We Want To See A Show From Arsenal On Friday! | Match Preview | Arsenal vs Coventry

So when you are champions, naturally everyone's going to raise their level, they want to put a scalp on that team, do you get what I mean? They're coming to the home of the champions on the first day, big occasion, you know no one else is going to be playing on that day. People have gone, no that ain't the attitude, the attitude was go there, stuff them, doesn't matter who they are and move on and I expect the same on Friday. Beat City because City were really bad, we beat City like that because we were really good and I think that's probably the message. I hope that is the message because I think a lot of City fans are saying, or a lot of people actually, even a lot of City fans are saying that City were really off it, even though we were really good, people are kind of, they're kind of diverting their attention to how bad City were. Yes, welcome back to AFTV, join us for the preview and let's be frank, this match shouldn't be Lampard, this Friday is the opening act and let me just say, 8pm, Arsenal are back. How long did it take you to work that out? Oh listen, are you not having that one? I'm not having that one. You're not having that one? I worked hard on that. I thought to be honest, like you know, it's a new season, new improvements, but there certainly weren't none there was there? That is what they call in the game a shocker, a stinker. No, I've started fast I feel like, got the ball moving, got my early touch on the ball. I feel like he's trying isn't he? He's trying. Taking risks, I don't mind it, he's trying. We're back, the Premier League season is back and we're kicking off, the poems had to return. Yeah, but it's like, I've got to say this, if you as the manager like to see the, I don't know, Saturday or Sunday, two o'clock meet, bring your tracksuit, you know what I mean, there's something in there. Just in the squad, you're not going to get any minutes. You know what, I don't know, I'm not like that. That's a shocker Joe, isn't it? It's a shocker. Joe likes it. Alright, well listen people, I'm going to give you some information around the game, so let's hear from me to give you all the facts you need to hear. Arsenal host Coventry City in the opening match of the 26-27 Premier League season. It will be at the Emirates Stadium at 8pm kick-off on the 21st of August, that is a Friday. We are opening the Premier League and the referee for this game will be Tom Bramall. The danger man for Coventry is probably going to have to be Hadji Wright, their main striker. They have a few strikers, that's their main striker who scored 18 league goals at the Coventry City's top goal scorer last season in their 25-26 campaign, which obviously got them promoted into the Premier League. And when it comes to injury news, what you'll need to know is if you've been following Arsenal, you'll know that Timbers out still and William Saliba, they're saying that they're going to be roughly back around the first international break, which commences the 22nd of September. And it's an extra long international break as well. There's no official exact return date, but they're saying around that time period. But that is probably everything you need to know ahead of this Friday's match against Coventry City where they take on the champions. Now let's get back to the video. And that's everything you need to know ahead of Friday night's game, 8pm kick-off at the Emirates, as you would have seen in that little breakdown. There's one thing I didn't mention though. Taiwo Onyonyi has just signed for Coventry. No one million. Bloody hell, I like him, you know. He's a handful. He is a handful. A handful. But you know, he has Premier League experience. You know, on that I spoke about some of the strikers that Coventry have, but like Taiwo Onyonyi, I don't know if he's going to start. I don't know if, I'm assuming he'll probably get minutes. I mean, it's quite quick for him to be straight into the start at 11. What do you lot think? Do you think, do you think? You just don't know what you're going to get with Coventry. They won the league last year and it's the same thing, isn't it, like with all the teams that come into the Premier League. I suppose because it is such a jump. Yeah. That they change a lot of their players. So the players that have gotten there don't necessarily are a part of it now. Like they made a good few signings. You know, they're going to have to do that. So like, yeah, I think like, listen, I know he's an ex-Chelsea player and whatever, but there is something I quite like him to do well. I don't know why. Yeah, I want Cobb to do well. Not, obviously not in the first game. You're like, what's with you and Leo? What's wrong with you? You met Terry, John Terry as well. And you're like, oh, he's actually right. You've gone soft in your old age. You have. Come on. I've got, I suppose because he's English. Is it because he's a young manager? A young manager. I want him to do well. Yeah, I do. I felt he got shafted at Chelsea. Yeah, fair, to be fair. He's gone to Coventry now, done a fantastic job, by the way. Yeah, they were top-notch. A fantastic job. And what I really liked about them last season, and him in particular, was the stage when they was like, I don't know, 10 points in front and that got whittled away and they was like, looking like they was on a massive wobble. And he got them back on the straight and narrow. So it shows that he's a good man manager. Yeah, I want him to do well, but obviously not Friday. Yeah, not Friday, man. SP, for you again, like you said, like Frank Lampard's the manager of Coventry. It's a newly promoted team playing against the champions. Now, that kind of builds for... Outside looking in, we should walk over and smoke them. However, you must know... Yeah, it doesn't work like that. Exactly. It doesn't work like that. I think people need to understand now that we're the champions now. So when you are champions, naturally, everyone's going to raise their level. They want to put a scalp on that team. Do you get what I mean? They're coming to the home of the champions on the first day, big occasion. You know, no one else is going to be playing on that day. Like it's for a player, like opposition player. You're going to want to raise your level naturally just because you know how much the cameras are going to be there. It's the first game. It's the champions. Everyone wants to play for Arsenal now. Do you get what I'm saying? I could, I'm in the shop window. I could get a move. That's true. Do you get what I mean? There's all these things that you've got to take into consideration. So I don't want us fans to just think that it's just going to be a dog walking apart. Like it's going to be easy. However, I do think we've got more quality than them. So I do expect to whack them, but we can't get excited and just think it's going to be 4-0 after 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, maybe after 90. Maybe after 90, yeah. It's still kind of, I don't want to say underestimating them, but Coventry are definitely a good side. I mean, we saw many seasons ago, Brentford came up. Listen, I think people bring that up all the time. Now they say, oh, well, you guys lost 2-0 to Brentford in that. But I said that was a COVID year. We had players out. People were coming back from illness. We had, I think the players, I think Pablo Maurice started that game. Yeah, they had like Balogun. That was a destroyed team. We're not really going to see that again in this game on Friday. However, it still might be, I don't know, Lee. What do you think? Do you think it is going to be quite simple for the champions? I like to say that, but like they have got good strikers. They've got Ellis Sims, who's a good player. They've got Haji Wright, who was their top goal scorer, which I mentioned before last season. He is a very good player. And also Thomas Asante, who's had a really good career. He came from Salford United. I remember watching a documentary and he's built his way up. He played really well for Ghana in the World Cup. Is it going to be, will there be difficulties? Or is it just going to be simple? They're not going to come over here and they're going to make it as very, very difficult as possible. They're going to defend and everything like that. Yeah. But I don't know about you guys, but after coming away from Sunday and Wales, I'm excited about this game. I come out of the Emirates for the game against Como 1-1 and obviously the Dortmund game as well. And I was a little bit underwhelmed with what I'd seen and all that. So what are you buying more into? The Sunday game or the rest of the pre-season? Is that naive? No, no, I don't think it's naive. They're a good side, Man City. And we put out a marker. There was a lot of people saying, this is where Arsenal got to put out a marker and Arsenal wouldn't have done that. There'll be a lot of people saying, first game of the season, champions, got to defend in your title, set out a marker. I think Arsenal will. And that's why I'm going with a big score, because I think that Nicky Ortel will drum it into them to set out a marker. And I liked all the celebrations. I liked all the way that things were about that game. I think that's important. I think that celebrating, that's important. When you're a winner, you want to win everything. Whether it's friendlies, community shields, FA Cups, Premier League games, you want to win everything that you play. So I think once you do become a winner, it's like you want to celebrate everything that you win. Exactly that. And that was a great feeling. I was lucky enough to be in VIP with Ray Parler and John Arsene. They exactly said that. In hospitality, yeah. In hospitality, exactly said that. It's about winning. I didn't get no food because of Joe being late. Five and a half hours to get down there, criminal. But what I'm saying is, they were saying that winning breeds winning. And there was a thing about that. And that's what you like to see. There weren't no little chinks of it. Like, oh, say if Arsenal had lost that, oh, yeah, well, we're not really worried about it. People have gone, no, that ain't the attitude. The attitude was, go there, stuff them, don't matter who they are, and move on. And I expect the same on Friday. It's interesting. You actually took away from my next quote, which was that winning breeds winning. And I remember Rob Holden doing a podcast with, I think with Tim Z. And he was saying, Austin Trusty, I think when he won the community shield last time, he felt a bit embarrassed and shy to get photos with the trophy because he didn't play in the game and stuff. And then Rob said, no, this is a memory. This is a moment as well. And also you want to get amongst the team and feel like you're part of winners. And I saw that Ilhan Melihye with him with the shield. And I was like, good for you. But you're now a club that, I know people will tarnish the community shield and say, oh, that's not true. But it's still a competitive match. And there is a trophy at the end of it or a shield. So enjoy that. Enjoy that moment and get in to what we expect to happen this season. Arsenal winning more and more games. It's very important. I think anything but a win, if we're being honest, is unacceptable. If we draw this game. I know, you've got to win this game. You know what I mean? You set out your stall. Listen, it ain't the be-and-end-all because I remember last season, Liverpool beating Bournemouth, was it 4-2? And everybody, we know what happened to them. It ain't an indication. But what you want is, you want to come here on Friday. Everybody's going to be buzzing because it's the first time since we've been back since, I know like, they've had the community, you know, the Emirates coming and that. But that ain't the same. Like, the last time we was in here, Burnley owned 1-0. And a lot of people went away from that game. Not very happy, you know what I mean? Even though we won that game, yeah. But we're going to come here like, it's going to be a celebration to a certain degree. But then what you want is, what you want the show. You want the performance. Listen, I want to come away from games this season. Not just about the result, it was the way we played on Sunday. We went 1-0 up early. The last time we went 1-0 up early was Champions League, and we sat back and defended. This time we went 1-0. I know it's a little different competition, but we went 1-0 up, and we went, you know what, we're going for it again. And I think that is the way we're going to go. I think we're going to, I don't know how the season's going to pan out as far as trophies are concerned, but I do think Arsenal will be a more exciting, more vibrant look to us this season. SB, same sort of question, and I think a win is the only exception for this game. I think Lee makes a good point. People are going to come here on Friday in a mad spirit and energy because we're champions. We're back, and we're champions. So surely a win is the only acceptable result. I think anything but a win is a disappointing result. I think you want to be champions again. You can't be drawing at home or losing at home to teams like Coventry, respectfully. Do you get what I mean? Does it need a smoking, or does it need just a, like, because some would say that Burnley game, I remember hearing, right, fans were coming out of the game. That actually ended up us winning the league was off that matter. Exactly, so like, but people were coming out of the ground annoyed at the performance. So if we don't smoke Coventry, do you think fans come out the same sort of energy or is it, no, listen, just get the win in. It's too early to get too emotional. I think it's way too early to get too emotional, number one, but I can't remember the last time. I can't remember the last time I was looking forward, looking forward to having this feeling going into a game, and being excited for what we're going to see. Like Lee was saying, I feel like it wasn't just we won the game, it was the way we won it. People always talk about boring Arsenal, you only score from set pieces. We had no XG from set pieces that game. And we played some really, really good stuff. We played some good patterns. There was a lot of free flying football. We saw some of the players look like they were back to their best. I know it's only one game, but there was some good patterns there. So I feel like for me, this game, a win's a win. I would want to see an outstanding win. I would want to see that. But at the end of the day, the grand scheme of things, 38 games in the future, if you win 1-0 against Coventry and that three points has secured you the title, you're not really going to be too far, so it's a good point. It is a good point, but I still want a big score. You want a big score, because you're greedy. No, no, I don't know if I... You want to set out a statement early on. But at the end of the day, if Arsenal were to win 2-1, 2-0, you're going to take it. But I'll go back to that Liverpool game last season. Do you remember it? They were 2-0 up, we went 2-2, and people were questioning Liverpool. Oh, they didn't look like this, didn't look like that. It had come to fruition. Yeah. Fruition, shall I say. Fruition, yeah, because as it went on. Yeah, so for me... They'll get last minute winners, won't they? They don't. What you want to do on Friday, you're going up for... It's like in golf, when you're teeing off first. You know what I mean? Like, go and hit the... Power drive into their fairway. Like, make sure that you go in there and win this game. Go in there, put out a statement. Everybody's watching. Go there, bang them and go for it. I think that would be the message, though. Yeah. Especially after the last game, you want to show people that weren't a fluke. Yeah. Like, it weren't a fluke. Like, we didn't beat City because City were really bad. Bad, yeah. We beat City like that because we were really good, and I think that's probably the message. I hope that is the message, because I think a lot of City fans are saying, or a lot of people, actually, even though it's just City fans saying that, no, City were really off it. Even though we were really good. People are kind of... They're kind of diverting their attention to how bad City were. And you actually... That is a really good point in this preview because I forgot, yeah, last season, Liverpool, at the start of the season, were just scraping through wins, and Liverpool fans were saying, that's what champions do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we kind of said, we were saying, you can't sustain this. What champions do is they go and beat Coventry 4-0, 2-0, 3-0. Then they go away to Villa and win 2-0. And they set out a statement like, you know, and they don't show vulnerability. That's the thing that, you know, listen, I know it's only like the community shield, but I believe that that game on Sunday showed Man City vulnerabilities. Yeah. And that's what you don't want. Listen, they can say what they want, Man City fans. They were all worried. The ones that I was seeing, we was in hospitality, we was in with a lot of Man City fans, and they were all, oh, this is not looking good, you know. And they were then turning around and going, oh yeah, but Arsenal was so much further in front and all that. And I kindly reminded them that there was no rice, there was no salad, there was no saliva, there was no timber, right? So when they say, oh yeah, we weren't, and also like, you know, Bruno's not quite at it yet. He's just arrived. So don't, you know what I mean, all the flaws that they were saying, Arsenal could say exactly the same. But at the end of the day, we went there, steamrolled them, set out a little message, but there is, oh, but, will you do that in the Premier League? What, listen, if Arsenal go and beat Coventry 3-4-0, just say, for instance, they do that, the next question, everybody would turn around and go, but it's only Coventry, right? So it don't matter. Go and do it. Can only beat what's in front of you, isn't it? Exactly. Yeah, beat what you've got to beat. Before we go to score predictions then, I know you're going to be doing a Predictor XI. One player that you don't, who you don't mind if you don't see, who needs, basically, who shouldn't need to play this game? Is there a name? I think for me, like, obviously, after the last game, there's probably, that the general consensus is probably going to be Noni, Maddowiki and the right wing. Right. So you're saying, so you want to see Saka start then, is what you're saying? Matchdown, man. No. Because I'm saying in a sense of like, is Coventry, we're kind of all confident, I feel like, can we still rest? Is there a player you say, still take an extended break? Or is there a player that you, that... I don't want to see Saka. I don't think we need to see Saka from the start. I think that's someone who kind of, yeah, deserves a little bit more rest. I think the season's a lot bigger than this one game. I think he deserves a little bit more of a rest. I think Ras looks good. I heard Bruno was carrying a little bit of a knock at halftime on his groin injury, groin, I think. So we need to take turns. I see them two sharing minutes a little bit. So I wouldn't mind seeing either one of them. I think Myles has to play though. I think he's earned this spot, but I don't know. Okay. So Myles has to play for you, rested-wise, or if Bruno's nursing that... I haven't seen him for three years, but I'm going to say it now. Like, you know what I mean? Who? We don't need to play Dickman in this game. I can't believe you're saying that. That's three years. We can just rest him up. That is mad you're saying that. And that's how great it is at this moment in time. My midfield is Bruno, Myles, Lewis, Skelly and Overgaard. That is it for me. Up on the wide area, Saka. You know what I mean? We're desperate for... No, not for me. Like, you know, sit on the... For me, I'd play Max Downman. I'd give Nonny another go. You know what I mean? Like, Nonny's got a lot of stick. I didn't think he was... He was all right. The thing was that everybody else was excellent. He was all right. So, like, you know, I'm not bad. But I feel that Max Downman... I'd like to see Max Downman play in this game, give him the start. But if it's Nonny, it's Nonny. How refreshing is it, though, to have that? You don't have to play rest. Hearing Lee say that, Bruno's just arrived in. I know he played well against Man City, but he's just arrived. You're saying he's right, he can chill. But I hear it. It's a good position to be in. I love hearing it. You've got Super Mendy, that's the same thing. Like, you know what I mean? It's just, you know, come back from the World Cup. So he can be rested as well. Mourinho, like, you know, these guys are massively important to us, perhaps in February, March, April, May. Not now, like, you know what I mean? If you can rest these guys and give them the little bit of a break down. Listen, don't get me wrong, Declan and Saka will be biting at the bit to play. Yeah. They want to play, but, you know, that's when a manager comes in and says, no, like, you know what I mean? And we've also got two big games coming up as well, with Villa and Chelsea. You'd think we'd have enough on the pitch to dispose of Coventry respectfully. Let's do the score predictions, then, while we're here. I don't like to disrespect Coventry. You don't like to disrespect them? 4-0. Respectfully 4-0. That's outrageous. And that's for the first 20 minutes. I hear it, champions. I do. You want to show. I want to show. And I, listen, I take a 1-0, 2-0, and I get it, it might be, but I just got this feeling Arsenal are going to come here and put on a performance. And cook. I'm going to go 2-0 Arsenal. A bit psyched, isn't it? It's the first game, you know. It is a bit safe. I've got the safety on. I ain't wrapping it in laces only. I'm going safety 2-0. I'm going, I repeat, I'm going 3-0 from our last victory. 2-3-4, yeah? 3-0, man. Going 3-0. I think it's going to be comfortable. I think, especially if we score first. If we score first. Score early. I think I can't see Coventry coming out and causing us problems like that. The longer the game goes on at 0-0, you might hear the crowd get a little bit tense. That happens the longer the game goes on, but we score early, I think we'll be all right. One thing I look at on Saturday, sorry, Friday, is the team when it comes out. I know we've got to talk about it later on, but I think the joker is, playing against his old side, does he come into this game or have it, is a big thing. All right, well that is it for the preview. Yes, we are back. Arsenal are back. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Like the video. It's the big one Friday, people. 8pm kick-off. We open up the Premier League. Let's hope we get a win. We'll be doing a big, big watch party from, I've just forgotten the place. Spitalfields. So make sure you tune in to that. And of course, we'll be here. Toboggan it. Ah, no, we've got a nice big venue. And of course, we'll be here covering the game after the match, during the fan cams. You'll hear from this man himself and you'll hear from this man as well. So make sure you let us know your thoughts in the comments below. We'll see you again soon. Come on, Arsenal.