{"id":10429,"date":"2024-12-05T12:11:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10429"},"modified":"2024-12-07T11:10:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T11:10:16","slug":"set-piece-again-ole-ole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10429","title":{"rendered":"Set Piece Again, Ol\u00e9 Ol\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal welcomed, if that is the right word, the latest unfortunate to hold the poisoned chalice of being United manager, in his first major challenge since taking over from the hapless Ten Hag. United had a number of injuries, particularly in defence forcing them to have to play Maguire. Arsenal, as has become customary this season, also didn\u2019t have a full squad with White out for a while and both Calafiori and Gabriel failed to make the squad as well, meaning Zinchenko and Kiwior started in the left sided defensive roles. Pre-match conversation revolved around how this could be the area United choose to target, with wingers like Garnacho and Diallo in particular licking their lips at the prospect of exposing the defensive frailties down the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game started with Arsenal hoarding possession and United seemingly happy to press and harry seemingly more in a controlled way as opposed to with a view to genuinely winning the ball high up the pitch. We quickly had the ball in the back of the net but Havertz was clearly offside when laying the ball neatly back to Martinelli to slot home from 12 yards. In the 8th<\/sup> minute we won the first of a large number of corners (13 in fact<\/strong>). Prefiguring the excellent delivery which would be a feature of our set pieces for the rest of the game, Rice arrowed in the corner from the left side of the Clock End and somehow Partey contrived to miss his header from around 4 feet, the ball cannoning off his shoulder and wide when it seemed easier to score. The fact that he was entirely unmarked at the near post ought to have been a warning for United. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, United in general, and Onana in particular started time wasting pretty obviously. Oh how are the mighty fallen \u2013 United looking to run the clock down with 80 minutes still to play. The referee did what you would expect, engaging on frivolous conversations with United players, turning his back on the keeper so that he could claim not to have seen what was going on. Standard fare for PL referees, apparently the pinnacle of their profession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

United continued to be happy simply to jockey Arsenal, mostly as a result of the fact that we were moving the ball around quickly and they couldn\u2019t get terribly close to it. At the same time, most of this possession was in front of the United defence and it felt as though we were using the time to probe rather than go all out for victory. Given our history of conceding fast-break goals to United in particular, I was happy to see pragmatism on our part rather than gung-ho attack. On 21, we had another corner, this time delivered from the other side by Saka resulting in Onana rather oddly choosing to punch out rather than catch, perhaps a sign that he in particular and United in general were nervous at our prowess from set pieces. A pattern on the set pieces was beginning to form with a group of 6 Arsenal players gathering beyond the back post and then sprinting into the spaces allowed by the United zonal defending just as the ball was about to be delivered. On 23, another corner delivered by Saka fell to Zinchenko to hit, the resulting block falling to Martinelli who was a little unbalanced and screwed his shot wide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game continued to follow the same pattern, with Arsenal controlling possession, but United successfully keeping them at arm\u2019s length and half time came, offering an opportunity to Arteta to reinvigorate the team and perhaps change a few things tactically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time \u2013 Arsenal 0 Man United 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps surprisingly, it was United who made a change for the second half, with Malacia who was being given the runaround by Saka and had picked up a booking in the first half, being replaced by skilful, nippy winger Diallo. It immediately became apparent that Arteta had instructed the team to move the ball quicker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 47 minutes, Martinelli was put through one on one with Maguire but he seemed to lack confidence and rather than taking on the human obelisk, chose instead to shoot, succeeding only in having his shot blocked and falling harmlessly to Onana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United\u2019s time wasting reached its nadir in the 50th<\/sup> minute when De Ligt was injured and rolling around off the pitch. For some reason, the referee chose to stop the game and this, erm, weakness, was pounced upon by Onana who went over, like some modern-day Florence Nightingale, to deliver such sweet succour as only a non-medically trained 6 foot 4 inch goalkeeper can. While the referee made pitiful attempts to try to get the keeper to restart, The Obelisk decided to come over and waste time by collecting another ball from beyond the dead ball line and throwing it onto the pitch, ensuring that the restart couldn\u2019t take place, as two balls were in play.   Even this referee saw that he had to do something and the world\u2019s only living Easter Island statue was given a yellow for his trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This performance served to rouse Arsenal, both fans and players, and another corner ensued on 53 minutes as we cranked up the pressure. The six-man back post routine was in play again, with Rice delivering expertly to the near post this time, for Timber to get a touch and direct the ball into the net. Cue delirium in the North Bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This inspired Amorim to make 3 further changes on 55 minutes with Rashford, Zirkzee and Yoro coming on for Garnacho, Mount and The Obelisk. United now had to try to attack. Curiously, the formerly languorous Onana found that if he really tried he could restart much more quickly. Well done, you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now the Gunners were firmly in charge and frankly the substitutions United made had no impact whatsoever. Arsenal continued to press and a raft of corners followed, putting pressure on the United defence and shaky keeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 65 minutes United had by far their best chance, in fact their first on target when a well delivered free kick from the right-hand side of the box by Fernandes was met with a good header by De Ligt, requiring an athletic full stretch diving save from Raya. From my vantage point at least 150 yards away in the North Bank, it looked for all the world destined to hit the back of the net. Super save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta saw that he needed to inject more energy and made some well-timed substitutions with the always available Martinelli coming off for Trossard and somewhat more surprisingly Merino for Zinchenko who had just been skinned by Diallo and picked up a yellow card. Pretty aggressive subs, with Timber now moving to left back and there was the required energy surge from team and fans. \u00d8degaard pressured Rashford into giving away yet another corner which Partey met at the back stick, nodding back to hit the well-formed rear end of William Saliba and into the net. VAR tried in vain to construct a reason not to give the goal but even Liverpool fan Jared Gillet couldn\u2019t justify it and the goal stood. Gillet appeared to be looking to rule it out for offside. How can you be offside from a corner, from which the ball is played back from the dead ball line and by definition has to go backward?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, United\u2019s defence was in tatters and the corners just kept coming, with Merino heading unchallenged from 8 yards just wide of the post. Amorim took off the hugely ineffective Hojlund for the hugely ineffective one-trick pony Antony. It all smacked of desperation and the easy start to the manager\u2019s United career was well and truly over. Arsenal continued to get stronger and United to wilt. Huge credit must be given to the set piece coach for picking up on the United frailty. This was acknowledged by the crowd with shouts of \u201cSet piece again, ole ole\u201d ringing out as the game came to its inevitable conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Chelsea unsurprisingly winning and Liverpool dropping points at Newcastle, this game really was a must win and despite the absences and the potential banana skin of the new manager bounce, Arsenal negotiated it admirably. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal welcomed, if that is the right word, the latest unfortunate to hold the poisoned chalice of being United manager, in his first major challenge since taking over from the hapless Ten Hag. United had a number of injuries, particularly in defence forcing them to have to play Maguire. Arsenal, as has become customary this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429"}],"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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10432,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429\/revisions\/10432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}