Goonerholics Forever

Part 3 – The Basque Saviour?

Mikel Arteta was a well-timed present from the Arsenal hierarchy to a disgruntled fan base. He was appointed just before Christmas and his first game in charge was at Bournemouth on Boxing Day. For us Holics it was a sombre time. After several months of increasingly poor health we heard on Christmas Day, of all days, that Dave Faber, Holic to us all, had passed away. So many of us felt a real sense of loss and sadness. As a new era was unfolding at Arsenal, so we had to come to terms with life without the insights, wisdom and geniality of a great man. He would have pooh poohed such sentiment and focused on the game at Bournemouth but boy did we miss him. A number of us decided to continue his admirable tradition and this blog is the result. 

Many of us on here saw, even in a rather frenetic game at the Vitality a sign of greater belief and organisation. In Arteta’s second, at home against Chelsea, a team that would loom large in his life over the rest of the season, we saw an excellent first-half performance followed by a collapse in the second half, where errors from Mustafi and Leno cost us a rather undeserved defeat. On New Years Day we welcomed Manchester United to the Grove. In the first half we played them off the pitch and led 2-0. In the second we managed the match beautifully and flattened the game in a very professional style. Belief coursed through the club again and it was possible to divine a sense of direction for the first time since Arsène was in his pomp. After disposing of Leeds narrowly in the FA Cup there followed a series of draws, most notable of which was a fight back at Stamford Bridge where, down to ten men after Mustafi sold Luiz down the river (penalty concession and red card followed), we trailed twice but saw a spectacular Martinelli equaliser followed by an unlikely late goal from Hector Bellerin that gave us the draw. After the fairly moribund draw at home to Sheffield United a number of us met to formalise plans for the blog and enjoy a delightful evening of Gooner fellowship despite the absence of our friend and mentor.

Progress at Bournemouth in the Cup was followed in February by a gradual improvement in the League and three successive home wins. During this period we won a difficult Europa League knockout tie with Olympiakos and looked enthusiastically to the second leg: a momentous game in more ways than one.

The threat of Covid-19 was becoming ever more real and after the game it was revealed that the Olympiakos president had tested positive for the virus. That was not the only big shock on the night, as we were taken into extra time and after a spectacular equaliser from our talisman Auba we conceded at the death to go out on away goals, our first defeat of 2020.

A few days later Arteta tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of our game at the Etihad. Football in Britain was immediately postponed until further notice and the world took stock of a raging pandemic. Football was very far from our minds for some time to come.

Part 4 – Could we finish with a flourish?

Football resumed behind closed doors on 17^th June with Manchester City welcoming Arsenal. It was actually the second game post-resumption, the first seeing the Villa keeper drag a ball from almost a yard behind his line to earn the point that ultimately rescued Villa and relegated Bournemouth. VAR, the innovation intended to provide fairer and clearer decisions, was not able to be used for a reason which was not properly understood by anyone before or since. VAR had been introduced in August and had done little to endear itself to Arsenal fans who usually saw us on the wrong end of decisions. In truth, VAR was not needed much at the Etihad. Arsenal had two players seriously injured in the first half, then saw substitute David Luiz concede a goal on halftime with an amateurish error…and then (there’s a theme here) concede a penalty with a stupid challenge. When we lost to Brighton after leading through a brilliant Pepe goal with Maupay, who had previously challenged Leno and caused him to seriously injure his knee, scoring at the death, our cup runneth over. It was a significant game as Emi Martinez came on to begin a fabulous run in goal in unlikely circumstances and Matteo Guendouzi (very understandably in my view)  had a flick at Maupay after the game. It was probably his last action in an Arsenal shirt. In the stand, sheltering under an umbrella, the parasitic Mesut Özil sat as an unused substitute. He had previously refused to follow almost all his teammates in taking a 12.5% pay cut to help the club through the challenges of the pandemic, and seemed happy to pick up his huge paycheque and not worry about being called on to play. Arteta, ostensibly, had problems.

They eased after a comfortable win at Southampton, and we progressed into the semi-finals of the Cup with a win at Bramall Lane secured by a late strike from the impressive Dani Ceballos. After despatching Norwich to open July we secured one of our very best wins of the season at Molineux, and may well have prevailed over Leicester at home had Nketiah not been dismissed for a challenge that was heavily debated in this bar. I thought the red card very harsh. A week later Trent Alexander-Arnold was guilty of something very similar as we came from behind to beat the champions Liverpool at the Grove. He received a yellow card. So much for VAR providing consistency. Sadly, in-between these matches we lost the North London Derby after leading through a Lacazette rocket, only to see an appalling Kolasinac backpass gift a very average Totts team an immediate equaliser. Alderweireld headed the winner with ten minutes left.

Few Gooners approached our Cup semi-final tie with Manchester City at Wembley with any optimism, but a really disciplined performance garnished by two superb Auba finishes gave us an impressive and deserved victory. Luiz, so awful at the Etihad was also superb as we repelled everything they threw at us.

Our remaining league games were something of an anti-climax, as we were very flat in losing to Villa and having lost a Europa place through our  league placing finished by relegating Watford with a fortuitous 3-2 win.

And so to Wembley and the Cup final, the denouement of our season. Could we reprise the City performance, or would the season end in another disappointing defeat to Chelsea as we had suffered in Baku?

Of course we know the answer now and it proved a very happy ending. What was most notable was the ability of Arteta to alter tactics after a torrid first twenty minutes and allow us to dominate the rest of the first half. We saw big performances from some of our most controversial players in Luiz and Xhaka but as ever we owed a huge debt to Aubameyang, one of the finest strikers we have seen even in this club’s illustrious history. For us to maintain the momentum Arteta has created we must retain Aubameyang’s services and also persuade Real Madrid to let us keep the excellent and much improved Ceballos. But we have a core of excellent young players, especially Saka, Martinelli, and particularly Tierney, who impressed enormously as the season moved towards its climax.

Much remains to be done, it always does  at the end of the season, with players needed to be re-signed or moved on, and we hold our breath as we await Auba’s decision. The roller coaster analogy is something of a cliché but is apt for this most extraordinary of seasons. At least at the end of this ride we have a sense of direction not apparent to me as I set out from Norfolk almost a year ago. It has been a marathon, one none of us hope ever to repeat, but that marathon has ended in an unlikely garland, the fourteenth such one for our club. If the trophy isn’t irreparably damaged let’s hope it kick-starts a new and very exciting era.

On a personal note I have been delighted to deepen my personal connection with some quite delightful companions; many of the denizens of this bar. Extremely sociable, caring and intelligent a bond has deepened that I believe would delight Dave Faber, and which has been a great comfort to me personally in a very testing year. Let us hope our futures are bright and positive and that we can enjoy great fulfillment through our wonderful club.

When it was decided that I should write the initial end-of-season review for a blog created in mid-season following the death of our great friend and inspiration, Dave “Goonerholic” Faber, I did, as is my wont, consider a number of ways of approaching it.

Simple chronology would be a bit bland for a season that lasted almost a complete year and the reality was that the whole tenor of the piece would be determined by what happened in the very last game…the FA Cup Final against Chelsea. I’m sure anyone reading this will know that outcome but let’s park that moment until later. I’ve written a two-part review, each part divided into two sections – effectively before and after Arteta, because I think that is the right way to tell a very complicated story. Let’s begin back last August with a bit of context.

Part One – The Fall of Emery

As I chugged towards London from my holiday home in Norfolk my mood was optimistic. Arsenal had begun the season with a solid 1-0 win at  Newcastle and were facing Burnley in our first game at the Grove. The previous season had ended on a thoroughly depressing note with defeat in the final in Baku, not just a defeat but a chaotic, depressing and mindless capitulation.

Action had been taken including the loan transfer of Dani Ceballos from Real Madrid, the acquisitions of Kieran Tierney and David Luiz on the last day of the window and the little heralded transfer of a young Brazilian, Gabriel Martinelli, facilitated by our new Technical Director Edu, one of the Invincibles. The big deal of our window was the £72 million purchase of Nicolas Pepe from Lille, a winger with a spectacular resume and a deadly left foot. Some of this was financed at the eleventh hour by the extraordinary sale of Alex Iwobi to Everton for a sum in excess of £30 million. Consider that the sale of Iwobi enabled us to finance the purchases of Tierney and Martinelli when you try to decide if last summer’s trading was a success! In all we parted company with 17 players at various levels of the club. Tidy housekeeping although we were still burdened with the extraordinary salary of Mesut Özil.

I returned a few hours later reasonably content with a hard-fought 2-1  victory in which Ceballos had run midfield in a very promising home debut and Aubameyang had done what he does best with a sharply-taken winner. When I reached Norwich I ran into ecstatic Canaries revelling in victory over Newcastle and a Pukki hat-trick. That memory shows how transient sporting happiness can be.

We went to Anfield the following week reasonably content with our lot as joint-leaders of the division only to see Emery set the team up in an extraordinary way to combat the newly- crowned European champions. We decided to give the two best attacking full-backs in Europe free rein to attack us out wide but countered this by putting Pepe and Aubameyang upfront to test the speed of Liverpool’s central defence. That might just  have worked if we had gone long and hadn’t tried to play through the thunderous gegenpress developed by Klopp, which eventually overwhelmed us. Add to that a stupid penalty conceded by Luiz (one of five during the season) and our goose was cooked. Ironically Pepe and Aubameyang had missed good chances early on but we got back into the game only when we completely rejigged the formation and our chances of any sort of result had long disappeared. That result started a number of supporters (myself included) wondering what Emery was really about. A 2-2 draw in the North London Derby saw us concede a poor goal and a totally unnecessary penalty after a horrendous Xhaka challenge but respond with a spirited comeback and a beautiful link-up between Guendouzi and Aubameyang for the equaliser. Gooner concern intensified in our next game away to Watford where 2-0 up at the interval we had to watch open-mouthed in the second half as Watford , who had zero points up to that moment, completely took over the game. Another penalty conceded by Luiz and a tragi-comic brainfart by the defence playing out from the back saw the game end in a draw and had it continued much longer we would undoubtedly have lost. Concern intensified still further after an interview with Captain Xhaka where he conceded that at 2-0 up at half-time against the league’s bottom side the team were ‘scared’.

A series of better results followed including our entry into Europe where we won our first three games. This included a late comeback at home in October to Vitoria Guimares where Pepe scored two sumptuous late free-kicks in front of no less than Scruzgooner. The chance to meet him and Countryman100 that evening was one of the high spots for me of what was about to prove a rollercoaster season. One clear bright spot was the emergence of Gabriel Martinelli as an exciting and prolific young striker. This young man who was supposed to be one for the future, started to indicate that he might have a significant part to play in the present with seven goals in five starts. Results were decent but a 1-0 setback at Bramall Lane against a very well- organised Sheffield United side highlighted a depressing lack of creativity.

Rumblings about Emery’s ability to take the team forward intensified. While results had been generally reasonable the quality of football was depressing and team morale seemed to start to suffer. We surrendered leads at home against Palace and Wolves and, in the former fixture had  ‘Xhakagate’. As we struggled to restore the lead after scoring twice in the first ten minutes and then being pegged back, Emery substituted Xhaka to the approval of the home crowd who hooted their derision. Xhaka clearly swore at the crowd, ripped off his armband and made his disgust at the crowd’s reaction clearly known. I watched the game with GSD and we were stunned by this display, especially as he was the club captain. It hinted at deeper problems in the dressing-room, and Emery dropped the Swiss international for the next five games. There seemed no way back for a man who tended to polarise opinion between those who couldn’t stand him and those who disliked him even more than that! Sport writes surprising scripts, and the rehabilitation of Xhaka has been one of the most dramatic stories in the Arsenal season.

Fan dissatisfaction was growing and for me reached a head when the late November home game against Southampton saw us give what I still believe to be the most inept defensive display I have ever seen from an Arsenal side. It really was that bad. A bemused Southampton fan I met on the tube after the game asked me how Southampton hadn’t scored at least six or seven goals. The answer was a combination of Leno and their appalling finishing. A last-minute Lacazette goal greeted with complete silence gave us a most undeserved point in a 2-2 draw.

So widespread was the disillusion that a change seemed inevitable. While there was some disagreement in Goonerholic’s bar, the majority favoured Emery leaving as soon as possible. Others felt he should be judged when he had a full defence to work with as he had been denied the services of his two first-choice full-backs, Bellerin and Tierney, and Rob Holding at centre back. The difficulty was that Arsenal were losing touch with not only the Champions League places but the Europa League as well. In fact, the spectre of relegation would start to loom if Arsenal continued to defend as we had against Southampton.

On the following Thursday we played Eintracht Frankfurt at home needing only to win to qualify for the group stage. I took my brother-in-law, a long-suffering Fulham fan, to the match. My usual travelling colleagues had warned him not to expect much but as Eintracht took the lead with about fifteen minutes to go he conceded that he had absolutely no clue how poorly Arsenal were playing. As the whistle blew on a 2-1 defeat I watched a dejected Emery tramp  towards the tunnel knowing that I would never see him in charge of an Arsenal team again. The following morning he was relieved of his duties and Freddie Ljungberg, another Invincible, placed in charge as caretaker manager.

The Emery era was at an end after less than a season and a half. He had emerged as something of a ‘bolter’ in Summer 2018 after it looked as if Arsenal were minded to appoint Mikel Arteta. The ministrations of his agent Canales, a friend of Raul Sanllehi, earned him the chance to impress the Arsenal selection committee and as the safer option he was appointed to fill the very big shoes finally left empty by Arsène Wenger.

Early indications were promising and in April 2019 we were in a superb position to qualify for the Champions League, possibly in third place, and we were poised to take part in the Europa League Final having vanquished Napoli and Valencia on their own grounds. Then came an inexplicable collapse in the league when Emery’s rotational abilities came into question; this was followed by the debacle of Baku. I am told that the idea of a new contract for Emery was floated in the close season but vetoed by the Arsenal board. That saved a pretty penny in extra compensation down the line.

Whilst as a poor linguist myself I am in no position to criticise someone who fails to come to terms with a language problem I always felt that the rather haphazard and often chaotic communication of Emery mirrored a confusion in his approach to the job. A decent man, he has resurfaced at Villareal and most decent Gooners wish him better fortune there than he enjoyed at Arsenal.

Part 2 – We love you Freddie

I have many memories of Freddie Ljungberg, nearly all of them immensely positive, but I’d never expected to see him shivering on the early December touchline overseeing an underwhelming home defeat to Brighton in his first home game in charge, having drawn at Norwich in his first match where we came from behind twice thanks to an Aubameyang brace. While Freddie of the red hair became an unlikely interim manager, and certainly the first ex-underwear model to take charge of our great club, his work with many of the younger players and his link to happier and more successful times made him a sensible stop-gap. That he was likely to be no more was evidenced by that Brighton defeat and a subsequent humiliation at home by Manchester City who had Mikel Arteta sitting on the touchline.

Freddie did shepherd us through to the knockout stage of the Europa on a chaotic night where a late Frankfurt collapse saw us top the group after we equalised late on in Belgium against Standard Liege. That seemed to sum up a very unusual and uneven qualifying campaign which had begun with a 3-0 win in Frankfurt. That encouraging win was a match notable for an excellent display by the reserve goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez and a debut goal and stellar performance by young Bukayo Saka who began to emerge as one of the few success stories of the season.

Saka was required to deputise for some time at left back for Tierney, who dislocated his shoulder in a morale-boosting 3-1 win at West Ham where we had trailed at the interval. Martinelli and Pepe (with a cracker) put us ahead and Aubameyang clinched a game which, if we’d lost, would have seen us dragged into a relegation battle. After the subsequent City defeat Arsenal officials travelled to Arteta’s house where a deal was agreed to bring him to Arsenal. Freddie’s last game in charge was one of the worst Arsenal have taken part in during recent seasons, the pre-Christmas match at Everton – a stultifying, goalless draw. Everton themselves had recruited as manager the eminent Carlo Ancelotti. Many of the more risk-averse drinkers in ‘Holic’s bar favoured the sort of experience that Ancelotti could bring. Others felt that Arteta offered an exciting new vision of what Arsenal could be. Could he even steer us to a trophy this season? Surely that would be being too greedy.

So we waved goodbye to Freddie after a six game interregnum. In the circumstances he had done a creditable job but was clearly not experienced enough to be a long-term solution. Would appointing an even younger man who had never been in full charge of a club not be an even bigger gamble? We were about to find out.