{"id":10128,"date":"2024-09-27T19:12:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T18:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10128"},"modified":"2024-09-28T22:07:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T21:07:04","slug":"another-saturday-another-three-points-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10128","title":{"rendered":"Another Saturday, Another Three Points Please"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image: Osaka Matt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And Breathe, And Leicester<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday at 3pm (UK time) sees us back at Ashburton Grove to welcome lowly Leicester in our first PL game since the blood and thunder outing at the home of deceit last weekend. A chance to draw breath in what certainly feels like a very eventful start to this campaign even if we are only 5 league games in! The various instances of injury, incompetence and injustice have already been well-covered both here and elsewhere and so I will resist the urge to rage, rage against the lying of the shite and just state that I am very happy with where we are right now. We have had to fight hard, and we have; we have a team now that we know will step up and never forget who we are. What\u2019s not to love? However, can we do better? Yes of course, and one area we could do better so far this season would be finishing. Certainly, the XI thrown together midweek have shown us a righteous path to follow by sticking five past Bolton and as we approach a run of three very winnable league games after a tough start it would be great if we can find the net with more regularity. It would be even greater if the Gabi\u2019s, Martinelli and Jesus were the men to lead the way. Both have looked a little cold in front of goal of late but we will need them running hot at times this season if the power and the glory is to be ours. The forthcoming Leicester, Southampton, and Bournemouth games are, with as ever my customary utmost respect for the opposition, teams that provide an opportunity to take out the trash<\/s> plucky little blighters.  On then to the first of those three – who to start against Leicester?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming the starting XI has proven a little tricky of late. I believe Gabriel, Saliba, Partey, Rice, Havertz and Saka will all play. After that, well the questions start at the last line with who\u2019s in goal? For me, if David Raya is even a small doubt, we go with Neto. From what I have seen of him in the PL, he is a competent and experienced keeper and I am perfectly happy to have him in goal for this game. However, according to Mikel \u201cit is not about risk, it is about a player being fit or available. We will make a decision tomorrow\u201d. In other words, we will find out an hour before kick-off.  Waiting certainly make sense given the difference Raya has already made a few times this season but I am fine either way.   The second question is around the full-backs, and in better news it seems Ben White and Jurrien Timber will be available as will Calafiori and also Myles Lewis-Skelly, fine again apparently after looking slightly the worse for wear on Wednesday.  Purely a guess, but I believe Calafiori may be the one to rest this time with Benjamin and Timber starting.  In midfield Jorginho played a full 90 against Bolton and Thomas was rested so I would assume he will start and Declan will play on the left. As we move into the attack I assume it will again be an interchangeable forward line of Gabi M., Leo, Kai and Bukayo. Again, given he played a full 90 minutes on Wednesday I do not think we will see Nwaneri starting again, however he, Sterling, and Jesus provide good options off the bench. Encouraging news in the presser on Merino and Tomi who are both fairly close to fitness again. Zin , KT and Ode remain out. The XI I believe MA will pick\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya \/ Neto<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Saliba Gabriel Timber<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey Rice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka Trossard Havertz Martinelli <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t believe it will, in reality, be a 4-2-4 but with Ode still out I think the front 4 are operating even more flexibly than usual. The proof will of course be on the team sheet tomorrow and I wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if have three or four wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest the only real opposition in this game is ourselves. If we turn up with the right attitude and play our football then the result is a foregone conclusion. To be even more honest, this preview presented me with a bit of a countdown conundrum. Do I, in keeping with the generous spirit of the bar, sprinkle this paragraph with some further coded phrases for second-rate such as whole-hearted, battling, never say die or can beat anyone on their day or do I tell the truth about this Leicester side? I rang Carol for help but she wisely doesn\u2019t accept reverse charge calls from strangers in Japan and so I will plough on regardless. And Leicester were a fair team four or five seasons back as they just missed out on Champions League qualification for a couple of seasons before reverting to type and getting relegated at the end of the 22-23 season. They bounced straight back, the physics of parachutes aiding bouncing elude me but there certainly is a strong attraction in the alternate reality of professional football. The team that was relegated was generally thought too good to go down, though that conclusion conveniently overlooked the undoubted character deficiencies splashed generously into the mixer by their narcissistic master chef, Brendon Rogers. However, in hindsight, I may have been too harsh on that collection of faint hearts and phone it inners, because they were actually better than this current incarnation.  They have two defeats and three draws so far this season, the last a dull 1-1 draw against Everton that I strove manfully to watch purely for research purposes, fortunate that really as there was precious little entertainment on offer.  They do still have a few familiar names such as the elbowy cheat, Ndidi, Ayew and a couple of ex-spuds who I would welcome back if not for the fact that I dislike all of them. Ndidi has three assists this season and Vardy a couple of goals as does the one player I will welcome back, Stephy Mavididi. Once of this parish, his story is a familiar one these days – he never quite made the step up to our first team, had several loans but eventually moved on to the Juventus U23s back in 2018. After that, there was a few years at Montpelier, where he did well by all accounts and then he signed for Leicester last year. After a good season in the Championship, he has now scored in Leicester\u2019s last two league games. It\u2019s nice to see him making a career for himself and satisfying that we could help him along the way \u2013 he can of course repay by doing nothing tomorrow! For those of an analytical lean, I did notice that Leicester have scored and conceded in all their games so far this season and generally line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation though I am sure it will be much more of a 4-5-1 tomorrow. However, as I said at the beginning of this ridiculously long paragraph, they don\u2019t matter, it\u2019s up to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Score <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you will see from the deliberately pointed cannon in the image above I am, just for tomorrow, in favour of foxhunting and I can\u2019t see any reason we shouldn\u2019t score early and stick at least three or four past this Leicester side and hopefully deliver another clean sheet, though it must be said Vardy has had a very annoying habit of scoring against us and even Ayew has a couple, I think from memory. I will be happy with a nice 4-0 win, no further injuries, no red cards. I have deliberately not checked who the ref is as I have simply had enough of them for one season and will just hope for some vague degree of competence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains only to wish us all an enjoyable watch wherever we may be, and a safe journey to those lucky enough to be attending. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And Breathe, And Leicester This Saturday at 3pm (UK time) sees us back at Ashburton Grove to welcome lowly Leicester in our first PL game since the blood and thunder outing at the home of deceit last weekend. A chance to draw breath in what certainly feels like a very eventful start to this campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10138,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions\/10138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}