{"id":10302,"date":"2024-11-07T00:16:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T00:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10302"},"modified":"2024-11-09T00:05:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T00:05:01","slug":"arsenal-fail-to-come-up-trumps-on-us-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10302","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Fail To Come Up Trumps On US Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mystic Ned\u2019s predicted team in the San Siro was spot on and saw us kick off with Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Merino, Trossard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli. Amongst others, \u00d8degaard returned to the bench with Nwaneri, Jorginho and Jes\u00fas, but still no sign of Calafiori. Rice, of course, was out with his foot injury incurred at Newcastle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty one years after our famous 5-1 victory in the San Siro our own ClockEndRider and son, 21CenturyGooner were among the travelling faithful and were completing a heroic trio of attendances in the last eight days in Preston, Newcastle and Milan. Watch out for their on the spot, atmospheric report in the drinks once they\u2019ve had time to get body and soul back together – more likely in a pub than their recently under utilised beds! They reportedly went for dinner in a Milanese restaurant before the game, They were warned by the manager to \u201cchoose carefully from the menu because the waiters have hidden bombs in tins of Alphabet Spaghetti. If they go off, it could spell disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First half impressions \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/strong>
The first half started alarmingly when, from the first Inter attack, Denzel Dumfries crashed a shot against the crossbar after 1\u2019 45\u201d with Raya rooted to the spot. Arsenal struggled to get hold of the ball for the first ten to fifteen minutes but then gradually took control and dominated possession for the remainder of the half. Too much of that possession though went backwards and forwards round the U-bend of Despair and progress forwards was far too slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a series of corners from the right hand side which were delivered well by Saka but none of our usual set piece attackers could carve a clear opening. Gabriel and his marker were both yellow carded after some pushing and shoving when the Inter defender decided to end round one by having a sit on the floor and looking very offended by his rough treatment. We did manage to knock Dumfries into the Inter net but he had unfortunately omitted to take the ball with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From one nice move across the pitch Martinelli crossed towards Merino who was cleaned out by a double punch to the head by Inter goalkeeper Sommer. There was a check for a possible penalty but this is Arsenal so no penalty awarded. However, the same player, Mikel Merino, was the victim of a shocking penalty decision against him as the half drew to a close. As another Inter player fell too easily to the ground, the Romanian referee awarded him a free kick. As the ball was swung into our penalty area, the forward in front of Merino stretched a leg upwards and deflected the ball into what I thought was the perfectly normally positioned arm of Merino as he moved to balance himself behind the attacker. The ball travelled at speed all of two feet into Merino\u2019s hand and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. After a negative check for a possible offside the penalty was confirmed and \u00c7alhanoglu scored straight down the middle as Raya dove to his left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half time: inter 1 – 0 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half saw the immediate introduction of Gabriel Jes\u00fas for Mikel Merino. It was clear that we were trying to up the tempo of our play as Martinelli shot into the side netting, shortly before sending over yet another corner which only found Saliba\u2019s back as it glanced wide of the post. Saka continued to probe, Havertz curled a lovely shot towards the top corner which was just palmed clear by Sommer but generally the pattern of the game was set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal dominated possession and continually found their way into the Inter area but just couldn\u2019t create the clear chance they needed. Inter brought on Thuram, Barella and Mikhitaryan on the hour it it wasn\u2019t until 81 minutes that Arteta sent on Zinchenko and Nwaneri for Timber and Trossard. Nwaneri was busy and looked to carry the ball well and very much in the style of his mentor, \u00d8degaard who made his own long awaited return on 89 minutes after Kai Havertz was forced off with a bloodied face following a clash of heads with Bissek. Nwaneri made a lovely turn past his marker on 96 minutes only to shoot high over the bar. A shame for the 17 year old on his Champions League debut, but even at his young age he does provide drive and impetus through the middle which we have been sadly lacking. Jes\u00fas tried a nice run and shot on 98 minutes which was blocked and greeted the referees final whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so \u2026\u2026.<\/strong>
And so our first defeat in this season\u2019s Champions League sees us drop to 12th place in the table. Hard to say what that means at this stage of the new format. Time will obviously tell. Tonight we got plenty of balls out to our wide men but too many deliveries were hopeful rather than incisive. There was less than no room in front of Inter\u2019s goal to be honest but our forwards seem to have lost confidence in front of goal. We are anything but clinical at the moment but hopefully the return of Ben White and, above all, Martin \u00d8degaard will restore some fluency to our right hand side and Timber, if he\u2019s going to play on the left, will establish a similar understanding with Merino and Martinelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Availability and clever rotation are going to be needed to get the season back on track. Better understanding will improve the quality of our play and that will hopefully restore the confidence to attack in numbers that we seem to have lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally \u2026.<\/strong>
We have seen some excellent refereeing performances so far in this season\u2019s Champions League. Sadly tonight\u2019s was not one of them. The Romanian official allowed Inter to steal 10 yards at least at every throw on; he fell for it every time one of them fell over and gave them another free kick; almost every 50-50 decision went to the home side, and the penalty decision was plain awful. Yet another dreadful, game-deciding decision goes against us. Suffice to say Mikel Arteta was not amused in his post match interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, finally \u2026.<\/strong>
One of the highlights of a pretty unenjoyable game had to come from Ally McCoist on co-comms. Discussing the snacks in the commentary box, \u201cmy nuts have taken an absolute battering\u201d he exclaimed with huge innuendo – which I believe is Italian for \u2018suppository\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll bid you Good Night !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mystic Ned\u2019s predicted team in the San Siro was spot on and saw us kick off with Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Merino, Trossard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli. Amongst others, \u00d8degaard returned to the bench with Nwaneri, Jorginho and Jes\u00fas, but still no sign of Calafiori. Rice, of course, was out with his foot injury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10306,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302\/revisions\/10306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}