Well, so much for the World Cup hiatus. I’d forgotten about the impending fixture list announcement and the unveiling of the new away jersey.
First looking at the fixture list and we have been handed a tricky away trip to Anfield on the opening day of the season. This is generally a difficult tie and will be made even more so by the fact that it will be their new manager’s first league game in charge. Is it just me or, more often than not, do we meet a club that is playing their first league game under a new manager? It certainly feels like that to me.
Anyway, after that difficult opening day away trip we are home to Blackpool and then away to Blackburn, thereby giving us a chance to beat Big Fat Sam before he gets the sack.
Looking ahead to the games against the other teams in the top six, we are away to Chelsea on October 2nd and have them at home on St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day to those that live in England), the latter being a game that I am hoping to go to during my Christmas trip back to Ireland from Japan. Kevreano, you have been warned.
The games against ManUre are on December 11th (away) and April 30th (home), Man Shitty are October 23rd (away) and January 4th (home) and Spuds are November 20th (home) and February 26th (away). Some tasty fixtures and the period between November 20th and January 4th will probably be pretty decisive in terms of the outcome of our season and I hope that we can stay injury free heading into the Christmas period. Well, when I say injury-free, I mean by Arsenal’s standards. Hopefully any injuries we do pick up won’t be long-term and won’t be to our key players.
For the second season in a row we will finish with a game against Fulham, this time it will be at Craven Cottage. Our run-in is certainly pretty tricky (Liverpool (H), Bolton (A), ManUre (H), Stoke (A), Villa (H) and then the Fulham game) but, on the bright side, we thought this year’s run-in was a piece of piss and look how that turned out, so maybe having more difficult teams to face will mean that we are more focused for the run-in. Not that I’m saying I wouldn’t like an easier run-in, but it did us f*ck all good last season. For a full list of fixtures click here.
Earlier this week the new away kit was unveiled and I must say that I like it. It’s good that we will have a yellow jersey again next season. It would be better if it was yellow and blue, but the redcurrant looks alright. A mixture of our favoured yellow away shirt and a bit of redcurrant from the final season at Highbury. It’s certainly a million times better looking than the disgusting jersey that Barcelona will be wearing on their travels next season.
I’m not going to discuss any transfer speculation today as there really has been nothing worth reporting. It’s all a bit ‘as you were’ on the Cesc and Koscielny front, assuming there actually is a front to be discussing in either case.
The World Cup has been a bit low-key so far and I am hoping that now that we have entered the second group game phase, things will start to pick up. I’m looking forward to Argentina vs. South Korea tonight, not least because it kicks off at the much more civilized hour of 8:30pm. I’m not a fan of the games that kick off at 3:30am, what a load of c*ck.
Right, that’s all for this bonus hiatus from my summer blogging hiatus post. Take it easy.
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Kevreano, it’s looking like I will be flying solo on my Christmas jaunt back to Ireland. At least that means that i can make it a football only trip to the Chelsea game with no pressure for shopping, thank Jaysus. 😀
Michael, I have the opposite problem to you, with the late games kicking off at 3:30am Yokohama time, I never get to watch the games that are on a work night.
I just wish that the England vs Algeria had been on a work night, that way I wouldn’t have stayed up to watch it. Christ it was woeful stuff.
Unfortunately, from Tuesday onwards all games will either be at 11pm or 3:30am Japan time. Though with my summer holidays from work basically beginning on July 2nd, I should get to see all games from then until the final.
I’m a big fan of those late games, mainly because (power cuts excepted) they’re the only ones I get to see. Had to leave for work at half time in the Korea game.
I’ll have the opposite issue, if indeed her indoors makes the trip with me, she’ll be itching to hit London for shopping making it easy to win her over on going to a game at the Emirates.
Myles, I’ll have to see what her-indoors says about pissing off over to England on St Stephens day….