The Emirates Region first round is over, and we say goodbye to Emmanuel Adebayor, Per Mertesacker, Alex Lacazette, Aleksandr Hleb, Bacary Sagna, Grant Xhaka, and Philippe Senderos. Second round voting starts now!

Looking over the bracket as a whole, it looks as if there will only be a handful of close votes in the first round; the rest are pretty resounding victories. I don’t think that will be the case in this one, however.

First round voting is still open in the Highbury Region, the Hale End Region, and the London Colney Region. For those of you on AMP and Apple news, you’ll need to go through a browser to be able to vote because our polls get stripped out by those services.

EMIRATES REGIONAL

SECOND ROUND

#1 Ian Wright vs. #8 Olivier Giroud

It’s another striker-on-striker matchup for Ian Wright after he easily dispatched Emmanuel Adebayor in the first round, picking up 97% of the votes. I really hope the 9 votes picked up by Adebayor were either from his family or troll votes, because otherwise, some people need to reevaluate their Arsenal fandom. Olivier Giroud won his first round matchup with Per Mertesacker by less than 20 votes, which, barring anything weird happening in the other regions late-on, will be the third-slimmest margin of victory. Will his stunning good looks lift him to the improbable upset over a club legend?

#4 Nigel Winterburn vs. #5 Hector Bellerin

It’s a battle of the outside backs in this Emirates Regional second round matchup. When Bellerin was born, Winterburn was in the midst of his 8th season at Arsenal. He’d go on to play 13 seasons for the Gunners, making 440 appearances for the club. He was voted 32nd in the 2008 Arsenal.com Greatest 50 Players poll. It’s hard to believe that Bellerin turned 25 last week; he’s already been at the club 9 years. He’s one of my favorite players at the club, as much for his off-field efforts as those on the pitch; I admire his social activism/advocacy and his strong independent streak.

#3 David Seaman vs. #6 Cesc Fabregas

Unsurprisingly, David Seaman easily dispatched Granit Xhaka in the first round, picking up 91% of the votes. Fabregas (74%) won comfortably as well. I may have underestimated the on-going love for Cesc among Gooners and/or overestimated the damage done by his Premier League return with Chelsea. This matchup will clarify things, I think.

#2 Tony Adams vs. #10 Mesut Özil

Mr. Arsenal Tony Adams won a whopping 99% of the vote in his first round matchup with Philippe Senderos (the poor guy only got single digit votesl). Mesut Özil won the only first-round upset in the Emirates Region, garnering 69% of the votes in his duel with Sylvain Wiltord. But I think it’s curtains for the German in this one. This bracket quadrant is going chalk all the way to the Elite Eight.

For reference, here is the overall bracket.