{"id":10535,"date":"2024-12-21T21:04:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T21:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10535"},"modified":"2024-12-26T21:21:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T21:21:25","slug":"eagles-roasted-like-christmas-turkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10535","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Roasted Like Christmas Turkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SELHURST PARK, SARF LONDON – DECEMBER 21: Roasted Eagle With Caramelized Glasner and Jes\u00fas Gravy on December 21, 2024, courtesy of Arsenal (Photo by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post via Getty Images; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post via Getty Images with edits by Goonerholicsforever)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hello all, Dino here, and may I welcome you all to another match report from your official Crystal Palace correspondent!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This afternoon I watched from the safety of the sofa as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace for the second time in four days to keep ourselves in third place. The four-goal margin of victory has done no harm to our goal difference, and we will hope this week can be used to build some momentum as the games come thick and fast over the festive period and into the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team sheet dropped and Myles Lewis-Skelly was at left back, with Jes\u00fas up top and Havertz in midfield. Fair enough, it looked alright on paper and not bad on the pitch either; it only took six minutes for the resurgent Gabriel Jes\u00fas to open the scoring. \u00d8degaard opted to take a free kick on the left short instead of putting it in the mixer. We worked it out to Saka on the right who crossed it in. Martinelli made a great decoy run and big Gabi had stayed up and challenged for the ball which fell loose for the third of our Gabis to slot home. Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya was generally good today, but he had a couple of dodgy moments, the first when he gave Partey a hospital pass in the box which a Palace player got to \u2013 fortunately it squirted wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It did seem to give them a boost though and a minute later they were level. They played through midfield too easily, Partey unable to get back to cover the space Rice would normally smother, before they found Sarr outside the box. Saliba backed off in an unimpressive piece of defending for a player of his quality, but the finish from the dangerous Sarr was wonderful, curling around Rayya into the side netting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We took a mere three minutes to regain the lead, Partey controlling the ball after we swung in a corner before laying it off to Jesus to hit another unerring finish off the post despite having very little to aim at. He nailed that one and looks to have found some form just when we needed him to. He works so hard and has such a great attitude, it\u2019s a pleasure to see him get the rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka pulled up shortly after with what looked worryingly like a hamstring injury, so we brought on Trossard and switched Gabigol to the right. Timber got a yellow for taking too long over a long throw. He has to stop doing that. It gives us no advantage, it gets the crowd on our backs, and with the weak and incompetent referees we have in the PGMOL it gives them a reason to make decisions against us. MLS got a yellow for the same thing later in the game that I just don\u2019t think he would have gotten if Hooper hadn\u2019t reacted to the Palace fans who knew they could put the pressure on us from throw ins. Stop it, Timber!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz scored to put us two goals up on 38 mins. Jes\u00fas had just failed to get his hat trick when a mistake put him free to run at the keeper but a touch onto his right foot instead of across the defender onto his left allowed the Palace man to nick it away. This time Martinelli played a great cross and Jes\u00fas made an excellent header which was unlucky to hit the post. Havertz was following in with a textbook bit of striker\u2019s movement and he put the rebound away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We lacked a bit of structure in midfield without Rice, as Havertz and \u00d8degaard left Partey alone at times, but we gained an extra man up top as Havertz made some devastating runs and added presence in the box from midfield. Something for Arteta to ponder, as there will be games and situations in games where this setup may be just what we need, sacrificing some defensive solidity for more firepower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half started with a couple of good saves from Raya and the game settled into a rhythm. Palace are quite good, Sarr and Mateta have quality, I really like the unfussy Will Hughes who is just an accomplished PL player, and Guehi, Mitchell and Lerma are indicative of a solid team, even when Eze is injured and without the departed Olise. However, they found it tough to threaten us and we cruised through the half, making subs and getting a couple more goals as well as more control from the moment Rice and Calafiori came on for Havertz and MLS just shy of the hour mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel played a great ball over the top (do that more please!) to Trossard on the left. He cut back for Jes\u00fas, who had a great afternoon but should have scored his second hat-trick against Palace this week. Instead, he shot into the legs of Henderson from an unmarked position on the edge of the six-yard box. Happily, the ball came out to Rice, whose shot was going wide until Martinelli stabbed it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie came on for Palace but did not manage to score this time. Calafiori had his ankle stamped on by Clyne and I thought he was going straight off (Calafiori, not Clyne, who got a yellow card, which equates his action as equally worthy of punishment as when Rice flicks a ball two yards) but he managed to play on. There was time for Rice to get his first PL goal of the season. Jes\u00fas worked hard to recycle possession, Calafiori played the ball into Rice just inside the area and he took a beautifully aware first touch to spin the ball into the space and finish really well into the far corner, despite a brush of the fingertips from Henderson in goal. That ended the scoring and we saw the game out without fuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it was another excellent result against Palace. We\u2019ve scored 5 goals away 6 times this calendar year, the first time that has been done in the modern era, which makes it hard to understand how anyone is able to peddle a narrative about us struggling in front of goal. Not for me, Clive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will hold our breath on the injury to Saka but everything else was good today. Jes\u00fas looks back in form. Him, Rice and Martinelli all need to contribute more goals, so it was good for them to be on the scoresheet. Havertz will also benefit from a goal that keeps him ticking over, and another game where he didn\u2019t have to play the full 90. \u00d8degaard needs more goals and assists too, but he was quietly excellent today, the oil in our engine \u00e0 la Bobby Pires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLS looked like he was playing at the right level, which is pretty damn good for an 18-year-old midfielder playing left-back in the Premier League. Gabriel hit the bar from yet another corner and he will keep scoring goals \u2013 can he show his mate Big Willy Saliba how to channel his inner Hulk and get angry for corners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest are just good players, even the ones, like Gabigol and Trossard, who aren\u2019t in great form. This time of year is attritional, so we just need to keep going, keep picking up results and let the media overhype Liverpool whilst we do our thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opta \u2018supercomputer\u2019 thinks Liverpool have more than an 80% chance of winning the league. That\u2019s the sort of stat I wanna hear more of. Just keep plugging away with that shtick Sky Sports. Oh yeah. Jamies (Redknapp and Carragher) don\u2019t let anyone forget how good Liverpool are\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come May, we will see who ends up where. Keep the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello all, Dino here, and may I welcome you all to another match report from your official Crystal Palace correspondent! This afternoon I watched from the safety of the sofa as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace for the second time in four days to keep ourselves in third place. The four-goal margin of victory has done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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\/10535"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10544,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions\/10544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}