Ahoj, jak se máš? Tuesday November the 4th sees the Mighty Cannon haul its Arsenal over to the Czech Republic for a match up with Slavia Prague for our next match in the Champions League. Kick off at the Fortuna( Eden) stadium is at 18.45pm central European time (5.45pm UK time). Expected weather is 8° (feels like 6°) 0% chance of rain.
So Arsenal make the 642m trip over to Prague for out next bite of the Champions League cherry. Slavia Prague are currently top of their domestic league ( W8 D6 L0 F24 A8 and qualified for the CL by winning it last year. Alas I’m utterly insular and ignorant and unable to give you any insight whatsoever into the or team or manager, despite giving it a go. So if you have any please post away… they won their last domestic game at the weekend 2-0 against FC Banik Ostrava.
According to the info available these players are missing through injury: Ivan Schranz (muscle), Filip Horsky (ACL), Petr Sevcik (ACL), Dominik Javorcek (knee), Tomas Holes (knee), Igoh Ogbu (hamstring), Jan Boril (unspecified) but the rest of their squad is available.
Neither Martinelli or Big Vic trained on Monday, so who knows if they will get on the plane and warm the bench? The Zube will also be missing through suspension,although he did take a knock at Burnley, so a few adjustments may well be seen?
Arsenal are sitting in 4th of the CL table and have the same points as five other sides, Slavia Prague are languishing in 28th place (W0 D1 L2 F2 A5), drawing with Atalanta and losing to Inter on their last CL outings. Their stadium holds just under 20,000 and we can expect an intense atmosphere.
We met this club before in various European matches and tête-à-tête it be: P 4 W 2 D 2 ( for the Arsenal).
Our best mates over at Statto HQ got the International maritime signal flags out and made the signals that stated that Slavia Prague have a 9.1% chance of winning and Arsenal have 74.5%. Sbohem a užijte si hru! Next up its the old Mackems at the Stadium of Light, and then its Them at Ashburton Grove. So COYG!
Mills
The CL gives us some relief from the pressure of the PL. I don’t think it will matter who we turn out tomorrow, I see nothing but a win. The format means the league stage is less important, the nitty gritty is the knock out stages. I hope we rotate a lot and concentrate on the PL, at least untill the new year and the group stage is over.
Life as an Arsenal fan is rather serene right now?
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Good write up lads.
Of course our old mate “little Mozart” is at the club but apart from Tomas I too have no idea about the Prague squad.
You would expect a win but with the encreadibly hostile atmosphere it would be difficult to use to many of our really young (inexperienced) players.
With seven players out Declan close to a ban and Eze having played lots of minutes the midfield and forward line looks sparce.
Some first teamers might have to start, which is not great when traveling here, up north and then all the players travelling all around the world before playing the spuds.
I do agree with George I expect a win but players health seems to be more important at the moment.
Thats my head talking but as soon as the game kicks off my heart takes over and I’ll be nervous for a win COYG.
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Thanks Ian, much appreciated mate. COYG!
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our U19’s CL youth game is live on Arsenal.com now, kick off at noon
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another abysmal performance so far in Europe from our u19’s, they are 3-0 down at half time.
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test
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Not sure if this will work, but thanks for the post and also for Saturday’s one. Saturday went by in a blur as my poor old dog, Shep, fell ill on Friday and I had to have him put down on Saturday. Hadn’t quite anticipated how awful id find it.
still, to matters more important, we seem to have (and have had) a lot of players unavailable, so im not expecting too much from this evening, and also very worried about our trip to Sunderland.
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I tried to write the other day about set piece goals, and how the game is becoming increasingly territorial. With packed defenses and players and teams better and better each season at defending, field position is vital: establish territorial control for then the set pieces come into play. All a bit too like Rugby Football for my liking, but if teams only set out to defend then I guess its a legitimate tactic.
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and on a theme of illegitimate tactics, there’d be a pleasing symmetry if we could goad Granit into a Red Card on the weekend!
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Heady, really sorry about Shep, must have been bloody horrible for you to put him down, but I’m sure lots of truly great memories. Keep on keepin on! COYG!
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so sorry heady to hear about your dog, I’ve gone through that too often and it doesn’t get any easier. I’ve two lovely dogs for the last 5 years and yet I still have moments of real sadness hit me when I remember even happy times from previous dogs, the happy memories give me so much joy but then it turns to sadness when the realisation of them not being here anymore hits. But thankfully I can just turn to the two I have now and the happiness the constantly give me. As much as you may not feel like doing it, I’d advise you to get yourself another dog, preferably from a rescue center, dogs are such a great source of happiness
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our U19’s took another hammering today, 5-1 loss, O’Neill with our goal. 4 defeats from their 4 CL Youth games so far this season, woeful stuff
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Slavia: Markovic, Vlcek, Zima, Chaloupek, Moses, Zafeiris, Mbodji, Sadilek, Provod, Chory, Sanyang.
Subs: Stanek, Rezek, Cham, Hashioka, Kusej, Chytil, Boril, Doudera, Prekop, Toula, Jelinek, Kolisek.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie, Rice, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Saka, Trossard, Merino.
Subs: Setford, Rojas-Fedorushchenko, Mosquera, White, Eze, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Sagoe Jr, Harriman-Annous.
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bit odd how little game time Myles Lewis-Skelly is getting this season
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Thanks Ed. I’ll definitely think about that. Yes, im a bit puzzled too about MLS. Thought he was going to be a certain starter this year. Sure his time will come again. He is very young still, so perhaps his body is still coping with growth and hes got a bit out of kilter? Or perhaps he’s been guilty of thinking hes already made it and hasnt been putting it all in during training? I also think that his best position hasnt been finalised yet, so maybe they are working on him as a midfielder, more attacking option, and are training him away from that specific left back role? But id love to see him play more!
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penalty to Arsenal for a handball
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Saka 1-0 to the Arsenal, a very good penalty from Saka
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the saka penalty
https://x.com/i/status/1985774087927710029
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Arsenal need to be careful here, we’ve had Nwaneri and Merino both booked here so far.
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HT: Slavia Prague 0-1 Arsenal
Saka with our goal from a penalty. Its been a bit of an open game to a point, but both defences on top. Crowd is noisy.
We’ve had Merino and Nwaneri booked so need to be careful, also Rice needs to avoid a booking as it would see him miss the Bayern Munich game
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Merinoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo makes it 2-0 to Arsenal as he side foot volleys a Trossard cross into the net. What a great start to the second half
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the Merino goal
https://x.com/i/status/1985784254069166485
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Eze on for Nwaneri who it must be said the game passed him by
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Merinooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo makes it 3-0 to the Arsenal, he heads home with the keeper trying to take it on his chest but Merino got to the ball first
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Dowman on for Trossard
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White and MLS on for Timber and Hincapie
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Merino’s second goal
https://x.com/i/status/1985789237891944834
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Norgaard gets a yellow card when it should have been a freekick to him
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Max Dowman becomes the youngest player in Champions League history aged 15 years and 308 days.
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Dowman been kicked twice in a couple of minutes
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MLS booked for fuck all but the guys that kicked Dowman didn’t get booked
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Harriman-Annous on for Rice
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penalty to slavia, looks like our clean sheet record will be undone, very soft penalty
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ref being called to the VAR screen
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no penalty, right decision, white had took the ball cleanly
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5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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FT: Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal
Saka penalty, and two goals from Merino see us currently top the CL and the clean sheet means we have now gone 8 games in a row without conceding a goal which is a club record.
Hale End Academy players to play for us tonight – Saka, Nwaneri, MLS, Eze, Dowman and Harriman-Annous,
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from opta joe
8 – Arsenal have won their last eight games in all competitions without conceding, a joint-record for an English top-flight club along with Preston in 1889 and Liverpool in 1920. Consistent.
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50 clean sheets for Raya in 110 Arsenal games, the fastest any of our keepers have ever got to 50 clean sheets.
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The ref was very inexperienced in Europe and got a lot of things wrong, thank goodness for a decent VAR crew.
How big were some of them fuckers, I didn’t think we were going to have much joy in the air but actually we did really well.
We got in behind several times and Trossard was excellent on the left.
Ed, I think the use of schoolboy s and first year scholars is hindering the performance of the CL youth team.
Tim, really sorry to hear that news, I certainty have empathy with you. I console myself with the way they just gently go to sleep. Keep the memories in your heart.
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ref had a weird game yesterday.
That Norgaard booking was something else , won the ball gets kicked, gets booked.
How many youngsters have made their debuts under Arteta?
Also surprised at the lack of Skelly game time but to be fair the other looks like they have more of their man strength than Lewis. Rutter bullied him a bit against Brighton, maybe that’s a factor.
Thought Nwaneri did well, was a tough game in hostile ends, the experience will do all the youngsters good hopefully.
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MiLaS is clearly third choice left back now. Mikel certainty prefers big defenders who can bully the opposition and although he won’t hide away from a fight Miles is not that imposing yet.
Ethan was in, then disappeared, then came back in again so maybe Miles is just being rebuilt. Certainly there has never been any question of attitude in fact quite the opposite.
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Agreed @Ian.
Also think Mikkel likes aggression and Myles can be a bit mild mannered in his defence and also sometimes bites of more than he can chew when putting his body between ball and player. He has lost quite a few duels like that.
Other than that he is very very good but does lack the experience in that position.
Hopefully he will continue his rapid development and finally reach midfield.
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Seems Gabriel Jesus is back in first team training
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Myles Lewis-Skelly not selected for the upcoming internationals cos he has not played enough games for Arsenal
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Arsenal U21 team v Southampton: Ranson, Nichols, Clarke, Sweet, Washington, Ibrahim, Copley, Dudziak, Stevens, Thompson, Sagoe Jr. Subs: Mitchell, King, Agustien, Ferdinand, Kamara
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the u21 game is live on Arsenal.com, kick off is at 7
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George, sent the Sunderland preview over, like. COYG!
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