Goonerholics Forever

The Prologue

Actually, he didn’t say anything of the sort, thank heavens, because if he had, maybe I would have been. In fact, although I’m sure he was a quiet admirer of the Arsenal, he never really said that much about football at all. So his offer to this childhood Barnet fan of a trip to the Arsenal – the actual ARSENAL ! – was met with a fair amount of surprise and a huge amount of excitement.

That first ever visit to Highbury, under the floodlights and with the buzz of that huge crowd, rendered me a Gooner for life – although the original members of that band of fellows came a while later – but in a fairly small minority in my school, where most were “Lilywhites” fans, ahem. Fortunately for my mum and dad, if it even existed then, I was unaware of the rest of that particular moniker. Even then though, at such a young age, it was special – the rivalry and hatred of ‘that lot’, whether in a playground five-a-side or a FA Cup semi-final.

Greaves, Smith, Chivers, Gilzean and Sheringham have long since given way to Gascoigne, Lineker, Bale, the traitorous Adebayor and Bentley, and now even ex youth player and still Arsenal fan (😆), Harry Kane. All Spuds, all resented, but probably none more so than con man Kane with his dangerous backs and cheating dives, all apparently within the laws of the game if you happen to be an England “hero”.

Here’s a bit of fun featuring a song about Harry Kane, a tribute to their striker who goes down easier than a whore’s drawers on a Saturday night in Kings Cross, although the whole video is pure classical Spursyness. How fitting it should be written and performed by two Tottenham stalwarts bangin’ one aahht on the old Joanna – Wallop ! He’s Gone Down !

(apologies, there may be an advert to clear but it’s worth it)

The Local History

This game is happening at the Emirates and we all know about Highbury, so here’s a little bit of possibly lesser known local history about Tottenham.

Tottenham, as a locality, has existed for over a thousand years, and a quick visit will suggest that much of the original area still stands. The original settlement was owned by a farmer named Tota, and Tota’s Hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book. It developed into Tottenham and was sited along the old Roman road, Ermine Street, some of which is part of the present A10.

From the Tudor period onwards, Tottenham became a popular recreation and leisure centre for wealthy Londoners. Henry VIII is known to have visited Bruce Castle (Bruce Grove) and hunted in Tottenham Woods. The area remained semi-rural and upper middle class until the late 1870s.

In the 1870s the Great Eastern Railway arrived, with branch lines from Enfield and Walthamstow, and the area’s low-lying fields – the often referred to Tottenham Marshes (Marsh Dwellers) – and market gardens were rapidly transformed into cheap housing for the lower middle and working classes, who were then able to commute cheaply to inner London.

The area has had a difficult relationship with authority from the Tottenham Outrage of 1909, to Broadwater Farm in 1985 and the Tottenham Riots of 2011. I never enjoyed going to White Hart Lane and running the gauntlet out afterwards – even when I managed to get in for our League clincher in 1971 but had to watch as a stabbed Arsenal fan was passed over our heads to get to medical assistance. Our team, on the other hand, seems to have quite enjoyed the short trip to N17, winning the league on their ground more times than they have !

This year though is supposed to be a momentous one for the Spuds as they always, ahem, win the League in years ending in “1”. This year, of course, is 2021 and they are craftily placed in 7th position, all ready to overhaul Man City who are sitting precariously a mere 23 points ahead with 11 games to play. Of course, the whole “always” win in years ending in “1” is such a load of nonsense, as a glance at the Holic clock at the top of this blog will tell you. It is now, in fact, a mere 59 years, 10 months and counting since they last won the First Division in 1961.

It bears no repeating – oh, yes it does ! – that the poor, success starved followers of Middlesex have never even seen TV footage of their win in colour – because there isn’t any ! Grainy black and white was all there was in those days – 8 years before the first moon landing, 10 years before the Floppy Disc, 13 years before the Post-it Note and 18 years before the Sony Walkman.

But things, well some things, change. Spurs now have a new stadium with a massive gold cock erected on the roof, and a miserable little grey cock installed as their manager. The stadium houses the longest serving hatch in the world; a whole brewery with beer served in bottom filling glasses which hilariously empty themselves over the fans’ trousers when they poke around trying to see how they work; a cheese room; an under floor, slide-out American football pitch, but …….. no trophy room ! That may be because they have long given up hope of actually winning anything ever again, or it may be due to fear of a repeat episode from earlier days at White Hart Lane, when thieves broke in and stole the entire contents of their trophy room. The two rolls of blue and white carpet were later recovered by police.

The Match

The first competitive match between Spurs and the Arsenal took place on 9th November 1896, and resulted in a 2-1 home win for the Gunners in front of a crowd of 2,000 people at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South East London, where we resided from 1893 to 1913, leading up to the move to Highbury in that year.

Since then there have been 202 games between the two clubs with Arsenal having won 82, lost 66 and drawn 54. From November 1999 to January 2008, the Arsenal managed a run of 21 games without defeat to the LWCs, but things have evened up somewhat since then. Suffice to say that in this most up and down of seasons, it is vital that we win this one. A confidence boosting good hiding for them would be nice, but this really is a case of any scrappy win will do. No suicidal, dangerous, unnecessary overplaying out from the back, just a solid, sensible, pragmatic win.

Last week’s VAR adjudications awarded Tottenham 2 extra points by giving them a penalty for booting the ball against a Fulham defender’s arm which was pinned to his body, and denied us an absolute stonewall spot kick when Pépé’s effort hit the arm of Eric Pieters, whose arm position suggested he was waving to someone in the upper tier of the stadium. The result is that we come into Sunday’s game in 10th position with 38 points, while Tottenham lie 3 places and 7 points above us in 7th with 45 points.

The Teams

The second leg of the Europa League tie against Olympiakos awaits just 4 days after this one, and remains our best and realistically only chance of Champions League football next season. That must surely have some influence on Mikel Arteta’s selection but exactly what that will be is tough to predict. Calum Chambers was last week’s surprise pick, and he did well at Burnley. The right back position could see another change with Bellerin, who worked hard on Thursday, being held back for the return. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mari back alongside Luiz at the back, as good as Gabriel was, with the latter also kept fresh for next Thursday. ESR will probably start on the bench as he is just back from injury, so Odegaard will retain his place. Partey should start, Xhaka seems inevitable, and while I would play Saka on the right and Pepe on the left, Arteta will almost certainly continue with Willian.

So, my almost certainly wrong guess at a starting eleven is:

Leno

Cedric, Luiz, Mari, Tierney

Partey, Xhaka

Odegaard

Saka, Aubameyang (or Lacazette), Willian

Tottenham – no idea and, honestly, who cares ? Just give every one of them hell for ninety minutes and win.

The Holic Pound

bet365 are offering 31/20 on an Arsenal win, or 12/5 on the draw – bwin will give you exactly the same odds. If you are a new customer with William Hill, they will offer you 25/1 on Aubameyang (or Kane, don’t you dare !) to score, but only if you add the £1 stake to your other bet. There’s always a catch !

The Officials

It’s sad and indicative of the influence that officials now have on results, that they can merit special mention. However, the referee will be Michael Oliver, 4th official is Kevin Friend, and Tottenham’s 12th man, sorry, VAR will be Paul Tierney and Lee Betts. I was quite surprised to see that in all competitions with Oliver in charge, Arsenal have won marginally more games than we’ve lost – 16 wins, 11 draws, and 14 defeats.

Kickoff is at 16.30 UK time. TV coverage is on Sky Sports. Seating is available behind a sofa near you.

Enjoy, Holics 🤞🏻

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The ancient port city of Piraeus was named Porto Leone first by the Venetians because of a landmark sculpture of a Lion at the Piraeus harbor – the statue was later transported to Venice by the conquering Venetian navy after they besieged and pillaged Athens in the war against the Ottoman Empire. The statue was sculpted around the 4^th century BC and by that time Piraeus was already an old port of great economic and military importance for Athens, and according to Thucydides even officially proclaimed to be a part of greater Athens. Over the course of few millennia the city has seen spectacular rise and fall – ravaged by wars and rebuilt multiple times, being nearly depopulated to now becoming the one of busiest ports in Europe. 

As far as the references to antiquity are concerned, it is safe to say that no football club comes even close to Olympiacos, or to pay respect to their full name, Olympiacos C.F.P — Olympiakós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós — Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus. Not only do they have the classical laurel wreath on their logo and the noble sentiments of the Olympian ideals of sports in their name, the club being founded in Piraeus, the port city gets its rightful place in the club’s official name as well. It must be said that since being formed in 1925 they have truly lived up to the Olympian ideals of sporting excellence: by far the most successful club in Greek football with 45 league titles and six invincible seasons in the domestic league. The recent addition of four stars on their logo indicate the 40 league titles. The fans love to call their club Thrylos (legend) and rightfully proud of their astounding domestic record. 

In recent years we have formed a habit of playing against these Greek legends in the European competitions. Last season’s very Arsenal-esque Seppuku act in ‘the round of 32’ of the Europa League is best left unremembered.  But before that we had played against them in Champions League group stages for four seasons in quick succession: 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2015/16. In the last of those occasions, we had lost the home leg 2-3 but then won away at Piraeus 3-0 courtesy a Giroud hattrick, including a gem of an assist from our Costa Rican journeyman Joel Campbell.

However, our overall record away at Olympiacos is not at all convincing: 0-1 loss in 2009/2010, 1-3 loss in 2011/2012, and 1-2 loss in 2012/13. Last season in the Europa League we had of course, won away 1-0 in the first leg before we Arsenalized ourselves at home. 

Given our current league standing, and our impressive skills at manufacturing novel ways of throwing away points — despite an upturn in performance and result since the festive period – the Europa League remains the much likelier route to get back to Champions League. Last year’s successful run to the FA cup victory can act both as an inspiration and blueprint for the team to progress through this competition. 

With the North London Derby at the weekend sandwiched between the two legs of this crucial tie against Olympiacos, Mikel will need to rotate and balance his squad to optimize individual and collective performances. Olympiacos is currently sitting at the top of the Greek Super League, with a 16 points lead over the runners-up Aris and AEK Athens, so they can definitely afford to put complete focus on these two matches and take their weekend league match relatively lightly. 

Olympiacos is managed by Pedro Martins who was also the manager in their ties against us last season. They generally shape up in either a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 formations with focus on overloading through the middle with the fullbacks providing width on the flanks. They also use a rapid switch of flanks very effectively to create 1v1 situations where tricky dribblers like Mathieu Valbuena becomes particularly dangerous. Their fullbacks and wingers are very adept at delivering high quality crosses into the box for strikers like El-Arabi to attack. 

At the base of Olympiacos’ midfield the familiar face of Yann M’Vila – who at one point of time was consistently being linked with us – reads the game well and plays the key organizer role. And of course, at the center of their defense we have ex-Arsenal Sokratis Papastathopoulos, or Papa to us Arsenal supporters. In his stint with us he might not have become the defensive lynchpin that many of us had hoped for when he had joined us from Dortmund, but he is a fierce competitor and well capable of using his strength and experience to marshal the back four efficiently. I am sure he will relish the challenge of facing against his old friend Aubameyang. 

The tactics to overload the flanks using the fullbacks makes Olympiacos vulnerable against rapid counterattacks, and I think we will be better served opting for speed and penetration down the wings even at the expense of a bit of technical security, especially given the value of away goals. I would keep Saka (who still looked a bit fatigued away at Burnley) and Emile Smith-Rowe rested and fresh for the weekend derby, and Willian and Lacazette too earning a break to contribute to the weekend where a much more tactical approach focusing on technical security will be key. My preferred starting line-up against Olympiacos will be     

Leno

Cedric – Luiz – Mari – Tierney

Partey – Ceballos

Pépé – Ødegaard– Martinelli 

Aubameyang 

However, I think Arteta will be a little bit more cautious and will put his faith in players he has been using more:

Leno

Cedric – Luiz – Mari – Tierney

Partey – Xhaka

Pépé – Ødegaard– Saka

Aubameyang 

We should try to play on the front foot from the beginning and getting an early goal to then create a perfect set-up for subsequent counter-attacks will be ideal. I am going with a bold prediction of 3-1 win for us.

Come on Arsenal!

Today’s match versus Burnley brings back reminiscences of the second match I ever attended at Highbury in the 1968-69 season.  My first match two week’s earlier on 1^st February had resulted in a one all draw with Nottingham Forest and I was already sufficiently smitten that my mother had already given up the ghost of opposing me being present at my new spiritual home to see Arsenal v Burnley on 15^th February 1969. I had no clue as to where Burnley was situated but I had already become the sort of obsessive to have memorised the names of all the stadia in Division One, as it was in those days. Turf Moor, had to me, conjured up some romantic Brontë-esque vision of a un-tamed, northern, brooding landscape of desolation and fog.  My Highbury was more akin to the setting of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma:  elegant, urbane and charming.  In fact, if you remove the word ‘romantic’ from my above preconception it wasn’t completely wide of the mark, as outlined so well by Bathgooner’s excellent match preview for today’s fixture!  That day, the ‘foreign’ members of the Arsenal team came from north of the border (and even Bob Wilson being Scottish seemed a bit of a stretch to me at the time) and I don’t recall much more about the game other than I was by now completely and utterly in love with every team member having witnessed my first Arsenal win of two goals to nil with both goals coming from a blue and white besocked Bobby Gould.

To be honest, I had to look up who the goalscorer was on the day although two things I do remember were that Burnley’s star player, Ralph Coates, seemed to me to be old enough to be my grandfather and that I also recall feeling rather perturbed about Arsenal’s blue and white socks being part of our kit in contrast to our beloved red and white.  Little did I realise that this would be a gentle precursor of future worse kit horrors to come.

So, fast forwarding to Burnley versus Arsenal 2021, would there be repeat of 2-0 to the Arsenal, as predicted by Martin Keown prior to the match as well as Bathgooner’s suggested punt on the ‘holic pound in his match report?  With five changes made from our defeat of Leicester, with rotation necessary due to four difficult games looming in the next nine days who would have predicted Chambers being slotted in at right back?  Xhaka’s presence on the first team sheet seems to be made in indelible ink, and has been under the previous three managers irrespective as to what the fixture list throws up, but more on him later.  Before the game started, I jotted down that Kevin Friend would be the VAR adjudicator – unfortunately, a sign of the times as VAR seems to play as big a role in the settling of matches these days as the sides playing.  Just as I was celebrating the first five minutes at not conceding an early goal as we have been wont to do, we went one better as Willian drove through the centre of midfield, sending a pass out wide to Aubameyang on the left who with a couple of step overs shot low into the left hand corner squeezing the ball under Pope, the Burnley keeper.  Early dominant possession and pressure from Arsenal had resulted in an unusually early goal for a change.  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that – for obvious reasons it would turn out!

Arsenal continued to dominate but their common ailment of profligacy in front of goal continued;  Aubameyang had two chances one of which was blocked with the other one finding the side netting before presenting Saka with a glorious opportunity that one would normally bet on him taking.  Unfortunately, the ball seemed to arrive on Saka’s weaker right foot and he was unable to take advantage.  Ominously, it felt like an opportunity lost as Arsenal failed to convert their clear dominance into goals.  Partey also shot over the bar after being lined up by Odegaard on 28 minutes.  With ten minutes to go in the first half, Arsenal were comfortably in charge and with Burnley showing little or no threat, the inevitable happened with Arsenal’s common predilection towards self destruction.  With Arsenal playing out from the back with Burnley pressing, Leno passed the ball out to Xhaka who often displays a penchant for playing risky balls across the box.  On this occasion, his attempted pass to David Luiz struck Chris Woods’ hip diverting the ball past Leno for an undeserved Burnley equaliser.  Judging by Chris Wood’s reaction, Burnley couldn’t believe their luck.  So, that was the end of any prediction or repeat of a two nil win to the Arsenal.  It was hard not to believe that we wouldn’t pay the price for the error and while it might be easy to point the finger of blame at Xhaka, Leno was also guilty of not clearing the ball and there seems to be too many Arsenal players capable of making regularly unforced and costly errors.  For Xhaka, you could read Cedric.  Or Luiz? Or?

With the momentum lost, Arsenal struggled to make an impact early in the second half and were now looking bereft of any creativity.  In the 62nd minute, the lightweight Odegaard was replaced by Lacazette, and in the 66th minute a further change was made with Pepe replacing Willian. However, the real impact substitute would turn out to be Pieters, coming on in the 63^rd minute for Burnley’s Taylor, who would be involved in the most significant and dramatic deciding factors of the game, two of them involving the hapless Pepe.  The first incident involved Pepe twisting and turning in the box with the ball bouncing up to hit Pieters’ arm on two occasions.  The first claim for a penalty looked dubious but the second was a clear case with Pieters extending his arm to deflect the ball away.  Even Peter Walton,  BT Sport’s former referee commentator and no friend of Arsenal, could not explain away VAR’s and Kevin Friend’s decision of ‘no penalty’.  Insult was almost added to injury when Pieters let fly from 30 yards resulting in a sensational tip over the bar by Leno.  Burnley had started to play.  With 10 minutes to go, Pepe managed to miss a ‘sitter’ resulting from a low cross from Tierney in the box; the sort of spurned chance designed to make his transfer fee seem ever more ludicrous.  Pepe was involved in the next controversial incident when his shot hit the omnipresent arm of Pieters yet again.  The referee was quick with his decision: a red card and a penalty but VAR was quick to reverse it.  No wonder I jotted down Kevin Friend’s name at the start of the match as VAR picked up yet another Man of the Match award!  It was probably a correct decision in this instance but I am in no mood to side with it!  After Spurs’ ludicrous escape of a penalty against Fulham earlier in the week, that’s two points gained for Spurs and two lost for Arsenal due to VAR lottery decisions which does not make for a happy weekend.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, Arsenal did not show sufficient urgency until it was too late and there was to be no happy ending with Ceballos hitting the post after a game of pin ball in the box in the dying minutes.  As we have witnessed all too often with this side, Arsenal threw their opportunity for three points well and truly away and, on this occasion, there was no Bobby Gould with his blue and white socks to rescue them.

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Burnley, oh Burnley! That bucolic spot! Where warm Westerlies blow cumulus clouds across the Costa Hibernica to deposit nutrient rain on lush meadows beside the confluence of the Rivers Calder and Brun in a valley beneath Pendle Hill. There, itinerant Mesolithic Britons knapped flints and incoming Neolithic farmers built tumuli and stone circles. Seek not lush banks and braes today, stranger. A few millennia bring changes!

The agricultural village of Brun Lea grew around an early Anglo-Saxon religious foundation to become a prosperous market town and weaving centre. From the late eighteenth century Brun Lea underwent a trajectory epitomising Britain’s industrial revolution. Cotton mills (no doubt, dark and Satanic), iron foundries (certainly Satanic), machine shops and coal mines were developed. Canal and railway links eastwards and westwards facilitated growth. These concerns generated much local wealth in the nineteenth century (check out the Derbyshire origins of the Hill Wood fortune) including an ambitious new football club but also shocking deprivation. The town reached its zenith in terms of wealth, population and power-looms circa 1911. From WWI onwards, it shared the long economic decline of conurbations based on cotton, textiles and heavy industries. 

That’s all very well but what about the football, I hear you say! 

Burnley FC was founded four years before the Arsenal and has played at Turf Moor since 1883. The club was one of twelve founder members of the Football Association in 1888 but has had only two periods of top-flight success. Burnley has won the First Division twice, in 1920-21 and 1959-60, each closely related to runners-up spots (1919-20 & 1961-62). The latter period included a European Cup QF appearance in 1960-61 and an FA Cup Final appearance in 1961-62. From the late 50’s to the early 70’s, under legendary chairman Bob Lord, a local butcher, Burnley were hailed as one of the most progressive clubs in England for their youth policy, scouting system and purpose-built training ground. The names Jimmy Adamson and Jimmy McIlroy from their early 60’s side may ring bells for readers of a certain vintage. I remember a free-flowing side from the late 60’s with Willie Morgan, Ralph Coates and Andy Lochhead up front. In the 70’s the club’s fortunes declined and Burnley plummeted through all four tiers of the Football League, avoiding relegation to the Conference only on the final day of the 1986-87 season. The benefit of this peripatetic history is not merely an archive of nationwide curry shops sure to make C100’s mouth water but it provided the distinction of being one of only five sides to have won all four professional divisions of the Football League. 

Burnley’s other distinction in the record books was to hold, from 1920-21, the longest unbeaten run (30 games) in a single league season until it was bettered by a club dear to your heart in 2003-04. Another piece of Burnley trivia that might interest denizens of this ‘bar’ is their promotion of a unique tipple said to be uniquely available at Turf Moor. ‘Béné and Hot’ has been served at Turf Moor since it was brought back from Normandy by surviving members of the East Lancashire Regiment who had found it restorative in the trenches of WWI. Apparently over 30 bottles are sold at each home game making Burnley FC one of the world’s biggest sellers of Bénédictine! Who’da thunk it? Flat caps, whippets, black puddings and Bénédictine! As to player links, I know of only one Burnley alumnus who played for the Arsenal in the modern era. A very fine gentleman, loyal servant and committed Gooner he is too.

Today’s hosts are a very different side from the teams of Burnley’s halcyon years. Sean Dyche is, in some respects, their Arsene Wenger, achieving Premiership status in 2013-14, in his first full season in charge with a small squad, bouncing straight back in 2015-16 after relegation and keeping them in the Premiership ever since, apparently spending just £135 million since promotion. In 2018-19 he took Burnley into Europe for the first time in 51 years via a seventh-place finish. 

However, Dyche’s achievements on a limited budget are his only similarity to Arsene. In all other respects, he is a laryngitic disciple of the Odobonid with precisely the same temperament and football philosophy. Like Fat Sam’s Bolton, Burnley play right on the edge of or indeed, outside the Laws of the Game to foil their opposition and rely on long balls and ‘putting it in the mixer’. Pretty, they are not. Yet, they do have some talented players. Pope is a decent keeper, perhaps England’s best. Tarkowski is a big strong centre back, likely to move on in the summer. Mee, their captain, organises their defence well and always gives 100%. Westwood is a hard-working midfielder with an eye for a pass and Barnes and McNeill can cause defences problems on their day. In summary, Burnley epitomise direct, tough & gritty, no-nonsense, Northern English culture without frills, pretentions or grace.

Our record against Burnley was very respectable until our last meeting on 13 December 2020. During this season’s awful late autumn/early winter slump we managed to lose 0-1 to a late Aubameyang own goal after creating and spurning the vast majority of chances. Critically, we also had Xhaka sent off for a foolish and totally unnecessary altercation with Westwood. That was Burnley’s first win against us since a League Cup tie at Turf Moor in 2008 (only our second meeting in over 32 years due to their extended tour of English football’s nether reaches) and their first League victory over the Arsenal since 1974. Post-match, Dyche and his players who had clearly set out to achieve a goalless draw appeared astonished (and of course gleeful) to take all three points. Throughout our history, we have met Burnley 110 times before this match, winning 54, drawing 22 and losing 34. We have an even better Premiership record against Burnley since they first achieved that status: a run of 11 straight victories is bookended by a draw at Turf Moor in 2009 and a 2020 draw at their place plus that December defeat. It is time we regained our Indian sign over them.

What about the good guys? 

Mikel Arteta will choose his starting eleven with one eye on our forthcoming treadmill of fixtures and consideration of recently tired legs. However, this week he also has the rare luxury of a full week for R&R and time for tactical work on the training ground. I expect Burnley to concede possession and adopt the same low block tactic that earned them three points in December and I expect the boss to select his team accordingly. We will have loads of possession and will have to find a way to unlock Burnley’s well organised defence and to pull their defenders around with our mobility. The challenge Burnley offers requires all available creative players and the best finishers. ESR’s injury at Lesta will probably rule him out while the performances of Cédric, Pépé and Willian may put them into contention. Hence, I expect a starting eleven akin to:

Leno

Cédric – Luiz – Marì – Tierney

Partey – Xhaka

Saka – Ødegaard – Pépé

Aubameyang

The Holic Pound? I expect our players to strive to make amends for that shocker in December and to produce the application and determination to earn all three points. Burnley don’t score many goals themselves but will make us work very hard to hit the net so I don’t expect a high scoring game. A 2-0 for the Southern Softies seems a possible outcome but the odds are parsimonious at 13/2. If you’re optimistic that our boys have rediscovered the way to goal, 3-0 is available at 11/1 and 4-0 is available at a tempting 20/1. Has this Arsenal team turned the corner sufficiently to thrash a poor team properly? We shall see.

Enjoy the match Holics, wherever and however you access it.