Atalanta v Arsenal, latest news, recent comparisons, the team, the ...

Atalanta v Arsenal

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By Bulldog Drummond

Well, well, the new Champions League format started in an amusing way with a goalless draw for Manchester City, against Inter Milan.  But then, taking our smiles away was the thought that Odegaard might be out for longer than was first imagined.   But that is what happens when players will indulge in playing for their country.  Norway are demanding that the player should be made ready for the next international in one month’s time.   ‘Twas ever thus.

However the Professioinal Footballers’ Association is suggesting that they could call a country strike, allowing players to continue to play for their clubs.  That would be in protest at the growing number of ludicrous international matches Fifa and Uefa are conspiring to demand.  And something we’d love to see.

Interestingly it is being reported that only 55,000 tickets were sold Inter v Liverpool, which was apparently 16,000 fewer than for the previous weekend’s league game against not-that-attractive Venezia.  Yet again we can see that a) Uefa has got it wrong and b) they won’t be correcting their mistake but will push on so that the clubs suffer while they admit to nothing.

Still, there is some interesting Italian speculation doing the rounds that Takehiro Tomiyasu will leave Arsenal in January and go to Itlay.   Which probably means he will stay and then go to Japan in three years time.

According to the BBC Saka is available to play despite being taken out of the game against Tottenham because he could not continue.   And Riccardo Calafiori is also reported as returning to the squad.  

And Arteta made an interesting comment in relation to the fixture pile up, saying, “We have so much energy from what happened on Sunday, it was great. We have recovered a few players which is very important for us as well, and we’re playing in a competition that we absolutely love, so we’re looking at the positives.”

But it remains hard to find any media that wants to predict an Arsenal win.    The Standard today is going for a goalless draw although some bookies are going for an Arsenal win.

However Football,London is marching (well, perhaps crawling is a better word) out on its own with “We simulated Atalanta vs Arsenal to predict the Gunners’ Champions League opener”

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Their team is 

Raya

White  Saliba  Gabriel  Calafiori

Nwaneri  Partey  Rice

Saka   Havertz  Sterling

which at least will give us some new combinations to watch if that comes to pass.

Now the big change here is that there is no mention of a mythical supercomputer, and it is just possible that the Mirror group who own FoLo have finally got the message that each time they mention a supercomputer people (well at least Untold) are laughing at them.

Making no reference at all to the mythical supercomputers that have been the bedrock of nonsense reporting by the media for years, they say, “To complete this simulation, we used EA FC 24 and updated the squads with the latest injuries and suspensions,”

They even go so far as to predict the opposition team giving us  Carnesecchi; Djimsiti, Hien, Kolasinac; Bellanova, Pasalic, Ederson, Ruggeri; Lookman, De Ketelaere; Retegui.

So yes our old mate Sead is in the lineup.  But, I hear you cry, what will be the result?

Well, in essence, the newspaper website tells us that Arsenal get off to a terrific start, repeatedly “testing” the Atalanta goalkeeper six times in the opening 10 minutes.

But then they clearly don’t have Arteta doing his job as the Arsenal side fade away, Ademola Lookman almost scores but after Saliba blocks a shot but Marco Pasalic scores from “just outside the area, and the midfielder lifted the ball into the top corner to make it 1-0 with their first shot on target.”

Which we have to admit is a lot more detail than those boring old mythical “super computers” used to give us, even if it turns out to be twaddle.

What’s worse for Arsenal, “Kai Havertz, Raheem Sterling, and Bukayo Saka were all guilty of missing fantastic opportunities, but with four minutes to go, an Arsenal substitute pulled a goal back.”

So in essence, if you have got something else to do this evening, just try and get back to the TV screen by about 9.35pm and you will find yourself watching an Arsenal renaissance and a goal to make it 1-1.

In fact now you know, there’s not much point in watching at all.  But it will be interesting to see if other media outlets actually manage to drop the notion of mythical supercomputers totally and instead admit they are using games to make their predictions.  (And I just wonder, did they actually get pissed off with Untold making fun of them every time they dragged up another mythical super machine?).

Anyway, thanks to our old pals at The Fishy we can bring you the Italian league and compare Atalanta with Arsenal showing both home and away figures

Now looking at that table we can see that over the last ten games, both teams have been doing very well, although Atalanta just a little less very well than Arsenal.

But now reducing this to the last six we see a bit more of a gap.

Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts 2 Arsenal 6 5 1 0 9 2 +7 16 3 Atalanta 6 4 0 2 13 8 +5 12

We’re not in Italy so it is back to the notorious TNT to watch it tonight.  I wonder, is there any chance they might have improved its coverage since last season?  (The consensus in the office is no, but we’ll wait and see).