Goonerholics Forever

Well, much to the surprise of no one, except perhaps Vladimir and Estragon, Arsenal’s waiting ended at Old Trafford yesterday afternoon. After days of building excitement, concern about injuries, and wonder if we could take 18 from 18 points for the first time since 1947 the door opened and in walked a 3-1 defeat at the feet of Erik ten Hag’s squad (on a lighter note, if Erik was a surfer with a cold, would he be called “Erik Hag Ten”?).

And, as disappointing as it was, it was even moreso because I forgot it was my turn to write the review, and was liberal in my use of fast forwarding through the game on the DVR (I was away for the live game). So, apologies to all for the tardy review, which I am writing having watched the game again.

The first ten minutes or so was pretty much all United, roared on by their crowd (though, to say, the Arsenal away support was again stellar, loud and drowning out Old Trafford even if C100 wasn’t there to add his voice). When Saliba! missed a shot in the 9th minute from near the spot high and wide, it looked like this might not be our day. And yet, it was at the end of a move from a freekick that seemed to be an indication of us playing our way into the game, figuring out what United were doing and putting them on the back foot. Oh, and Scott McTominay is a nasty donkey. The foul for the freekick was a push in the back of Martinelli that could have led to an injury to the Brazilian.

Even though United kept us under pressure, controlling the ball well, suddenly it was 1-0 to the Arsenal. Erickson fell over near midfield under a challenge from Ødegaard, who passed the ball to Saka. To say Saka’s through ball was perfect is an understatement, regardless of the absoluteness of perfection. It was beyond perfect, into the feet of Martinelli who stroked it home far corner past DeGea. And then the ref decided that he needed to look at what the VAR wouldn’t decide, and chalked it off as a foul. That was the moment the door handle turned and the door opened.

So much for “letting the game flow” at the start, what we’ve been hearing all season long. And that’s all that I am going to say about it.

The half continued back and forth, though we continued to control more and more of it. Zinchenko and Ødegaard played well, and the back four was largely competent. We couldn’t seem to put many chances together, even as we pressed from the right through the excellent Saka. Jesús put a header wide from a corner (one of the few times he could get away from the arms of Varane). Saka tripped in the box, definitely not a penalty, just before Saliba! earned a yellow for not really tripping up Sancho. There was a hilarious moment when McTominay and Antony ran into each other trying to intercept a pass from Ødegaard. Lokonga did a good job from deep, and got his studs down the back of Fernandes on one tackle that brought a big moan from the home fans (and their surfer of a coach).

In fact, not one of our players had a bad game. Martinelli was outstanding down the left, probing and forcing United’s defense to scramble again and again. We had a period of dominance in the middle of the first half that led to a Saka cross Martinelli headed across goal that was palmed away by DeGea. A lesser keeper would have waved that into goal (it felt a little like Martinelli’s volley for a goal against Emi). Our defense was purposeful and created little space in which United could play. Some of our passing was gorgeous…the only thing we really lacked was our final ball.

We didn’t allow United many chances, either. Until their goal. They were limited to breaking, and then a bunch of stepover fluff from Antony. Until their goal. Eriksen split the midfield to Fernandes, with Martinelli and Sambi sucked upfield. Gabi had to tackle Fernandes (he fouled him, but the Tierney let it play on, correctly), leaving White, Saliba!, and Zinchenko 1v1 on their men. Zinchenko moved centrally to cover for Gabi, leaving Antony open behind him to receive the pass from Rashford in the middle. And he made no mistake, going far corner on Ramsdale with a fine shot.

Arsenal 0-1 Manchester United (Antony, 35′)

We started the second half elaborating in and around their box. We were perhaps guilty of over-elaborating, at times, trying the backheel where a better decision could have been made, or continuing to push forward and giving the ball away rather than recycling the ball to go in again. In the 52nd minute we worked down the right through Jesús, who drove towards the box and pinged a pass to Ødegaard, who put his sidefoot woefully wide. We were able to get it back in the box to Saka, whose shot to the far post was just wide.

After a quarter hour our pressure from the front told. Four of our players surrounded Varane and Rashford just inside the halfway line; Martinelli touched it to Xhaka who passed to Ødegaard. He brought the ball to the middle of the pitch with Jesús making a driving run inside Dalot. Mø sent a pass inside to Jesús, and Dalot just got enough of a foot on it to kick it towards Saka, while colliding with DeGea. It was simple for Saka to 5-hole Martinez and bring us to level.

Arsenal 1-1 Manchester United (Saka, 60′)

After our goal we seemed to relax, just a bit. And it cost us. We had a warning when Rasford was adjudged offside when the pass came in from our offensive half. Zinchenko and White were tucking in very deep, with Gabi and Saliba! on the halfway line. It cost us, it very much did. In the 65th minute Sambi passed loosely to Jesús; it was intercepted by Dalot, who passed to Ericksen who touched it on to Fernandes. He passed his second touch behind Saliba! into the path of Rashford, who was away, and onside. White raced down and across the field, sliding across Rashford just as Ramsdale came out, and the Manc took his shot. Unfortunately the ball nicked off White’s ankle; the deflection took it over Ramsdale and into the net. There was a shadow showing through the opened door.

Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United (Rashford, 66′)

Almost immediately we were put under the cosh yet again, with a poor ball out from the dallying Ramsdale intercepted by Fred, whose pass to Fernandes was taken first time. Ramsdale atoned for his dallying with a fine, onrushing save, making himself big enough to block Fernandes’s shot. McTominay, probably pissed off from the excellent tackle Gabi laid on him in the box minutes earlier, suddenly wrestled Jesús to the ground like a second-rate WWE poseur, earning him a deserved yellow. Shortly after, Jesús flashed a shot wide right; Arteta rolled the dice and brought on ESR, Vieira (congratulations on your debut!), and Eddie for Mø, Sambi, and Zinchenko. And almost immediately United scored.

We gave away a throw in our half, and after Ronaldo tipped it to Fernandes, and the latter slid a beautiful pass to Ericksen, who was played onside by White. Ericksen had Rashford to his left; the Dane waited out the Ramsdale’s decision, then passed to Rashford who doubled his talley into the empty net. Our line was insanely high, and disorganized after their throw-in, though credit to White for nearly blocking Rashford’s shot. We should never have been bunched on that side of the pitch, it was simple for Ericksen and Rashford to use the balance of our half in which to run. It was a goal we’d love to have made for ourselves. And the shadow became a figure, and it was Defeat, staring us in the face.

Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United (Rashford, 75′)

Tomi came on for White (who had a good game excepting a couple of momentary lapses, but at this level those can be, and were, fatal) just after United changed three, including Harry McGuire, who earned a yellow in his first defensive move: tripping Jesús just above the D. But the freekick was notable only for two things; first, Xhaka fell over the ball, allowing Fred to pass crossfield into the path of Ronaldo. Second, it showed the “great one” should really now be “the bronze bust”, as Ramsdale beat him with footspeed to clear the ball.

Vieira looked active and tidy on the ball, he even put a volley over the top corner in the 86th minute. His pass to Martinelli just in front of goal that McTominay had to put over for a corner was a peach. He also was back on defense to cut out a pass that could have led to another United break. Once he adjusts to the pace of the game, and bulks up a touch, I think we might have another versatile, quality player on hand. There was time for Saka to earn a yellow card for a late tackle on Malacia, who made the most of it. Smith Rowe had an opportunity for a snap shot after Jesús had kept the ball well, but he sent it over.

And that was that. The shadow of Defeat sat at the table, not even bothered to get up and look through the little cardboard box with the rest of the guests. If life had followed the art, Defeat never would have showed up and Arsenal would never lose another game. Unfortunately, life IS art, as John Lennon used to say. Will this be remembered as a blot on an otherwise beautifully rendered piece, or will it be the start of Arsenal’s blue period? If this season is like last, it will be the latter. But I, for one, trust the process that Arteta is leading this team through, and believe they will use this as the learning experience it must be, and perhaps a galvanizing one.

We are off to Zürich for our first taste of Europe in two years this Thursday, and we can only hope we see a resurgent, strong, galvanized Arsenal introduce the Swiss team to the guest they met in Manchester. COYG!

An early arrival and I find a good atmosphere in the ground but perhaps a little more subdued than Saturday. 

We started fluently but we had a scare on 3 mins as Villa break and Buendia shanked well over the bar.

After a couple of fairly niggly “let ‘em know you’re there, get in their faces, they don’t like it up ‘em Mr Mainwaring” fouls from Villa, in the 5th minute Lokonga jumped with McGinn and managed to catch him in the face, in the hope of performing some much needed M*A*S*H* style field cosmetic surgery, presumably.  He’s all heart that boy. Laughably the referee gave a drop ball to Arsenal. 

In the 7^th minute Saka was seemingly hauled over in the box by Tyrone Mings – not so much a name as a statement of fact. There is an obvious mismatch in size as well as talent, but I guess I’d be unhappy if a pen was given at our end for that. 

From another final 3^rd foul, this time by Kamara on Lokonga, Ødegaard took a smart freekick to Jesús running into the box, who took the ball on and hammered it towards the near post only for Martinez to make a good save and push it out to the corner. By now we were playing very well, with Sambi in particular in the midfield very alert and alive. From the resulting corner, after some pinball in the box, a chipped delivery back into the box from Saliba, of all people, found one of our collection of Gabriels, Magalhaes this time, in space and he takes it down on his chest and shoots narrowly wide of the goal. 

In the 14^th minute, Ramsey went over the ball on Martinelli and the referee correctly gave a yellow. Arsenal were flying by now and from a Villa throw in their half, we won the ball back, with Ødegaard playing a clipped pass in behind Mings for Jesús to run onto, in the process shoulder barging the much bigger man out of the way. His cross/shot was pushed out by Martinez for Ødegaard to follow up and eventually Villa scrambled a corner. It is noticeable just how much of our play up to this point came down the right via the White/Ødegaard/Saka axis.

From there, we seemed to find our left-hand side and suddenly Tierney/Xhaka/Martinelli really began to come into the game. On the dot of a quarter of the way through the game, Ødegaard switched the ball left in centre-mid to Xhaka, swiftly moving it on to Martinelli who pinged in a cross from the edge of the box to find Saka steaming in, unmarked at the back post, but unfortunately unable to deal with a difficult ball with the keeper taken out of the game by the velocity of the delivery.  

Finally, in the 30^th minute, after some patient build-up play from the back, the inevitable happened. Ødegaard collected the ball on the right touchline, on halfway, and passed infield to Lokonga, who smartly passed cross-field to Tierney. With the mass of players having been attracted to the right-hand side, Tierney was in acres on halfway and quickly passed to the equally unpressured Martinelli, entering the final third. He drove forward, attracting two Villa players towards him and slotted a pass through for our new advanced central midfielder, Granit Xhaka, on the left-hand edge of the box to ping in a cross, which, deflected, Martinez was unable to hold and parried out to the 6 -yard line for Our Saviour to hammer home. It was what we deserved.

At this juncture, a note on the former Arsenal stopper.   I have seen some comments of a querulous nature, wondering why he was given such a bad reception. For the benefit of those not in the stadium, you didn’t see the fact that he was outrageously wasting time from pretty much the first minute. TV has a habit of cutting away with camera shots of men in tracksuits shouting or directing advice/admonitions to players when the ball goes out for a goal kick. Those in the ground get to see a whole load of faffing and time wasting in these slots and it is hugely frustrating. Video is aided by judicious use of directional microphones so that the frustration on the crowd doesn’t alert the tv viewers to what is going on on the pitch. I hope that clears it up.

Xhaka by this point was seemingly everywhere, popping up to pick up the ball direct from Ramsdale and starting moves one minute, in the advanced central midfield role, looking to move the ball forward, ever forward, the next. He is looking nothing like the stolid, immobile player of, well, not too long ago. You have to be delighted both for him and of course for us as a team, unexpected as that emotion is with regard to the gentleman in question. I am finding my particular slice of humble pie surprisingly tasty. 

As half time approached, Ødegaard was booked for pulling down Watkins, advancing but still in his own half, in rather the same fashion as Saka was by the nominatively deterministic Mings. An interesting treatment of two similar offences, by a referee who I thought had a reasonable game as a whole, even if he did allow rather more leeway to Villa in their infringements, seemingly indulging yet another sub-standard English manager to encourage an approach to the game not out of place in a bygone era of smogs, rationing and boots the same weight as a bag of sugar.

On the stroke of half time, we nearly had the second when, after a period of moving the ball around, Gabriel played the ball out to the left wing position for Tierney who chipped a ball into the penalty area for our new advanced central midfielder to head back to Martinelli, who in turn let rip a thunderous right foot half-volley, destined for the top right hand corner had it not been for a cat-like spring from Martinez.  Great football all round.

Half time – Arsenal 1 – Villa 0.

Villa clearly received a rocket at half time and started the second half rather more brightly, but to negligible effect. Slowly we began to exert our dominance though with Xhaka and Ødegaard, in particular, passing and moving beautifully and Jesús using his body and God-given strength to pronounced effect against much bigger men.

In the 56^th minute we saw an example of just why Martinez, despite being an exceptionally good shot stopper, is just so easy to dislike.  Having caught the ball well from an Arsenal corner he ran forward as if to start a quick attack. Jesús shadowed him, as forwards do, which resulted in the keeper putting a loose headlock on the forward then, realising this was a marginal infraction of the rules under most referees, falling to the ground as if he were the offended against, rather than offending, party. Laughably, he won the free kick after appearing to say to the referee that he had received an elbow. I mean, don’t these people know there are cameras present? Oh yes, VAR. How foolish of me. The North Bank immediately rang out with a hearty rendition of “Aaron Ramsdale, he’s better than you.”

On 64 minutes, Ben White made way for Tomiyasu. The referee who had spent the first 15 minutes studiously ignoring Martinez time wasting was by now keen to usher White off quickly. White correctly chose to ignore him.

On the three-quarter mark, McGinn was finally yellow carded for a disguised stud tackle to Ødegaard’s ankle which resulted in Ødegaard being substituted 10 minutes later by Smith-Rowe.

It was beginning to feel like, for all our smart play and clear dominance, we were at risk of being sucker-punched as we just hadn’t tested the keeper enough in the second half. From my seat in the North Bank, Saka was beginning to look tired after a much brighter performance, and quite possibly beginning to show the effects of the, ahem, close attention he had been receiving from the Villa midfield and defence. Smith-Rowe had warmed up and was about to come on. Sure enough, on 72, Villa were awarded a corner, which on TV evidence should have been a goal kick. They subbed off the hugely ineffective Buendia and borderline violent offender McGinn for Coutinho and Luiz and it was the latter direct from the corner who evened up the score. I’m in two minds as to whether Ramsdale was fouled as has been claimed. The Villa player doesn’t have to get out of the keeper’s way and arguably simply held his ground. The simple expedients of either putting a man on the near post or indeed in between keeper and opposition player would have mitigated against the wholly against the run of play equaliser. What I would say is that if that is given then I want to see similar cases treated the same way.

Smith-Rowe was immediately stood down. Arsenal responded in a way in which we all hope to become accustomed. Immediately on the front foot, we attacked down the left with Martinelli, who from the edge of the box hit a pass infield to Tomi. He drew the defender before passing outside to Saka who worked some space and chipped back whence the ball had originally come, to Martinelli to hammer home from the 6-yard line. It took a minute to equalise. Resilience is just one characteristic which Arteta is inculcating in this squad and it is great to see. Cue pandemonium in the North Bank. And absolute screaming delight from the players and subs warming up.

It was now game management and soon after, Holding came on to shore up the defence. I should point out that Nketiah came on for Our Saviour and showed a maturity and presence which I never knew he had. He has clearly learned a whole lot from Jesús. I look forward to watching him play more and more.

Despite the handicap of our absences – Partey and Zinchenko – we showed that we could battle and play very good football.   I suppose that the newly formed Celebration Police under Sturmbannführer Sourness will respond with “it’s only Aston Villa” but frankly anything which makes people like him and ‘the walking proof that man is descended from the apes’ that is hairy-knuckled Richard Keys, unhappy can only be a good thing.

21CG and I walked off into the sunset to catch our train home with the ground ringing out in acclaim of our new energy and enthusiasm. We will lose games and we won’t win the league, but the future is looking so, so bright and the Emirates is on the way to becoming the noisy, bouncing, positive home we wanted on leaving Highbury.

Arsenal continued their perfect start to the season, coming from behind late on to break Fulham hearts. It wasn’t our most fluid performance of the season although we were still very much the better side. Arteta was forced into making two changes with both Zinchenko and Partey missing out with late injuries. To what extent remains unclear but hopefully its nothing too serious. Tierney and Elneny were the two players drafted into the firing line against the Cottagers. Former Gunner Bernd Leno started in goal for the visitors, and he received a warm reception from the Arsenal fans having spent four years in North London, serving the club well with his fantastic shot stopping abilities on a regular basis. It is only right that a goalkeeper of his calibre ought to be starting week in week out, so I don’t think I’m alone in being pleased for the German. 

The first half was a relatively low-key affair with chances few and far between. But most of those few chances fell Arsenal’s way. Granit Xhaka volleyed well wide from a Jesus pass after exceptional work from Ødegaard in the build-up. Martinelli almost scored direct from a corner as he clipped the bar with Leno stranded.  There was a lot of possession but there wasn’t the same level of spark as we’ve seen in games recently. Saka had an effort that was saved by Leno after more good build up play but for the first time this season, we failed to take in a lead at half time. 

The second half began with Arsenal upping the tempo somewhat. Ødegaard saw his stinging drive palmed away by Leno and Jesús also had an effort well saved. But then we gifted Fulham an opener as Gabriel dawdled on the ball on the edge of the penalty area, Mitrovic did superbly to steal possession and the Serb did even better to steer the ball past Ramsdale into the net. The Fulham fans were sent into ecstasy in the away end. 0-1 Fulham.

But just like we did against Leicester in the last home game, we responded quickly. Saliba played a progressive ball to Saka who drove forward, feeding Ødegaard who quickly shifted the ball onto his left side and his deflected shot bamboozled Leno as the ball nestled into the back of the net. Sixty thousand Gooners breathed a collective sigh of relief. 1-1.

Fulham nearly restored their lead straight away as Mitrovic’s firm header from a corner was brilliantly saved by England’s number one.  But just when it looked like Arsenal would have to settle for a point, they found a late winner. We got a corner on the left-hand side which was sent in by Martinelli. Leno came out to claim the ball and completely missed it, as the ball found its way to Gabriel who simply couldn’t miss as he prodded home from three yards out. The Emirates was sent into pandemonium. “Limbs” as my generation would have it. I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the Emirates celebrate a goal quite like that. Obviously, the nature of the game and the timing of the goal played a part in the huge celebrations but the noise when it went in was deafening. Over the last year the Ashburton Army has done a great job in transforming the Emirates into a much more atmospheric venue and it really does improve the match going experience. Hats off to those guys. 

VAR did have a look at that goal to see if they could find some obscure reason to disallow it; perhaps Gabriel’s hair follicle was a millimetre offside. But the goal stood! There was one more hairy moment near the end where Chalobah got on the end of a Fulham free kick, but his header was again expertly saved by Ramsdale. But that was that and Arsenal made it four wins out of four for the first time since 2004.

We remain two points clear of several clubs on ten points including the champions. We also remain the only side in the league with a 100% record! Will we fail to win a game ever again? I doubt it. I expect us to finish with thirty-eight wins out of thirty-eight the way things are going. Our next victims will be Aston Villa on Wednesday night also at home. My condolences in advance to them. Now if we can just keep it together for the final thirty-four games……