Goonerholics Forever

The first league visit of Ipswich to the Emirates was not one they or most of the sixty thousand spectators will remember with any fondness. Even as an eye witness I am starting to find the game fading in my memory but the important facts are that Arsenal beat Ipswich and moved into second place in the table tonight.

My report will not follow the usual format which describes the ebb and flow of play in some detail because there was very little ebb and flow to the game particularly in the first half. Arsenal controlled possession to an almost unprecedented degree in the first forty five, having close to 85% of the ball and over the ninety minutes, having 68% of the possession. Raya didn’t make a save in the ninety minutes and the three shots that Ipswich generated were all blocked by the Arsenal defence. The nearest they came to threatening the Arsenal goal was in the very first minute as the strains of North London Forever were ringing out, Delap almost got control of the ball in the six yard box but Arsenal scrambled it clear.

Arsenal had picked Lewis-Skelly at left-back in the staring eleven and he played the whole game. Kai Havertz and Jesùs interchanged in a sort of striker/false nine combo and Martinelli replaced Saka on the right with Trossard on the left. 

The early exchanges took place in the foggiest conditions I had seen for a while. I had anticipated a special night from the appearance of two legends – the estimable C100 who uses the same entrance as me and the appearance before the game of the much-loved Santi Cazorla. I missed most of Santi’s interview but the deep well of affection for him was very obvious from the crowd reaction. He is one of the most talented natural footballers I have ever seen at the Stadium of Stone and is still plying his trade, at the age of forty, with Real Oviedo in the Spanish Second Division. How sad and unfair that in such a long career we were deprived of his services for so long. 

Santi would have been very useful in helping to provide a creative spark for Arsenal tonight. Despite overwhelming possession the absence of Bukayo Saka who will surely miss the majority of this season was keenly felt. Arsenal began slowly and their first effort was a run and shot from distance from the excellent Timber. The Ipswich goalkeeper, who played well tonight, saved it and then watched a Rice drive whistle over. Ødegaard prompted and probed but when our goal came it was very simple. A long Ødegaard cross reached Trossard on the left  who dinked a ball into the middle for Kai Havertz to nip in and turn the ball home. 

Arsenal 1 Ipswich 0 – Havertz, 23 minutes 

The rest of the half saw us continue our overwhelming territorial superiority but to no great effect. Jesùs had a goal rightly disallowed for offside  but despite a coordinated team performance and a press and particularly a counter-press to which Ipswich had no answer, a rather flat first half ended with us only one goal to the good.

Half-time: Arsenal 1 Ipswich 0 

We hoped for better in the second half  and there was greater intensity about Arsenal’s attacking with Ipswich being penned in for large parts of the second period. Muric, the Kosovo national keeper, made several fine low saves most particularly from a Rice volley direct from an Ødegaard corner. Our Norwegian captain is desperate to score but miscued or failed to beat Muric several times. Gabriel headed a superb Rice corner wide from close range and Havertz missed a close range chance, not being able to direct a flick-on beyond Muric.

This was frustrating, not just because it kept Ipswich in a match they had no right to be in, but also because it illustrated how thin our attacking resources are. All of our fit front-line forwards were on the pitch and we desperately need reinforcement in the attacking area. It is inconceivable that we can successfully get through the season with the attacking resources we currently have. If Saka is lost to us this season we need more penetration on the wings and we ideally need someone who can be a predator in the opposition box. Jesùs was admirable in his work rate. Havertz played excellently in both the roles he had but we lack the  attacking resources of Liverpool who have Salah, Nunes, Jota, Gakpo and Diaz to throw at the opposition and their midfielders are likely to score more goals than ours too.  So far this season our midfielders have notched five goals between them and one was a penalty.

We are also much more potent away from home where we have scored five or more goals seven times by my reckoning. I fully expect us to beat the three promoted sides much more easily than we beat them at home but low blocks and organised defences will be a common site in N5 for the rest of the season and we have to find a way around them. 

It should also be said that we have the best defence in the league, have recorded four successive clean sheets at home, have got the only unbeaten home record in the league and have a number of admirable performers. Gabriel and Saliba regularly get flowers but Timber is also a terrific player and a huge asset. Tonight Rice was measured and prescient, putting out potential fires before they could begin and young Lewis-Skelly,  two rushed clearances aside, played extremely well and does not look remotely out of place at this level. But with no Saka or Sterling we have only Nwaneri to bring into our forward line.

A flat game ended …flatly, but the points were safely secured and tellingly Arteta made only two substitutions, both fairly late on, for Jesùs and Rice. Was he sensibly shepherding resources  sending a message to the boardroom or was he trying to give our more delicate defensive players more respite?

Full-time: Arsenal 1 Ipswich 0 

Whatever the case, we were deserved winners and should not beat ourselves up too much from this point on if we secure the necessary points. This can still be a wonderful season but it is unlikely to be so if we cannot increase our attacking threat. With no Technical Director that is quite a challenge for our management team.

Hello all, Dino here, and may I welcome you all to another match report from your official Crystal Palace correspondent!

This afternoon I watched from the safety of the sofa as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace for the second time in four days to keep ourselves in third place. The four-goal margin of victory has done no harm to our goal difference, and we will hope this week can be used to build some momentum as the games come thick and fast over the festive period and into the New Year.

The team sheet dropped and Myles Lewis-Skelly was at left back, with Jesús up top and Havertz in midfield. Fair enough, it looked alright on paper and not bad on the pitch either; it only took six minutes for the resurgent Gabriel Jesús to open the scoring. Ødegaard opted to take a free kick on the left short instead of putting it in the mixer. We worked it out to Saka on the right who crossed it in. Martinelli made a great decoy run and big Gabi had stayed up and challenged for the ball which fell loose for the third of our Gabis to slot home. Nice.

Raya was generally good today, but he had a couple of dodgy moments, the first when he gave Partey a hospital pass in the box which a Palace player got to – fortunately it squirted wide.

It did seem to give them a boost though and a minute later they were level. They played through midfield too easily, Partey unable to get back to cover the space Rice would normally smother, before they found Sarr outside the box. Saliba backed off in an unimpressive piece of defending for a player of his quality, but the finish from the dangerous Sarr was wonderful, curling around Rayya into the side netting.

We took a mere three minutes to regain the lead, Partey controlling the ball after we swung in a corner before laying it off to Jesus to hit another unerring finish off the post despite having very little to aim at. He nailed that one and looks to have found some form just when we needed him to. He works so hard and has such a great attitude, it’s a pleasure to see him get the rewards.

Saka pulled up shortly after with what looked worryingly like a hamstring injury, so we brought on Trossard and switched Gabigol to the right. Timber got a yellow for taking too long over a long throw. He has to stop doing that. It gives us no advantage, it gets the crowd on our backs, and with the weak and incompetent referees we have in the PGMOL it gives them a reason to make decisions against us. MLS got a yellow for the same thing later in the game that I just don’t think he would have gotten if Hooper hadn’t reacted to the Palace fans who knew they could put the pressure on us from throw ins. Stop it, Timber!

Havertz scored to put us two goals up on 38 mins. Jesús had just failed to get his hat trick when a mistake put him free to run at the keeper but a touch onto his right foot instead of across the defender onto his left allowed the Palace man to nick it away. This time Martinelli played a great cross and Jesús made an excellent header which was unlucky to hit the post. Havertz was following in with a textbook bit of striker’s movement and he put the rebound away.

We lacked a bit of structure in midfield without Rice, as Havertz and Ødegaard left Partey alone at times, but we gained an extra man up top as Havertz made some devastating runs and added presence in the box from midfield. Something for Arteta to ponder, as there will be games and situations in games where this setup may be just what we need, sacrificing some defensive solidity for more firepower.

The second half started with a couple of good saves from Raya and the game settled into a rhythm. Palace are quite good, Sarr and Mateta have quality, I really like the unfussy Will Hughes who is just an accomplished PL player, and Guehi, Mitchell and Lerma are indicative of a solid team, even when Eze is injured and without the departed Olise. However, they found it tough to threaten us and we cruised through the half, making subs and getting a couple more goals as well as more control from the moment Rice and Calafiori came on for Havertz and MLS just shy of the hour mark.

Gabriel played a great ball over the top (do that more please!) to Trossard on the left. He cut back for Jesús, who had a great afternoon but should have scored his second hat-trick against Palace this week. Instead, he shot into the legs of Henderson from an unmarked position on the edge of the six-yard box. Happily, the ball came out to Rice, whose shot was going wide until Martinelli stabbed it in.

Eddie came on for Palace but did not manage to score this time. Calafiori had his ankle stamped on by Clyne and I thought he was going straight off (Calafiori, not Clyne, who got a yellow card, which equates his action as equally worthy of punishment as when Rice flicks a ball two yards) but he managed to play on. There was time for Rice to get his first PL goal of the season. Jesús worked hard to recycle possession, Calafiori played the ball into Rice just inside the area and he took a beautifully aware first touch to spin the ball into the space and finish really well into the far corner, despite a brush of the fingertips from Henderson in goal. That ended the scoring and we saw the game out without fuss.

So, it was another excellent result against Palace. We’ve scored 5 goals away 6 times this calendar year, the first time that has been done in the modern era, which makes it hard to understand how anyone is able to peddle a narrative about us struggling in front of goal. Not for me, Clive.

We will hold our breath on the injury to Saka but everything else was good today. Jesús looks back in form. Him, Rice and Martinelli all need to contribute more goals, so it was good for them to be on the scoresheet. Havertz will also benefit from a goal that keeps him ticking over, and another game where he didn’t have to play the full 90. Ødegaard needs more goals and assists too, but he was quietly excellent today, the oil in our engine à la Bobby Pires.

MLS looked like he was playing at the right level, which is pretty damn good for an 18-year-old midfielder playing left-back in the Premier League. Gabriel hit the bar from yet another corner and he will keep scoring goals – can he show his mate Big Willy Saliba how to channel his inner Hulk and get angry for corners?

The rest are just good players, even the ones, like Gabigol and Trossard, who aren’t in great form. This time of year is attritional, so we just need to keep going, keep picking up results and let the media overhype Liverpool whilst we do our thing.

The Opta ‘supercomputer’ thinks Liverpool have more than an 80% chance of winning the league. That’s the sort of stat I wanna hear more of. Just keep plugging away with that shtick Sky Sports. Oh yeah. Jamies (Redknapp and Carragher) don’t let anyone forget how good Liverpool are…

Come May, we will see who ends up where. Keep the faith.

Until next time, ‘holics.

My first visit to The Emirates this season threw up a somewhat strange game between Arsenal and Crystal Palace, although the result went the right way as we ran out 3-2 winners thanks to a second half hat-trick from Gabriel Jesus.

We lined up with Partey at right back and Timber next to him in on the right side of central defence. Kiwior partnered him and Kieran Tierney started at left back for the first time since God was in short trousers. It didn’t look terrible on paper, but it did not fill me with confidence either. My concern proved unfortunately well-founded when Palace punted a ball upfield and Kiwior failed to win his header, allowing Mateta to run through and hold him off, finishing into the bottom corner.

Much like against Fulham, we let the opposition score with their first and only sight of goal before we dominated the rest of the half without creating much in the way of proper opportunities. We looked a bit laboured and couldn’t get out of our own way.

Partey and Timber were on each other’s toes. The ball progression out to Sterling was too slow and I can see why he doesn’t bother making the runs in behind that he has built a career on when there is no-one interested in playing the pass to get him in. He was okay today, not awful but not adding much, although he had a great free kick well saved by Henderson, who also made a save in the second half when ‘Raz’ should probably have scored from a Tierney cross before hitting the bar with the rebound. The problem with him on the right wing is that we try to give him the ball in the same areas as we give it to Saka, without any attempt to play to his strengths. Frustrating all round.

Merino and Nwaneri were not on the same wavelength, so there was often no-one in central midfield as they both pulled wide or dropped deep. The former struggled to get in the game, the latter really hasn’t worked out how to be effective in our team and if the point of buying an established 28-year-old professional was to minimise the bedding in period then it has not come to fruition so far. Trossard was busy but wayward. KT3 was obviously a bit rusty, and he isn’t a stylistically good fit for this team anyway.

Jesus looked bereft and, in the flesh, I was seriously worried about him. He looked like he spent the day clinging to a shipwreck in the Atlantic before being airlifted to the ground at the last minute and shoved into his jersey. He was a shivering shadow of the bloke whose energy and hustle added so much when we signed him; all of the first half he looked like he needed wrapping up in one of those shiny blankets that paramedics give to people suffering from shock.

In short, it all looked a bit of a mess. However, it is worth noting that if Palace had not scored their only chance then the narrative would have been different. Sure, we weren’t clinical – Trossard firing over, final balls misplaced, and a series of corners and free kicks wasted – but we were in complete control and Palace could not lay a glove on us. When I write that an Arteta team looks a bit of a mess, I mean a helluva different thing to when I say that about an Emery team or a Ten Hag team.

Being inside the stadium, it was clear there was not much in the first half to get the fans going and it was a slightly tentative atmosphere that only ignited in bursts, as the crowd tried to raise the team, or were stung into a response by the numerous and excellent Palace fans who sat beneath me (club level in the Clock End) and did their team proud all evening.

Fortunately, the second half saw big improvements and the home faithful had much more to sing about. Ødegaard came on for the unlucky Nwaneri, while Partey came off for Saliba, with Timber shuffling out wide. This proved immediately successful as we came out of the blocks at pace, and we were level with ten minutes when our captain slipped the ball through for Jesus who took a great first touch that took him past the defender and dinked a deft finish to score a genuinely excellent goal. Everyone around me was chuffed for him – you could feel how much the crowd wanted him to do well.

Just before the hour mark Eddie Nketiah came on to generous applause and cries of ‘Eddie, Eddie!’ as Glassner decided he’d seen enough of Mateta against the imperious Saliba. Kiwior (who had settled well after his early error) also looked more assured next to the France International.

Jesus, now full of confidence, was put through by Trossard and the Brazilian turned smartly before his shot was deflected behind by Henderson. I saw Tierney pull up and reach for his hamstring a few seconds before he went down. I don’t know if he was injured or if it was just brought on by fatigue, but he was replaced by Lewis-Skelly and Saka came on for Sterling at the same time.

Jesus did not have long to wait for his next chance, put through on 72 minutes by a ruthless Saka before finding an emphatic finish into the bottom corner. He was marginally offside, but no-one in the ground had any inkling of that and there was no VAR to rule the goal out, so we could celebrate with abandon as soon as we saw the lino keep his flag down. Gotta say, that’s something I’ve missed.

Five minutes later, the game-changing Ødegaard put Jesus through to complete his hat-trick, running onto the ball from his own half and again finding the side-netting with the sort of finish we don’t always get from him but that he is eminently capable of.

There was time for Eddie to get one back for Palace, scoring just below me with a brilliant header that Saliba probably should have defended better. Frankly, I was not nervous at all, despite the raucous Palace fans below me who seemed to think this goal got them back in the tie. I gave Eddie a clap and watched calmly as we brought on Gabriel for Kiwior and saw the game out. Happily, this brought home a cheeky wager of mine on a 3-2 victory at 25/1. Pity it was only 10p!

So, we go through to a semi-final, a poor first half was nullified by Arteta when he got everything right in the second half, and Gabriel Jesus got a huge shot in the arm that we can only hope sets his season off.

Job done, and our attention now turns to the weekend when we try to take three points off the same opposition.

Until next time, holics.