It’s been confirmed that Arsenal will play Coventry City in the fourth round of the FA Cup on FRIDAY, 24 January.
The unusual timing (it’ll be a 7.45pm kick-off) comes courtesy of BT Sport and some piss-tasting lager who between them have decided to stretch coverage of football’s most famous domestic cup competition across four days for…[insert some marketing guff here].
While the unusual timing might get in the way of your post-work binge drinking it should actually play into the hands of the Gunners with Arsenal afforded an extra day to recover ahead of the tricky Premier League away game with Southampton on Tuesday 28 January.
No doubt Arsene Wenger will use the game, which is preceded by a home fixture with Fulham on Saturday 18 January, as an opportunity to rest tired legs and give valuable playing time to returning squad members. We beat the Sky Blues 6-1 in the Carling Cup last year in a game which saw Olivier Giroud open his Arsenal account.
Weird Christmas and Easter scheduling aside, Arseblog News thinks its right in saying this is the first Friday night fixture Arsenal have had since two such occasions in the ‘Invincibles’ season when we beat Newcastle United 3-2 on a wet September night in 2003 and spanked Leeds 5-0 in April 2004.
Oop, that’ll be a quiet night in at the library then… Not.
I have an urge for Serge
Howdy!
Fucking hell, what a stupid piece of shit timing. Utterly ridiculous.
They’ll be fucking around with the Cup Final 3pm Saturday kick off time before you know it… oh, wait
Not an ounce of respect for the old trophy. The FA should know better, the arseholes
Gives us an extra 16 hours recovery time than so’ton.
We play them away on the tuesday so im happy enough..
I have no issue at all with Friday night games.
It’s ok, England play international friendlies on Friday evenings, don’t they? And everyone knows those games are held in high esteem.
Awesome! We’re brilliant on Fridays (OK I can only remember Henry fueled batterings of Palace and dirty Leeds)
Piss tasting lager indeed.
Trust the FA to opt for us consuming cheap shit. While lubing their innards with Hennessey and Krug.
Saying that, Arsenal’s official beer is Carlsberg. Sort it out.
Atleast its not Thursday night football….that reminds me aint Sp*rs such cunts?
Nothing worse than sp*rsday night football!
*The last friday night fixture was 5-0 against Leeds courtesy of the king’s 4 goal masterclass, April 16th 2004
Right you are, I’ve amended. Cheers.
*What a night that was…’Electrifying! Electrifying’ as Martin Tyler put it.
I think we beat Leeds 5-0 on a Friday later in that same season. The one where Henry scored 4.
September 2003 sounds like an omen…. sooo…. lets go undefeated for the rest of the season and then collect our cups and saucers in May…
I’m glad its the Friday because my birthday is the Thursday so I’m out on the Saturday. Happy days
I thumbed you down simply because the thumbs down are more than the ups.
Sorry..
My dad is a life long Sky Blues fan, born in Coventry but moved to London in his 20’s.
Really looking forward to this game – will get to take the piss out of him a bit more, and now that it’s on TV I can do so while he buys me beer in a pub!
Awesome.
Likewise, my mum’s all about the sky blues; anyone ever been to Coventry? Just like the Seven Sister’s Road just further North.
So glad we’re playing at home; no offence mum.
BT are cunts with all their Michael Owen-ness but this isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Its a FA Cup home game to Cov with the previous game having been on the Saturday to Fulham. Gives us an extra recovery day over Southampton for the more important away PL game.
Micheal Owen what a Prick,I hated the fuck as a player even more so as “commentator”.
I’m ok with this.
Its much better than if it was Sunday and we had to play Shampton on Tuesday.
Was going to take my flatmates to this game, probably will not be able to now.
Boobs or football!!? BOOBS OR FOOTBALL!!!???
*head explodes*
Boobs.
No fatigue problems i guess….
We would probably be resting first teamers.
Hope wenger shuffles em well, wanna see Zelalem in action!
anyone confirm that this one’s a minimum of £48 a ticket as all FA Cup games are cat B? I hope they make it cat. C as then we’ll have a full stadium and brilliant atmosphere.
It’s a category C game.
http://www.arsenal.com/match/report/1314/tickets/first-team/arsenal-v-coventry-city
Boobs then highlights…
Football then porn…
Anfield ’89 was a Friday night and that worked out ok-ish.
Other than our coach getting lost in fuckin Walsall and nearly getting my teeth knocked out by an irate micky mouser.
But that’s another story.
One I wish to hear…
Thats me not going then.:(
Poxy fa! saturday woulda been good.
I think there should be some Friday night games tossed in there. Other countries do it to accommodate their teams in the Champions League all the time…I have no problem with extra rest.
Wasn’t the crucial Liverpool 4-2 victory also on a Friday the week before the Leeds-game in 2004? Henry scoring 7 goals on two separate Fridays…:)
“Piss tasting lager”
I think you’re insulting piss here. Although to be fair, I’ve never tasted piss and haven’t had a Budweiser in 20 years..
20 years? Didn’t realise the US had that much history….
Call it Bedwetter in my house and it can’t taste of piss cos it doesn’t taste of anything.
korean beer tastes better, and that’s saying something o.0
As an Yankee I take great offense to this piss water comparison. Budwise is full of corn by product flavor and carbonated water! As far as the matches go we are just sharing our rich sporting traditions of timeouts for commercials every 10min and more advertising space than game time.
First Friday match since Invincibles Season…
It’s a sign!!
I remember seeing that Newcastle game at the club of all the places. We were there for girls and drinks and in the end it was just us boys around tele and girls shaking their heads in disbelief.
The only saving grace was we went top the league with the win that night and most of the club was singing we are top of the league. Awesome result but rubbish night out.
I only work on fridays… FFS!
Friday is the best night for football. Finish work and get on the beer for the match im delighted with that
Look on the bright side: It probably means it’s actually on TV. That’s not always the case when we’re playing League One sides in the FA or League Cup.
Great piece of scheduling as far as I’m concerned. I have to attend a seminar all day on the Saturday and even with the eight hour time difference I was going to have to miss the match. Plus I get to take another three hour lunch from work to watch it on Friday (it’s nice to have an understanding boss). It’s a winner all round.
How can you give out about Friday night football, of a payday no less!
Should be a good start to the weekend
On a somewhat related note:
Friday Night Lights is one of the best TV shows of all time, and is sports related enough that I’m sure many of you guys reading this would enjoy it. Just a recommendation to those on the look out!
x
TIM RIGGINS FOR CENTRE FORWARD
Wasn’t the Leeds game a Good Friday afternoon, and therefore covered by the ‘weird Easter scheduling’ caveat? I haven’t checked and maybe my memory is failing me…!
Ah, no. Now I *have* checked. I was thinking of the 4-2 win against Liverpool just seven days earlier and Henry’s hat-trick in that game. Tremendous game that was too – for a moment it looked like the title might be slipping away from us after our Champions League exit to Chelsea, then Henry took centre stage and we never looked back!
I had the chance to go to both the Liverpool and Leeds games, but turned both down for finiancial reasons.
Still regret it to this day.
FA Cup needs sexing up if its to stay relevant versus Sky’s PL machine. Bring on the 4 day cup weekend, an evening final, global TV, One Direction at half time, and extra-time muli-ball.
Just out of interest, the ad below, says ‘no strings attached’ and has a close up of a knee. Very funny blogs.
Not sure why Coventry fans are complaining when they have a game against Carlisle on the Thursday 24 hours before their fixture against us. Surely they’ll cancel that game or at least rearrange it earlier on in the week but midweek games aren’t anything new when it comes to following your club up and down the country it’s just some of us suddenly become bigger fans when we play the more glamorous fixtures.