Arsenal v Leicester Preview: We Need To Start Better

(Evening Standard)

The Premier League season is upon us and the first game of the season sees Arsenal host Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium. Can we actually win our opening game of the season?

Liverpool. West Ham. Aston Villa. These are three teams that have beaten us on the first game of the season at the Emirates Stadium in a row. Normally an unprepared Arsenal team starts their Premier League season in appalling fashion as their defence is normally unprepared for the task at hand. Is this season any different?

Well, yes and no. Yes because we are once again in a position where some of our best defenders are missing for the first game of the season such as Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi and Kieran Gibbs. This is simply not good enough as we need depth in our team. However Arsenal have some defenders that have looked solid including Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal who are expected to start the first game. The main talking point of the defence is new signing Sead Kolasinac who has looked more than impressive in pre-season including the Community Shield, where he scored his first goal for the club.

Another thing that is different this time around is there is a different formation to previous seasons as Arsenal are going for a 3-5-2 formation, intending to copy the Chelsea side that was successful in lifting the Premier League trophy last season. In fact the tactic has beaten Chelsea twice in a row now. This is why Arsenal fans will be expecting fortunes to change tonight when they host the foxes.

What about the visitors? Well, despite four bids from Roma they have managed to keep hold of Riyad Mahrez and have also retained Jamie Vardy’s services. They also signed Kelechi Iheanacho from Manchester City for 25 Million as well as signing Vicente Iborra from Sevilla for 14 million. However Iborra will miss tonight’s game. They have a strong squad and will look to build on their relatively weak finish last season.

Despite Alexis Sanchez being absent, I do expect Arsenal to expect the campaign strongly and win 2-0. Here is my predicted XI for the gunners:

Cech, Holding, Mertesacker,Monreal, Kolasinac, Elneny, Xhaka, Ox, Welbeck, Ozil, Lacazette.

Ekstraklasa Week 4: Jaga’s 100% Record Ends As Termalica Continue To Haunt Legia

Jagiellonia Bialystok disappointed on week four of the Ekstraklasa (Jagiellonia.pl)

In the fourth week of Ekstraklasa action Jagiellonia Bialystok’s 100% record ended at the hands of Sandecja Nowy Sacz as they fell to a 3-1 defeat. While Legia Warsaw continued to struggle as they lost 1-0 to Termalica Bruk-Bet Nieciecza.

Jagiellonia Bialystok 1-3 Sandecja Nowy Sacz

Heading into this match the hosts had won their first three matches of the season and were on fine form. Jaga’s opponents were a team that were yet to score a goal in the Ekstraklasa since being promoted. Easy victory for the hosts, right? Well, that wasn’t the case as despite early chances for the hosts, Sandecja took the lead thanks to an easy finish from Aleksandar Kolev. However the hosts didn’t give up their unbeaten record without a fight and they levelled ten minutes before half time as Szufryn scored an own goal. However second half goals from Cetnarski and Trochim sealed Sandecja’s first goals and win of the season. Bialystok now fall to second place while Sandecja move into 8th position.

Termalica 1-0 Legia Warsaw

Legia were looking to recover from their midweek disappointment in the Champions League by trying to beat Termalica, who had only picked up one point this season. It was a scrappy match with the reigning champions having the best of the chances through Pazdan and Guilherme. However they couldn’t find a way past unambitious hosts. However against all odds the ‘Orange Wall’ scored a tap in to seal Legia’s fate. Piatek scored to confirm Termalica’s first win of the season. Termalica now move to 11th while Legia go down to 10th.

Zaglebie Lubin 3-0 Pogon Szczecin

After Jaga’s surprising loss, Zaglebie had the chance to go top of the table with a win over Szczecin. They ran out comprehensive 3-0 winners as Nespor and two goals from Swierczok gave the hosts a magnificent 3-0 victory to go top of the table by a single point.

Other Results

Piast Gliwice 1-1 Slask Wroclaw- Marcin Robak score his first goal of the new season to give the visitors the lead befor Dziczek equalised. Piast had the chance to win it when they had a penalty but Vasiiljev missed his 2nd penalty of the season as the hosts missed a big opportunity for their first win of the season.

Wisla Plock 0-1 Wisla Krakow- The visitors went up to second after a 95th minute winner from Carlitos Lopez ensured three points went to Krakow. The hosts have a chance for revenge on Tuesday when they meet again in the Polish Cup.

Lechia Gdansk 1-1 Gornik Zabrze- Igor Angulo scored his 7th goal in four matches to give Gornik a well deserved 1-0 lead before Marco Paxiao scored his 4th goal of the season from the penalty spot. Despite the draw Zabrze maintain their great start to the new season.

Cracovia 0-2 Lech Poznan- Two late goals from Jozwiak and Christian Gytkjaer ensured Poznan’s second win of the season despite a disappointing week. Probierz’s Cracovia continue their disappointing start to the season.

Arka Gdynia 0-0 Korona Kielce- Despite the chances created by the visitors, it ended a goalless draw. Piesio got sent off in the second half for the hosts.

League Table

Here is the league table after this weekend’s fixtures:

STANDINGS:

* @ZaglebieLubin 🔝 of the Table
* @ArkaGdyniaSSA @ZaglebieLubin The only undefeated clubs
* @SandecjaNS gets 1st ESA win ever pic.twitter.com/Vsld9BYe1O

— LOTTO Ekstraklasa EN (@_Ekstraklasa_EN) August 8, 2017

 

Champions League And Europa League Draws Set

Real Madrid (Telegraph)

The draws for the Champions League and Europa League Play-Offs have been announced which has seen some top names enter the fray.

The Champions League play-off draw includes teams like Napoli, Liverpool, Sevilla and Celtic. There are some good names in the Europa League draw such as AC Milan, Braga, Everton and last year’s runners up Ajax. Here are the draws:

Champions League:

Qarabag v Kobenhavn

APOEL v Slavia Prague

Olympiakos v Rijeka

Celtic v Astana

Hapoel Beer-Sheva v Maribor

Istanbul Basaksehir v Sevilla

Young Boys v CSKA Moscow

Napoli v Nice

Hoffenheim v Liverpool

Sporting Lisbon v Steaua Bucharest

Europa League

Shkendija v AC Milan

Vardar v Fernebahce

Ajax v Rosenborg

Osijek v Austria Vienna

Crvena Zvezda v Krasnodar

Altach v Maccabi Tel-Aviv

BATE Borisov v Olexandriya

Club Brugge v AEK

Maritimo v Dynamo Kyiv

Dinamo Zagreb v Skenderbreu

Ludogorets v Suduva

Panathinaikos v Athletic Bilbao

Apollon Limassol v Midtjylland

Domzale v Marseille

Partizan v Videoton

FH v Braga

Everton v Hajduk Split

Utrecht v Zenit St.Petersburg

Legia Warsaw v Sheriff

Vitorul v Salzburg

Plzen v AEK Larnaca

PAOK v Ostersund

Ties for the Champions League play offs will be on the 15/16th of August and the 22/23rd of August.

Ties for the Europa League play offs will be on the 17th of August and the 24th of August.

 

 

 

 

Ekstraklasa Week Three: Legia and Lech Gain First Wins As Jaga Maintain Unbeaten Start

Legia Warsaw and Lech Poznan gained their first wins of the new season as Jagiellonia Bialystok maintained their 100% start to the season.

Legia Warsaw 2-0 Sandecja Nowy Sacz

Heading into their third game of the season, Legia Warsaw had yet to win a match in the Ekstraklasa after only picking one point from their first two games of the season, this is as they were distracted by European football. However they were facing a team that had not scored in their opening two games in Sandecja. It wasn't an ideal start from the visitors as Grzegorz Baran was sent off in the 21st minute. It took a couple of substitutions and 70 minutes for the hosts to find their first goal. This was scored by Kasper Hamalainen who found the bottom corner with an accurate shot. Kucharczyk sealed the victory in stoppage time to seal all three points. Legia now move into the top eight with four points, while Sandecja fall to 14th with one point and are the only team yet to score after three matches.

Lech Poznan 5-1 Piast Gliwice

Poznan were also looking for their first win of the season against Piast and looking for a confidence booster ahead of their Europa League 2nd leg qualifying match against Utrecht. They received that in a 5-1 thumping as goals from Nikki Bille Nielsen, Maciej Makeusewski, Lukasz Tralka and two goals from Christian Gytkaer secured their first win of the season. For Piast they are now bottom of the table after three games.

Pogon Szczecin 0-1 Jagiellonia Bialystok

The away side were hoping to maintain their 100% start to the season this weekend as they went to Szczecin. Pogon played very well and probably thought they deserved all three points, however a last minute Cillian Sheridan goal meant that Jaga made it 9 points out of 9 at the start of the season and have now opened up a two point lead with three games gone.

Other Results:

Arka Gdynia 1-1 Wisla Plock – In what has been a crazy week for the hosts after their first leg Europa League win last week, they managed the visitors a win. A 46th minute penalty by Warcholak denied Plock all three points as Arka now go 5th.

Gornik Zabrze 3-2 Wisla Krakow – Igor Angulo was once again the difference for the hosts as a hat-trick sees the newly promoted side jump into 3rd.

Termalica 1-1 Zaglebie Lubin – The hosts finally won their first point of the season as David Guba's 93rd minute equaliser cancelled out Nespor's early lead for Lubin. The visitors remain second.

Slask Wroclaw 3-2 Lechia Gdansk – The hosts won their first game of the season despite a mini-comeback from Lechia. The visitors pulled it back from 2-0 to 2-2 before captain Celeban scored his second of the game to grab the three points. The win sees them into 12th.

Korona Kielce 4-2 Cracovia – In this crazy game, Kielce managed to score more than their opponents as Probierz's Cracovia are five points off the pace.

Table:

Team Of The Week

https://twitter.com/_Ekstraklasa_EN/status/892339879715127296