Goonerholics Forever

Hello my fellow Gooners, long time no see, but once again I have the privilege of previewing The Arsenal. I hope the day finds you fully recovered from the stresses and strains of deadline day and ready for a top vs. bottom clash as The Arsenal, who I have heard are top of the league, take on Everton, who have just appointed Sean Dyche as their new saviour.

But first a quick look at how the week has gone for The Arsenal. Rough with the smooth as is life’s wont I guess. The roughest in this case being an unfortunate injury to the popular Mo Elneny that sees him lost to the squad for several months. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Mo. The smooth on the other hand is the news that TP5’s injury is not serious. If there is a gooner anywhere who has not realised the importance of TP to our current title challenge then I can only urge them to Pay More Attention!

Transfer Window

However, Mo’s injury did leave us short in midfield, and that brings us handily to the transfer window. Much has been posted, wise, wild, or windy, as the case may be, in the Goonerverse already about the impact of this window on the present and future. To the wild, I would only say that on reflection you might find that now is not the most opportune moment to fire Edu.   Amongst the many wise words, I hope that we can all agree that Jorginho is now an Arsenal player and deserves our full support – we have the most positive match-going support in the country this season and long may that continue. Windy, you can safely leave to me as I have added a very personal view below on the key benefits from all these transfer window shenanigans….

Benefits

• We signed three players. Some may mundanely think this was simply to strengthen the squad or align to the Ropey League Rule that you can only add three players for the knock-out stages, but I have no doubt it was actually because Mik and Ed have recognised the importance of three.

“Three is the first number to which the meaning ‘all’ was given. It is The Triad, being the number of the whole as it contains the beginning, a middle, and an end. The power of three is universal and is the tripartite nature of the world as heaven, earth and waters. It is body, soul and spirit.”

Personally, having all the spirituality of a garden lawnmower, that is wasted on me, but I am certainly glad that we have men such as Mik and Ed at the helm, and to whom such wisdom is meat and drink.

• We didn’t sign Jonjo Shelvey. That is always a good window.

• We are still top of the league no matter how many players the other teams signed, loaned or created artificially in laboratories.

In other words, we done good.

Team news

As Gabriel Jesus is still a few weeks away, Thomas Partey apparently fit, and MA has answered the Ben/Tomi question in Ben’s favour every time, I think the starting XI will have a very familiar look. In fact, it’s so familiar that I am going to save myself the trouble of typing it out. We all know who they are by now. We trust them and they have delivered with a regularity that has delighted all season; all powers to their elbows, heads, feet and knees for this one.

The Opposition – Everton

Everton have had a reasonably successful past, winning the league nine times, the FA Cup five times and the Cup Winners Cup once since their formation in the late 1870s. They have also been in the top level of English football since 1954. Not as successful as us to be sure but not too bad I can patronisingly say.

However, that past lies in stark contrast to their miserable present. From an outside perspective they appear, since the departure of the mediocre Moyes, to be badly led, poorly managed and, in general, useless. They have lost five of their last six games (amusingly the only point was at Man City) and are in deep trouble. A step forward was taken when ‘Lamps’ was finally fired and then two steps back.  When I read of Dyche’s appointment I found myself contrasting my own ‘all-is-well-in-the-world’ feeling as we happily continue our glorious title challenge with the feelings of the average Evertonian just now – what a truly bitter ginger pill Dyche must be to swallow. To quote the writer David Gerrold  “Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order”.  Except of course it isn’t happening in that order for Everton fans. Dyche may save them this season, and even restore them to mid-table nothingness next season but the football will be terrible. I wonder if it would have been better to reign in the hell of the championship than to be served the heaven of the saviour Dyche.

I have no idea who they will select so cannot advise with any confidence but we should expect some changes I suppose. Needless to say, we should win well this weekend despite any new manager bounce or our last two defeats at Goodison Park. Time to toss tasteless toffees to the trashcan. Take the three points and on we go lads. And finally, my personal commiserations to Alex Iwobi, a likeable fellow who had been one of their few players doing well this season. I fear for him under the new management.

The HolicsRopeyLeague

As a quick bonus extra, it is time for a mid-season review of the 14 staunch gooners chasing our prestigious fantasy league title. I am happy to tell you that, like The Arsenal, your writer has headed the table for most of the season. I am not sure which was the bigger surprise to me! Unfortunately, unlike the PL, the chasing pack are not a hapless rabble that have tamely fallen away but an astute and determined bunch. Led by ATG the chasing group includes TTG, Bath, GSD, Uply  and reigning champion bt8 to name a few. Many twists and turns to come no doubt but it has all been good clean fun so far – thank you gentlemen!

The Holic Pound

As you can imagine an Arsenal win is prohibitively short odds and even a 3-0 prediction in line with the title of this piece is a skinny 8s. Personally, I feel Mr. Martinelli is due a goal, and I noticed he was 6/1 for first goal-scorer. Be nice to see Leandro come on and open his account as well.

That is about it for this preview folks. For any of you attending, I hope you have a safe trip and for those of us watching I hope we have another great Arsenal performance to enjoy. Come On You Gunners!!!

And so to an FA Cup fourth-round tie at the Oillands, where the colour of money is sky blue.

There is a story that Manchester City plays in sky blue and white because when its predecessor club, Ardwick AFC, was in financial straits, Freemasons bailed it out. As a condition or a thank you for the money, the team ditched their red and black shirts for the then colours of Freemasonry. Only circumstantial evidence supports this story. Yet if it is true, the apple has never fallen far from that tree.

Our FA Cup record against City is excellent: played five; won four. The lone loss was in the first tie at the Manor Ground in 1904 when we were still Woolwich Arsenal. City went on to win the Cup for the first time that season, beating fellow Lancastrians Bolton Wanderers 1-0.

The next encounter was a semi-final at Villa Park in 1932. We won 1-0, Cliff ‘Boy’ Bastin scoring against a City side containing Matt Busby, later to have a storied managerial career on the red side of Manchester. However, at Wembley, we lost the notorious’ Over The Line’ final 2-1 to Newcastle United.

The three remaining games will be within the living memory of the more senior members of this fine establishment, at least those not having senior moments. 

A Charlie George brace got us through a fifth-round tie at Maine Road on our way to the double in 1971. That was our fourth FA Cup success. The next time we played City in the Cup would be in 2017, on our way to winning the Cup for a record-breaking 13th time and a 20th appearance in an FA Cup Final, also a record. 

That was the first season in his managerial career that Pep Guardiola did not win a trophy. We had dispatched his team in the semi-final, 2-1, after extra time.

The fifth meeting was also a semi-final, played behind closed doors in July 2020 during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored goals in those days, and a brace saw off City again. Another brace brought our 14th FA Cup at the expense of the mob from the Bus Stop.

So history suggests good things happen after beating City in the Cup. Now, correlation is not causality, and the sample size is small. Most of all, the condition is testing, beating City. Outside the FA Cup, you have to go back 16 games, to December 2015, since we have done that in any other competition, a 2-1 league win at the Emirates in which Theo Walcott scored his 100th goal for the club.

The opposition

Emirati petrodollars have assembled the most expensive squad in the Premier League, valued at shy of £1 billion. However, money buys quality throughout a squad unless you are congenitally bad at spending it (Exhibits A and B: the Mancs and the Chavs). City is not. It is hard to think of many significant missteps they have made in the transfer market. Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko were all sold as they entered the prime of their careers without the City squad being left noticeably weaker by their departures (whereas ours has benefitted hugely from the arrival of the latter two. Let us hope that City bitterly regrets those sales come May).

In Pep Guardiola, they have the most innovative manager in the world, or at least until Super Mik dethrones him — and Arteta has a ways to go to catch up with his friend’s 30-some major trophies.

City will likely line up in a nominal 4-3-3, although Pep has been more varied in his formations this season, even using a back three on occasion. But that means little. He uses the same possession plus positional play blueprint that Arteta has adopted and developed. However they line up, City will morph into 3-2-5 with the ball and 4-5-1 without it, not that Pep tolerates City being out of possession for long. 

Cup keeper Stefan Ortega and Erling Haarland up front will be the only fixed points. Between them will be some combination of Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden (if fit), Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Rhodri in front of a defence of Kyle Walker (with the impressive young Rico Lewis being rested), Manuel Akanji, John Stones and Nathan Ake. That would still leave a bench of Lewis, Julian Alvarez, Cole Palmer, Kelvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte to call on. Serious depth.

Any one or more of them could start if the master micro tactician sees a scintilla of an advantage to be gained by negating an Arsenal strength. Given that the two teams will be playing to the same blueprint, the game could turn on which one is better at closing down or exploiting the pockets of space between the other side’s defence and midfield to nullify the overloads. We shall need Partey at his most imperious, Ødegaard at his most creative and Xhaka at his most Xhaka (and Gabriel to keep Haaland in his pocket). This will be a game of two teams trying to out-possess, out-pass and out-overload the other. Intensity will be all.

The Arsenal

This game rounds out a demanding January that we have so far navigated more satisfactorily than many may have secretly expected.

I feel that Arteta will go with a close approximation of his strongest team available to keep the momentum from last Sunday going and because Pep will probably do the same.

Cup keeper Turner will likely replace Ramsdale. Trossard for Martinelli is a possible rotation, but I’ll punt that Arteta will stick not twist. White or Tomiyasu at right-back will be a question. If Mahrez played on the left, I would say Tomi to start, but Benny Blanco might be the better man to blank de Breuyne and Grealish, although second-guessing Pep’s team selection is a fool’s errand. The human chess match will come as the two managers make substitutions and tweak their in-game tactics.

Thus, to start:

Turner

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko

Partey, Ødegaard, Xhaka

Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli

More rides on the outcome of this game than which club progress to the Fifth Round. Both managers publicly disassociated the Cup tie from the league games, but both know that the winner on Friday lays down a marker for the subsequent two matches that may decide whether the title ends up north or south of Watford.

The ‘holic pound

The gentlemen of the turf have City as odds-on favourite, so any away win offers decent odds. A scintillating 2-1 victory to the men in red and white looks appealing at 15s. 

There will be 7,802 travelling faithful, loud and proud, packed into the top two tiers of the South Stand. At the end of the game, may they be looking down on the City fans below in every way.

Enjoy the game ‘holics, near and far.

The Team turned up and you could tell they meant business. Sure, there were some guys who would be missed. In a season as long and demanding as this, that will always be the case. The commitment to do it for them was physically observed. But there were shades of the old days. Some truly Storey-like, calm-but-deadly serious commitment; some Bergkampesque fluidity and speed of movement in the warm-up. Some of the practice routines were well worn and commonly understood. Move into position; Grab the target; Pour. You could see that many there knew when to hold and when to pass. Kick off. The red stuff flowed.

But enough of the third pre-match GFH get together of the season, held in the now traditional favourite restaurant of our very own Bathgooner. There was a game to be played and this was why we were here.

Arriving at the ground, the pre-match crowd was equally clearly up for it. The mob at the bar of Block 10 of the North Bank were in great voice. 

The game kicked off and it was a pretty even affair. Early on United fashioned a break with the man with the most punchable face in football, Bruno Fernandes, in a one-on-one with Ramsdale. The keeper clearly got to the ball first. Of course that wasn’t to stop the man with the worst case of labyrinthitis outside of N17 hitting the ground as though Lee Harvey Oswald was shooting at him from the Blackstock Road Book Repository. The referee manged to recover his composure, stop laughing and wave play on.

To their credit, United had come to play and, despite not getting too close to us never gave up on their press. They soon earned their reward when Partey was pressed and lost the ball to Rashford who moved forward like silk and applied the steel with an unstoppable shot down to the right-hand side of Ramsdale. An excellent goal. Frankly, he should play for Arsenal.

United fans were ecstatic. It took a few seconds, but the home crowd really lifted it. I remember George Graham describing what the crowds were like when you went “up north” – never giving in, always behind the team.   Ødegaard and Zinchenko visibly appealed to the crowd. The request was heard. The link between manager, team and fans was evident. The crowd roared their support.

Saka was running at Shaw and United weren’t giving him the kind of support that, for example, Newcastle did. Perhaps because United are a club which has a proud history of playing on the front foot which, were they to change their approach it would actually be called out by the media.

It didn’t take long for the team to repay the faith shown by the crowd. After 23 minutes, following a super period of play, Zinchenko, in an advanced inside left position, pushed the ball forward cleverly to Ødegaard who in turn pushed it wide for Xhaka to put in a teasing cross from the left. On its flighted path to the far post Eddie ghosted in front of his nominal marker, Wan Bissaka, and headed home. Well-worked and well-deserved. It is almost like Ian Wright has been mentoring him….

The next flash point was when Saka was fouled for the umpteenth time by his supposed marker, Shaw. Arteta dared to question the omnipotent intellectual midget with the whistle and received a yellow card. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as Ollie might say.

Half time came. It had been breathless. Suitable refreshment was needed which was, fortunately, supplied to your reporter by a Canadian Gooner who managed to sneak it into the stands in a way that would have made James Bond proud. You know who you are and it was both welcome and needed. White, who had been booked, presumably for actually turning up and playing in red, was replaced by Tomi. We started at a fearsome pace and after 53 minutes, Saka scored what will be one of the goals of the season. The ball came out to the right of the United penalty area, and Saka came inside Eriksen and hammered a low, unsaveable shot into the right-hand inside netting of the goal. It was a thing of beauty. Saka is becoming increasingly unplayable.

After 58 minutes United won a corner and there followed a calamitous mix up between Ramsdale and the defence. The ball dropped to Martinez who, to his credit, propelled himself towards the ball like a missile and forced it home.

Again, the crowd immediately rose to the occasion and roared their support. There followed a sustained period of Arsenal pressure, resulting in Saka nearly scoring an identikit goal to his first, in the 70^th minute. After 82′ Martinelli, who had toiled to no little end against a resurgent Wan Bissaka was replaced by the new boy from Brighton, Trossard; shortly thereafter the Pillsbury Dough Boy tribute act that is Shaw was finally booked by the referee, who had by this time miraculously regained either his sight or his access to his whistle. From the resulting free kick Eddie had a reaction shot which de Gea saved with equally smart reflex save.

The game crept towards the end and Arsenal were pushing for the win. In the 89^th minute some patient build up play resulted in the ball coming to Trossard who turned and played it to Zinchenko on the left wing. He crossed and the ball cannoned off the hapless Fred, towards Eddie who performed something of a pirouette in order to direct the ball into the net. Cue chaos in the ground. We had done it. Justice had been served.

Credit where it’s due. United came to play, unlike Stokecastle United. They gave it a go and weren’t good enough. We played with a power and passion which described an underlying belief in the mission and the club’s ability to bring it to fruition.

Red, Red wine, goes to my head…..

Sunday afternoon, in the last game of the season’s opening half, Arsenal will get the chance to avenge  their one and only defeat to date when they host the Red Devils of Manchester.  In early September Sunday’s guests beat the Gunners 3-1 in the reverse fixture thanks to two second half counterattacking goals scored by Marcus Rashford after Bukayo Saka had scored an equalizer.  Thomas Partey was unavailable that day due to injury, and our weakened midfield looked uncertain at times.  The game turned after Martinelli’s opening goal was ruled out for a dubious foul in the build-up after a pack of angry Mancs surrounded the referee demanding a VAR check.  Needless to say, the authorities never sanctioned United, but I digress.  Arsenal need to maintain their focus, prove their maturity once again, and prevent United from catching them out at the back as they did last time.

During the World Cup break, Arsenal’s critics were predicting that Arsenal would fall away after the season resumed.  So how have the Gunners fared so far?  I’d say that three wins and a draw in four matches doesn’t sound so bad, and certainly not when Arsenal have maintained their five point lead over second placed Manchester City while having played one match fewer.  The critics will be saying that Arsenal’s fixture list wasn’t difficult but those three wins were over 5th placed Spurs and 7th placed Brighton as well as relegation-threatened West Ham, and the draw was with 3rd placed Newcastle, so it’s actually been a quite rigorous test for Arsenal so far this month.

On January 14th press reports suggested that Arsenal were confident of completing the Mykhailo Mudryk signing in time for the Ukraine winger to make his debut in this game but the very next day Chelsea signed the player in question.  A few days later, transfer window frustration had receded and Arsenal announced the signing of left winger Leandro Trossard who is in the prime of his career, has 25 Premier League goals to his name, and promises to provide needed depth in Arsenal’s attacking positions.  Here’s hoping we get a glimpse of him on Sunday.

The Opposition 

The third-placed Red Mancs are on an excellent run of form having defeated Burnley and Charlton to get into the League Cup semifinals after dispatching Everton in the FA Cup.  In the Premier League they are undefeated since the World Cup break, pulling 3-0 home clean sheets on Forest and Bournemouth, a 0-1 away clean sheet on Wolves, a 2-1 derby win against Citeh on January 14th, and Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.  Prior to the Palace game United had won nine games in a row in all competitions equalling their longest run since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.  Despite failing to score at Palace, Rashford had scored eight goals in his previous seven games.  

Coach Erik ten Hag deserves a lot of credit for turning United in a positive direction in a short time, notably by forcing out the negative influence of Cristiano Ronaldo just before the World Cup, but also by easing out the previously untouchable Maguire from United’s starting back line.  The signing of Casemiro boosted the effectiveness of United’s midfield, but his suspension means we may see Fred or McTominay instead.  Keeper David de Gea commented: “It’s a big blow to lose Casemiro for Sunday.  Now we are missing one of our best players for a big game and it is a big loss for us.”  How very sad for them.

In the United defence, young left back Tyrell Malacia has shared that position with Luke Shaw.  Martinez and Varane were first-choice centre-backs until the World Cup, but ten Hag played Shaw there until the Argentine came back from his national side celebrations for the Palace game, and Shaw returned to left back.  Diogo Dalot had taken over on the right side for most of the season but Aaron Wan-Bissaka has returned with Dalot missing the last few games due to injury.  Early this week the Mancs signed giant Dutch loanee Wout Weghorst, the Burnley forward who began the season at Beşiktaş.  He started against Palace on Wednesday but his partnership with Rashford didn’t seem to produce ten Hag’s desired result against a packed defence.  I expect another of United’s pacy mobile forwards like Garnacho or Elanga will replace Weghorst to increase their counterattacking threat with Arsenal on the ball.

Arsenal XI

The signing of Trossard gives the Arsenal squad additional attacking depth, and alleviates concerns about the length of time they will be missing Gabriel Jesús as well as the possibility of any new injuries along the front line.  It remains to be seen if Arsenal’s transfer window will bring cover for Thomas and Xhaka in midfield.  With a FA Cup match against Manchester City looming on Friday, and the resumption of Europa League play a little over a month away, it is good to have capable players like Tierney, Tomiyasu and Trossard available but Arsenal should line up against United with this settled side: 

Ramsdale

White  Saliba  Gabriel  Zinchenko

Thomas  

Ødegaard  Xhaka

Saka  Nketiah  Martinelli

The ‘holic pound

Between the Gunners’ September loss at Old Trafford and last April’s win at the Grove, the last two league encounters between these clubs resulted in 3-1 wins to the home side, making another such result either more or less likely in a statistical sense.  I’m tempted to predict another 3-1 home win but my gut tells me this one is going to end up 1-0 to the Arsenal with William Saliba powering home the winning header in the second half, and the Arsenal fans to erupt in Saliba song.

To those who are attending, please be sure to cheer Arsenal on to victory but don’t neglect to let us know how the singing went, and may the revenge be filled with merriment.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics.