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  • A Teenage Arsenal
    With Myles Lewis Skelly becoming a sensation on his England debut, I decided to take a look at Arsenal players who were teenage debutants for England and this is what I came up with courtesy of http://englandfootballonline.com/TeamPlyrs/PlyrsYoung.html I also decided to pick my best 11 from all the players in the above list but with my usual criteria.

    Cliff Bastin - his scoring record stood a long time
    Players I considered
    Cliff Bastin
    Walcott
    Wiltshire
    Chambers
    Chamberlain
    Skelly
    Saka
    Sterling
    Jack Butland
    Duncan Edwards
    Jude Bellingham
    Wayne Rooney
    M Owen
    John Barnes
    Micah Richards
    Luke Shaw
    Rio Ferdinand
    Jimmy Greaves
    Ray Wilkins
    J Woodgate
    Wes Brown
    Team I selected
    Jack Butland
    Chambers, Skelly, Ferdinand, Wes Brown
    Chamberlain, Wiltshire, Bellingham
    Saka, Bastin, Walcott
     

    Theo Walcott - still the youngest player ever to play for England
    Cliff Bastin 21 caps 12 goals
    Theo Walcott 47 caps 8 goals
    Jack Wiltshire 34 caps 2 goals
    Calum Chambers 3 caps 0 goals
    Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 35 caps 7 goals
    Myles Lewis Skelly 2 caps 1 goal
    Bukayo Saka 43 caps 12 goals
    How I made my selection
    Raheem Sterling also made it but I don’t feel he should be on the list as he didn’t play for Arsenal and England at the same time so far and maybe never will. With seven players I couldn’t make a team but I have decided to automatically include Arsenal players and pick the best of the rest. I also stuck to players from my own era although I included the legendary Cliff Bastin as Arsenal players were automatic. I filled the team out with Jack Butland in goal. Goalkeepers rarely get a teenage chance nor do defenders so pickings were harder there. I went for Chambers and Skelly as full backs and Rio Ferdinand as the only true top class defender from the rest. I chose Wes Brown to partner him but with 23 England caps he can hardly be called a legend.

    Should I have included Raheem Sterling?
    Attack and midfield had plenty of options but after deciding that Duncan Edwards, being before my time, couldn’t be included I left him out despite a lot of pundits reckoning him to be the greatest ever. I decided on a 4 3 3 and put Chamberlain, Wiltshire and Jude Bellingham in there.  Ray Wilkins was also a serious contender but Bellingham really looks class.

    A very strong front three
    Upfront I put Saka, Bastin and Walcott, with Wayne Rooney, Jimmy Greaves, John Barnes and Michael Owen strong contenders. It is a strong side and as a few of these are still playing it could get even better. Nwaneri could easily come in there soon as well.

    Saka - Our best teenager ever?
    The fact that there are only 69 teenagers to play for England shows how unusual it is to get such a chance. Players have rarely come through the academy to the first team at that age so they won’t be picked. It does happen at small countries as academy players at top teams are considered better options than players who have never got out of the lower divisions. Many Irish players have this distinction with Robbie Keane among the most prominent.

    Jack Butland was the only goalkeeper I noticed on the list
    I feel only Bukayo Saka of the above is a contender for playing in the greatest English team of all time although Skelly and Nwaneri may make that category over time. Walcott, surprisingly, has the most caps although surely Saka will overtake him. Saka does have the most goals along with Cliff Bastin although Bastin achieved his in only 21 games. He must have been some player.
    Many players don’t make it
    For those of you who are younger among my readers, I can assure you of one thing, Walcott, Wiltshire, Chambers and Oxlade-Chamberlain were players who we were pretty certain, in the early days of their careers, would go on to true greatness.  Injuries were the bane of their lives and they never quite managed to hit the heights their talent would surely have taken them. I have read that Saka’s injury is among that category in that it can be difficult to fully recover from. He is a player I want to see back to his best and, for me, if they waited until they were sure, I would not object. Yes, he would be a great boost for our small hope in the Premier League and against Real Madrid and the rest in the Champions League but I would prefer to take no chances. We need him to be at his best. I have waited all my life for Champions League success and this year may be one of our best chances  but still I would view Saka’s career as more important.

    Ethan Nwaneri - could he be our next teenager to play for England?
    Arsenal, with seven teenage players, are among the top teams to have had many players with such a distinction. Max Dorman is already touted as being the next big thing and let’s hope that happens. Judging by the past, a goalkeeper and defenders are the most rare so it might take some time until we can fit the rest of the team but we are getting there, and I guess maybe Sterling has a right to be included. He is an Arsenal player who played for England at 17. I wasn’t sure if it was fair to include him.
    Our superstar teenagers
    Myles Lewis-Skelly prompted this discussion and having seen him live a few times now I can say I just love watching him play. And I really love how the big superstar names around him like Partey, Jorginho, Odegaard, Rice, etc., have no problem giving him the ball knowing that he can do great things with it. Nwaneri the same. They know giving these players the ball is the right thing to do, they are fearless, they are strong, and superb footballers. They could be the mainstays of the team for many years. We need to nurture them, support them, allow them to grow and make mistakes, and we could have the new Xavi and Iniesta for example. Both have an eye for goal as well and it is difficult to be sure what their final positions could be.  Both must be worth a fortune so we must keep them. And also to encourage the new kids coming along.

    Myles Lewis-Skelly - ready to become a great?
    Excelsior to the teenagers and c’mon the Arsenal.
    The Kroenke era begins
    And so the Kroenkes took over. They brought their share up to 63% which meant they had to take over. Their quiet plan of buying up shares and staying out of the limelight meant they were a bit of an unknown quantity to us fans. I didn’t want Americans because they don’t know soccer, with Ted Lasso the exception. But they had beaten off all other contenders and they were now the bosses. We were stuck with them, it seems.

    Maybe they should have brought him with them?
    14 years later, with hindsight, they have been good bosses mostly. Arsene Wenger was coming under fire for not being able to win trophies and we had won nothing since the Invincibles. But they stuck with Wenger. He was still performing miracles with our squads, and we really had quite a few players who were below his old standard.
    We bought badly
    We bought 8 players of which Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh where the only ones to make any real impact, particularly Koscielny who was often our best player. We sold 15 players of which four were defenders, Campbell, Gallas, Silvestre and Senderos. Senderos was definitely better than Sebastian Squillaci whom we had bought. It seems like Wenger was losing his eye for a player. We loaned out 19 players of which Aaron Ramsey was the most prominent, with Francis Coquelin and Carlos Vela also notable. It is amazing when you look back at how many players that we thought could make it, didn’t.

    Sebastian Squillaci - our best buy of the century
    The thing that strikes me most about that season was the amount of good wins we had. 6-0 against Blackpool early on and also 6-0 against Braga in the first match of the Champions League and many other comfortable wins. We started well in the league, drawing with Liverpool then trouncing Blackpool, beating Blackburn and sending Sam Allardyce home crying after 4-1. We were looking like Arsenal. The team against Liverpool was Almunia, Sagna, Clichy Vermaelen, Koscielny, Nasri, Arshavin, Wiltshire, Eboue, Diaby, and Chamakh. Koscielny had the distinction of getting sent off late in the game on his debut. We had some very good players but no-one of the calibre of Henry, Bergkamp, Pires and Ljungberg for example.
    Dreadful finish
    Winning the league or Champions League seemed like a fantasy but I always held to these fantasies until they were no longer possible. We were in with an outside chance of the league until the finish where we fell apart. We drew with Liverpool, Tottenham and Fulham, and lost to Bolton, Stoke and Villa, with our only win against Manchester United 1-0 out of the last 7. Six  wins and a draw would have got us the league. Considering we were above all those teams except Man Utd which we beat, it was possible to have run Manchester Utd harder. We didn’t.

    5-1 against a good Shaktar side. Surely this was our year?
    The Champions League? Here we flew out of the blocks with 6-0 against Braga, 3-1 against Partisan Belgrade and 5-1 against Shaktar Donetsk. Finally we are back, the Arsenal are back. Eh, no, we lost our next two against the two teams we hammered, Shaktar 1-2 and Braga 0-2 to finish second to Shaktar despite beating Partisan again 3-1, Which meant we got Barcelona in the round of 16. And what did they do?  We took them 2-1 at home but David Villa scored early and it was all looking a bit bleak until Van Persie and Arshavin scored two in five minutes towards the end. We did have a chance against Josep Guardiola’s side after all.
    Please, bye bye tiki-taka
    I have to say one thing, though, I never liked tiki-taka and it has led to all the possession football it means. Sometimes a nice Sam Allardyce approach is better, more exciting, and quicker. Often in the modern game the ball is just being passed around aimlessly while we go to sleep. I feel that someone will get a good team, have them play a very direct game, and cause mayhem to the rest and hopefully banish tiki-taka to whatever hell boring football goes to.

    Thanks Pep, for boring football
    But Barcelona did have amazing players, among the best we have ever seen and it is to Wenger’s credit that we pushed them hard over the two matches. At the Bernebau, Messi scored in the dying moments of the first half to give them the lead as it was still the away goals rule at the time. But Busquets did us a favour from a corner early in the second half and the game was still live. Until a very harsh second yellow against Van Persie for having a shot at goal whilst offside put us down to ten just after that goal. Xavi and Messi again soon after put the game to bed leaving us to wonder if we could have pulled off the impossible against the megastars with 11 players. And once again my dream of the Champions League was shattered.
    We won the league cup, or did we?
    The FA Cup, our own trophy? We did ok, I suppose. We beat Leeds after a replay in the 3rd round, then Huddersfield 2-1, but then we had lowly Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road who drew 1-1. What cheek? We hammered them 5-0 in the next to continue our run of big wins only to get league leaders Man Utd in the 6th round. They beat us 2-0 and that was us out.
    As for the League Cup, we battered Tottenham 4-1 then Newcastle 4-0, Wigan 2-0 and on to Ipswich in the semis where we dispatched them 3-1 over 2 legs. This led to Birmingham in the final.

    Surely we should have had a win against Birmingham?
    This was a bad-tempered match with 2 bookings for us and 3 for them. We had an early heart attack as Szczęsny fouled Lee Bowyer and could have been sent off and a penalty kick awarded. But lucky it was offside and our hearts went back to beating normally. But it was a portent as to how the game would fan out. Zigic scored on 28 and then Van Persie on 39 made it level. But despite us having many shots and Ben Foster in goal for Birmingham getting man of the match, a mix up between Koscielny and Szczęsny very late on gave the game to the Blues as Martins scored. 2-1 and another trophyless year. The pressure was mounting on Arsene Wenger and the silent Kroenkes didn’t really inspire much confidence that big money would be spent. Mean old Arsenal, always misers.
    Would the silent Kroenkes spend?
    It is fair to say that we had a good team and a good manager but the big spenders now had teams of experts to help them. Wenger didn’t believe in such appointments and did everything almost by himself. I suppose he may have slept occasionally. We were able to get into the Champions League and were probably consistently a couple of positions above the level of the players as Wenger squeezed good performances out of us.

    It's against the religion to spend money at the Arsenal
    I still had belief and hope but that was all I had. The bad end to the season didn’t help. Would 2011/12 be any better? I couldn’t see much reason to believe. What about you out there? Can you remember what you felt? We had many years now without a trophy, the big boys were getting bigger, and new ones were appearing and all we had were the silent Kroenkes.
     
     
    Арсенал постигна минимален успех с 1:0 над Челси в лондонското дерби, което трябваше да възроди надеждите на „сините от Стамфорд Бридж“ за място сред най-добрите три тима във Висшата лига през сезона. Вместо това градският съперник на „артилеристите“ остана на четвърто място и по всичко изглежда ще трябва да пази тази си позиция до последния кръг.
    Микел Мерино отбеляза единственото попадение, след като стреля с глава при първия гол от статично положение за „топчиите“ от няколко месеца насам. Той плъзна кълбото назад с парабола, за да прехвърля Робърт Санчез и да намери мрежата в 20'. Мартин Йодегор така се отчете и с асистенция.
    В първата третина от мача момчетата на Микел Артета наложиха тотална доминация с висока преса и куп голови ситуации, но след попадението мачът изпадна в по-тактическо русло.
    Гостите имаха няколко добри възможности за гол и едва не изравниха при един изстрел на Педро Нето през втората част, когато Давид Рая не успя да улови топката и тя мина на близко разстояние край гредата.
    Контузиите в двата лагера ни лишиха до голяма степен от максималния потенциал на дербито, тъй като и в двата лагера отсъстваха ключови фигури от ранга на Букайо Сака, Коул Палмър, Кай Хаверц и Никълъс Джаксън.
    В крайна сметка Арсенал добави три точки към актива си и вече има 58 пункта. Това е с 12 зад Ливърпул и с 9 над Челси при само 9 кръга до края на кампанията в английския елит.
    Арсенал приема ПСВ Айндховен в мач реванш от осминафиналната фаза на Шампионска Лига. Двубоят изглежда предрешен още преди самото му начало, предвид изразителната победа на лондончани като гост с 7:1. Все пак, срещата трябва да бъде изиграна, но положителното е, че Арсенал само на хартия не е в следващата фаза на турнира. Ето и по-важното преди мача.
    Къде: Емиратс.
    Кога: Сряда, 22:00 българско време
    Телевизия: Ринг
    Отсъстващи: Такехиро Томиясу, Букайо Сака, Габриел Жезус, Кай Хаверц
    Под въпрос: Няма
    Наказани: Няма
    Думите на Артета преди мача: „Факт е, че всичко което искахме да направим в Нидерландия се получи още от самото начало. Опитваме се да копираме играта ни от този мач, но няма как да стане във всеки такъв. Все пак, аванса е комфортен за да играем без напрежение, но изобщо не трябва да си мислим за отпускане.
    Не съм гледал евентуалните противници, защото от ден първи гледаме мач за мач. Сега следва ПСВ, после Челси. Когато му дойде времето за следващият противник в Шампиоснка Лига, тогава ще гледаме кой е той. Футбола е много динамичен и няма как да знаеш къде ще те отведе след месец. Ако някой в началото на сезона беше казал, че ще имаме толкова много контузени и толкова много червени картони, вероятно дори и феновете биха се зарадвали на мястото на което сме. Ние обаче трябва да продължим напред и да не спираме да се подобряваме.
    Няма нови играчи извън строя, всички които бяха в групата за гостуването на Олд Трафорд уикенда са на лице и сега.“, завърши испанецът.

    Манчестър Юнайтед за пореден път се раздаде на максималните си възможности срещу Арсенал, за да стигне до равенство на „Олд Трафорд“ в 28 кръг от Висшата лига.
    „Червените дяволи“ обаче имат основание да съжаляват повече за пропуснатата възможност за успех в дербито, тъй като на три пъти нападателите на домакините изпадаха в невероятни ситуации, но намесите на Давид Рая и Деклан Райс изиграха ключова роля.
    Първото полувреме премина във вяло темпо. Двата тима не предприемаха особени рискове, като най-честата картина бе обход на „артилеристите“ около наказателното поле и редки контраатаки от избраниците на Румен Аморим.
    Частта все пак завърши с аванс за Юнайтед, след като Леандро Тросар направи нарушение около собствената си дъга. Свободният удар бе изпълнен от Бруно Фернандеш и португалецът се разписа в добавеното време с точното си изпълнение.
    След почивката Майлс Люис-Скели и Габриел Мартинели се появиха в игра, за да раздвижат играта в предни позиции за гостите. Именно те създадоха няколко по-опасни атаки по двата фланга.
    За малко авансът на Юнайтед не стана 2:0, когато Нусаир Мазрауи се озова на върха на центрирането на Диого Дало. Крайният бранител стреля, но топката бе избита с крак от стража на гостите.
    Изравнителното попадение дойде в 74', когато Деклан Райс стреля прецизно и с необходимата сила, за да неутрализира позицията на Андре Онана от вътрешната страна на голямото наказателно поле. Кълбото рикошира в гредата и влетя в мрежата.
    Финалните 20 минути от мача се превърнаха в постоянна надпревара за победния гол. По-добрите положения обаче дойдоха пред Рая. Грешка на Микел Мерино постави Расмус Хойлунд в чиста позиция, но нападателят бе изпреварен от Райс току преди да стреля. Това се превърна в едно от най-красивите изпълнения в отбрана за английския национал от началото на сезона.
    Към края Бруно едва не отбеляза второто си попадение. Той също бе намерен свободен около дузпата, стреля, но испанският вратар на Арсенал направи вещо спасяване. Топката все пак тръгна да лети назад и Рая демонстрира страхотна скорост, за да добави втора намеса и да избие кълбото напред.
    Точките в крайна сметка бяха поделени между Манчестър Юнайтед и Арсенал. Това се превърна в десето равенство за тима на Микел Артета и разликата до Ливърпул на върха вече е 15 точки, макар „мърсисайдци“ да са с мач повече на сметката си. За клуба на Румен Аморим точките вече са общо 34 и позицията му вече е под №14 в подреждането, току зад Тотнъм, благодарение на головата разлика.

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