Friday, June 17th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

A quick glance at the fixture list.

The initial reaction from Gunners has been that our opening few games are pretty tough, and that’s a fair assessment. Newcastle away should be interesting after the Dowd-inspired 4-4 draw there last season, whilst the next two games yield Liverpool at home and United away.

My big hope for this season was that we start well. It is always easier to lead the pack than chase, regardless of easier run-ins and the like. Fortunately, ties such as Liverpool and Newcastle won’t be as tough as they look, as both sides are investing heavily this summer and will need to time to gel as teams. It’s much better to face such teams earlier in the season than later when they’ve had chance to build cohesion. In regards to Liverpool, perhaps the CONCAF Gold Cup will bite with players such as Lucas and Suarez involved up until late in the summer.

The other hurdle to overcome in August is, of course, the Champions League Best Placed qualifying round. We’ll be seeded – which means we avoid the likes of Villarreal, Bayern and Lyon – and few of the non-seeded sides should cause us a problem over two legs. However, it is two extra competitive games which, with a long season ahead of us, is hardly ideal. More to the point however, the first game comes after Newcastle and before Liverpool, and the second leg after Liverpool and before Manchester United away. Not only will our opponents have a full week of rest over us, we may have long haul flights to deal with too.

The best case scenario is a side nearer to home that we can beat soundly in the first leg, allowing certain players to stay at home before the game versus Manchester. The nightmare scenario is a lengthy trip to Russia for a must-win game before United. Fourth place has proved costly in that regard, fingers crossed that the intense games don’t result in any extra injuries.

Potentially, a good number of big away games will be out of the way after the first few months of the season. Some may see that as “getting them out of the way” but a tough fixture list is never desired if it leaves us adrift. As ever, more important than the positioning of the games is getting the results on the day, wherever it may fall.

Aside from that, there isn’t too much more to say. It’s not really worthwhile looking much further into the fixture list as there will inevitably be postponements and rescheduled games as the cup commitments (and winter weather) start to bite.