Arsenal fixtures list more car wreck than pileup

by imothyt

I love the annual fixtures list freak out. It used to be such a feature that I once even used a method for judging fixtures (toughness of opponent with away matches) to prove that Arsenal got the worst set up. This was the year that we had to play Man U, a Champions League match, and one other big team away. It was a really tough year. But then it was pointed out that the other top clubs were given difficult fixtures in other years and it looked a lot like it wasn’t just the FA hating on Arsenal.

That said, I think it’s pretty clear that the FA hate Arsenal! I mean, look at this crap! Home to City and away to Chelsea to start the season! Then after that we get a few months to recoup and then comes November, which if you remember was Wenger’s worst month, and we start with Liverpool home and five days later matchday 4 in the Europa League at home. Then we end the month with matchday five in the Europa League at home followed by Spurs at home and three days later Man U away. And again in March, a tough away game to Spurs and three days later a knockout round in the Europa League, followed by a home match against Man U just two days after that. I know that the TV companies are likely to move some of these matches but this clustering of big games with European matches is kind of infuriating. I mean, come on.

The Premier League even trolled Unai with a “welcome to the Premier League” graphic showing that he has to play City and Chelsea in his first two matches. He responded graciously with:

It’s funny. I think if we were the dominant team in England/Europe we probably wouldn’t care so much about the fixtures list. Or we’d maybe even get a more favorable fixtures list.

One last thing, I personally got lucky! I was planning on making a trip over this fall and it turns out that Leicester play us at home and then a few days later we get to host a Europa League match. My plan is to take my daughter to see the Arsenal! So, I guess I better get some plane tickets.

In the end, I wouldn’t put much worry into the fixtures list. Arsenal look like they are going to have a lot of matches rescheduled this season because Emery is going to help us win the Europa League.

Qq

37 comments

  1. Though.
    We might be in better shape to see those two right off.
    Not sure who/how many for ARS/MC/CHE are involved at WC– or whose teams might play through further? But Arsenal know those two PL teams– and they won’t know us yet– at that point.

    jw1

    1. City have more players (16) at the WC than any other club in Europe, so that could work in our favor. Chelsea and Spurs each have 12, while United have 11. We have 8, but not many of them are expected to go deep into the tournament. Ozil and Monreal are the only concerns there.

      1. Correction: Arsenal have 7 players at the WC: Welbeck, Monreal, Ozil, Xhaka, Ospina, Elneny, and Iwobi.

        1. Lol.

          I think the only player we’ll really miss going into the season is Ozil, and possibly Xhaka (but Switzerland aren’t expected to go very far); Monreal will be with the Spain squad potentially into the semis, but Kolasinac may conceivably be our default starting LB this season (there’s another player I’m keen to see kick on under a new coach).

          So, the starting eleven against City should be our close-to-normal starting eleven, whereas one can hope and dream that City’s squad that day will be fairly make-shift!

        2. Monreal won’t start for us next season? I think you’re wrong there. Unless Kolasinac improves dramatically, because I don’t see us buying a LB this window to replace Monreal.

          But point taken, he won’t play for Spain this summer.

          1. I agree with you. Nacho was outstanding last season and got voted second by the fans as Player of the year. Unless an injury or a drastic drop in form happens, I don’t see a reason why to drop him out of the starting XI. Sure, he is getting older, but looking at our latest signings, age doesn’t seem to bother the Bosses too much.

  2. It is now 8 seasons since we played Spurs away first.
    Is it me or are the fixturemakers Spurs fans

  3. So weird to see an Arsenal manager with a Twitter account. Unless he has a thick skin, I’m not sure how long he’ll want to keep it!

    Not too worried about the fixture list, and agree with jw1 that it might actually be a good time to face those teams (Chelsea, especially, look to be in a bit of a mess these days). Besides, even if we lose one of those (draw the other?) the next run of fixtures is pretty kind, and our record going into December could be quite good. Usual caveats apply, etc.

    My only concern with those opening games is the inevitable smeg-out freak-out should we drop points. (See Twitter account comment above.) I am hopeful our fans will give the management some time to find their stride and bed in their ideas, but in this day and age, it seems patience is in short supply.

    We’ll see. I’m excited for this season to start. How sweet would it be to beat City on the opening day!

    1. I was reading some of Michael Cox’s articles on Emery vs Guardiola during their Valencia and Barca days.. makes for some interesting reading.

      Not sure how ready we’ll be with our new tactics and all the pre season travel.. so hopefully fans will stay patient.. but yeah we could beat them.

      Emery probably has some Mutumbo-esque block machine running his twitter account.. he’ll need it for sure.

    2. i highly doubt that he reads his twitter account. almost all of these people have a dedicated social media team who tweet for them.

      that’s what makes sterling kind of an outlier: he tweets his own tweets in his own voice.

      1. Lots of NBA players write their own tweets? I don’t think it’s that uncommon for professional players.

  4. ‘Usual caveats apply…’ (*snickers*)
    But perhaps not BB. There few ‘usuals’ anymore. Kind of exciting– yeah?

    As for the Twitter account?
    As one of stature, UE has a PR staffer filtering (translating?) that for him.
    Might get the good stuff– even critical stuff (if worthy).

    jw1

  5. Tim, dude!!!!
    Come stay with us and save on hotel 🙂 Avie can hang out with the boys! It’ll be so much fun.
    Email me!
    -AR

  6. Job number one for our new coach… make us hard to beat. Draw, thank you. We’ve had Chelsea’s number even in our recent bad times, and I expect 3 points from that game.

    Because of post tournament holidays, City likely not to have Jesus, deBruyne, their Bazilian goalkeeper, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Mendy, Kompany, Aguero and probably Sterling, Walker, Stones and Delph… but they’ll have Sane (whose omission by Germany was a surprise, notwithstanding Low’s explantation). It does not matter if a player doesn’t get much game time. They take part in full practice drills, are on the job, and get the same number of days off as others who play regularly. So Nacho will get the same length holiday as Pique, even though he’ll be fresher.

    We’ll likely be missing Mesut, Nacho, Xhaka, Elneny, Iwobi from our regular starters (regular-ish in Elneny’s and Iwobi’s cases), as well as new boys Lichtensteiner and Torreira.

    I’d say we’re in better shape than City. Some of Chelsea’s most influential players, Courtois, Azpilicueta, Hazard, Giroud and Kante will likely not be back in time for the fixture.

    We should expect 4 points from those games. Two minimum. The coach should consider losing either of those to be poor results.

    1. I would expect Arsenal to need some time as well before we really have our game plan bedded in. I think it’s too much to EXPECT 4 points, especially against last season’s centurions, but I like the positivity.

  7. On the point about giving the coach some time, I think we might look at Klopp as someone with which to gauge our expectations, particularly since he is so celebrated.

    In his first season at Liverpool, the team finished 8th, two places below where they finished the season before, but made it to the Europa League final. The next season he got the club into the coveted CL spots (4th), which is also where he finished this past season. Now, many people are looking at his squad and thinking they could win the title next season, or at the very least finish in the top three. (Incidentally, there’s some great analysis in today’s Arsenal Vision podcast where they suggest we should be looking at Liverpool as the model for how we move forward and our expectations about transfers, etc.)

    I don’t think we’ll finish 8th next season, but it’s entirely possible we finish exactly where we finished this past season. I would like to suggest that this would not mean the club is not moving forward, or won’t be moving forward. This project, if you like, is going to need two to three years, if it is what I think it is.

    I say this because I’m fully expecting a number of people (not here, necessarily) who will look at what happens this season and say that nothing has changed / we’re no better under smeg / we’re worse, etc. Wait. Give it time. Of course, we could very well finish 4th next season, which is where I’ve set my expectations (so, I guess I’m an optimist?), because unlike Klopp in 2015, Emery is inheriting what I think is a decent squad. Again, we’ll see.

    More to the points made about the fixture list, I’m curious to see how Emery uses the squad for the Europa League. I’m sure (hoping) he’ll do what we did last year, gradually inserting first-team players as we progress through the competition, but I wonder if we’ll see a second-string player like Lichtsteiner, for example, play well into the QF, SF, or even final stages, should we make it that far. Really looking for AMN to shine in that competition, by the way.

    1. “suggest we should be looking at Liverpool as the model for how we move forward and our expectations about transfers, etc.”

      Weird, I say that same thing a few months ago and I got nothing but hate in return.

      I think we will finish top 4. That’s what my model is predicting unless Chelsea do something massive in the week before the season starts. I also predict United’s fakey season last year to collapse and for Mourinho to be fired soon.

      1. “unless Chelsea do something massive ”

        A massive implosion..

        “Mourinho to be fired soon”

        MU have weird patience sometimes. They gave Moyes and Van Gaal so much time, even when it was obvious they are going nowhere. Of course, bad results can fuel Moronho’s nasty personality and he can quit himself, but honestly I kind of prefer if he stays — it is so much easier to channel all my annoyance and dislike into one place. This club and this manager are such a fit..

  8. ____________________Cech/Leno*
    Bellerin Mustafi Sokratis*/Soyuncu*/Chambers Kolasinac
    ________________AMN Ramsey+______________
    ______Miki Jack+ Lacazette________
    ________________Auba____________________________

    Likely starting XI to face City.
    * Not yet bought
    + Not yet re-signed

    That is presuming that all players in Russia go deep enough into the competition. But I’d put money on Lichtensteiner, Xhaka, Iwobi and Elneny leaving early. So AMN and probably Laca will drop out for Xhaka and Iwobi, if they’re back in time. But honestly, Im not expecting anyone at the tournament to feature in August. Besides holiday breaks, they need some pre-season re-integration. Familiarity with the coach and his methods. The players not in Russia get a full month of that.

    For me our biggest issues for those early games are two players currently on our books who haven’t signed new contracts; namely Jack and Ramsey.

    1. Ramsey is under contract for another year regardless of a new contract – Wilshere is not. I would not lump the two together.

      1. Ramsey is unlikely to be allowed to run down his contract the way Jack, Ozil and Sanchez did last season. So yes, they’re in effectively the same place.

  9. This rumor of a bid for Luiz. BS?

    The arrival of Sokratis and Soyuncu would signal the departure of one or possibly two existing CBs (Mustafi and Chambers?). If the Luiz rumor is true, it would indicate to me that the club also believe Koscielny’s career at the top is essentially finished.

    1. That’s an interesting point, jw1. He was used as a DM occasionally by Mourinho to great effect (fans loved him there). Incidentally, I remember he played at DM when Chelsea thrashed us 6-0 in Arsene’s 1000th game in charge! And, in Chelsea’s recent title-winning season, Conte used him basically as a DM (in a back 3 where he was charged with linking the defense and attack).

      1. The guys who think that Ramsey attacks too much are going to looooove David Luiz. Not.

        Im kind of willing this transfer. Exhibition ball 🙂

        1. Lovely to see you wise folk on board with David Luiz. The man is a nutcase on the pitch but his type of class is permanent, not to mention title-winning experience is hard to come by these days. Definite pattern forming of us looking for players with proper sh*thousing ability.

          And Chelsea fans do not want this guy in our colours, which tells you a lot.

          Nice of the Premier League to release the fixture list on the same day the World Cup starts. They really know how to market their product.

    2. I’d love and develop an obsession if we sign Luiz. . He a match winner and the most versatile defender I have seen recently! Players like him don’t fade out..

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