Fifa warns the FA: Shut up or be thrown out of the world cup
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Just published: 100 years since Chapman joined Arsenal. Part 12: What made him such an amazing manager
By Sir Hardly Anyone
I’ve just come across an article which claims that after the drawn game with Fulham Arsenal’s season is effectively over. And it struck me as a curious thing to say.
One obvious reason to think this is odd is that Arsenal are still involved in three separate cup competitions, and a win in any of them would make the season memorable – and in those three I’d include a league cup win. I know itIt is the least glamorous of all trophies, and if Arsenal won it the media would always be full of the club having an easy ride through the rounds, but it would be a trophy, and we haven’t had one of those for a while.
But are we out of the other competitions? The FA Cup hasn’t even started, so no we are still in that. The Champions League is a difficult competition of course, but the club still have a good chance of getting straight through to the final stages without the problem of an extra knock out round. And in the league Arsenal are 6 points behind the leaders.
So let’s have a look at the Champions League table after yesterday’s games….
The first thing to note is that only the top eight go through to the next round automatically, although the next bunch will go into a set of playoffs. The second thing to note of course is that following last night’s games some clubs have a game in hand and this includes Arsenal. Here’s the top 14.
.
|Team|P|W|D|L|F|A|GD|Pts|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|1|Liverpool|6|6|0|0|13|1|+12|18|
|2|Bayer Leverkusen|6|4|1|1|12|5|+7|13|
|3|Aston Villa|6|4|1|1|9|3|+6|13|
|4|Inter Milan|6|4|1|1|7|1|+6|13|
|5|Brest|6|4|1|1|10|6|+4|13|
|6|Barcelona|5|4|0|1|18|5|+13|12|
|7|Borussia Dortmund|5|4|0|1|16|6|+10|12|
|8|Bayern Munich|6|4|0|2|17|8|+9|12|
|9|Atalanta|6|3|2|1|13|4|+9|11|
|10|Arsenal|5|3|1|1|8|2|+6|10|
|11|Monaco|5|3|1|1|12|7|+5|10|
|12|Sporting Lisbon|6|3|1|2|11|9|+2|10|
|13|Lille|5|3|1|1|7|5|+2|10|
|14|Club Brugge|6|3|1|2|6|8|-2|10|
Clearly with five clubs in that list of 14, having a game in hand, being played tonight, anything could happen. But a win tonight will take Arsenal back into the top eight, and a good win could mean something higher than eighth, although much depends on the other results.
A win will of course mean 13 points and a goal difference at least of +7 which will put Arsenal above Aston Villa, Inter and Brest. That would put Arsenal in seventh, and thus in the automatic group with two games to play. And depending on results that could take us into the top four (although I don’t think where the club finishes in the top eight actually determines what happens next – it is just being in the top eight that gives automatic qualification and by-passes the play off round. As far as I understand it (although I have been wrong before on this).
So what sort of team might we see?
The Standard offers us
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Tierney;
Odegaard, Rice, Merino;
Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
**Sports Mole’**s predicted XI reads:
Raya;
Robinson, Saliba, Kiwior, Tierney;
Odegaard, Rice, Merino;
Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Josh Robinson is a 19 year old who hasn’t played a game for Arsenal’s first team as yet. Now that was a surprise, but not as much of a surprise as the starting XI given by Sporting News at least as of midday today as I put this little piece together
Raya
Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Tierney
Odegaard, Jorginho, Odegaard
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
So yes here we have the famous Odegaard twins – or perhaps it is the fact that Odegaard is so good that he can play in two positions at once.
GivemeSport gives us their injury update list which includes Zinchenko, Tomiuasu, and White – all other injuries being now overcome and players ready to play today.
They then come up with
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney;
Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard;
Saka, Havertz, Sterling.
At least that doesn’t make use of any twins. So it’s something along these lines, I suspect.
As usual we are travelling from the Midlands to Arsenal so that’s the end of our what-nots for today. But yes, I hope Tierney is back and fit. That will be good to see.
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Fifa warns the FA: Shut up or be thrown out of the world cup
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