Hello and how are you? Wednesday the 9th of September sees the Mighty Cannon haul its gun carriage over to Italy, to take on SSC Napoli in the first of this seasons Champions League games. KO at is at 9.00pm local time ( 8.00pm UK time) . Expected weather is: 29°(feels like 34°) 0% chance of rain but with a heavy humidity predicted. Capacity of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is: 54,732.
So here we go again, and the press are already reminding us Arsenal fans that we’ve never won the CL. But we have had a good run in the last three seasons: quarters, semis and (just) losing on penalties in the final. Many teams would eye those stats with a green glint for sure.
It’s an odd thing how do we compared the competition of fifty-odd years ago to today? It’s a different system, and different kinds of football, many more games to trawl through. How would teams of the past coped? But it remains exciting as it did fifty years ago for sure. Personally, I’m not too bothered about a Euro Super League as we kind of have one, plus for all the low-block-parked-buses, I still like the ins and outs of the PL.
Last season the Partenopei, fared badly in the CL, scraping together a mere eight points and finishing in 30th place. But that was then, and this is now. Delving into the dust mites of fustian historical data we see we see the Arsenal have come up against Napoli a few times in the various Euro competitions, and coming out on top three out of four times, often with a clean sheet, which everyone loves. Apparently, Napoli have a 94% chance of winning a game if they are 1-0 up ( they must have looked in horror at the Chelsea game?) and they sit in 12th in Seria A. W1D0L2.
I knocked on the door of Statto HQ and saw a sign that said out to lunch. At first, I thought they had met up with Eric Dolphy, but instead I found them at Trattoria il possente Cannone, and as they munched their way through their Cannelloni, they predicted that Napoli FC had a 21% chance of winning and the Arsenal had a 53.5% chance of taking all the points home. Oddball fact of the day; Cannon, comes from Cannone the old Italian for ‘long tube’. Well fancy fkn that!
Next up, an away day with the old Mackem’s, like, for a late Saturday KO. May your force be with you. COYG!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 