Arsenal’s eight-match unbeaten run (all competitions) came to an abrupt end at Sheffield, but there’s no time feeling sorry for ourselves as Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães is at the Emirates for our Europa League group match.
This is a fixture between sides at opposite ends of Group F. The Gunners at the top after two wins from their two games, the visitors are winless, goalless and rooted at the bottom following their two.
League form and Monday night’s disappointment aside, Arsenal has performed proficiently in the cup competitions; notably in Europa where we’ve scored seven goals without reply. And as Gooners we do a closer eye on these games because Unai Emery uses it to give exciting youngsters, fringe players and those returning from long-term injuries a run-out as they continue their comeback. Nearly all these players used have made telling contributions to stake claims for league spots where we have been very inconsistent.
A glance at Vitoria’s form show that despite their poor showings in the Europa they have won their last three Primeira Liga fixtures. So while they will be well aware of the Gunners’ earlier group results as well as their own, they wouldn’t necessarily be short of confidence. However, they’re likely to adopt a conservative approach by sitting back to frustrate us and try make the most of the few chances they may get; noting how well that strategy worked for the Blades on Monday night.
Team News
Reiss Nelson is the only injury concern as Emery is expected to stick with his ‘cup team’. At this point it truly is anybody’s guess whether Mesut Özil would play due to “out of favour”? And I’m thinking here about the “wallahi…” chants the away end at Sheffield directed toward the dugout that may not have gone down well. But eh!
Arsenal are likely to find the visitors a bit tough to break down initially but as the game go on our pace and quality should crumble Vitoria’s peu de résistance.
My prediction is us going three wins from three Europa outings at the end of the night. COYG!
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Well the cup teams have done better than the others. both in performance and results and general play. they have actually been interesting to watch!
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Its even not because the ither team have been that bad in terms of personnel just in terms of looking like strangers playing together for the very first time;
not making use of the pace of the attack and
general spending the bulk of the match passing backwards!
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The difference between the cup and league teams, the chalk and the cheese, is the freedom with which the cup team are allowed to express themselves. Wherein the league everything is so rigid because of Emery’s fear of losing.
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Got a feeling Pepe will get 1 or 2 tonight if a starter. Looked a lot sharper to me on Monday. Even saw him leap very nicely for header at one point and can’t recall him doing that in other games.
Curious player so far as ,right from the off, he has tended to have a handful of moments of lovely, unusual skill in a game, but most often they’ve involved beating an opponent without unsettling main defensive line of opposition. Those moments really are high quality skill but I guess they need to be in more dangerous areas or as part of a better team performance to really fire the imagination.
Hope to see Smith Rowe as well. Minutes for youngsters been pretty good so far this year and I don’t buy into (twitter) suggestion it’s likely to be harmful to their development if playing while the team isn’t playing well.
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so who is advising the one not to express and the other to especially given the results and performance of the “cup” team…
which is the presently the winning team in BOTH PERFORMACE AND RESULTS.
totally weird…
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Labo has the second hardest job on the internet, and he does it well. I have the hardest, reviewing the dross we are served up. It’s hard to be optimistic looking back.
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Great preview Labo,
Actually the reviews of these games are a delight again it’s just the league that’s just sorting through a shower of shit.
The problem we have is we have to enjoy it while we can as when the games get more difficult in the later rounds are we going to see the static ARSENAL Unai has been serving us up in the league.
I wonder if Freddie really does get more input in these games especially with his knowledge of the younger lads.
All in all I’m definitely looking forward to this one COYG.
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cheers to Labo, always a very fine preview.
…was just thinking, could be well off target, but is it even more difficult trying to come from a place of positivity and wanting to write great reviews about fabulous game play? Is it possible to still support the team, but write about what you see? Like you I want to see great football and dont mind losing if we were great in the process. But its mostly not happening at the moment and we all agree that we’re dull as dishwater. But to say the dishwater is pure spring fresh mountain nectar is a lie, so whats wrong with calling it like it is?
What if we hold the positive, but dont decend into the negative?
Ok I realise everything is on perspective and perception anyway, but much of the negative press the late Weng years was getting was more than just undeserved criticism, it was nasty bullying, and there many who went against that and tried to stop it ( top people for that, you know who you are), its also easy said than done.
I think its possible to try and attempt to be as fair as possible, despite all tempations. Its tough with the Wenger benchmark/bar hanging there or whatever, until we superceed that, its not going away. I would love to see us go above the Weng years as he would too.
Of course its tough to try and be fair because everythnig is based on relative value systems but its the only answer i can find at the moment.
We want Arsenal to win as we feel good as a result, but we having been winning and who feels good? Most of us have been feelng medicocre as thats what its been. Which feels like failure and defeat.
I think we can still be Positively Arsenal but call it like it is…
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team spirit it may be down to the fact that in all our cup games so far we have taken the lead, and as our opponents are of level below BPL teams, Emery is willing to let the team keep going for it. But you have to remember that in all 3 cup games so far our opponents have had spells of good play that put us on the back foot, and chances to take the lead. Every BPL pre match press conference from our head mini bus sees him extol the danger of our opponents, talk of how dangerous they are, how it will be a massive ask for us to win the game. But when it comes to the EL and CC pre game presser he does not seem to have the same fear, or same level of worry about them.
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I am expecting an exciting free flowing performance tonight with a good win and goals for some reason
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some have been asking why Torreira is not getting a look in and when he does its as an advanced midfielder and not his usual defensive midfield role, well Emery said yesterday that he wanted to sign Fabiano last summer, what purpose he thought bringing this up out of the blue would serve is anyone’s guess, but it does suggest that he don’t rate our Mr Torreira. Can see the lad heading back to Italy by next summer.
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as things stand with Emery and his relationship with the fans I’m not sure if its a minority or a majority that wants him gone but I would suggest that very few would be slamming the board or club if they sacked him, he has not built up a fans backing yet and no sign that he will. And that he has not build up a even a core group of hardline supporters that really back him to the hilt is a sad indictment of what he has done in his 18 months in charge at Arsenal.
Fans are by and large nonplussed by him
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Didn’t mean to post that again sorry
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No Ozil again?
Fuck off Emery.
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Safely installed in Upper Tier Clock End. Will post any observations tomorrow, but for now COYG.
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have a great game foreverheady !
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this is absurd.
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looks like Emerys going for the 5-4 win?
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Interesting tactic to play without a midfield.
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2 half time subs!! Smart managing that.
Willocks confidence is down the drain. He plays the kid out of position and with a team that has no cohesion at all and yanks him at the half twice.
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Wallahi that’s because he is not a coach
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We just don’t look like scoring, do we?
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Paul you said Pepe would show his quality sooner rather then later!
Classic Guendouzi on that counter after Pepe’s pass is blocked. Just poor positioning, he’ll get better at all that in the future…
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there we go again fins! I like the young man m, a lot.
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Happy for Pepe. This ought to do wonders for his confidence.
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Yep! And again.
His confidence was up after the first and there was a nice dummy there from Guendouzi too to follow up his run that won the free kick.
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Absolutely fantastic win, never in doubt! pick the bones out of that George and good luck. I think if I were you I would concentrate on Smith-Rowe and the Pepe late late show the rest was dross.
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Yes, that was the epitome winning ugly.
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Mandy not quite free flowing, don’t think it is a good win but lots of goals! First time the opposition had scored twice away in Europe in fourty games.
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I think Arsenal scored three goals from three shots on target tonight? Two of which were Pepe’s free kicks?
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Again, it’s individual brilliance that sees us through. As for the collective, it looks adrift to this untrained eye.
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< 5 shots on target, the goals the late header from Pepe's free kick and I think the other was another chance created by Pepe.
Simply a match winning cameo off the bench. In that short time on the pitch he only had about sixteen touches!
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Yes, different positions but reminiscent of Ramsey coming off the bench last season.
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One of the oddest games I’ve seen. It’s not just attacking down the flanks, it’s the total lack of a central midfield presence that puzzles. A few of (most of) the players gave the impression of trying really hard but it was so unconnected. Emery’s reaction when we scored the winner was odd too. Guendouzi worked his socks off and made a huge difference and Torreira put in a real shift without doing much. I like the look of Martinelli who has something of an old style centre forward about him. Tierney looks a long way off peak fitness but I reckon Hector is just about ready now.
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Emery on Özil: “Tonight isn’t the day to talk about that. He’ was not in the squad, that is the decision.”
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didn’t see the game as I was at Pickleball but just seen Pepe’s winner, and one thing I find very odd was that Emery, who loves to jump around waving his arms all game long, just sat in his seat totally nonplussed, I’ve seen more emotion from a manager viewing an opponent score against us that he showed on our winner.
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@HectorBellerin
: “We have to keep the ball better. That’s our trademark, we want to play football. Sometimes you make mistakes but doesn’t mean you stop playing that way. We’re Arsenal, we have a style of play, it’s in our DNA and we want to play like that”.
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If I do a review it will be the same as almost every review I’ve done this season, We are depressingly consistently poor.
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One of the oddest games I’ve seen. It’s not just attacking down the flanks, it’s the total lack of a central midfield presence that puzzles.
For me there are a finite amount of games where I can be Arsenalled to watch a a so called “coach” set up a Football team without a midfield. On the telly let alone in a stadium!
The big plus for me in this situation is how it took the Big Blaggers a season to start commentating on the football on the pitch, they’ve torpedoed their own credibility whilst swooning like Elvis fans at the mere mention of Daddy Raul,
I guess every cloud has a silver lining.
Coaches from Palace, Wolves, Watford, Sheffield Utd, Vitoria etc have been running rings around Emery at home or away.
Similarly Ozil’s agent has been running rings around the much lauded head of Football Relations. And that is funny!
Emery and Raul, Laural and Hardy. Does Josh even care? He’d be better off swapping his head of PR with Ozil’s agent as he appears to be better at the job, likewise the coach with any number of coaches you’d like to nominate from the PL or below.
But considering that Josh hired Raul after his disgrace at Barcelona and the damage that he caused there, I accept that this is unlikely!
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Ok , it’s up
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