Hello and how are you? Saturday the 6th of December will see the Mighty Cannon take a trip to Villa Park, Birmingham (capacity 42,918) and play against 151 yr old Aston Villa. KO is at 13.30pm Central European time (12.30pm UK time). Expected weather is partly cloudy and 13°(feels like 8°) and between 38-46 % of rain during game-time.
After the Chelsea (offside) crunch, and a solid bounce back beating set-piece Brentford, we now take on Emery’s Villans. Some weeks ago the match might have had a different taste, now its a top of the table clash. Villa now sit in third in the PL and they are: W8 D3 L3 F20 A14. Villa are on a run of good form, six wins in a row.
Down the years Arsenal have played Villa 205 times, won 88, lost 71 and drawn 46.
Sadly in these dark days of modern Yuletide the injuries are piling up and if Declan sits this one out it will be a big blow for us, as the midfield power-house is such an important part of our squad. William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera and Gabriel Magalhaes look like also missing this clash, which is a turd as these guys are the greatest defence in the PL. But we will still have a great ersatz defence with Ben White playing well in the week and Hincapié and Timber are also top players. Havertz is still AWOL, Trossard, is also doubtful, even so we can still select a formidable line-up. Hopefully we can avoid any more injuries. Please.
Looks like ex- Gunner Martinez will be missing for the Lions, Onana might lose his place to Tielemans,who has been playing well over the last weeks, and Ollie Watkins, John McGinn and Morgan Rogers are all dangermen for Villa. Ross Barkley (knee), Tyrone Mings (thigh) will sit this scrap out.
Statto HQ despite having a hang-over from their office Christmas knees-up,have told me that Villa have a 23.1% chance of winning, and The Gunners are at 49.8%. Next up is a trip to the Belgian city of Bruges and FC Brugge in the Champions League.
So COYG!
Mills
Villa have been doing well of late against the odds. They don’t play well, have a weary xG and allow a lot of chances, but somehow win. This is unsustainable, so let’s be hoping their luck runs out today. We are due a good away performance, the last one I recall being Newcastle?
I’m fairly confident it will be a low scoring affair with them trying to nick it. Anywho, I will be happy with 3 points no matter how we get them, I’ve gone all pragmatic all of a sudden.
Enjoy te game and the weekend.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Excellent preview guys,
Yep this week’s opposition are the form team, good in the air in both areas and flood the midfield when they don’t have the ball and we statically concede more when our wall at the back isn’t playing.
However missing a keeper can be very upsetting for a team and our attack from the start and from the bench is very dangerous.
We are getting lots of open play goals now and although this a massively difficult game I expect goals from us COYG.
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Raya, White, Timber, Hincapie, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Eze, Merino.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Lewis-Skelly, Salmon, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Trossard, Martinelli, Madueke, Gyokeres.
Jesus and Dowman are with the U21’s for a friendly v Man Utd
Gyokeres has a broken finger but is in the subs, and Salmon who is only 16 gets his first senior call up, he is mainly a CB but can play right back too.
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Thanks Ian, much appreciated! COYG!
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Arsenal Women 1-0 up at home to liverpool women
olivia smith with the goal
https://x.com/i/status/1997281193474314672
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its now 1-1 in the womens game
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villa ahead and we have been second best. Far too slow and taking too many touches
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HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal
Cash got their goal, we’ve been poor, need some changes at half time, need an attitude change.
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Stina Blackstenius scored a late winner for Arsenal women v liverpool women
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pathetic
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An absolute nightmare weekend for us with the other results going against us to add to us losing.
This was the problem we all hoped wouldn’t happen again with Mikel not being able to see the match in front of him and just making one for one substitutions and not fixing the glaring areas where we were struggling.
Villa are known for flooding the midfield and when from early on they started controlling that area, everyone was waiting for him to adjust the team or make a sub or two to control the game but it never happened.
I thought to the Norgaard signing was a good one at the time but I now think he is another Mikel doesn’t trust. At a time the team looked very tired, villa had control of midfield and Telimans was controlling the game, Norgaard was the sub we were crying out for.
As a team we have never been good at game management and again today we had the chances to shut the game down but never did.
I know Mikel loves Odegaard but he slows the team down, can’t tackle and gives the ball away regularly in dangerous areas. The weighted ball for Saka was delicious but one or two contributions a game is just not worth it.
At a time when the defensive injuries mean lots of changes at the back, changing the front line just means less cohesion throughout the team.
Really disappointing today but we’re still top of the league with four games to go until the half way stage and the fixtures suggest their is no reason why we’re not there in game week twenty.
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Odegaard takes far too many touches, he slows our play down way too much, but I’m 100% sure that is under instruction from Arteta.
yes Ian I too can’t understand why Norgaard doesn’t get any minutes, Zubi and Rice are being run into the ground, and as you also said with changes having to be made at the back Arteta compounded our problems by changing the attack too. What is it now, 6 or is it 7 years, and he hasn’t a clue how to rotate or when to rotate.
The biggest annoyance from yesterdays performance was that once again when we went behind we raised our game and played some great attacking football, but the minute we got level, we went slow slow again, that is on the risk averse manager once more. When we scored we had them shaking, but they quickly realised we were not going for it and they went for it, and got what they probably deserved for their bravery.
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Do you think they should get rid of lunchtime kick offs? I do. I bloody hate them, watching them, going to them and the results they bring up.
Do you think if Villa or City were out in front people would be pleased to see them have a stumble? I know fans from other clubs and even they think we get too much criticism.
Norgaard should get a run out against Wolves? He may get a chance against Brugge and Palace. You would think he would be developed as the hard defensive midfielder? I was injured for a bit in the early autumn. When we bought him from the Bees it seemed like a perfect player to shore things up when needed?
Should Rice and Eze also have a night off against Wolves-I can see him fielding a full team against Palace. Was Rice carrying a knock-over from the Brentford game? Seemed burnt out mentally and physically?
We play Villa again soon and I think it will be a very different game. Especially if our defence is back.
Do you think we psychologically handed the game to Villa even before the kick off. Building up a) Emery’s need for revenge. This needs to go in the bin, he was poor and got the boot. That’s football there’s nothing I can do to change it. Hes had us a few times and got a bit what people call lucky on sat? Our real defence are cool and dont get flustered as the ersatz boys did in the last second. b) Villa haven’t lost for 19/20 games at VP, and idiots like me going on about six games unbeaten and on good form. But we are top so why are we giving them advantage prior to KO? Leeds are also great at home and in not such a great place in the league.
Is Big Vic getting enough service? Kyogo at Birmingham isnt and he looks not so hot but when at Celtic he was on fire. Utterly deadly.
Why are Eze and Martinelli in the doldrums? They seem a bit cold under the skin and not hungry?
Did Raya get a bit unlucky with the first goal? Has he been nutmegged before?
Had we taken our chances could we have put the game beyond reach early on? Our shooting prowess seemed a bit of a dam squib?
COYG!
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Arteta said after the game that Mosquera injury is worse than hoped, and he will be out weeks. Some reports suggest that it will be 8 weeks.
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When I was suggesting Norgaard come on, it wasn’t to replace Zuub or Declan, it was as an extra midfielder to plug the massive gaps we were leaving all through the game.
Even with big Gabbi and Willie at the back I still think we would of struggled. No back five can cope if the midfield isn’t there and in large parts we weren’t.
The return game is the reverse fixtures of this week and game nineteen and I still think we will be top of the league after that game.
Like Ed says, the shame is despite our excellent talent and emense squad, when times get tough Mikel doesn’t seem to be able to react to what was going on in front of him.
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Personally really enjoyed reading what you both had to say as its not something thats on most peoples radar?
Club Brugge have given their manager and head coach the boot. Not sure how that will be before our clash with them, they are struggling domestically and in the CL. COYG!
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FA Cup 3rd Rd : Portsmouth v Arsenal. COYG!
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While that’s not a hard draw, how come city etc get home draws against weak opposition
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never seen a club get so many easy cup draws as man city
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An Arsenal Academy ix are playing Enfield tomorrow evening kick off 7pm
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FA Cup third-round draw
Boreham Wood vs Brackley Town or Burton Albion
Bristol City vs Watford
Burnley vs Millwall
Cambridge United vs Birmingham City
Charlton Athletic vs Chelsea
Cheltenham Town vs Leicester City
Derby County vs Leeds United
Doncaster Rovers vs Southampton
Everton vs Sunderland
Fulham vs Middlesbrough
Grimsby Town vs Weston-super-Mare
Hull City vs Blackburn Rovers
Ipswich Town vs Blackpool
Liverpool vs Barnsley
Macclesfield FC vs Crystal Palace
Manchester City vs Exeter City
Manchester United vs Brighton
MK Dons vs Oxford United
Newcastle United vs Bournemouth
Norwich City vs Walsall
Port Vale vs Fleetwood Town
Portsmouth vs Arsenal
Preston North End vs Wigan Athletic
Salford City vs Swindon Town
Sheffield United vs Mansfield Town
Sheffield Wednesday vs Brentford
Stoke City vs Coventry City
Swansea City vs West Brom
Tottenham vs Aston Villa
West Ham United vs QPR
Wolves vs Shrewsbury Town
Wrexham vs Nottingham Forest
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George, sent Club Brugge preview over. COYG!
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@ mills . When Man City are ahead and doing well it seems no one cares or is excited about bar the journalist. Till this day I have met. City fan in the flesh and he also supports the spuds so make of that what you will.
if Villa were in front the narrative would be ‘it is refreshing and a novelty for someone else out of the usual to be competing.
We seem to hit a nerve when we are ahead.
15 shots , 9 on target, 63% pocession, still can’t believe we got nothing from that game. Credit to Villa they wanted it as bad.
Results will go for and against us but the belief and effort levels I believe is there. See where we end up at the end.
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Great points Gee, I think youre right about City, despite all will they have a psychological legacy that overshadows peoples minds from the time we’ve been in, not just a bursting trophy cabinet? Must be odd to support City and the Spuds, two different worlds? LOL.
The stats you put up (perhaps) show that despite the anger I saw on some perfectionist outlets on YT, we weren’t so bad-even though we looked it at times? Still it was bloody frustrating! Grrr! Last minute goals are really deflating.
I’m really interested in the Brugge game to see who plays and how things work out..etc. COYG!
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Gee,
Totally agree with you on the media bias and narrative but generally we were poor against villa. Trossard reached three shots on goal ten minutes after coming on and was the highest at that point.
As I always used to say to Shotta, you have to be very careful on interpretation of stats. Most of our shots on target were straight at Emi and very unlikely to be dangerous.
Stats are basically the bones of the skeleton but with no flesh and skin.
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Rice is out of tomorrow’s game with illness
Trossard out with injury again, same injury he just returned from
Saliba is still out too
Dowman is injured too, he got injured in the U21 game v Man Utd
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Jesus is available for tomorrow, he was added to the CL squad list
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Jesus has been added to replace Dowman who now cannot play in Europe until February 6th
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Mead has put the ladies one up
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Rice being ill is a reason he was so lethargic against villa. That makes it even more galling that Norgaard didn’t start or come on.
Mikel says Merino was out of gas as well, so why didn’t Victor come on earlier.
We have lots of players who can play lots of positions but if it’s not in the pre-game plan Mikel doesn’t seem to want to pivot.
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FT: Arsenal Women 1-0 FC Twente
Beth Mead with the only goal of the game
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