Hello! How are you? Hope your all doing well, for the night of October 22nd at 8.00pm (western European time) sees the Mighty Cannon go all Shakhtari and receive a visit from FC Shakhtar of the Ukraine for a 90 minute dance to the music of time..

Our Mole/Miner visitors are currently 27th in the CL, having drawn and lost one and we are in 13th, winning one and drawing one so far, as you of course already know. Normally they play in Donetsk at the Donbas arena, but due to the conflict with Russia since 2014 they have re-located firstly to 1,000 km to the west and taken up home in the Arena Lviv back in 2014 and then to a stadium in Kharkiv. But have played cup games in Gelsenkirchen D-land. I’m not sure how that works out with their fans? They won their league last year and are currently 4th in the Ukrainian Premier League. And this is a team that likes to score goals and has a smattering of Brazilian players in its squad to add a touch of the old samba to the borscht.

Formed in the difficult days of April 1936 in the Soviet Union, from a mixture of mining communities, apparently a Shakhtar is a coal miner who works in a sub-surface shafted mine, and is a derivative of the word shaft. After the Great Patriotic war(WW2)  there were only three players left, how they coped with such a devastating tragedy I have no idea. In all they’ve notched up 56 years of professional Soviet football, and 33 years of professional Ukrainian football. They remain a popular side in that country.

Our old pal Henrik Mkhitaryan played for them back in 2010-13 (72 apps/38 goals).

They won the UEFA cup in 2009. Reached the SF’ s 15/16 and in 19/20. This is a team that participates regularly in Euro football, and has a tough reputation from the Soviet times and afterwards. We are head to head with them; won two, lost two, both times losing the away leg and doing the business back at our shed. Their coefficient rating is 63.000, sandwiched between Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt..

The Kroty(moles) have won the Ukrainian league 15 times, the Ukrainian cup 14 times, Ukrainian super cup 9 times. The also won the Soviet cup four times.

Their manager is Marino Pušić with a 71% win rate, but alas have been given by somebody somewhere only a 4% chance of winning this game.

Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going out semi-naked into the street singing ‘hey nonny nonny’ to relieve yourself from the tedium of it.

Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses! 

COYG and keep on keepin’ on!

Mills

Hi all.

There we have it, our first league defeat and well earned it was.

We kicked off with three defensive midfielders with little or no creativity between them ,and low and behold , we created nothing, zilch, nada, nowt. The first half hour, 11 v 11, was awful turgid stuff which resulted with zero attempts on goal. It was slow laborious stuff and we turned the ball over cheaply time and time again. By the way, they were far form being good. It was poor. But what is most annoying is that we set up in a way that “poor” was almost inevitable.

Then, yet again, we got a man sent off for the third time this season, because of careless play, and for the third time……stupidity. Trossard’s ball was a shocker, but Saliba absolutely fooked the job up when he yanked him down. It was a red, sorry, but it just was. We the tried to cling on for a draw, like we have managed to do the two previous times, but this time without Saliba. We needed a miracle, and didn’t get it.

So I’ll say this now, and it’s not a knee jerk reaction, this has been coming. We have not been playing as well as our lofty league position suggests. Results have been better than performances in general. We are fantastically solid in defence, that’s a fact, but fluidity and flare are thin on the ground, with Saka being the only bright spark in these two dimensions, and one individual isn’t enough in a team game.

Now we go into the Liverpool game minus Saliba. Here’s hoping.

Pedantic George.

As we say goodbye to the the warm sunshine for this year, and head into the gloaming of October and worse, the next inter-lull (oh joy of joys), I think we’ve all got a bit of an idea how things are moving this season for the mighty Cannon. It might not be what we wanted (top), but it could be much worse (Spursy), certainly there’s much to be proud of and take home from the City game despite all its high-octane disappointments, and there was the highly enjoyable night out with the young Guns against Bolton.

Atalanta was a bit of a squib rather than the complex cynosural fireworks that we would have liked. And of course we’ve all hoped for flowing, intelligent football and it turned up against Leicester. Perhaps we all would have loved to have seen PSG utterly destroyed, which was well within reach, but even so, a memorable and much  welcomed victory. 

Yet before that we seemed a bit blocked what with Odegaard having been stretchered off on an international battlegrounds but perhaps the Guns are starting to adapt and finding a way? Merino looks hungry, and we have a rock solid defence which can calm the nerves, the likes of which I haven’t experienced for a long time. Nice. Also nice was coming back from 1-0 down to beat Southampton, when for a moment it flashed through our minds that perhaps doom awaited us. Nicey nice was Martinelli grabbing a couple of goals, can only be good for the old confidence? Tomi’s back and the further we go on into the dark days of autumn and early winter the more we will need a squad. Nicer than nice was watching seventeen summers Nwaneri, looks like he could do well this season, and sure hope he does.

This years clash with Livercrutches suddenly takes on a new meaning as they have sneaked into pole position, albeit by a single point. But we still remain invincible, something that suits us well.

How have you digested the season so far?

To those that have made supportive comments for my previews, many, many thanks, its much appreciated, I’m genuinely sorry the previews aren’t better, or more like other blogs (story of my life!) I’m doing the best I can(often poorly I know). I’m not a natural born-writer and often I have to rely on tie-ins, plus you all have excellent footballing(Arsenal) minds and great analytical insight so I’m not going to set myself up as knowing, when I don’t. But its meant a heck of lot when you guys have added your own stories, thoughts and memories concerning Arsenal, its gratifying for sure. Can anyone else please cook up some articles, sure would make things interesting?

See you for the Bournefootandmouth game. Thanks again!

Mills

Hello, how are you?

Hope you’re doing well? On Saturday Oct 5th at 3.00pm (western European time) sees the mighty Cannon entertain at our shed the Sotonists of the deep south for target- practise and manoeuvres. A match-up which at this moment of writing gives Southampton a 5.9% of winning, so I’m sure ye old dark arts will be out and about even before All Hallows Eve comes around. Not that they’re that dark if everyone can see them and most teams sooner or later use them, so much for esotericism these days? Plus even if its irritating its not illegal, can you hear me Man City? Privileged City seem to think we should just all lie down and let them win, but why?

“you didn’t defend Stoke City usage of the dark arts though did you?”

“of course not, like most humans I’m a slippery hypocrite!”

To round up of this first part of the seasons tedious previews, I do have one really pathetic story concerning Southampton and Arsenal. Over thirty six summers ago, I dated a girl who had moved down to Southampton to attend college. I was living in another part of the county at the time and it took at least eight gruelling hours on the bus to get my Arsenal all the way down there for a visit. The first time I turned up I got drafted into her landlords indoor seven-a-side team, by then I had zero interest in playing and didn’t do too much and was subbed off at HT. A situation that was to the advantage of everyone concerned. But my footballing days were not to be the only demise I would experience in that city… 

Some months later, after one utterly monumental, endless -grind of a journey where I emerged from the bus looking and feeling like the living dead, having endured ten hours (life’s ref had added and extra couple of hours for punishment)of travel torture. Later, sometime around midnight I found myself getting (quite unexpectedly)the old heave-ho (how marvellous!), the whole reasoning was never really explained to me as why I was getting the tin (a new billy soy of course, pastures green and me being a tool), and why a phone dumping hadn’t sufficed I have no idea, certainly would have been much more convenient all round.

As you can imagine I was pretty irritated and slunk off in some room or other to be alone with my ego as it tortured me over the whole situation. Meanwhile the Arsenal were in action on the radio against, yep old Southampton themselves. Now some months before, there had been an incident, a post coital one, that went like this: I have ADHD so the old mind flits an flutters all over the show, anyway, it was about 5.45pm so time for the results and I asked her to put the radio on to hear them as they came in, as she was nearest to the set. Man, she went fkn nuts! Somehow this was never really forgotten and that incident made it into her black-book of injustices. 

Later, back at the dumping ground, she came in the room to see how I was suffering just as the Southampton/Arsenal result was being reported on: 3-1 to the Gunners, so I gave it the big one, acting all superior like a ten year-old kid would, I might have got the boot but the mighty Arsenal, my true partner, had triumphed over the place where she lived and its football team and of course her negation of me! COYG! I deserved an award for being such a tool, she didn’t even like football, let alone Soton. Utterly pathetic, but quite amusing how in my undignified torment I could take the victory for myself! Seems quite a regular footballing occurrence?

“erm, I think you need to see a psychiatrist, perhaps five times a week”

Interlude: A quick dance through my Southampton music of time… Mick Channon’s windmill arm celebrations, nice 80’s Subbuteo kit, The Dell, seeing the Guns lose there, Manninger had a howler, Matt Le Tiss scores a blinder, never been to St. Marys, loads of great players transferred from them; Walcott, Beefy, Ainsley, LBM, 1976 cup final-Stepney can’t reach Turners shot down to his left, bit of a bogey team in the Weng years except for the cauldron of sweat final in 2003, Alan Ball, Steve Williams, Ken Monkou, berth 44 on the docks, Aaron, you say goodbye, we say hello. Fin.

Ok, back to the more important subject of physics: Southampton come to us having taken a bit of a battering in this early part of the season. One of five teams that haven’t notched up a win yet, although perhaps they were unlucky to not beat Ipswich?

So the old Sotonists head to head with the Arse be: We’ve won 53, drawn 30 and they’ve won 23. Our first meeting was back in 1927 in the FAC and we triumphed 2-1. We didn’t play again until 1966. Our last three meetings with them has been LDD. Southampton don’t have the bookmakers backing at the moment as they only have 5.9% chance of winning against us (yes, you told us) so we don’t need to sell anything to anyone at the crossroads to get better. Begone! For nights swifts dragons cut the clouds full fast. And yonder shines Auroras harbinger; at whose approach ghosts wander here and there and troop home to churchyards. Damnèd spirits all that crossways and floods have burial, already to wormy beds are gone, for least day should look their shames upon. They willfully exiled themselves from light and must for aye consort with black- brow’d night!

Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like reading the articles in pornographic magazines and ignoring the pictures.

Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses! 

COYG and keep on keepin’ on!

Mills