Hello and how are you? Wednesday the 10th of December sees the Mighty Cannon take a trip to Bruges, Belgium as Arsenal play against Club Brugge KV at the Jan Breydl stadium (capacity of 29,042) in the next of our Champions League games. KO off is at 21.00pm Central European time (8.00pm UK time) and expected weather is cloudy with 10° C (feels like 6°) and 0-1% chance of rain.
Well after the last second loss to Aston Villa I’m sure we are all hoping for a convincing victory against Club Brugge to cheer us up. A victory would all but confirm us in the last 16 and we have already have made it to the play-off phase if all should go acki-kacki.
in our remaining three games.
134 yr old Royal Brugge have been struggling domestically in the Jupiler Pro League (down to third place W10 D2 L2 F24 A17 and have only won one in the last four) and in the CL, although their only point in the CL was a respectable one grabbed from Barca in a 3-3 draw. The Blauw-zwarts lie in 26th and are W1 D1 L3 F8 A13.
As I mentioned in the forum, Club Brugge have let go of Nicky Hayen (manager since March 2024) and replaced him with Croatian Ivan Leko, poached from Gent, who seemed to be themselves shocked by the change. ” oi! who said you could do that?”
Cristhian Mosquera (ankle) and Gabriel Magalhaes (thigh) are both out, young Willie Saliba (knock) remains a doubt (dang!) and Riccardo Calafiori was limping at the end at Villa Park, so who knows? Mr Rice and Mr Merino must tread a delicate path as if either see yellow they will miss the match against Inter.
Sitting this one out for FCB are goalkeepers Simon Mignolet (overstretching) and Nordin Jackers (rib fracture) both players missed the weekend’s defeat against St Truiden.
Bruges centre-back Zaid Romero (back), midfield men Lynnt Audoor (muscle) and Ludovit Reis (shoulder) and striker Romeo Vermant (concussion) will also miss this clash.
Our euro-friendly chums at Statto HQ have give the Arsenal a 71.4% chance of winning, and Club Brugge a mere 11.1%. Next up for the Gunners, a home tie against Wolves in a late Saturday KO. So COYG!
Mills
It doesn’t take much to dent the confidence of our fanbase, one defeat after 18 unbeaten games and apparently City will run away with the league? Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.
I have to believe our bad run with injuries will come to an end, logic tells us that we won’t continue to to have the most injuries in the division, the law of averages must kick in. We will have 4 or 5 “like a new player” back for the second half , that has to put us in an even stronger position than we already are.
And by the way, City are not the City of 3 or 4 years ago. Keep the faith. CARMON ARSENAL, as Frank used to say.
Pedantic George
Positively Arsenal 
Arsenal U19’s a currently playing Brugge U19’s away
Arsenal U19 team v Club Brugge: Porter, Hamill, Clarke (c), Pedro, Ogunnaike, Dudziak, Agustien, Nduka, Bailey-Joseph, Zecevic John, Thompson.
Subs: Talbot, Julienne, Marciniak, Onyekachukwu, Murisa, Owusu-Gyasi, Maghoma, Bonaventure Yetna, Munoz, Munoz
schoolboy CB Pedro gets his first start at this level after making his debut in the last round, and midfielder Nduka who we signed from Charlton earlier this season makes his debut at this level, he has not yet played for our U18’s but has been outstanding for our U16’s
Bonaventure Yetna is another schoolboy in the subs for whom this is his first call up to this level.
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Demiane Agustien put Arsenal ahead early on with his first goal for Arsenal since joining from Derby county in the summer.
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Nduka goes off in tears after being sent off for a mistimed challenge, but you will not see a red card given for that in another match this season.
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club brugge down to 10 now too
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14 year old Maghoma on for Arsenal
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brugge draw level with about 7 minutes left
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U15 player Mikael Bonaventure Yetna and first year scholar Abraham Owusu-Gyasi come on for their Youth League debuts
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in the last seconds of injury time Club Brugge win it.
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Another great preview lads,
Declan has not travelled so will be available if fit. Trossard and Saliba also stayed home.
Riccardo is suspended for wolves so possibly could get a very long rest or maybe Mikel will play him as he knows he won’t play at the weekend.
Mikel said Merino was out of gas at the weekend and so you would imagine Victor will start.
Our opposition are another who like to soak up pressure and counter quickly. They score and concede lots so even with our injuries at the back we should be able to outscore them.
After the stale games against Brentford and villa we need a real banger tonight COYG.
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Thanks Ian , always grateful for the support! COYG!
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Arsenal: Raya, White, Norgaard, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Zubimendi, Odegaard, Madueke, Martinelli, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, Nichols, Salmon, Calafiori, Copley, Nwaneri, Eze, Saka, Jesus
its a kin to a league cup selection.
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Timber not in the squad either, and it means Norgaard will play at CB, he has only played that position 8 times in his career.
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Maduekeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh boy what a shot, 1-0 to the Arsenal
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the Madueke goal
https://x.com/i/status/1998853025776247151
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HT: Club Brugge 0-1 Arsenal
Madueke with a wonder strike from outside the area to give us the lead, we could have scored one or two more, but so could Brugge, as Raya has had to bring off a couple of very good saves
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Madueke makes it 2-0 in 20 seconds of the second half, heading home from two foot out
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Martinelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii makes it 3-0 with a great shot from outside the area
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Martinelli is the first Arsenal player to score in 5 CL games in a row
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absolutely ridiculous from Arteta, he brings on Calafiori who he said before the game was carrying an injury. a stupid thing to do.
Jesus comes on too
Hincapie and Gyokeres off
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Odegaard and Madueke off
Nwaneri and Saka on
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White off
Marli Salmon (16) comes on for his debut
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3 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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FT: Club Brugge 0-3 Arsenal
Madueke x2 and Martinelli with our goals. We could easily have scored 6 or more. Jesus made his comeback and looked lively, in fact way more lively than Gyokeres did while he was on. Marli Salmon made his debut at the age of 16.
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Well done Marli Salmon becoming Arsenals youngest ever defender.
Seen a few games from last season and this season and I was impressed with his positioning, composure on the ball and also distribution from a 15 /16yr old playing above his age.
I think it is hard to break into any position on the pitch especially a young defender so we’ll done to him and his family.
Hope to see him repping the shirt for a long time.
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That must have been a fun away trip for anyone lucky enough to go. Bruges – AKA the Venice of the North – is a lovely city, or at least bits of it are. Canals, cathedrals, Le Grand Place, Moules Frites, interesting beer and the odd salacious club enough to keep most fans happy. And a decent little game to boot: never in doubt once the final score’s known but enough worry to keep it interesting.
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It was a strange game last night indeed. Again we only played well in patches bit when we did we played very well.
Yep we could of scored six but we was very Lucky to come away with a clean sheet.. It would be interesting to see their XG.
Unfortunately I had to listen to that Numbskull martin keown. He said at one point that Zube and Merino were “three quarters of Spain’s midfield”, work that one out what a dick!
I agree the sub’s were very strange, going off as well as coming on, but really we should be used to that.
On to the next.
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Victor Ozhianvuna(16) who will join AFC when he turns 18 in January 2027, is in the Shamrock Rovers starting 11 in their away Conference League game tonight v Breidablik of Iceland. It is 1-1 at half time.
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George, sent the Wolves preview over. COYG!
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