{"id":10406,"date":"2024-12-01T04:21:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T04:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10406"},"modified":"2024-12-04T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:05:18","slug":"were-forever-bursting-bubbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10406","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re Forever Bursting Bubbles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After some Friday speculation that honesty left nobody in any doubt, Gabriel Magalh\u00e4es was passed fit to start in a side that showed two changes from the team that thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 four days previously:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori
\u00d8degaard, Jorginho, Rice
Saka, Havertz, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half hour saw the Gunners in total cruise control and two goals to the good almost inevitably from a Gabriel orchestrated and converted corner – his fourth of the season – and a beautifully crafted pass move and dink from \u00d8degaard that left Saka to slide the ball to Trossard who netted with a tap in from two yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it had been a FIFA game you would have suspected that West Ham\u2019s controller had broken, so totally uninvolved were they. The West Ham captain at this point actually asked the referee if they could have another ball. \u201cCertainly not!\u201d said Anthony Taylor, \u201cyou already have a perfectly good ball.\u201d \u201cI know,\u201d said the West Ham captain, \u201cbut Arsenal are playing with that one!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On all the 3s 33 mins Arsenal made it 3-0 – bingo! Saka was felled by Paqueta and \u00d8degaard took the spot kick in Saka\u2019s place, putting it exactly where Saka placed his on Tuesday evening in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 35 minutes it was 4-0 and for the second year running the home fans took to the apples and pears and an impromptu East End fire drill was underway when Flappy Handski became Stretchy Groinski as Havertz slid the ball past his extended right foot following a brilliant through ball from Trossard, hit with fade from his sand wedge of a left foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two minutes later Wan-Bissaka got one back for the Spammers after a sloppy Calafiori pass ceded possession and the full back ran on to the through ball to convert. It was actually a repeat of exactly the same situation twenty minutes earlier when Somerville\u2019s chipped finish was chalked off for a clear offside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 39 minutes Emerson scored direct from a free kick in off the bar from 20 yards. Raya\u2019s start position was curious – too far to his right for my liking – but it was a very accurate free kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Ham did what West Ham do before half time – they got scrappy and physical, Timber was kicked, Saka rushed in to help his mate, Emerson kicked off a melee and he and Saka were both booked by Anthony Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somerville hacked Saka down and earned himself a yellow card and his team the opportunity to defend another corner from the resulting free kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flappy was booked for a left hook on Gabriel\u2019s head that Oleksandr Usyk would have been proud of and Arsenal had their second penalty. Bukayo Saka stepped up to take it and became Arsenal\u2019s fifth different scorer of the half. A little fortunate as Saka went to the keeper\u2019s right this time who did get a touch on the ball but not enough to keep it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Ham then got another dangerous free kick from nearly thirty yards which Raya tipped over the bar for the corner that brought a mad first half to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time<\/strong>
West Ham 2 – 5 Arsenal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal replaced Gabriel with Kiwior at the start of the second half – maybe he really was carrying an injury after all – and West Ham brought on Alvarez for Somerville who was a risk on a yellow card. Alvarez was potentially a risky replacement as he has already earned two red cards himself this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scribbled four pages of notes during the second half but reading them here would be as tedious as it was to write them. West Ham managed to increase their share of possession through increased aggression and a succession of fouls they got away with, but they still only had the ball for 39% of the time and Arsenal continued to look the more likely side to score again. My notes became a catalogue of Arsenal players getting hurt, West Ham bringing on goodness knows how many substitutes, and \u201cleaving one on\u201d any Arsenal player they could get near enough to kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zinchenko replaced Calafiori who retired with a fairly heavy strapping above his right knee and Wet Spam brought on Ings and Coufal who genuinely professes to be a professional footballer. It was on 72 minutes that Danny got his first shooting opportunity for the Irons but, sadly for him, Ings ain\u2019t what he used to be and the ball ran safely out of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw the changing of the \u00d8de-gaard when he and Bukayo Saka were replaced by Sterling and Jesus whose first involvement was to carelessly give the ball away. Kiwior tussled with Bowen before being clattered by Coufal, and the danger was thankfully cleared. West Ham replaced Paqueta and Soler with Rodriguez and Irving – if anybody cares – and a great first half had degenerated into a procession of fouls and substitutions which must have robbed West Ham of as much fluency in their play as Arsenal\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised to see Ethan Nwaneri sent on at 84 minutes as one might have expected Arteta to want to protect him from this kind of nightly, nasty stuff but the lad got ten more minutes to add to his tally. Irving cleaned out Jesus before he and Sterling worked a good shooting opportunity, and Ings still wasn\u2019t what he used to be as he dragged a shot wide of an open goal after a defensive slip in added time. Soucek, to no-one\u2019s surprise was carded for a foul from behind on Jorginho and Anthony Taylor put one and all out of their misery after five minutes of added time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time<\/strong>
West Ham 2 – 5 Arsenal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brilliant first half Arsenal did well to manage a scrappy, disjointed second half which was characterised by the nasty tactics of Soucek and Coufal, playing the East End\u2019s ugly sisters as we head into panto season once more. The Arsenal move up to second in the table. We\u2019ve scored 13 goals in the last 3 games while conceding 3 and are in contention on the two biggest fronts in European football. What a shame the limit of West Ham\u2019s ambitions was to wreck the second half of a decent football match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the game Man of The Match, Bukayo Saka, on 15 goals and assists for the season, was his usual smiley, modest self and was all about the team, as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta was clearly frustrated at conceding twice but very proud of the ten goals in the last two games. He flatly refused to discuss our tactics at corners or what Gabriel might have said to Saka before he scored. All clear then!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This title challenge is still on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After some Friday speculation that honesty left nobody in any doubt, Gabriel Magalh\u00e4es was passed fit to start in a side that showed two changes from the team that thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 four days previously: RayaTimber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori\u00d8degaard, Jorginho, RiceSaka, Havertz, Trossard The first half hour saw the Gunners in total cruise control […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"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\/10406"}],"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=10406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10410,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions\/10410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}