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Тази вечер Арсенал излиза в първото си гостуване за сезона. Срещата е част от 2-ри кръг на Висшата лига и в нея момчетата на Микел Артета ще търсят отмъщение срещу Унай Емери и Астън Вила. През изминалата кампания ''виланите'' нанесоха две поражения на ''артилеристите'', едното от които бе съвсем в края. Със сигурност този мач не се очертава да е едва ли не един от лесните, но миналия сезон Арсенал записа цели 42 точки във визитите си и допусна едва 13 попадения във вратата си далеч от дома. При всички положения щаба на Лондончани ще се постарае подобно постижение не само да бъде запазено и сега, но и дори да бъде надминато. Иначе ''точпиите'' посрещнаха кръга от 2-та позиция, след като на старта на сезона победиха Уулвс със 2:0 в английската столица. Бирмингамци пък заемаха 5-то място, като също спечелиха откриващият си мач - победа срещу Уест Хям като гост с 2:1. Тази вечер Арсенал има сметки за уреждане и изглежда готов! Още подробности преди мача: Кога: 19:30ч българско време; Стадион: Вила Парк, Бирмингам; Телевизия: Диема Спорт 2; Рефер на двубоя: Майкъл Оливър; Новините в Арсенал: Очаква се срещата да бъде пропусната от Кийрън Тиърни и Такехиро Томиясу, които са с травми съответно мускулна такава и на коляното. Под въпрос остава Фабио Виейра, който според информацията е пред завръщане в Порто под наем до края на сезона. По всичко изглежда, че всички останали състезатели в лагера на ''топчиите''са на разположение за селекция, в това число и Юриън Тимбър. Фото кредит: Арсенал Микел Артета преди мача: ''При всички положения това ще бъде един от най-трудните ни мачове през сезона. Напълно наясно сме с това и се постарахме да се подготвим максимално добре за това, което ни предстои. Наясно сме с това какво трябва да направим. Това, което искаме, е просто да спечелим мача и нищо повече. Да, наясно сме и със самата опасност, която може да дойде от противника. Те умеят да доминират в доста аспекти от играта. Ние обаче също, така че ни очаква зрелищен мач, сигурен съм в това. Изпълнени сме с вяра в своите възможности. Отиваме там, за да си тръгнем като победители. Това е.'' Фото кредит: Арсенал Игра с прогнози във форума на ASCB:

Safe football, will it ever happen? I wrote some time ago about long-term injury in soccer here and concluded that the clubs and the soccer authorities need to do more to make the sport safer. The blog was mostly about life after sport and how professional soccer players have a far greater incidence of serious health problems such as Alzheimers, Dementia, plus Osteoarthritis due to so many operations, than the standard population. Since then I have been following research on the subject of injuries in soccer, and also is there any way to make soccer safer while still retaining its appeal to fans? Does anyone know how to keep adults safe in football? To me it is harrowing. VAR has come in and shown just how much dangerous tackling goes on in football. Often such things passed me by before but the slo-mo replays can show how feet, ankles and legs get targeted by boots flying in and also players getting trod on. The other area is heading where there is often a clash of heads by players going up for balls, and there are also elbows, etc., banging into players and sometimes knocking players out. This can mean dangerous concussions of which the safeguards need to be increased as they can lead to long term damage. A big report with big results A large-scale study conducted by the MLS in America is most revealing in this regard. A full report with a lot of interesting data This was its methodology: Methods: A web-based health management platform was used to prospectively collect injury data from all MLS teams between 2014 and 2019. An injury was defined as an incident that required medical attention and was recorded into the health management platform anytime over the course of the 2014-2019 seasons. Injuries and exposure data were recorded in training and match settings to calculate injury incidence. Results: A total of 9713 injuries were recorded between 2014 and 2019. A mean 1.1 injuries per year per player were identified, with midfielders sustaining the largest number of injuries. The most common injuries were hamstring strains (12.3%), ankle sprains (8.5%), and adductor strains (7.6%). The mean time missed per injury was 15.8 days, with 44.2% of injuries resulting in no days missed. Overall injury incidence was 8.7 per 1000 hours of exposure, declining over the course of the investigation, with a 4.1-times greater mean incidence during matches (14.0/1000 h) than training (3.4/1000 h). Conclusion: Between 2014 and 2019, the most commonly reported injuries in MLS players were hamstring strains, ankle sprains, and adductor strains. Injury incidence during matches was 4.1 times greater when compared with training, while overall injury incidence was found to decline during the course of the study period. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23259671211055136?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.9 Is there an alternative to consistent injuries? Which means that virtually every player has to cope with injuries, both short and long term. My point being here is does this have to be inevitable? Is there an alternative? Even Jesus cannot save himself First I must say that these results would be replicated pretty much anywhere professional football is played. If we take Arsenal over the Arteta years, Jesus, Timber, Smith Rowe, Tierney, Nketiah, Tomiyasu, Partey, Martinelli, Elneny and plenty of others if I sat down to really think about it. I have named almost an entire team. Newcastle at the moment have a long injury list but every team suffers from it. Why is there no talk about bringing injuries down to a very low level? That surely should be the starting point, could changing the rules ensure that teams have their first choice players always available so sporting competition is fair? There is no question, this level of injuries threatens the long term future of the game. Will Timber's instant injury blight his career? It seems to me that ground (and just above it) tackling and aerial battles are the two areas that are the most dangerous. Can football survive without both? I think that heading would have to go as how can players necessarily know that other players are going to jump for the same ball? What about tackling consisting only of clean takeaways with both players on their feet? And here I would have to introduce a wildcard and that is jersey pulling. It plays its part in knocking players off balance and at risk of injury and also allowing for elbows as they try to knock away the player dragging them. Yes, most times it is players going down as if dead, clutching their heads even if the elbow missed, but not always. Eyes and heads can be severely hurt. Ah, but what do the fans think? Would we watch it? I don’t know but I feel I would. The ancient art of dribbling would come back as would ball control, accurate passing, and crucially, delays for injuries would be slight, allowing for free flowing football. VAR would have as its role the position of the ball mostly, offside, handballs, etc., so it would cease to be a nuisance. Injury time would be minimal. Referees would have a far easier time as there would be less reason for cards and the constant dissent that is prevalent in modern football would disappear. Ok, football is big business. These changes could severely impact interest in the game and if that is the case the authorities would be dead against it. Fancy playing with this in your leg? I posit that one day they may have no choice. Outside of certain sports, injuries at work are rare, even in so called dangerous areas such as mining and construction, Qatar World Cups aside, of course, And that Qatar experience is perhaps the benchmark of what I am saying. Why did so many people die and get injured in the rush to produce the massive infrastructure for the World Cup? Because Qatar had huge money to invest in it a blind eye was shown to any inconveniences in their own governance and to the death toll involved in building it. Enormous amounts of money were spread about the soccer world to ensure that dissent was stifled. But that was a one off. And it seems like they got away with that one off. Soccer will remain on the injury train? But soccer is ongoing. Injury levels as ascertained in the above report may not be sustainable forever. Will parents continue to encourage their kids to take up a sport where injuries are common and no one wants to change the rules to make them safe? I feel I can safely say that the only way to make football safe is to implement the changes above, no heading, no shirt dragging, no going to ground, no tackling that will cause a player to fall over, no shoulder charges as they are almost never true shoulder charges but rather elbows and pushes. It would be different, for sure, but probably more skillful. Enough to compensate for the lack of physicality? I don’t know. But I can tell you this much. Football needs teams of referees/officials that are not likely to come through at the moment. It is the fouls and the physical challenges that cause the most difficulties for officials/VAR and the greatest frustration for fans watching. In my scenario posited above, with aerial battles gone, going to ground gone and pulling shirts gone, fouls would be very easy to recognise. No need for arguments. Most dissent could be banished. Crucially, players could go about their business without too much worry about serious injury or their long term future with so many screws holding their joints together. A pure football game is the answer I’ll leave you with a quote from Steven Gerrard, one of the greats of English football: “I’m sitting here now with screws in my hips,” said the former Liverpool captain. “I’ve had about 16 operations, I’m struggling to go to the gym at the moment. That’s all on the back of earning a living in English football.” Stevie G. - struggling like an old man because of wild tackles We ask the footballers to continue paying this price. Do we really need to? Can we not even talk about truly making the game safer? Are we certain that without the elements that cause these injuries, the game would not be attractive to the fans? Would vibrant football skill not be enough? Why not?

Are we moving in the right direction? Today I am going to take a look at Mikel Arteta from a couple of different perspectives, one is his first 13 matches of his seasons with the addition of the first 13 matches of his Arsenal start in December 2019. Why 13 matches? Because it is almost exactly 1/3 of a season and we are at 13 matches now. The other perspective is his players. I will look at this first. Raya Tierney Saliba Gabriel Cedric Smith Rowe Elneny Nelson Saka Nketiah Martinelli Was Raya the right option? Hands up those who can say what is unique about the above line-up? It is not so easy to guess but 9 of those are there since Mikel Arteta took over in December 2019. I added Raya and Gabriel as first choice from the current line-up to make an 11. Some are bit players, some are first choice, some get on in many matches, and Tierney is out on loan. Despite the belief that Arteta has changed everything around you can see that there are many players still available for him to select. We can assume that these are all players he gets on with as he seems to have difficulties with certain players, particularly big stars who were there before him. There are now no such. Can he cope with a big star with a big ego? That does indicate a weakness in Mikel, as what will happen if any player starts to act the big star and tries on an Aubameyang by not adhering to the rules? One presumes they would be out the door but we can’t easily do without Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Saliba, Gabriel, and Rice to name players that must be worth huge money. Or a big name player comes in (Mbappe has been mentioned)and does an Aubameyang after becoming a fan favourite? Can he now deal with them without them having to leave? Can he now get them to accept that it is his way or the highway? That is one tester he must answer. Of course if he wins big trophies it makes all that easier. Declan Rice looks like a great buy That is definitely not a given. There are now many big teams eager for the same, all with established managers. Arsenal fans are notoriously fickle and entitled. I reckon that the bare minimum for Arteta is qualification for Champions League, pushing for the Premier league and getting close to a final. If, after two seasons of not achieving those targets, he may well find the fans turning on him, the big players wanting to leave, and a great difficulty in keeping control. Are his targets too difficult? I feel we have now created an expectation that he must achieve those targets but if he does, then the next prospect is to win the league or Champions League. What if he doesn’t? Do we allow him to forever do a Pochettino with the Spuds and get top four but nothing else? A bad run, such as Pochettino got could see him out the door and that was at the Spuds who have never had such a sustained time near the top in my football lifetime. We see ourselves in a different category to the Spuds and, of course, they have a worse attitude to ditching managers than we have. But I still reckon that top four will not be enough to save Arteta forever. Am I right? Edu, Arteta and Timber - I feel this one is right too Can the team be consistent? And so to the next connected part, the 13 matches test. 12 points first season from Bournemouth to Chelsea from December 2019 when he started. 14 points 20/21 23 points 21/22 34 points 22/23 30 points 23/24 There is progress, yes, although a drop from last season which I believe is due to the higher standard this year at the top of the league. The bottom seems to be much worse this year and that will mean, if it continues, that the big teams will hoover up many points from them, meaning Arsenal must do the same. We are top of the league but it will be a real challenge to stay there. A loss next week against Wolves could see us slip to 4th. And I have to say that I am worried about our weak finishes under Arteta as shown here. We only had 12 points from our last 10 matches last season and it cost us the league. Arteta has, so far, never managed a strong finish to a season. That must change. Partey has not really been missed This will be his fifth season in charge and that is an achievement considering the difficult start he had. It was ameliorated by winning the FA Cup and Charity Shield but the above figures show he did struggle. Unai Emery got fired in Arteta’s first season despite getting 18 points out of the first 13, much better than Arteta achieved with the same players. A new hope? What gives us hope? Many things. There is a real togetherness in the team although the goalkeeper situation has not worked out for either player. The rest seem very happy together and partnerships are developing all the time. Declan Rice looks like an inspired buy and even Havertz must be doing lots of good stuff that fans can’t easily see as he gets on every time. The defence looks as solid as any in the league and that always gives you hope. Great teams have great defences. The backroom team seems to work very well. We are very good at scoring from set-pieces. We are good at keeping our shape and we have got much better at buying than before. Raya (if we buy him), Rice and Havertz have all impressed Arteta, and Timber looked amazing until he got injured. It would be great if we got back to the old Wenger days when most players bought were good and most players sold were past their best. We give everyone chances We are getting points when we haven’t really been all that great in matches this season, in fact, even Burnley, the easiest I can remember so far, had a couple of good chances. And Newcastle should never have been a loss. My only comment on that though is that players must always play to the whistle and that is something that can be drilled into them. Excuses will not win you titles. The fans are so important We do seem to be moving in the right direction. Consistency will be the key. We seem to have good players to come in. Thomas Partey has not been badly missed, long regarded as key. Our young players are getting older and more matchwise. We have a settled group. Togetherness from staff of all kinds and fans will be a great help. We need to be united and I guess that’s where the name came from in so many teams. If we stop the petty cards for arguing, slow play at corners and throw-ins and kicking the ball away which can easily be coached out of them, it will help. Losing players at wrong times is a weakness, a margin that can be corrected. I include Arteta in this. All he has to say is he didn’t agree with whatever decision he is arguing about. No other comment. Let’s work with the refs And players, managers, coaches, and fans need to realise one thing, and that is that we now need teams of referees for matches and there is a worldwide shortage. We badly need to stop harassing refs. We also badly need to set up academies to encourage refs of both sexes to join up and, crucially, train them to the highest standards from a very young age. It should be a clear career path that is seen as desirable from school age. It would be amazing if they were all like Pierluigi Collina We are not a dirty team at all. We are petulant and have become time wasters. These traits are trainable. Let’s get back to being Arsenal, the fair team and in a right refereeing world we would have an advantage. Arteta, being so young still, may even outlast Wenger. I have outlined some areas that need to improve, but the fans will play a crucial role. They must support even through bad spells. Arteta can get things right, if given a chance. I say, give him that chance even if things go wrong and our expectations go in a yoyo direction. ps. RIP Terry Venables. He has got quite a few mentions in this blog and he was supposed to become our manager when George Graham got the job. He was at all the major London clubs except us. Check out his book, They used to play on Grass, it is a great read. A gentleman, a scholar of football, and like our own Arsene Wenger, all his players loved him. And he turned Barcelona into a major team.