Tuesday the 16th of September sees the Mighty Cannon in action against Athletic de Bilboa, in our first Champions League match of this season. Kick of is 18.45pm Central European time (17.45 BST) at the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao.
So as the leaves start to turn into variegated colours and the horse chestnuts start to fall, the games come thick and fast. I’m sure after the game against Forest, which produced some nicey goals and some good football, everyone will be interested to see how we can set up and play this one out as a squad?
The Lehoiak (The Lions) are currently third in La Liga, although they lost at the San Mames at the weekend against Deportivo Alavés (1-0), and the one thing you could potentially take from that game was that their keeper (Simón) looked a bit shaky at set pieces/corners, so hopefully we can exploit that?
Founded back in 1898, Athletic are the fourth most successful team in Spanish top flight football and have not been relegated since its inception in 1929, a record only matched by Barcelona and Real Madrid. The have a long and interesting history with strong links at its core to Britain, in name and in original founders, one Alfred Mills who was from Cornwall and had gone to Bilbao to work for a local cable firm, and ended up playing for an ex-pat side but through this became the only foreigner ( El Inglés was his nickname) to sign the original statues of Athletic. He was for a while their captain and won the Copa del Rey in 1904 and served as a board member. Later Athletic would be coached by Billy Barnes, ex Luton, QPR, West Ham, Sheffield United.Barnes was named among the top 100 important QPR players ever but he won the Copa del Rey during his two stints as manger three times with Athletic.
They have won La Liga, eight times, the Copa del Rey twenty four times, they qualified for the CL by coming fourth last season and reached the semi-final of the Europa League, who were beaten by our best mates Man Utd.
Athletic were runners up in the UEFA cup several times, back in 1958 and in 2011/12.
Athletic Club’s new stadium, nicked named the Cathedral, can hold up to 53, 289, it was completed in total back in 2014. Their fans (the Lions) can certainly make some noise as I’m sure we will witness. We will also get to see in action Nico Williams, of rumoured to be linked with the Arsenal, but the feeling I get around Planet Gunner is that we are looking very solid, with the summer signings looking eager, and I’m sure everyone feels that we do at least have a stronger squad than last season.
Their manager, Ernesto Valverde has a full cv, including previous tenures at Athletic, plus times at Barcelona, Espanyol, Olympiacos, Villareal, Leyton Orient and Valencia. He was well decorated as a player and coach and his cabinet trophy is full to the brim. Currently he has a 50% win ratio at Athletic, and overall career is 52.63%…that in around 940 games.
Our old pals at Statto HQ have predicted a 50% chance of win for the Arsenal, and only 22.6% chance for Bilbao.
After this we line up against City (H), Port Vale(A) and then Newcastle (A), so it will have been quite a September song to have sung. COYG!
Mills
Well then, 3 days is a long time in football. One game against Nottingham Forest has change my mood and my feeling about the team going forwards. Spirits are lifted and most fans are happy, why though?
It’s simple, we played good football that was fun to watch. For the last 4 seasons I read that we’ve had 9/10 summer windows, and they have turned out 4 or 5/10 at best. Ah but this year, this summmer looks to me like it actually was a 9.
Cristhian Mosquera has knocked my socks off. Ok, It’s just less than 2 full games, but my God, he looks incredible. He appears to be no downgrade on Saliba defensively at all and is better on the ball. By “better” I really mean just as good at passing and striding out, but in addition he looks happy to move into midfield, receive the ball under pressure and distribute it quickly and accurately. If this small sample turns out to be the norm. Then WOW.
Martin Zubimendi is a HUGE upgrade on Partey. Even without the 2 goals, he is a top top player that will only get better as chemistry with his team mates blossoms. He’s quick, tidy on the ball and as the kids are want to say, he’s “press resistant”.
Noni Madueke is a treat to behold. He’s direct and tricky and effective, no one thought we had stollen him from Chelsea, but he’s come in for Saka, and that’s some ask, but again, there looks to be no step down in quality. More a traditional winger and maybe , with Viktor Gyokeres poaching about, that’s exactly what we need?
Gyokeres himself looks to be just the profile we were screaming out for.
Eberechi Eze on the left looks to be the teams biggest upgrade and I belive he could be the final link we were short of.
We haven’t even seen Piero Hincapie , and by all accounts he could turn out to be another upgrade, hard to imagine that give how good the rest of our defence is, but imagine if he is? Oh Lordy.
Anyway, here’s the thing, I can’t wait now to watch us again. I haven’t felt this way for years.
However, It was just one game that’s changed my mood, and I suppose one bad game could crash land me again. But for now COYG.
Pedantic George