We're talkin' danger, baby, like a stranger in Moscow! The Arsenal v CSKA Gameday Thread!

1-1 or 2-1 them

Russia sucks to visit

 

Yeah, I don't really expect a win and would be pretty happy with either of those 2 results.

As for going to Russia, I wonder how many of our faithful away supporter buddies will be making this one??

p.s. Kudos once again to @And_ROOS for the new thread pronto.

 

Lets smash Chelsea East.

 

I heard at the game yesterday that there will be about 500 Arsenal fans going to Moscow. There's always the diehards!

Good defensive performance and playing on the counter-attack should see us through here. I will go for a narrow 1 goal win, maybe more if CSKA completely give up if they've gotten nowhere after an hour.

 

You mean he tacks them up on the wall of the dressing room to rile them up about all the shit that is hurled in their direction?

 

Ps stranger in Moscow is one of mjs best songs

 

Thanks for that tip. I'm a BIG mj fan but I'd somehow missed that one. Pretty slow mellow song for him. Interesting use of slo-mo in the video. Absolutely no idea what it's about, since I just heard it for the first time and couldn't make out a lot of what he was singing. Sounded nice though.

 

I think it’s about how lonely and strange he felt

 

I would gladly take no more than a 3-1 loss (Arsenal would still take the series 5-4 on aggregate, 1-1 on away goals) but only if we get that away goal to cancel out the one they scored against us at The Emirates. I we get TWO away goals that would be better, but anyways, COYF'n'G!!!

Now since we are the away team in this upcoming leg, I hope we'll be wearing our Black Heather/Pink (third) kits because we have done so poorly when donning the away blues, in which I think is probably one of the best ones (along with the Black/Pink ones) we have for this season, although we have a very poor record in them and as for the Chili Red/White home kits from this season I'm a little partisan towards last season's home Red/White (yes the one with the landing strip down the center) and away Lakers Gold/Dark Gray kits as well. However there is still next season (the fifth and final season for our agreement with Puma), and then I'll figure out which four (or perhaps 5) kits to keep out of the past three seasons.

.....and, yes if you are wondering of I missed the first two season's kits, I actually sold them on eBay (as the ones from 2014-15 and 2015-16, had those really tacky, plastic, heat-pressed Arsenal crests as opposed to the higher-quality woven ones stitched on) along with almost all of my 4 O2-sponsored Nike kits along with (except for all 4 O2-sponsored strips from the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons), as since I happen to be unemployed, I have been forced to do a major selloff for the first time since 2015, when I sold all but a few of my Wolfsburg kits and also almost entire stock of Seattle Sounders (only 4 of those were saved) strips as well.

I also had to sell my 1963 VW Bus too (for $5K, and it went into the hands of someone in Idaho who owns a dozen of them), The guy I sold her to, runs Volkswear in Idaho, and has a YouTube channel and has rescued countless air-cooled VWs, though mine ran so all they had to do was drive her up their trailer instead of dragging her onto it, so yes I WAS struggling a bit since losing my job over at Oak Bay Animal Hospital back in September, but I'll get through it.

 

Hang in there @BIGHMW. Sorry to hear you had to liquidate some assets. A lot of us have gone through hard times financially, and it's usually really helpful to have the attitude that you ended your email with: "but I'll get through it".

I just hope that you can hold onto your satellite TV service and your Internet, so that you can keep following our beloved Arsenal.

 

I'll hang in there, thanks for the inspiring words!!!

Here are the only 4 O2-sponsored kits I still own, and, yes, I would never get rid of my Invincibles kits, hell no!!! Not at any coast, especially the gold one from the FA Cup semifinal against Sheffield United won by Freddy Ljungberg, and by THAT SAVE by David Seaman off of Paul Peschisolido from point blank range!!!

Plus, to make it so sweeter, this was his 1000th appearance (in all competitions)

And.... speaking of David Seaman, this Friday, April 13th, 2018, will be the 15th Anniversary of that epic save which kept Sheffield United off the score sheet, you know, THIS ONE:

 

Listening to the Total Football Show podcast and the question was "Is Shkodran Mustafi, pound for pound, the worst defender in the EPL". A bit harsh perhaps, but it seems that maybe last weekend was the straw that broke the camels back, in terms of the toxicity of punditry.

I still would probably rather see him than Chambers, though that's admittedly not a very high bar. So if Kos can't play then I'd like to see Mustafi + Holding. But if Kos plays then it's a hard call, and I guess that Wenger will go w/ Mustafi because of the # of hours he's logged with Kos in the last year or so.

 

That is right up there with the famous Gordan Banks save. Hey, I just noticed something for the first time about this old clip: does Peschosolido impulsively try to handle the ball into the net? Failing obviously.

 

.....and BTW, I also still own all of my 2016-17 and 2017-18 strips, and will also be buying the 2018-19 ones, and then decide which 4 I will be keeping of those three years.

Right now, until next season's kits get leaked by FootyHeadlines.com, who usually and historically have gotten them right every year, my four Puma kits would be:

2016-17 Red/White home kit
2016-17 Lakers Gold/Dark Gray away kit
2017-18 Photo Blue gradient-fade-to Royal Blue away kit
2017-18 Black Heather/Hot Pink third kit

But, the new ones for 2018-19 have yet to be confirmed yet, plus, there's my goalkeeper kits, as I have both the genuine replica and fake replica GK jerseys I picked up this season and last season.

The fake GK kits are of a thinner fabric (more the thickness of regular outfield players' strips) than the official ones which are thicker and are meant to take more of a beating than the fakes/outfield players' kits.

 

I think he was actually appealing for a goal

 

Could be. It was a strange arm motion.

 

Let’s hope all fans are on good behavior today. COYG!

 

It just dawned on me that KO time is the normal 3pm ET, and not one our early which I thought was the norm for Eastern Europe. I'm happy about that, but I wonder why... did they cave in to pressure from TV?

Meanwhile, I read that Xhaka is out w/ flu. That's a pretty big blow in that he's been much more effective/reliable of late. You gotta pray that flu doesn't spread to others!

Also, I saw Kos in the training photos, so maybe tonight we'll be back to Wenger's favorite back line: Nacho-Kos-Mustafi-Bellerin. Although maybe with Mustafi's recent gaffes, he might be tempted to swap in Holding??

 

33 Cech
24 Bellerin
20 Mustafi
6 Koscielny (c)
18 Monreal
35 Elneny
10 Wilshere
8 Ramsey
11 Ozil
23 Welbeck
9 Lacazette

 

Bench:

54 Macey
4 Mertesacker (yeah, baby!)
31 Kolasinac
16 Holding
21 Chambers
62 Nketiah
17 Iwobi

p.s. 3 CB's on the bench, that kinda tells you something.

 

Lalas. Crud.

 

Pitch looks in fine shape. And my weather apps says it's 42F in Moscow. So no environmental excuses to play our best stuff!