Good news everyone! Kondogbia and Coquelin are both out for today’s match against Valencia. The best part of that news is that we don’t have to listen to other people say that we should have signed Kondogbia and you all don’t have to listen to me complain about how much people irrationally hated Coquelin.
Kondogbia is a huge miss for Valencia. He’s a bit of an unusual player in that he never quite looks right – the number of times I’ve seen him fall over while making an incredible through pass is uhh.. high – but he’s almost always there with an important tackle, interception, and he’s got some weird way of dribbling out of trouble. A truly unusual player but also somehow a powerhouse. He reminds me of a cut-rate Pogba. I don’t mean that as an offense.
Coquelin is admittedly less of a powerhouse. His job at Valencia is to step in and intercept passes. Interceptions were a Wenger specialty. He wasn’t a big fan of tackles but he trained the center backs and midfielders to read the passing lanes and step in to win the ball. For many years Koscielny was at the top or near it in interceptions per game. Coquelin does that job now for Valencia but he’s out today for yellow card accumulations. He should be available for the return leg.
That means Valencia will probably have to play Soler and Parejo in midfield? I can’t really tell and honestly, guessing lineups is a strange brew.
I would like to see Soler out there, though, because he has some of the highest “was dribbled” stats in the League this season. Put Lacazette or Iwobi on him and watch him fall over trying to tackle. Parejo on the other hand, he’s a real threat and will be looking to spring the Valencia counter.
Also watch out for Piccini on the right and Wass on the left. Piccini is an interesting dribbler and should try to get forward while Wass likes to stay back and should try to open Arsenal with long passes.
My best guess as to how Valencia will play is on the counter. Though it’s really tough to say because Arsenal aren’t as dominant with the ball as we used to be. But if I’m Valencia I look at Arsenal, who don’t really have a great dribbler who can break down the defense and don’t have a target man to lob drosses in to, and I set up a 442 low block and try to get out with a 0-0 draw.
How will Arsenal play? I think Mkhitaryan is the key. Once again, I want to point out that despite the fan derision he’s leading Arsenal in Big Chances created in this competition (with 5) and has an additional 8 in the Premier League.
Funny but true, Sead Kolasinac is actually dead even with Mkhitaryan in terms of key passes (17) and Big Chances created (5). Arsenal create plenty of chances. Yet another guy that fans love to hate! He will probably have one or two of those patented Emery crosses that players don’t seem to finish as well as they should.
Speaking of which.. The problem at Arsenal is finishing. Aubameyang may be Arsenal’s leading scorer but he’s been dreadful in the Europa League, finishing just 13% of his shots (which is the same percent at which Lionel Messi scores direct free kicks) and missing six Big Chances. And the second problem is that if Aubameyang doesn’t score there aren’t any other players scoring for the club. Ramsey has two goals, Welbeck has 2, and Emile Smith-Rowe has two goals. Lacazette and Sokratis are Arsenal’s top scorers from the available players after Aubameyang and they also only have two goals each.
This leads me to a weird conclusion (not weird) that like a frat boy on a Friday, Arsenal need to get shots. SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS. Slippery nipples, sex on the beach, pickle back, I don’t care how they do it, I want to see shots from all over the place. I feel like it’s our best chance of success, just shots. Force the referees to make handball calls, get some lucky deflections, create some chaos in their defensive lines. Also, run right at Gabriel. The former Arsenal man is probably going to play and he was prone to mental collapse. Run at him, shoot at him, make fun of him, just plain attack that spot.l
Just to make me a liar, Arsenal will probably score a flukey goal and then play defensive for 90+ minutes, taking a grand total of 2 shots or something.
Game today is on BR/Live but I have some stuff I have to do for my mom. I don’t think I will be able to watch live and may even have to stop off at a pub in Seattle to watch the second half. I might be able to listen to the game on my car stereo, like it’s 1967 – except I’ll be streaming the video onto my phone and then piping the sound to my receiver using Bluetooth. Lol, so nothing like 1967.
Nice Skrillex ref.
Mkhitaryan and Kolasinac love the Europa League. They’ll both start, and I expect us to win.
Sorry, that should have said “lose”, obviously. Damn autocorrect.
But Laca is there to save our lardons.
i got hip to kondogbia watching the u.s. play in a u17 world cup. they were in a group against france and spain so, prophetically, they got demolished. kondogbia and pogba were the central midfield tandem and kondogbia was amazing.
i think it’s laughable that arsenal sold both gabriel and coquelin and preferred to stick with the £70 million pair of xhaka and mustafi. it’s like some twisted, backwards-assed hustle. the back three suited gabriel (and holding) very well. it will be interesting to see how well mustafi is received by valencia fans.
as for coquelin, i absolutely loved him. the only thing he lacked was a long ball and a finish but he had everything else. in my opinion, he’s miles better than xhaka simply because he was effective off the ball and he didn’t do stupid stuff. a mannequin is more effective off the ball than xhaka and he does stupid stuff in rhythm. coquelin had exceptional mobility and an underrated technical level; he could go by people on the dribble. imagine xhaka going by anybody. how did arsenal get that deal so wrong?
i have zero expectations for today’s game. valencia will miss coquelin and kondogbia’s swords in the center of their midfield but it probably won’t matter. they have a great equalizer with the perpetual accident waiting to happen in the arsenal midfield called granit xhaka.
We’re so low on confidence, I honestly can’t call this game. If you’re the Valencia coach, you attack attack attack. Fast runners, running at our back line. We’ll score, but if they take 2 goals home, we’ll find it very hard to over come that.
Amused at the Coquelin revisionism. This wasa played we tried to flog, came back to fill a hole, and did well for a while to displace Flamini Mk II. He is a very limited footballer. The game today isn’t about one-skillset players.
And oh, Xhaka is not a good enough footballer for us either, but there’ve been games this season where he brought the D. When he does that, he’s effective. He looks improved this season, but, in my view (like Coquelin), he still falls short of the quality that a club of Arsenal’s pedigree is used to. However, Im not a fan. Slow of foot, slow of thought, not terribly defensively minded, or terribly creative.
You can’t take away the 3/4 of year Coquelin and Cazorla were the best midfield duo in the league – and that’s statistically borne out. The problems with Coquelin came when a) his symbiotic partner got hurt and b) Wenger tried to push him up the pitch to become the box-to-box player he thought every midfielder should aspire to become. Coquelin, sitting deep, protecting the back four, winning the ball and then passing it to Ozil or Cazorla was fantastic. I don’t consider that revisionist history at all. We were stupid to sell both him and Gabriel for far less than what they would be worth to us now.
3/4 years? More revisionism. One season at best.
One season at best. Neither Coq nor Santi played in midfield for us, regularly, for anywhere near as long. Santi in fact had 4 full season at Arsenal, before his compounding injury took hold. And he played midfield for us late in the piece.
Is everyone having a memory failure or what? I’m not even going to touch the “best midfield duo in the league” claim, let alone engage with an argument that they were that for 4 years.
3/4 = three quarters. They were the best midfield duo the last three quarters of the 2014/15 season. Coquelin statistically was the #1 defensive midfielder and led the league in tackles attempted and won and interceptions. Cazorla was near the top of the league in pass completion % and key passes. Ozil enjoyed a gangbuster year in assists and Ramsey had a free role on the right side and had a pretty solid year too. You can hate on Coquelin, I won’t, he was a linchpin for a lot of good things that season that we failed to build on.
Thank you, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth.
LOL!
The B/L Stream is very nice, but it’s a lonely, barebones broadcast.
Agree recent form makes it hard to imagine a good outcome. Because, like a Game Of Thrones episode in the dark, it really requires a lot of imagination.
My expectations are so low, Arsenal will probably thrash them 4-0.
Welp.
Playing true to recent form. At least we have the women’s team.
Terrible start, but a descent half considering.
What were Laca and Guendouzi ‘discussing’ walking off the pitch? Looked a little tetchy.
decent…descent, tbd.
Yeah got considerably better not long after I posted. Hopefully coming back to lead helps with the overall confidence level. And I’d probably switch Guend for Torriera.
Yes to that switch.
Half-time:
1) still can’t figure out what Maitland-Niles was doing on that free kick that nearly set up the first goal.
2) Their first goal was.. well, they were just taller or something I guess.
3) We came back and honestly I didn’t expect Auba to make that pass so good.
4) Lacazette is hands down the POY if we can’t vote for Ramsey.
5) Still lack control in these games, Maitland-Niles needs a loan or something, he’s really not good, they are the ones shooting on sight, we aren’t, despite that I think we got this.
Agree about Maitland-Niles.
Laca still my POY (even if Ramsey was there). Avail-ability.
Saw highlights rather than live play, but it looks to me like Sokratis lost his man on the far post nod back. Well-worked corner.
1) Guendouzi was so bad defensively in the first half that my initial reaction to that free kick mistake was “Guendouzi was standing right there so maybe AMN didn’t trust him to cover the other player.”
He really was bad. Jogging back when they countered, not getting in their passing lanes.
Has he learned nothing?
2) Xhaka’s jumping ability on their goal-LOL. It’s almost like he was pretending to jump
4) AMN looks great in some games, terrible in others. He’s looked far better than Iwobi imo, who I’m convinced won’t get any better.
6) Kolasinac has one move. Drive to byline and cut it back. He’d be far more effective if he improved his accuracy. Also, when he doesn’t have the ball, he should be getting into the box. I think it was Mkhi who fizzed a cross in and no one was there. Kolasinac just standing at the 18.
7) It’s no accident that our third goal started with a player dribbling (centrally) at their back line. We need more of that. Also, Auba’s little step to the front post to fool the defender before scoring was delicious.
completely unrelated but i think arsenal should give danny welbeck a new contract. he was playing well before he got injured, he can play anywhere on the front line, and he’s free. why shouldn’t arsenal extend his contract two years?
same goes for monreal. he’s arsenal’s best left back who can also play center back or wing back and he doesn’t let arsenal down. why not extend his contract by one year?
i’m not eager to see koscielny go either. buy someone to replace him but make that player earn it.
i’m just saying, arsenal have no choice as far as replacing ramsey and cech. why add more drama to proceedings by trying to replace the other guys right now?
arsenal’s primary need is at cdm and that’s where they have to spend some money. if they get champions league, doucoure from watford is my pick. he was my second pick last summer behind parades, who just signed for psg in january. xhaka only looks like xabi alonso in stature but he still can’t control the arsenal midfield. with his lack of awareness, arsenal will continue to struggle with him at cdm.
arsenal’s second need is to replace ramsey. my first pick is still, from last year, giovani lo celso. once again, arsenal need champions league football. emery gave lo celso his chance at psg, who don’t want him, so it should be straight forward. the major stumbling block is he’s scored 16 goals for real betis while on loan this season. that’s insane for a center mid who’s only just turned 23. another stumbling block is betis really wants to make his loan permanent but if arsenal have champions league, they should be able to lure him.
never mind on lo celso. betis exercised their option to sign him on a permanent basis a couple of weeks ago.
Is Lo Celso a 50-60m pound player? Because we could still buy him from Betis but it’ll take around that.