Arsenal news round-up – 18th March 2019
UEFA Europa League – Rennes win, Napoli is next, and the King of Wakanda plays for Arsenal…
We did well to defeat Rennes in the second leg, though Napoli is up next. They have been Juventus’s strongest challengers in Serie A, and they have top players like Koulibaly. But so do we. And they can fear us as much as we can fear them.

Carlo Ancelotti is coming back to England, but with his Napoli side in our Europa League quarter-final.
We’re playing the first leg at home, and this will be a key advantage. They will need an away goal, and thus will be open, and we can exploit their defence. However, our defence, of course, can be weak, and we need to make it count when required.
Ancelotti is beatable, too. We have done so before when he managed Chelsea.
Koulibaly could lose so badly that he sees us as the future and joins next season….
In seriousness though, it is daunting but possible to get the win. And if we do, it’s either Valencia or Villareal in the semis.

Dubai friendly

The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and Dubai, await our side
Lots of teeth gnashing here. Why? I don’t really get it. Nor do I really care if we’re going out there.
It’s just a friendly.
And let’s be frank. Since I feel there is a ready explanation here, potentially.
Who is our stadium and shirt sponsor? More to the point – where do they come from? Dubai IS one of the United Arab Emirates.
For all we know, we’re contractually obliged to do this. And as their flag carrier airline sponsors us it makes sense. Some of our officials are going to Rwanda as part of their sleeve sponsorship deal. It could be the same thing happening here.

The UAE’s airline DOES sponsor our stadium and shirts.
So it’s not as big as some are making out.
Since a number of our squad originate from warmer climes, it may suit them to get away.
The sponsorship point is just speculation – though it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true.
All the same – the club is offering tickets for this, and a trip to the UAE to see the team (albeit for a friendly) could be good.
What do you know?
The club, on its Youtube account, released some funny quiz competitions between some of the players earlier this week.
The Black Panther apparently is smarter than Petr Cech.
And Mavropamos can speak English after all.
Mesut can school Elneny.
But Kos the boss and Mkhi make a fine quiz match.
This was all pretty comical and kudos to the club’s social media team for doing this.
The players apparently are multi-lingual, and in some ways, we British people are hamstrung in learning languages when we spread English around the world. Yes, it’s handy when travelling, but it also limits learning new perspectives. I credit the players for handling themselves so well in English, which is naturally different from their own mother tongues.
The Merse’s struggles

It’s sad to see The Merse struggling again.
Overmars as a technical director?

Overmars got the first goal at Wembley, when we beat Newcastle 2-0 to secure our second Double.
MarbleHallsTV is an Arsenal social media account on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Been a Gooner since the 90s, inspired by Ian Wright, then Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry, Pires, Campbell, Rosicky, Koscielny, Ozil and Sanchez. A digital marketer/entrpreneur by profession, born in UK living in the Americas now.
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