{"id":1035,"date":"2020-07-06T21:08:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T20:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2020-07-07T23:41:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T22:41:00","slug":"foxing-the-foxes-on-home-turf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1035","title":{"rendered":"Foxing the Foxes on home turf"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Presumably still under\nthe influence of Saturday\u2019s confidence-building two goal away win at Wolves,\nMikel Arteta and the Gunners are facing the quick turnaround of preparing to\nhost third-placed Leicester City in a Tuesday evening Premier League skirmish\nat the Emirates.  With five matches yet\nto play, including Leicester, Spurs and Liverpool, Arsenal are perched in\nseventh spot in the table, nine points behind the Foxes, eight behind Chelsea,\nsix behind Manchester United, but only three behind Wolverhampton. If Arsenal\nare able to defeat the Foxes they could move up significantly on any rival who\ndrops points, with Wolves in particular facing a tricky away test at Sheffield\nUnited on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image courtesy Arsenal FC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Opposition <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoologically speaking,\nFoxes may not be as big or as vicious as wolves but their quickness can be\nkiller. Keeping that maxim in (or out, preferably) of mind, the darting figure\nof Jamie Vardy can be expected to lead Foxes\u2019 attack, as he has since he helped\nhis side win promotion to the Premier League in 2013\/14. This season the 33\nyear old is still going strong with 21 goals and 4 assists in 30 appearances.\nEarlier this week Vardy scored his 100th and 101st Premier League goals so if\nArsenal lose track of him we can\u2019t say we haven\u2019t been warned of the danger he\nposes.  Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers\nwill be hoping his charges can stymie Arsenal\u2019s dangermen, put a puncture or\ntwo in the Gunners\u2019 heretofore porous defence, and solidify his club\u2019s tenuous\nhold on a Champions League place for next season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season Foxes\nenjoyed a highly successful first four or five months, prior to the coronavirus\nintermission, but their form has been indifferent since play resumed. They drew\nwith Watford and Brighton; and exited the FA Cup at the hands of Chelsea before\nlosing at Everton and winning at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday last.  James Maddison, Leicester\u2019s talented young\nEngland midfielder, remains an injury doubt for this game, as do left-back Ben\nChilwell and attacker Ayoze Perez. Both of the latter players picked up knocks\nin Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leicester\u2019s defence\nhas been anchored all season by hulking Turkey centre-back \u00c7a\u011flar S\u00f6y\u00fcnc\u00fc who\nwill aim to make Arsenal\u2019s attackers feel discomfited, and certainly not as if\nthey are feasting on roasted poultry. The Turk should be partnered by 32 year\nold Jonny Evans, who has slotted right in to the center of Foxes\u2019 defence.  The Foxes recently announced a one-year\nextension of Evans\u2019 contract so he must be doing the business to their\nsatisfaction.  In place of Chilwell we\nmay see a recall for Christian Fuchs, who played so well in Foxes\u2019\ntitle-winning year.  At right-back, where\nlong-term injury absentee Ricardo Pereira misses out, we can expect to see 22\nyear old James Justin, who has started Foxes\u2019 last four league games.  Danish international keeper Kasper Schmeichel\nkeeps his longstanding place in the Leicester goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Leicester midfield\nwe should expect the presence of Wilfred Ndidi who has started nearly all\nLeicester\u2019s league games in defensive midfield, excepting five midwinter\nmatches when he was out with a knee injury. Belgian international Youri\nTielemans has been a near constant in central midfield, contributing three\ngoals and six assists; and 22 year old former England U-21 international Harvey\nBarnes has been even busier if anything on the left side, contributing six\ngoals and eight assists.  Up front, if\nVardy falters we can expect to see Nigerian international Kelechi Iheanacho (no\nknown connection to the departed Nacho Monreal, other than a tenuous linguistic\noddity), who has been on the scoresheet several times recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Selection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Mikel Arteta\nsays differently, I am not one to question his formation or the team selection\nthat has put us on the right track over the last few games, including a proper\ndose of defensive solidity aided by the confoundingly ever-present Shkodran\nMustafi and Granit Xhaka who certainly by now must deserve some credit from\nlongstanding critics such as me.  David\nLuiz hasn\u2019t done too badly either when he hasn\u2019t been accumulating red cards,\nso hats off to him too.  Which means that\nwith the possible exceptions of Lacazette coming in for Nketiah and Beller\u00edn\nfor Soares, it\u2019s full speed ahead with the team that took the sheen off Wolves\u2019\nwarm fuzzies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mustafi – Luiz – Kolasinac<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beller\u00edn – Xhaka – Ceballos – Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka – Lacazette – Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can expect to see\nArteta make some creative substitutions as he did at Wolves, so among others\nMaitland-Niles, Nketiah and Pepe, if he is recovered from paternity duty,\nshould not get too comfy in their cushioned Emirates seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one last team\nselection item in case you were wondering about other figures:  Responding to question as to whether Ozil or\nGuendouzi would play this week, Arteta was quoted saying: \u201cStill, the situation\nis as it was before.\u201d  Seeing as the\nsituation as it was before worked out pretty well on the pitch I guess it\u2019s\nfine to leave it at that for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal have won their last three league matches by a cumulative score of 8-0, but those three clean sheets are only part of a longer-term trend: If we include games from before Covid got in the way, Arsenal have recorded six clean sheets in their last nine league outings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to Saturday\u2019s\nwin, on the other hand, Leicester had won only two of the nine points on offer,\nscoring only two goals in those three matches. Despite Leicester\u2019s high-flying\nspot in the league table I expect something of these trends to continue in this\none, and despite a 1-1 draw at halftime, for Arsenal to prevail by a margin of 2-1\nafter two Lacazette billiard-like strikes that carom off the far post before\nrippling the Foxes\u2019 net, to just the one Vardy stoppage-time consolation salvo\nthat leaves the Leicester fans saying \u201cI wish he hadn\u2019t scored that one because\nit\u2019s the hope that kills ya.\u201d  Leaving the\nopposition fans to commiserate, as is their wont when Arsenal play together\nlike the boss says to do.  The odds are\nout there if you want \u2018em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a good one,\n\u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Presumably still under the influence of Saturday\u2019s confidence-building two goal away win at Wolves, Mikel Arteta and the Gunners are facing the quick turnaround of preparing to host third-placed Leicester City in a Tuesday evening Premier League skirmish at the Emirates.  With five matches yet to play, including Leicester, Spurs and Liverpool, Arsenal are perched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1045,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}