Hello and how are you?
Saturday the 7th of November sees our next PL clash, this time hosting our one-time FA Cup finals rivals from the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull City. KO is at 3.00pm local time, and weather is mostly cloudy with temps at 10° (feels like 12°) and 5 % chance of rain.
As we are bedazzled by the autumnal hues, and the world still grapples to find pluralistic means of living and Chuang Tzu dreams of being a butterfly or the butterfly dreams of being him, us Arsenal fans put our attention on the last of our PL game before the next injury-inducing international break, this one against Hull City Tigers.
I’m sure we feel a certain confidence going into this match having broken the 14-yr Anfield hoodoo and chalked up a (fairly) comfortable win against the Slavs in the CL. Unless you’re a bit of a long beard and still carry around the old Arsenal cloud of negativity that makes you think we might slip up on a Tiger-striped banana skin.
Having lost to Hull in 2008, we have since clocked up a fourteen-match unbeaten run against them, although we’ve not faced them since 2017 in the PL and in that last encounter, Alexis Sanchez bagged the goals. How time flies whether you’re having fun or not?
Today I think we can expect Hull to do the old 5-4-1 give it the old low block and try to frustrate any, erm, harmonious play we might have and grab a breakaway goal against the run of play. Hull haven’t won in eight, and let’s hope they extend that to nine.
Missing in action for the Gunners are Mr. Saka and The Red Max.
Caged for the Tigers are Crooks, Matazo, Targett, Gourna-Douath, Ansah, Gyabi, Hughes and Morita.
I knocked on Statto HQ’s front door and they didn’t answer so I climbed up and snuck through the dormer window into their bungalow and they were discussing modes of alienation and Marx’s dialectical materialism, but reluctantly handed over the stats that read thus: Arsenal FC (1st) 82% chance of v for victory. Hull City (11th) with a 5.7% outsiders’ chance of grabbing ze points.
Next up the gruelling international break, then, on the 21st of November, when the boat comes in, we sail up to Tyneside and Newcastle United, like.
Till then, may your horses be lucky! COYG!
Mills
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Guimaraes, Odegaard, Madueke, Tzolis, Havertz.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly, Zubimendi, Merino, Eze, Gyokeres.
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was trying to think of an Arsenal – Hull City link and the only two I can come up with is that Terry Neill managed both clubs and John Hawley played for both clubs, by the way John Hawley’s wife is Caroline Hawley who is a regular presenter on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt.
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former Arsenal Academy player Brooke Norton-Cuffy is a sub for Hull today
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Arsenal U18’s beat their Sunderland counterparts 3-0 this morning in the PL Cup to progress to the knock out stages. Bernard, Nwaneri(pen) and Hamill with our goals
the lads are on a great run of form at the this time. 7 wins in a row now.
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Great again Mills,
Yeah another low block and actually it’s probably going to be a park the bus base line block. Just what we hate, and they are fastest breaking side in the league as well. They don’t fuck about passing but any opportunity to get in and early cross will be taken and that goes for shots outside the box as well. They love to foul as well and as the ref is new to the PL I can’t see him being very strict so it might be a very start stop game.
This is one of those games we have to score first and early if possible. It won’t bring them out but should settle us. This will be a difficult game but we have the tools to clip the tigers claws and take the final three points before the interlull.
We are going to need our wingers to stay wide today to maximise space and this a game we could of done with all four natural wingers fit but that’s how it goes. We might need to use Kai and Big Vic today and this is the sort of game the full backs have to sit high so the midfielders will have to cover the breaks.
We faced these problems before, we know how to do it, so gunners let’s do it COYG.
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cheers Ian, much appreciated! COYG!
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the U18 teams left in the PL Cup
Arsenal, Aston Villa, Burnley, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspurs, Wolverhampton Wanderers
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FT: Leeds 1-0 spurs
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Arteta says William Saliba will play for our U21’s tomorrow v Aston Villa
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VAR penalty check for shirt pull on Havertz
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Ref looks at it on the screen and its not given cos Havertz was offside, so why was he sent to the screen at all
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HT: Arsenal 0-0 Hull City
what a fecking borefest, Artetaball at its mind numbing level
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