in the same position!
Do not think he meant anything DC, just used the way such things work against us, VP banned for three games may help some of the chosen.
Hope nothing happens but we are Arsenal, we know what can happen! But as has been posted, others have got away with far worse…but…..we are Arsenal….
@ Mandy Dodd/DC
My feeling was that VP did not strike out at Cuellar, it was nothing more than a collision; compared to the Lescott incident it was minor.
McLeish really is full of poison! He didn’t say too much when his teams in past kicked the c**p out of us!
The ESPN team made a meal out of today’s incident.
@Dan,
Possibly, but a talent like that could develop into something very special for the club under Arsene. Just look at Messi for Barca! We don’t currently have many players like that or clearly in the offing, although Ox will certainly come close to that too!
Additionally, he can play anywhere in the front line.
@Mandy Dodd & bjtgooner,
I certainly hope that Eck gets what he deserves for his bulls**t!
@DC: Regarding your comment on the last page. Yes, of course its up to the team to dynamically pick themselves up. I just meant that surely they know that too? And should play the way they ‘should’ play all the time? Which to an extent is dictated by the manager?
So for e.g. Say we’re leading 2-1 on aggregate with a home tie against Milan..AW would tell the guys to set up in a 4-5-1 and play more on the counter rather than say after 2-0 at halftime today. So in that case, the players would, in a way, seem slow and lethargic where its anything but that. My point being…its largely down to the manager deciding ‘how we play’. If that doesn’t happen..i.e AW says something but we do something else on the pitch… its one of those 4 reasons that I gave earlier.
Hope that clarifies my stance.
On RVP though… I’ve seen a red card given for those btw. He’s looked at the defender and gone and backed in to him. It’s not a vicious swipe..yes. But it is an elbow. So yeah…seen them given. The ref was right there though and saw it and didn’t give it. So going by past incidents.. where the ref has ‘consciously decided’ against a card..RVP shouldn’t get a retrospetive ban.
However, as I said..to be honest, I’ve seen reds for less.. like the red card a Wigan player got against ManU a month or so ago for just backing into a defender(Evans I think). That was hilarious. So ..for me..while I’d need to see it again..and considering Arsenal’s overall luck…I think RVP got away with one. Your thoughts Walter and the other refs?
@Arvind,
I agree with your point but I would rather that the boys played like Barcelona throughout and do not allow teams to retain the ball with ease which invariably happens once we alter our strategy to a more defensive and stand-off-ish one. Movement and ball-retention should be a given for the team regardless of formation.
The excellent performance at the start of the second-half was due to an increase in intensity and desire and there wasn’t a change in formation – that was the same thing that occurred in the second-half of the ManU match. Unfortunately however, unlike Barcelona, when our team reduces their attacking and midfield intensity (whether that’s due to wanting to hold-on to the ball, conserve energy, avoid unnecessary injuries, etc) that’s when we begin to have difficulties. Witness the 2nd part of the second-half when Villa regained a more attacking threat. Granted, Villa made a change in formation but our side’s nervousness kicked in again! It’s up to the players then to recognise that and step-up once more; and we now usually see Kos and Verm doing that from defence when they break-forward! That’s great to see and really helps us regain the impetus!
Great result,Great 2nd half.ESPN were sick at the end of it.Many scripts were torn up and re written.What a totally crap,f..k… crap station that is.They hate us.I heard John Collins the ex Fulham,Celtic and Monaco player giving a interview today.Music to my ears.He throught Mourino can only win one way, but said AW was a class act!
@Johnny Deigh:
I’m a little late getting back to the thread, but that was a great link.
@DC:
Glad that you liked the link as well, but I’m not sure if the implication of the link was that anti-foreign bias caused the ref to do what he did.
With the hug, the hand signals, and the various weird circumstances described below the video, I was under the impression that the implication was that something more nefarious might have been going on there.
@Anne,
Clattenburg probably “did not see it” but knew something had happened with Rooney and, since he’s an English superstar player, whatever it was it “must have been an accident”! Alan Shearer used to do these things many a times in his career and how many times was he punished for it?! His legend status within the EPL should clearly tell everyone the answer to that!
I was the only one in the pub that remained hopeful, and unlike RVP, I was sent off by some irate fans. I watched the rest of the match in another pub that had nothing to do with football, and the screen would have done better with a few square inches. All the same, happy ending!
Regarding the RVP incident the tactics of Big Eck were to distract attention from his sides poor second half performance, and not to try to get RVP retrospectively banned. It was a classic diversion tactic that the media fall for every time.
Robin was a bit naughty, and it was probably worth a foul to Villa and a caution at worst.