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
Arsenal have completed the signing of 16 year old striker Mylo Bernard from Crystal Palace, he joins as a first year scholar but has signed a pre contract agreement to sign a pro deal with Arsenal once he turns 17. He is described as a physical and aggressive striker with a keen eye for goals.
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Arteta did not get to do his press conference today as the Arsenal squad was delayed by the chaos at UK airports(that’ll teach the UK government not to upset Israel).
Timber is with the squad but Mosquera is not. Of course Saliba is also out. It seems Salmon is with the first team squad so is not expected to feature for our U19’s v Napoli U19’s tomorrow.
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Ethan Nwaneri has came on for Dortmund after 27 minutes in their CL game v Villareal
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Central Defender Angelinou Pedro celebrated his 17th birthday by signing his first professional contract with Arsenal, he has been in our academy since he was 11 years old.
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city and villa both won tonight
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Jaydon Sancho is said to be in talks with two EPL clubs about signing as a free agent. he played 39 games for aston villa last season on loan from man utd, and he played 41 for chelsea the season before, also on loan from man utd.
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Years ago the Italian clubs would be very strong in Europe, but since the passing of the car giants sponsoring the clubs their influence has become less prevalent.
Who knew the retraction of money would make such an impact. Inter are still quality, but because we have played them 100 times in the last few years were not allowed to play each other so napoli agreed to stand in.
Euro games are normally very unpredictable until they kick off, so any analysis of such and such plays like this and so and so plays like that must be taken with a punch of salt.
We don’t even know which ARSENAL style will be used to nullify the opposition, only that adaptation is one of our biggest assets.
The last twenty minutes against chelsea was very much Martinelli territory and you tend to think he would be useful here as well, but that’s football and we just have to use the squad we’ve got, it seems to be pretty damm good.
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Thanks Mills – en pointe as ever. My main memory of Napoli is this one, and it seems a long time ago now.
‘It was a ninth win in ten games for Arsène Wenger’s men and the perfect present for the manager as he celebrated his 17th anniversary at the helm. Indeed, Arsenal hardly let Napoli near the ball in the early stages. With Mikel Arteta restored to the centre of midfield alongside Mathieu Flamini, the in-form Aaron Ramsey was moved out to the right and it proved an inspired decision by Wenger.
In the eighth minute, Giroud chested the ball into the path of the Welshman and he raced down the wing before cutting back for Özil to side-foot in from the edge of the area. Moments later Pepe Reina dived low to his left to keep out Flamini’s drive as Arsenal pinned Napoli back. A second goal was not long in coming. Özil this time turned provider, pulling the ball back again from the right for Giroud to score his sixth goal of the season from close range, punishing a sloppy attempted clearance.’
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Merci Heady! I thought it was a bit more ‘Cabriole’, but many thanks nonetheless!
Amazingly detailed recollection of clashing with the I Ciucciarelli in days of yore. Massive chucks of that tume seem to have blended into one for me. Oddly sometimes looking at games brings it all back.Strange how the days of Giroud and ramsey now seem history? Times flies even when youre not necessarily having fun!
Heres hoping for sure and steadfast and fure and skill tonight. COYG!
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I’m in the states at the moment so will miss the match.
I didn’t realise allegri had taken over so maybe we can expect a tight defensive pattern and a reliance on the counter attack, something we are very used to.
Looks like de bryne will start because of other injuries they have in midfield, so although he can still be creative we know he doesn’t have the legs any more.
They are strong at home, but again that’s nothing were not used to.
I am expecting another ARSENAL controlled game COYG.
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Whatever youre up to, have a great time Ian; safe journeys and safe journey back!
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Raya, White, Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapie, Merino, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Eze, Gyokeres
subs:
K ArrizabalagaI MeslierC TzolisN MaduekeK HavertzR CalafioriM ZubimendiB GuimarãesM Lewis-SkellyM DowmanM Salmon
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maybe a bit of a shuffle around and we can grab this,COYG!
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we really need to step it up in the second half, our finishing has been poor, and we are playing a bit on the slow side.
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Bruno G on for Merino
Tzolis on for Eze
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Madueke on for Saka
Havertz on Gyokeres
both were poor
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Odegaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard with an absolute wonder striker from edge of the area gives us a deserved lead
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Zubimendi on for White
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FT: Napoli 0-1 Arsenal
Odegaard with a great strike to give us the goal and the win we deserved, it really should have been 5 or 6 nil, but our finishing was woeful.
Saka was poor and Gyokeres was woeful. Eze not great either. Odegaard was good, Tzolis gets the assist.
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would still like to see usconvert more, it could easily have been three or four, Napoli seem to bring it on themselves second half? But we’re off to a winning start. See you Tomorrow Ed. COYG!
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Our U19’s beat Napoli U19’s earlier today, with Harriman-Annous giving us a first half lead, Napoli leveled up in the second half but Munoz who is only 14 scored our winner in stoppage time, he is the second youngest goal scorer in UEFA Youth League history. This was our first opening game win the youth CL since 2015
Youngest goal scorers in UEFA Youth League history:
Max Dowman (Arsenal) – 14 years, 8 months, 19 days
Luis Munoz (Arsenal) – 14 years, 8 months, 22 days
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As I said I couldn’t watch it, but tried keeping up to date through the ARSENAL text commentary.
I know you can’t tell much from that but it did seem only a matter of time before we scored. Again I just thought the subs will be too much for them.
It must get depressing for the opposition when they’re hanging on and then we bring on such quality subs. I’m sure it has a doom effect when they see the bench.
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ian it really should have been a big win, 5 even 6 would not have flattered us, and that was with Eze, Gyokeres and Saka not anywhere near their best.
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We have seen in previous seasons we sometimes struggle to be clinical with our chances and then all of a sudden something clicks and someone gets a pasting.
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Just watched the highlights Ed, ol’ my god some of those chance’s were easier to score wow.
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