Arsenal-AZ Open Thread

By: Martin | November 4th, 2009

Lineups are in:

Arsenal: Starters: Almunia, Eboue, Gallas, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Fabregas, Song, Diaby, Nasri, van Persie, Arshavin. Substitutes: Mannone, Silvestre, Rosicky, Senderos, Eduardo, Sagna, Ramsey.

AZ: Starters: Romero, Jaliens, Moisander, Moreno, Poulsen, Holman, Mendes da Silva, Schaars, Martens, Pelle, Dembele. Substitutes: Swerts, van der Velden, Lens, Wernbloom, Didulica, Ari, Pocognoli.

Eboue starts at right-back and Sagna gets a day off, which shouldn’t hurt us too much. Given Eboue’s flexibility, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Sagna came on as a late sub and Eboue moved further up the pitch, either. The big news is that Nasri gets his first start of the season–it will be very interesting to see where he actually plays, because I think it will tell us whether Wenger sees Nasri’s role being up front in the 4-3-3 or being out on the left in a traditional 4-4-2, which is how he was mainly deployed last year.

I’ll be DVRing the game, so will try to get a recap and ratings up either late tonight or tomorrow. Also, just because I thought it was randomly funny–in addition to all your great legitimate comments, this blog gets a ton of spam comments, generally for erection pills, porn sites, or exciting real estate opportunities. The site has a spam filter, though, so usually about once I day I go through to make sure none of them are legitimate comments that got sorted by mistake before I erase them.

Today, in the comments section of a post I wrote in July about the Felipe Melo speculation, some spambot for some sort of stop smoking remedy wrote the following:

Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for first aid for a heart attack and your post looks very interesting for me.

I don’t really know why this was so funny to me, but it must have been for one of three reasons, or some combination: (1) that someone would have a heart attack and immediately turn to google; (2) that someone would google “first aid for a heart attack” and the first hit would be a four-month old blog post about how a soccer player might switch teams; or that (3) said person, having a heart attack and trying to figure out what to do, would then read a blog post, and then leave a comment about how interesting you thought it was.

A++, Spambot–you made my day.

Anyway, this is an important match, let’s get those 3 points so we can go into the international break and beyond secure in the knowledge that we’re already through to the knockout rounds. Come on Arsenal.

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Category: Arsenal News, Champions League, Fixtures, Randoms

« Cesc Crowned October’s Player of the Month | Home | Arsenal 4-AZ 1; Kroenke on the Brink »

vespo

Btw, one thing that article I just posted doesn't mention is that Kroenke bought his latest shares from Peter Hill-Wood. Sounds like the Arsenal board are on board with (what seems to be) the impending takeover?
vespo

Looks like Kroenke's about to make a bid...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...
Arsenal Shirts

fantastic performance and result, great to see Nasri back in the team we look fantastic at the moment and could go all the way
Martin

I started writing a comment about finishing 1st vs. 2nd in the group, but of course, as you guys well know, I can't write briefly about anything, so I'm going to write more about it in the write-up tomorrow. Long story short, I agree with you Homey--we should definitely put the shoulder to the wheel and try to win our group. And it shouldn't be too hard, since Standard did us a huge favor in that regard by beating Olympiakos today.

Also, yeah, vespo, that's a good point. I know it sounds crazy, and seems unimaginable, but I think Barca actually has a tough road ahead of them out of the group. They host Jose and Inter on Matchday 5, which is far from a sure thing. And then for Matchday 6, they have to play at Dynamo Kiev--Kiev is obviously a much inferior team, but Barca is not well-suited to play on an awful pitch in the Ukraine in December. Neither of those games are sure things, and if they don't get at least 4 points from those 2 matches, they really could be in danger of missing out. If nothing else, the presence of Liverpool and Barca will be a big lift for the Europa League's ratings. :)

Full write-up, video highlights, and more thoughts coming tomorrow, but it's hard not to be very, very pleased with the win and the performance.
vespo

@Homey - Actually, Rubin Kazan would be in that second group instead of Barcelona. Rubin and Barca are even on points right now, but Rubin holds the tie break, having won and drawn against Barca in their two matches. I agree with you though, I'd rather take my chances with that second group (especially with Rubin in there).
Homey

Since we can't play an English team in the next round, let's go over what the options would be if everything stood as it is now. If we were 2nd, we would play someone from among: Bordeaux, Real Madrid, Lyon, Inter, and Seville. If we were 1st, we would play someone from among: Juventus, Wolfsburg, AC Milan, Porto, Fiorentina, Barca, and Unirea Urziceni.
Overall, I'd take my chances against the 2nd group. Plus, there are still a few teams I'd call "minnows" in that bunch, whereas there aren't any in the 1st group. Just a thought.
japple

than again, it's the knockout stages so no tie is a walk in the park is it?
Homey

That spam story was funny. I almost want to use a fake name and write something absurd. But I guess I won't today.
On to the game... it's on tape delay where I'm at. I hate watching on tape delay when I already know what happened. I'll mostly just watch the highlights when Martin is kind enough to post them later.
A couple things about the standings... hyper-technically, we haven't clinched anything yet. So I wonder if we rest a bunch of people for the next game, knowing it's basically impossible to give it away now. I'd be in favor of that. Mainly, I'd rest TV, Gallas, Song, RvP, and Cesc. Other than that, I'd like us to see the regulars.
Also, I'd still really like for us to go ahead and win the group. Maybe I'm talking out of 2 sides of my mouth, saying I'd rest players but hope we win the group. But I think our Carling Cup team can beat Liege at home and/or get a draw in Greece. So I'm hoping that happens and we do win the group. As a group winner, we could face Inter/Barca or Real Madrid/AC Milan, so there are still some land mines. But other than that, there's also a chance of a pretty weak 2nd place team like Porto or Wolfsburg. None of the group winners would be a walk in the park, in my view.
MoMONEY

LOL
vespo

goal highlights already up (with the match not even over) at arsenalist.com