Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the distinct pleasure of presenting you something that was thought only to exist for other clubs: a European Semifinal. We play Atletico Madrid at some newfangled place called Arsenal Stadium on Thursday, April 26, 2018, and play them in Madrid, at the Vincen...., err, at something called a Wanda Metropolitano, next Thursday, May 3, 2018. The game will be played at 2005 GMT/1505 EST/you really shouldn't be taking a long lunch for this Llama. The game will be televised on the circus that is Fox. Hopefully the undercard will be Celebrity Deathmatch between Warren Barton and Alexi Lalas. Now, on to the important questions: Q. What's a European Semifinal? A. It's a two leg match, much like round of sixteen games. The only difference is that the semifinal is the last match before the final. The final is a single game played at a neutral site. The winner of the final gets this shiny thing called a trophy. Q. When did we start playing at Arsenal Stadium? A. We play at the Emirates Stadium. However, there's this strange cartel of overfed walruses that insists that it's the gatekeeper for all advertising in European competition, which means that stadium naming rights go out the window. That's why Arsenal games in Europe are played at Arsenal stadium. This is unlikely to be a long term problem for Tottenham.
Just hit me that this is going to be Wenger's last ever European home game for Arsenal. Send him out a winner guys.
Frankly I'm very happy that UEFA imposes advertising limits on this competition. Arsenal Stadium is it's official/permanent name, though I tend to use Ashburton Grove, or just The Grove. So when it is rebranded as "U-Bet-Ur-Life Stadium" in a few years, I won't have to change my habits one tiny little bit. As for the more immediate matter at hand... Since we're pretty big underdogs*, and will be without the services of PEA, Mkhi, Elneny & possibly Ozil, I found it to be welcome news that Diego Costa has been ruled out of the Leg 1. But he's slated to be back by Leg 2 so hopefully we too will have Mkhi & Ozil back to counterbalance that. And I still think that Holding should be considered for Leg 2, considering how he handled Costa the last time we met him... unless of course Mustafi ups his level in the next few games. *Edit: I tried to check the bookmaker odds, which is a little hard to do from USA (not sure I ever tried to do this before) and indeed Atletico are favorites to win the tie (4:9), but surprisingly Arsenal are slight favorites to win Leg 1 (6:4). If I read the Telegraph article correctly that is!
I wish they had named it New Highbury just because. Alas, time to turn Deathletico Madrid into Pathetico Madrid, and get the job done. 3-1 to the Arsenal, Laca, Ramsey and Ozil to score. Own goal to Mustafi.
Will Wenger revert to the back three, or will he go out with the classic Wenger 4-2-3-1. Die like you live as they say. I think we win this one, but it's gonna be close.
I was going to say that this match will be Simeone's audition for Arsene's job. I think he is too smart to drink from the poisoned chalice. So, we can expect to see two walls of 5, lots of sideways passing, Diego Costa rolling on the ground, and a 0-0 draw.
I'm excited for this but I have the same expectations as if this were the Cl rd 16 and Arsenal drew Atletico.
F*** it, I still call it The Emirates and DARE TO STARE DOWN the powers that be at the UEFA advertising police, what's next, clubs being forced to wearing unsponsored jerseys in UEFA-sanctioned competition??? THE NERVE!!! Of course then again, we never had that bullshit problem when we played at Highbury for all 93 of those years, Highbury was OUR FORTRESS in which other clubs feared playing in. Not an easy three points for ANY visiting club to take with them whatsoever.
Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Wilshere, Welbeck, Ozil, Lacazette Subs: Cech, Holding, Iwobi, Chambers, Maitland-Niles, Kolasinac, Nketiah Hope Özil does the business, because that bench...