{"id":10659,"date":"2025-01-16T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T11:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10659"},"modified":"2025-01-17T21:37:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:37:32","slug":"seasonal-double-over-hapless-spds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10659","title":{"rendered":"Seasonal Double Over Hapless Sp*ds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s always nice to get even an easy box checked nice and early. The Arsenal did just that on a Wednesday evening in January when the seasonal double over the wrong end marsh-dwellers was achieved with a winner from Leo plus a welcome slice of luck seeing us home. Now, 2-1 is not the most convincing of wins on paper, however on the night we thoroughly deserved the points and of course the bragging rights. North London remains red. And on the back of that spineless spud effort it will be for some time to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evening had begun with Mikel Arteta naming an XI much as expected, with Sterling retaining his place on the right and Gabriel Martinelli the man to miss out among our four remaining attackers. Nice to see MLS flying the flag for Hale End. The club had helpfully laid out a large North London is Red montage in the West Stand to explain the current situation to whatever percentage of the neighbour\u2019s support is literate nowadays and with that and the playing of the National Anthem<\/s> North London Forever the game got underway. Well, we got started anyway as we utterly dominated the first 20 minutes. We looked confident on the ball and the crowd were noisily behind us, or so it sounded from my seat on the edge of the sofa. Sterling looked lively early on and was put in behind with a good ball in from Lewis-Skelly but the keeper was out quickly. A few minutes later our best chance of the opening quarter came from a Trossard shot in a good position just to the left of the six-yard-box, but it was blocked and scrambled clear by a nervous looking makeshift Spud rearguard. Corners came and went with no clear chance, although amusingly No Practise Ange had left two forward to try and dilute the threat, perhaps he phoned a friend for advice. Son did his best to rouse the visitors with his second-best dive and beseeching look at the ref but was ignored and the only other opposition action of note was Bergvall very luckily escaping a booking for a poor foul on Partey. The Spuds then had just about their only good five minutes of the first half. It began with a break down our right, Timber and Saliba allowed Spence too much room to cross and Gabriel had to do very well to divert the ball behind. From the ensuing corner we again had to defend as the ball dropped nicely for Kulusevski, fortunately Raya was out smartly to save at close range \u2013 an excellent piece of keeping. However, a couple of minutes later the Spuds won another corner. This time the ball eventually came to Son unmarked on the edge of the area and his fairly tame shot took an inopportune deflection off Saliba\u2019s foot and into the far corner of our net giving Raya no chance. A large slice of luck for the undeserving but we had not helped ourselves at all by leaving Son so open. Frustratingly too, just a couple of minutes earlier a similar thing had happened but Sterling had smartly taken the ball off Son\u2019s toe and made a break upfield. That is not at all to blame Sterling in particular for the goal but surely someone should have been closer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fightback \u2013 1-0 down, 2-1 up The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For about 10 minutes after the goal we did, in truth, look a little set back though we pushed forward and strove hard. The goal as you would imagine gave them some confidence too and our sudden doubts seemed to transmit to the crowd who were somewhat quieter (again this is from my now hunched over position on the edge of the sofa!). Fortune, an annoying worm of late, was, however, about to take a timely turn. Leo attempted a cross from the left but it was blocked and went out after a double deflection for a goal kick \u2013 or should have, but bless the officials they missed it and gave us a corner, a porro decision really but hey I\u2019ll take it. The corner came in to the back post, Gabriel got his head to it and the ball somehow, well, wormed its way into the net via a couple of deflections. Now, there was a large slice of luck there sure, but a couple of points should be made, firstly it was an excellent delivery from Rice to take out the keeper and most of the spud defence, secondly it came in at speed and it was an outstanding effort from Gabriel to get to it and make something happen. Those things were not luck, they were about skill and determination. At a difficult moment two of our most important players got us level and changed the whole atmosphere. The crowd were back at full roar and after a short break for an inconsistent yellow for Kai, we were back on the attack. Partey won it well in midfield, fed it to \u00d8de, who passed it on to Leo. There was plenty to do but Trossard took it forward to the left edge of the area and then slammed it home across the keeper and into the far corner of the net. Should the keeper have saved it? Probably, but he is new and young and was undoubtedly nervous in a NLD. He had already got lucky a couple of times when well chased down by Kai and he couldn\u2019t get away with it forever at this level. Half-time came and we had turned it round with great courage and purpose, I honestly can\u2019t understand why anyone wouldn\u2019t expect anything else as this manager and this squad has demonstrated those qualities numerous times, they do not hide, they fight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Foregone Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the second half I had thought that the neighbours would at least put up some kind of fight but I was relieved in a way to see Maddison and Johnson thrown on by Ange. These are not men to be feared in the heat of battle, mainly because they won\u2019t be there. I am not going to go into any detail on the 2nd<\/sup> half because the only things to really say are that we mostly managed the game well, it was nice to see KT3, we should have scored more goals, and that I was never concerned even in the last minute when Porro hit the post, it was a shot that was never going in. The ref blew the final whistle and one of the great scientific questions was answered \u2013 Can spuds slunk? Yes, they can! I saw many slunking away, certainly enough for statistical significance anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all is said and done\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLS said afterwards that his grandma was there for the game and he hoped she was proud of him. I am absolutely sure she was, I know I was, and MA described him as phenomenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Been a difficult week or two for Kai, but he certainly didn\u2019t hide and I was proud of him too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was nice that David Raya took the time in an interview to remember Gabriel Jesus, the injury gods have been particularly cruel and I wish Gabi all the best<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raheem Sterling came in for a little criticism I noticed but to be honest I thought he did as well as can be expected given how little he has played. He obviously tired and MA was right to make the change on the hour but I feel more comfortable that Sterling can contribute well after that outing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, MA said afterwards that we are actively looking for attackers as it\u2019s urgent with Bukayo out for 3 months and now Jesus out for a long period. We have to accept that in the circumstances we may not get exactly who we want and may well get stiffed too but one more is necessary now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be great to see Ode and Kai on the scoresheet in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On we go then in better heart to the next game \u2013 home to Villa. Let\u2019s welcome Emery and Emi back and then stick it to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, fight for the Top 4 my arse, we are going for the title. We were before the game and we are now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s always nice to get even an easy box checked nice and early. The Arsenal did just that on a Wednesday evening in January when the seasonal double over the wrong end marsh-dwellers was achieved with a winner from Leo plus a welcome slice of luck seeing us home. Now, 2-1 is not the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/10659"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10663,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions\/10663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}