{"id":10901,"date":"2025-03-08T18:45:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T18:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10901"},"modified":"2025-03-09T19:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T19:16:23","slug":"gunners-hope-to-spank-red-mancs-and-stay-out-of-the-way-of-pgmol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10901","title":{"rendered":"Gunners Hope to Spank Red Mancs, and Stay Out of the Way of PGMOL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two big questions loom over Arsenal\u2019s visit to Old Trafford this early March Sunday: 1) \u201cHow high can we fly?\u201d; and 2) \u201cHow low can they go?\u201d although the \u201cthey\u201d in that second question could pertain equally well to bottom half side Manchester United or to bottom feeder refereeing cabal PGMOL, as we have learned so many times already this season. Anthony Taylor (not again??) stands ready to represent the cabal at OT this time. But, the possible untimely intervention of PGMOL notwithstanding, there is also a third question to ponder, namely, \u201cWhat happens when you spank the Red Mancs?\u201d  Presumably, they would get even redder than they will be at kickoff, but we won\u2019t really know until we have administered the spanking, will we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal travel to the red half of Manchester to face Ruben Amorim\u2019s juggernaut 14-placed side, having won 7-1 away at PSV in the Champions League in midweek, drawn 0-0 at Nottingham Forest in their last league game, and not having scored a solitary goal in either of their last two league games. With such different scores in our recent past, who knows what kind of game we are likely to see this time, although a repeat of the Eindhoven goal fest seems distinctly unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent match between these clubs was January 12th in North London when the 10-man Red Mancs knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup on penalties after the match ended 1-1 after 120 minutes of play.  In this season\u2019s reverse league fixture at The Emirates on December 4th, the Arsenal defence kept a clean sheet and the Arsenal defenders did all the scoring as Timber and Saliba goals highlighted a 2-0 home win.  The Gunners have beaten United the last four times they faced them in the league, including their most recent Old Toilet trip in May 2024 when they won 0-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward to Sunday\u2019s game, Mikel Arteta prescribed a sage dose of caution, saying in his Eindhoven post-match presser \u201cit gives us a lot of joy, confidence and belief (but) it\u2019s not what we did three days ago, or today, it\u2019s about what we\u2019re going to do tomorrow, or at Old Trafford.\u201d<\/em> Looking back at the ancient history of this fixture though, as in three years ago or longer, Arsenal have no reason to take anything for granted on this ground no matter their opponent\u2019s current form, and they easily could end up wishing they had saved one or two of the seven goals they scored in midweek for this occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Red Mancs find themselves with the same number of points in the Premier League table as Tottenham who are in 13th on goal difference, and West Ham who are in 15th.  United have changed managers this season (Amorim replaced ten Hag in November) but keep on getting mediocre results.  Overall, their league results include 9 wins and 12 losses, but their form has stayed uniformly poor throughout.  Under ten Hag they won 4 of 12 league games, and under Amorim they have won 5 of 15 leaving both managers with an identical 33% winning percentage, which doesn\u2019t show much improvement or meet their lofty expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United hosted Fulham last weekend in the FA Cup while Arsenal took a weekend break having been eliminated from the competition by these self-same Red Mancs in January.  United, the 2024 FA Cup holders, fielded a starting XI last week of Onana, Maguire, de Ligt, Yoro, Eriksen, Ugarte, Dalot, Mazraoui, Hojland, Fernandes and Zirkzee, but were knocked out on penalties. On Thursday in the Europa League, United drew 1-1 with Real Sociedad in San Sebastian, leaving them with work to do in the second leg and relatively short prep time to get ready for the Gunners. United\u2019s first choice central defender Lisandro Martinez is likely to miss the rest of their season with a cruciate ligament injury suffered in February\u2019s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.  Maguire missed United\u2019s Thursday Europa League match after injuring himself a few days prior against Fulham, so United\u2019s central defence may require another layer of reinforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that stories of discord surround the Red Mancs, pretty much wherever you look. Owner Jim Ratcliffe has made a series of unpopular decisions including sacking some 250 employees with plans to reduce staffing by another 100-200 souls.  He controversially ended Alex Ferguson\u2019s ambassador role despite the Scot being the club\u2019s most successful manager. His no longer shiny new manager Amorim disciplined winger Garnacho last week by making him pay for a team meal as punishment for petulantly walking straight off down the tunnel when he was substituted against Ipswich in United\u2019s last league game.  Amorim also seems to like telling his players through the media that they are collectively hopeless.  Not that I would argue the point with him, of course, and let\u2019s all hope and pray that their discord has not run out this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\u2019s injury situation remains the same as recent weeks, so we should continue with the same makeshift group of attackers, but our defence and midfield, with the addition of MLS at left back, includes a more established group of names. Ben White has made a couple of cameo appearances at right back recently, and may be on the verge of a return to the first team, but for now Timber should continue in that position, and the overall team should look something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber  Saliba  Gabriel  Lewis-Skelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard  Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nwaneri  Merino  Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that we have had trouble scoring in the league recently, and that games like the one in Eindhoven tend not to happen twice in succession, I am predicting that Arsenal will emerge victorious and the traveling Gooners will be singing \u201c1-Nil to the Arsenal\u201d at the final whistle. Please Dennis let it be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wherever you may watch the game, do your utmost to cheer us on to a big win and (most of all) enjoy it! Cheers, all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two big questions loom over Arsenal\u2019s visit to Old Trafford this early March Sunday: 1) \u201cHow high can we fly?\u201d; and 2) \u201cHow low can they go?\u201d although the \u201cthey\u201d in that second question could pertain equally well to bottom half side Manchester United or to bottom feeder refereeing cabal PGMOL, as we have learned […]<\/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\/10901"}],"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=10901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10915,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901\/revisions\/10915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}