Bayern Munich, Ben White, North London Forever and more
Bayern Munich
Hello my old friend, we meet again.
It was always going to happen wasn’t it? In yesterday’s blog, Bayern Munich were my 2nd least favourite potential opponent. Only Manchester City below them. So we go and get Munich, and then if we beat them it is Manchester City.
Even though they were my least attracted trip abroad, the flights and hotels are already booked.
As always, airline prices jumped straight after the draw, and we are paying £230 return via Brussels. Go the week later and you can get return flights direct to Munich for just £61…
It is probably the worst Munich team in decades, but they are still a danger.
10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen, it is unlikely that they will win the Bundesliga. I would not be surprised if they rest players in the league and go all out for the Champions League.
Ben White
Two bits of Benjamin White news in the last few days.
The first was his new contract. Well deserved. The second was the news that he was making himself unavailable for England selection.
On the contract, the way White continually rises to the challenge shows what sort of player he is.
Signed a central defender, he was shifted across to right back to cover the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu. He never complained and just got his head down and did what Mikel Arteta demanded of him. When the Tomi returned, the Japenese right back did not walk straight back into the first team.
Then this summer we signed Jurrien Timber. White has since taken his game to another level which shows he is the sort of player that is not scared of competition.
White is one of the leaders of the team and, unlike Tomiyasu, his fitness can be relied upon – incredibly he has never missed a game through injury for The Arsenal.
And all this brings into light the issues with England.
Arteta and his coaches will be much more demanding of White than Southgate and his goons. If White has risen to the challenge of Arteta, and our manager backs him, then you have to ask what actually happened on that England camp.
I also find the criticism of White to be a little odd.
One of the loudest critics has been Stan Collymore. The woman-beater pitches himself as a mental health advocate, yet has spent the last 48 hours piling on Ben White for his decision.
The other biggest critics are Liverpool fans. You know them fellas that spout “Scouse not English”. You would think they would back as player deciding not to play for England. But instead the accuse him of letting their country down. It just shows they are a fanbase with zero morals. But that is nothing new.
At the end of the day, it is Ben White’s career. If he decides that he does not want to play for England than that is his choice.
North London Forever
Love this from Gabriel Jesus…
Fixture congestion
I saw an article yesterday about how “European football has thrown Arsenal’s fixtures into chaos”.
The article began by mentioning that the Aston Villa game would now be moved from Saturday to Sunday due to them now playing in Europe on Thursday. This game always had an * against it for this reason, so it is not like this is something the club knew nothing about.
It is the norm for teams playing on Thursday to have their games moved to the Sunday. A real non-story.
But the article continued pointing out that we have to re-arrange the Chelsea game, and potentially the Wolves game, and how this will create end of season conjestion.
Liverpool and Manchester City are both in the exact same position in terms of potentially re-arranging league games due to the FA Cup. And in-fact they will have more congestion than us if they remain in the completion. Likewise Liverpool will have every Saturday game after their Europa League matches moved to Sunday. Yet it is only Arsenal who get the negative press over fixture chaos and congestion.
It just shows again that Arsenal are the most newsworthy club in the world, whilst no one really cares about Liverpool on Manchester City….
Enjoy your Saturday.
Keenos
