{"id":10099,"date":"2024-09-23T12:26:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T11:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10099"},"modified":"2024-09-24T17:58:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T16:58:48","slug":"arsenal-and-city-go-to-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10099","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal and City go to war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The author at the Etihad (Image courtesy C100pix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was hammering with rain as we left Cambridgeshire on a dreich Sunday morning. The rain continued as we stopped for brunch (full English for me, a burger for my son) at the American diner near Newark on the A1. Suitably fuelled for a day at the football, we continued on our way, cutting across the top of the Peak District (with some stunning views) and into Manchester. Parked up 10 minutes from the away end, we made our way into the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were in the third tier at the Etihad and rather than climb all those steps I asked to use the lift as I had last year. The lift is shared with home fans and a well refreshed gaggle of City fans rushed into the lift just before the doors closed. I have mentioned before that the City fans are the lippiest on the circuit and the sight of me in my Arsenal scarf started them off. Three floors of \u201cbanter\u201d followed, the nicest which was \u201cyou\u2019re too old to be at football, why don\u2019t you just stay at home and die?\u201d Thanks for the advice lads, I\u2019ll take it under advisement. As you get out of the lift, you enter a City concourse and are led to the away one, attracting a few aggressive looks on the way (or so my so my son told me, I was oblivious). Into the ground proper, and a long climb up to row DD which proved to be the second row from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team made a couple of changes from Thursday, Calafiori for White and Trossard for Jesus. Right from the kick off Rodri and Havertz clashed, leaving Rodri clutching his face. Cheating little fuck. The tone was set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

City made a good and fast start. After nine minutes, Servino (who I really rate, they\u2019ve found one there) spun off Calafiori and made ground before playing Haaland in with a great ball. He adjusted his body position and toe poked it past Raya. Bugger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was all City in the first 20 minutes but then Rodri bumped into Partey and collapsed holding his knee. This time it was for real and he limped off to be replaced by Kovacic. One of several turning points in the game as from that point we had the better of the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We won a free kick in the centre circle. Walker dawdled getting back as he shouted instructions to his team and Partey pinged it over his head to Martinelli in space. He got to the bye line cut it back to Calafiori who, from outside the area hit an absolute beauty into the top corner. Scenes. Pep was so thrilled he tried to destroy his chair \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal won a free kick on the half way line. Doku kicked the ball away. Yellow card ? No of course not. From the free kick Saka won a corner. The tactical genius Pep put Jeremy Doku on Gabriel. Men against boys. Saka put in the perfect ball to the back post, big Gabi climbed and put the ball just over. We won another corner. This time Walker was on Gabriel. He was jabbing away at Gabi, presumably getting touch tight. To no avail. Total repeat of the previous corner. Perfect ball, Gabi climbs at the near post and scores! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have I ever mentioned that I love it when we score from corners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2-1 to the Arsenal. Whole atmosphere had changed and we were the better team. And then after eight minutes of injury time, Tross is sent off for kicking the ball away, just before the half time whistle. Was he stupid, was he unlucky? I\u2019ll leave it you to discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reorganised of course at half time. Saka came off for Ben White so it was clearly \u201cwhat we have, we hold\u201d. From my spot in the Gods I had the perfect view of the 3D chess that was the second half. We formed two lines, one of six and one of three. City passing it round the semi circle of doom and hitting shots from 25 yards. Every Arsenal player heroic, blocking, tackling, hacking clear. This was the lowest of low blocks. And yes, some time wasting. A man down against the best team in the world. What other tactics were there? And we carried them out magnificently to defend that lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, just as we dared to believe, in the 98th<\/sup> minute, City equalised. A short corner, a shot, a deflection and it fell to Stones who scored. A gut punch. 60 seconds later came the final whistle and it finished 2-2. Yet it felt like a massive victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The away fans, magnificent throughout, cheered the team to the echo. Some handbags at the whistle with Haaland, who had thrown the ball at Gabriel after the equaliser, taking out Lewis-Skelly (who had been booked before coming on for his debut \u2013 that boy will go far) and Gabriel fronting up to protect the lad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re in City\u2019s head. It brings back the rivalry with Man United in the 90s. They celebrated their draw at home with wild abandon. They haven\u2019t beaten us in four games now (2 wins, 2 draws). Rude words after from Stones and Silva about negative football. Err lads, when we had a man sent off we were winning, remember? We are living rent free. Mark my words, the rivalry and dislike is real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team performance was magnificent and yet again our goalkeeper was superb. They deserved the win. 10 v 11 for well over 53 minutes of the second half. It was so near to being the perfect away day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the most difficult two weeks of the season, away to Villa, Spurs and City we have taken 7 out of 9 points. We have lost our Captain to injury. We didn\u2019t land until 3am Friday after an away game in Europe. City played the day before at home. After all that we are just two points behind them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal, I salute you. You did us proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was hammering with rain as we left Cambridgeshire on a dreich Sunday morning. The rain continued as we stopped for brunch (full English for me, a burger for my son) at the American diner near Newark on the A1. Suitably fuelled for a day at the football, we continued on our way, cutting across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10103,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099\/revisions\/10103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}