Barely have we had a chance to draw breath after our\nreverse-thrashing of the champions when our FA Cup semifinal against Man City\nhoves into view. As we race to finish the season the games are coming at us as\nthick and fast as a Mustafi slide tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday\u2019s result gives us a chance of European football\nvia the league if we manage to win our last two games and others drop points.\nAnother triumph in the cup, to extend our unrivalled winning record, would\nguarantee us a Europa League spot, yet it will be a tall order to get past a\nside as good as City, who swatted us aside with ease in the first match back\nafter the restart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember though that the last time we played City in a\nsemifinal in this competition we defied the odds to run out as winners. Hopefully\nour stubborn rearguard effort against Pool will provide a less than\nGraham-esque defence with more confidence than the rest of us feel when we see\nSilva, De Bruyne, Sterling and the rest of our previous tormentors line up in\nblue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few seasons ago, had I been offered the chance to swap\nOzil for Silva, I would not have taken the deal. That shows what I know! As one\nmagnificent player still at the peak off his powers winds down his final season\nin English football hoping for one last trophy, our own creative genius deservedly\ndoes not even get into the squad and does not seem bothered by that fact in the\nslightest. How times change. And how we could use peak performance Ozil to help\nus create against a team who have every chance of putting us under the cosh\nmuch like Pool did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problems for Arteta will be similar to the ones he faced\nagainst Liverpool, where he somehow came away with a win without really solving\nthem. Hopefully his intimate knowledge of our opponents (ahem) will give him\nsome insights. How can we get some control in midfield? How can we keep a\nrelentless attack at bay? How can we cause them some damage in their own half?\nIf he persists with the back three, which seems likely, then we will only have\ntwo bodies in the middle of the park and will suffer for it. But the back three\nhas looked a lot more solid than any of the partnerships we have seen in\ncentral defence in a four. Frankly, our best chance would be to play twelve\nmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martinez<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holding – Luiz – Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bellerin – Xhaka – Ceballos – Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nelson – Laca – Auba<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emi has been immense since the injury to Leno and I cannot\nsee us getting through this one without a few more moments of magic from him.\nTierney and Saka did well against Salah and their reward may be the chance to\nrepeat the trick on De Bruyne. This also gets Saka on the pitch without taking\nup a spot in our front three. The rested Bellerin to come in for Cedric whilst\nHolding must retain his place. Xhaka always plays, so that\u2019s that. MA8 will\nmake a choice between Ceballos and Torreira to partner him. Up front I expect\nto see Auba on the left and Laca central. I have a sneaking suspicion that Pepe\nmay be held in reserve whilst Nelson gets a chance to build on his productive\ngame a couple of days ago. But that might be the other way round. Ainsley\nMaitland-Niles is apparently on his way out of the club but has the right\nattitude for Arteta still to trust him. If our formation needs tweaking I won\u2019t\nbe surprised to see him come on in a tactical switch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Man City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In beating Bournemouth on Wednesday our opponents left\nLaporte, De Bruyne and Mahrez on the bench. So they are all well rested. Which\nis nice for them, if terrifying to some of us. Sterling played the second half.\nHowever, when their replacements are Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Gabriel\nJesus it is a reminder that we face a club whose squad is far better and deeper\nthan ours. Our manager (\u2018Head Coach\u2019 pffff!) has made it very clear what he\nthinks is the only way to close the gap to a squad like theirs but that will\nnot happen overnight and tomorrow we will be serious underdogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope, if I may grasp at these lovely-looking straws, may lie\nin the fact that their defence has not been as effective this season as we have\nbecome accustomed to. Although it has still kept two clean sheets in two games\nagainst us. If we press Stones and Laporte we may get some change out of them.\nMaybe. Hopefully. All fingers and toes are firmly crossed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The holics\u2019 pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a tough one. We are not in the business of betting\nagainst Arsenal, which rather limits our options here. Might we get a 1-1 draw\nand an injury time winner, repeating the last time when we went on to beat\nChelsea in the Final? They play Manure a day after us and stranger things have\nhappened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am instead going to plump for the greatest scoreline in\nworld football, 1-0 to the Arsenal. William Hill have that as 25\/1, probably\nwith very good reason when you look at our defence and their attack. I would\nnot spend all of your pocket money on that tip, you might want to keep some in\ncase you feel the need for a couple of post-game sherbets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Wembley has started hosting the semis as well as the\nfinal our notional \u2018home\u2019 designation means nothing, and we are denied an\nimmediate return to the scene of the crime where we kicked the scousers in the\nnuts and ran off with their lunch money. We will instead become the second club\nfrom North London to find out what it is like to play in an empty Wembley\nstadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might be too much to ask for a second victory in four\ndays over another team so far ahead of us. But this is cup football, albeit cup\nfootball where the home advantage has been nullified by the absence of fans,\nand anything can happen. We have to go into the game with the right mindset,\nwork our socks off and hope we get the rub of the green. We won\u2019t control the\ngame but we have players capable of special moments and a togetherness and\ndetermination in the squad that we have not seen in far too long. As long as we\ngive all we\u2019ve got then we will be proud of the boys. Yet all we have got may\nbe enough. It has been before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What did she wear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Barely have we had a chance to draw breath after our reverse-thrashing of the champions when our FA Cup semifinal against Man City hoves into view. As we race to finish the season the games are coming at us as thick and fast as a Mustafi slide tackle. Wednesday\u2019s result gives us a chance of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092"}],"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=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1093,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}