Retour
A word from our sponsors:
We didn’t get to where we are today by pissing money up the wall.
Making a pre-tax loss of £1.4m on the back of record earnings of £691m at that quaint little football club we own in London, is totally unacceptable, and urgent action was called for – this was the seventh consecutive year of operational losses for God Sake.
The 60 guilty staff members responsible for the losses have been identified and will be reintegrated into a job seeking environment forthwith.
Rumours that the job cuts are in someway related to Mikel Arteta’s £8m per year wage rise could not be further from the truth.
Weather:
October, and the trees are stripped bare
Of all they were
What do I care?
Temperatures of 12 degrees with a 10% chance of precipitation, humidity at 76% and 11mph winds.
Our opponents:
It is a well-known fact that Arsenal’s first set of shirts were donated by Forest to help get the club started, or is it?
Unfortunately, this is utter bollocks
In fact, the opposite happened.
Arsenal donated a ceramic gun and a set of playing shirts for our centenary in 1965.
There is, however, a Forest connection in Arsenal’s founding, former Goalkeeper, Fred Beardsley, who had left Forest to go and work at the Woolwich Arsenal, was instrumental in forming the club along with David Danskin.
Last seasons league win was their first since the days of Arsene Wenger, but that should not detract from a fine history dating back through the glory eras of George Graham, Bertie Mee and Herbert Chapman.
They have still not managed to win the one trophy that matters, though, and that hurts a lot.
What to expect:
A lot of cynics appear to think that Arsenal’s return to winning ways is largely down to a back-to-basics attitude from Arteta, which is based on a rock-solid back four and a more direct approach to attacking.
There may be elements of truth in that, but they do seem to spend a lot of time in possession of the ball, and they do have more than their fair share of talented players.
The blend of physical dominance and tactical discipline is definitely working.
Our ability to defend set pieces will certainly come under the spotlight, as will our ability to cope with Arsenal’s width and midfield overloads.
Arsenal appear to be at full strength on Sunday with the return of Saka, Odegaard and Havertz
The portents do not look good.
Tricky Trees:
Everything comes in three’s they say; hopefully that does not apply to shooting yourselves in the foot?
If the performance against Coventry was not bad enough, the display against Palace was inexpressible.
Squandering chance after chance after chance and to then go and defend like a bunch of schoolboys was beyond frustrating, and when you add in our woeful home form things look pretty bleak at the moment.
The one saving grace is the fact that Glasner has been in this position before and on more than one occasion.
He does not come across as the type to panic and will have a plan to get out of this mess, and he still appears to have the supporters on side.
It remains to be seen how much confidence the owner still has in him, because the last thing we need is a repeat of last season’s hiring and firing.
There is no news at the moment on the return of Milenkovic and one thing that would go down a treat at the moment would be the return to some form of defensive stability.
Presumably Jesus is still a few weeks away from a return.
Who’s the bastard in the black:
Controversial Michael Oliver gets the gig on Sunday, so one of the teams will be looking forward to his officiating more than the other.
Oliver had to sit out last weeks programme after it was revealed he had taken a sizeable wedge for refereeing a game in the Middle East, a part of the World where he appears to be a regular visitor.
Then there is his previous history with Arsenal, where he is not a popular figure.
That is where the good news ends.
Michael Salisbury is on VAR duty…..
Yes, that Michael Salisbury….
Remember his decision at Old Trafford last season?