European and Domestic Cups Discussion 2018/2019

The draw for the Europa League group stage will be held on 31 August 2018 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco



The Olympic Stadium in Baku will host the final

We've been drawn against Brentford at home in the Carabao Cup third round.

Brentford are a very interesting club. They're owned by the man who invented the Expected Goals metric and use stats to inform their transform business.

On the pitch they could be in the promotion mix this season. Expect a tough game, especially if we rotate our whole team.

EL draw is tomorrow. I'll have the pots up tonight.

Good draw for the kids i suppose. Not really bothered about this cup.

EL...No idea what to expect.

EL group stage draw is so irrelevant
Looking at possible CL Drop outs after the draw is far more interesting

Yea pretty much

Kinda sucks since EL was always full of shit when we consistently made the CL and now when we actually need to get in the CL, it's full of heavyweights in latter rounds.

Still, i can't wait till feb.

BVB/Monaco
PSV/Inter
Napoli
Lokomotiv/Gala
Benfica/Ajax
Shakhtar/Lyon
Cska
Valencia

The pots:

Pot 1: Sevilla, Arsenal, Chelsea, Zenit, Leverkusen, Kyiv, Besiktas, RB Salzburg, Olympiacos, Villareal, Anderlecht, Lazio

Pot 2: Sporting CP, Ludogorets, Copenhagen, Marseille, Celtic, PAOK, Milan, Genk, Fenerbahce, Krasnodar, Astana, Rapid Wien

Pot 3: Real Betis, Qarabg, BATE Borisov, Zagreb, RB Leipzig, Frankfurt, Malmo, Spartak Moscow, Standard Liege, Zurich, Rennes, Bordeaux

Pot 4: Apollon Limassol, Rosenborg, Vorskla Poltava, Slavia Prague, Akhisarspor, Jablonec, AEK Larnaca, MOL Vidi, Rangers, Dundelange, Spartak Trnvava, Sarpsborg

Hardest draw:
Marseille/Milan/Sporting CP
Leipzig
Rangers

Easiest:
Astana
Qarabag
Dundelange (team from Luxembourg ffs)

We've got Sporting CP, Qarabag and Vorskla.

Sporting is a tough enough game that we probably won't get away with playing the kids. Qarabag and Vorskla on the other hand will be played by the kids/fringe guy. The only difficulty there is having to travel to Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Straight forward draw. Should win it with ease.

Emery said in his press conference that he may not make 11 changes to the team as he wants there to be some continuity between competitions. Makes some sense considering he's still working out his best team and the players are still adjusting to his methods.

Still, hard not to see a lot of changes for Thursday. I'd like to see:


However, I've a feeling we may see Torreira and Mkhitaryan involved as they didn't start against Newcastle. In which case, there wouldn't be starts for ESR or Eddie, which would be a shame.

Don't think we need to play Guendouzi here but he does need more experience. Not a fan of how slow his style is. Need to improve that and that will come with gametime.

Mkhi most likely will start i suppose.

Don't really want to see ElNeny start against whoever we are playing (honestly can't remember their name).

Smith-Rowe-Guendouzi-Mkhi midfield sounds fine.

Excited to see Leno tbh

Arsenal XI: Leno; Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal; Torreira, Elneny; Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Welbeck; Aubameyang

Subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Lacazette, Ozil, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Smith Rowe.


Well...

I like that Aubameyang is starting, man needs a confidence boost.

Hopefully 3 goals in the first half so we can bring on the kids

Auba!!!

Plays Ukraine‘s third best team, still can‘t keep a clean sheet

Europa League group stage

Not that bothered about the goals we let in tbh. The first was just a great finish after Lichtsteiner couldn't get the ball out of his feet. The second was sloppiness from our midfield in not protecting the edge of the box well enough, but it was the 93rd minute and we were 4-1 up. Chalk it up to a lack of focus at the end of the game. Shit happens. I don't think we conceded any other chances during the game.

Happy that Smith-Rowe got his debut, but feel bad that Nketiah couldn't get a game. Of all the kids to have come through, he's gotten the least amount of opportunities. Hopefully he plays against Brentford next week.

Carabao Cup team tonight:

Leno; Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Holding, Monreal; Elneny, Guendouzi; Mkhitaryan, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Welbeck

Bench: Martinez, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Torreira, Nketiah, Lacazette

Got some decent contingency there in case something goes wrong.

very good team