The Arsenal travel to Belarus Thursday to face a team that finished 2nd to Chelsea in group play (losing 1-3 at Stamford Bridge and 0-1 at home). It would be nice to see a decently strong side record a clean sheet, but I suppose a 2+ goal margin is more important at this stage. The game is available via B/R live
99.9% sure we'll have a maximum strength XI for this match. A) because we have a long break after this match, B) because this is just what Emery seems to do. In last year's Europa we played them twice, for an aggregate score of 10-2. That'd be nice, but I'll just take a comfy win of the this tie. And then hopefully we'd have some key players back for the next round, e.g. Sokratis. OTOH, maybe these Bate matches will be a coming out party for Mavropanos. Perhaps he'll end up as another positive legacy of our brief time with Sven, along with the likes of Torreira & Guendouzi. p.s. The game will also be re-aired on GolTV at 10pm Friday. FYI.
Mavropanos isn't on the europa league roster. I think Arsenal can Bate this guys if they go full strength.
Hmm, that's odd. Don't they have a chance to add/change players between group & knockout stages? If so, I'm surprised they'd still leave him out? He was on the road to recovery.
We didn’t have enough homegrowns to be able to add Denis Suarez, and Emery bumped Mavropanos for him.
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Bernd Leno, Deyan Iliev, Arthur Okonkwo. Defenders: Hector Bellerin, Sokratis, Laurent Koscielny, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Rob Holding, Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi, Carl Jenkinson, Sead Kolasinac, Daniel Ballard, Tolaji Bola, Zech Medley, Joseph Olowu, Tobi Omole, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Julio Pleguezuelo, Dominic Thompson. Midfielders: Mohamed Elneny, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles*, Alex Iwobi, Denis Suarez, Matteo Guendouzi, Granit Xhaka, Robbie Burton, Charlie Gilmour, Ben Sheaf, Nathan Tormey, Gedion Zelalem, Harry Clarke, Trae Coyle, Joe Willock Strikers: Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Danny Welbeck, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Xavier Amaechi, Tyreece John-Jules, Bukayo Saka.
That must be the original squad for group stage. Bellerin, Holding and Welbeck are on the list. Wouldn't they have replaced at least 2 of those for knockout stage?
Evidently, no Ramsey, no Ozil, and no Sokratis in the traveling squad. Ramsey hasn't returned to training yet, Ozil trained today and Sokratis trained yesterday and today. Aubameyang returned to training on Monday and is traveling.
The excitement is palpable. Cech Mustafi Kos Monreal AMN ----------------------Kolasinac Xhaka Guendouzi Mkhi Laca Iwobi
It's nearly halftime, still 0-0. Seems like we've had one decent chance from a corner, Xhaka got a yellow, and BATE hit the post, but we're dominating most of the play.
It's almost impressive how poor Arsenal are. I have no idea what the game plan is or what they're trying to do at any time. Beyond awful defense, poor passing, no attack. What are they working towards? I get "injuries" but even fully healthy, it'd be the same thing.
Gah! Forgot the account for the early start. Did a quick recap of 2 PBP accounts. Sounds like the usual enigmatic display so far. C'mon you Gunners!