Ivanovic does not have a 3 match man — it was a professional ban so he is available for the Swansea away match along with Torres after they both missed the league
cup game at home to United.
The only recent bad game I recall from memory is the League
cup game at home vs Southampton.
Our next match is at home to Middlesbrough, who should be more cannon fodder as they are winless in their last 5 League games, and swiftly followed by our League
Cup game at home to Reading.
Even though Arsene Wenger made a complete change to the Arsenal starting line from the weekend draw away to Chelsea in the Premier League, he was still not willing to take too many chances in this Carabao
cup game at home to Doncaster, so the visitors were facing a strong Gunners side including Walcott, Giroud and Alexis Sanchez up front.
Arsenal's second - string side got past Cologne in the Europa League last week, and if anything this Caraboa
Cup game at home to Doncaster should be even easier.
Home form has been excellent so another draw with every FA
Cup game at home and there's a good chance.
One way would be to pick and choose depending on the matches and the opponents and with two games against Ludogorets and an EFL
cup game at home to Reading among our next fixtures you would think that one or a few of those games would be the perfect time to rotate.
Not exact matches
Arsenal had won their last 9
games against Watford
at home up until last season when the Hornets arrived for an FA
Cup match (a competition that we hadn't lost a
game in for 3 seasons) but we let our North London neighbours bully our stars off the ball and surprisingly lost the
game 2 - 1 after going 2 - 0 down.
So the
games that Francis is likely to miss are the FA
cup trip to face Preston and Premier League
games with Swansea away and Burnely and Watford
at home.
Arsenal have a massive week ahead starting with today's FA
Cup match
at home to Watford, followed by our trip to Barcelona in midweek, and then a massive
game away
at Everton in the League next weekend.
Before that clash with Chelsea Arsenal have two very winnable EPL
games at home to Burnley and Watford with the FA
cup fourth round in between and these
games should give more than enough time for Coquelin, Gibbs and Bellerin to get fully up to speed.
It is all very good talking about the romance of the
Cup and the 4250
home fans that could go to the
game, but looking
at it from a financial point of view, a move to the Emirates would give them money beyond their wildest dreams and surely sense will prevail in the end?
He had already endured a 15 - month ban in 1987 for testing positive for Cocaine, but he was caught out again, more iconically,
at the World
Cup in 1994, when he was lead from the pitch midway through a group
game and sent
home to face the music.
The year before that Arsenal won the Asia trophy, the Emirates
Cup and the Community Shield as we won every
game before losing our opening league match 2 - 0
at home to West Ham.
It doesn't matter who we are going to play after the second leg, yes, we have a
game in the
cup final but we have to play with the same team, I think, and to win
at home.»
The Penguins couldn't finish off the Senators on the road and will have to take care of business
at home in
game 7 if they want to repeat as Stanley
Cup Champions.
The three other
games all saw us keep a clean sheet but they were against EPL strugglers Hull City
at home and the two non-league sides Sutton and Lincoln in the FA
cup, so when giving an interview to Sky Sports this week you can sort of understand why our manager blamed this aspect of Arsenal's
game for our problems, when asked whether the uncertainty over his future could be affecting his players.
The
games that the 26 - year old will definitely miss, along with the three lions» clashes with Slovenia and Lithuania, will be the Arsenal
home games in the Premier League against West Brom and Brighton, the Carabao
cup tie
at home to Doncaster Rovers tonight and the trip to Belarus to plat BATE Borisov in the Europa League next week.
But Hull are
at home of course and they also have the advantage of two extra days to rest and prepare as their
game prior to the
cup replay is on the Thursday.
Catching Chelsea would mean, an abundance of luck, no more injuries (When Chelsea will get crucial ones, Fabregas, Costa, Courtois and defenders as examples), a tactical enlightenment from Wenger (that would call for a miracle), beat Man United, Man City, Chelsea
at Home and not waist points against Liverpool and win all the odds
games against the lower teams (as well as being kicked out of the CL and not go far in the Uefa
Cup as we don't have the squad to do either anyway).
It happened
at QPR this week and the
game should have been out of sight and that was not a rare occurence; remember Brighton in the
cup, Leicester, Palace, QPR
at home and many more.
Our next
game is
at home to Burnley on Sunday and although they are doing pretty well it is almost exclusively
at home and they also have an FA
cup replay to get through this week.
Now Arsene Wenger and the players must make sure that this is a blip and not the way our fortunes will pan out, because before the next break we have EPL
games against Everton away, Swansea
at home and Man City away as well as the Carabao
Cup game and the Europa League double header with Red Star Belgrade.
Claude Puel's men have just beaten Liverpool to reach the League
Cup Final in February and in fact have won 4 out of their last 5
games in all competitions (and have won their last three
at home too) so may be confident of getting another result against us
at St Marys.
We won both
at home and the away
game in the League
Cup.
But haven said this, starting with our
home PL match agaist Burnley tomorrow
at the Ems, there is one big away FA
Cup game for Arsenal to play against Southampton next Saturday.
And obviously we could do with the extra strength in midfield as soon as possible, with Stoke
at home and then Man City away after our first FA
cup game.
Its olympiacos n utd next
at home... 2 huge
games lets hope this spuds win lifts the confidence October a tricky month also but should take wins from: Watford (A) Sheff wed (
cup) Everton (H)
The summer before that we struggled to a draw and a loss in the Emirates
Cup, played well to beat Man City in the final pre-season
game and then lost to Aston Villa
at home in the first Premier League
game.
Answer me this: does a team that screwed up their CL group stage to finish 2nd, got embarrassed in the CL last 16, got sent packing in the Carling
Cup at HOME, bottled 2nd place in the league with 4
games remaining, and finished 12 points behind the domestic champions have everything in place squadwise to compete on all fronts?
Another reason though is to err on the side of caution with our best defender as there are bigger and more important
games ahead, such as the FA
cup semi-final with Reading
at Wembley next weekend and the crucial
home clash with Chelsea the following week.
Their only win in 10
games was a narrow 1 - 0 victory over Plymouth Argyle in the FA
Cup — a competition they were booted out of 10 days later when they lost 2 - 1
at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Our next two
games are away to Brighton in the FA
cup and
at home to Aston Villa in the Premier League.
He has not played
at all since helping his national team to lift the Confederations
Cup and even if he is fit I do not think Wenger will be too keen to give any player their first minutes in a crucial
game at the hostile
home of the Potters.
Use them for FA, LEAGUE
Cup, and majority of EPL
games of the teams below 10 (11 to 20),
at home, and mix them up 60 - 40 with seniors.
The Gunners are away to Burnley and then there is the FA
cup semi before the Premier League
game at home to Jose Mourinho's team and even if the Gunners win it, we will need Chelsea to have dropped some points in their two previous
games away to QPR and
at home to Man United to have a chance of overhauling them.
So I fully expect them to drop points in January from their away
games at Watford and West Ham and their
home ties with Everton and Crystal Palace, especially as they have a Capital One
Cup double header with Everton to cope with.
But our next EPL
game after West Brom is Man City
at home and we also have them in the FA
cup, so we don't really want them feeling confident and playing well do we?
Even though Alexis Sanchez has just returned to north London after an energy sapping return trip to South America where he played one
home game for Chile and the other World
Cup qualifier in Bolivia, you would expect Arsene Wenger top make the striker one of the first names on the team list to face AFC Bournemouth
at the Emirates stadium this weekend.
We have a relatively easy run during that period, 2 champions league
games against the weakest team in the group and efl
cup home game against reading, 1 away
game at Sunderland and 3
home league
games against swansea, Boro and the hardest one coming a month away against the filth.
No the
game I am talking about is the trip to Everton on Saturday and after being knocked out of the FA
cup at home to yesterday to add to the general mood of disappointment that has been hanging around the club for the last couple of months, Arsenal must surely beat the Toffees to keep alive any hope of a happy ending to the season.
Man United, Chelsea and Man City have all won the trophy
at least once each since the 2010/2011 season, and with Spurs playing all their
homes games at Wembley this season, all sides will be confident of adding the 2018 FA
Cup to their trophy cabinets.
As reported by The Mirror today, Sherwood has played down the fact that his team were beaten
at home by Burnley in their final Premier League
game and suggested that he will instruct his players to go out with an open and attacking frame of mind in the FA
cup final
at Wembley on Saturday.
I watched him defending
at right back last season in our FA
Cup home game with Liverpool and he handled attacking Robert Sterling very well.
There are 45,000 season ticket holders who have entry to every
home game and it would only be reasonable of them all to expect to be first in line for our FA
Cup semi-final appearance
at Wembley, and there would probably be the same amount of casual fans that would like to watch the Gunners
at Wembley.
After losing two - straight
games in Boston, Vancouver returns
home for
Game 5 of the Stanley
Cup Finals as -170 favorites
at CRIS.
Tampa Bay found themselves up 3
games to 2 with a chance to close out Pittsburgh
at home in
Game 6, but the Penguins kept the pressure on to avoid elimination and are now big -210 favorites to make it to the Stanley
Cup.
I watched him defended very well
at LB as he kept Robert Sterling quiet in our FA
Cup home game with Liverpool last season.
Perry feels that neither Torrey Pines nor the British Open suit his
game, and his focus this year is all about making the Ryder
Cup, which will be played
at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., Perry's
home state.
With passion for the national side
at an all - time low after a terrible World
Cup earlier this summer, and an uninspired performance in a 1 - 0 win
at home to Norway last week, this certainly looks like a challenging
game that has come far too soon for this team...