{"id":10935,"date":"2025-03-15T14:52:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10935"},"modified":"2025-03-17T19:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:52:05","slug":"bonanzas-and-aspirins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10935","title":{"rendered":"Bonanzas and Aspirins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
David Herd, 1960<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And so to the Stadium of Stone, to welcome the Boehly boys early doors Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no wins and only two goals in our last three league matches, it is difficult to recall when we scored freely in the league. Thus, this preview\u2019s sojourn on memory lane takes us to March 8, 1958. Some at this esteemed establishment would still have been in short trousers; many would not have been even a twinkle in their father\u2019s eye. However, on that day, we played what was likely our madcapest (is that even a word?) home game against the mob from the Bus Stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was what the tabloids like to call a nine-goal thriller at Highbury. Jimmy Bloomfield put us 1-0 up, then an 18-year-old Jimmy Greaves struck for the visitors, followed by the equally youthful Micky Block. David Herd equalised, but Greavsie put Chelsea ahead again. Then boom! Goals from Herd, Danny Clapton and Herd again to complete his hat-trick gave us a 5-3 lead before Ron Tindall pulled one back in the 78th minute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanging on for a 5-4 win, Stan Charlton, one of our right-backs you may never have heard of despite his four seasons at the club, sliced an attempted clearance. The ball shot goalwards, but Jack Kelsey (our greatest keeper? Discuss) pulled off what The People’s man on the terraces, James Samuel, called ‘a save in a million’ to preserve the victory. There was still time for Tindall to hit the bar before the final whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our defenders had not covered themselves in glory all afternoon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atrocious covering from the backs Stan Charlton and unsteady Len Wills, plus an unwieldy display by centre-half Joe Fotheringham, let in the ever-dangerous Jimmy Greaves for smash-and-grab goals in the 12th and 48th minutes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel ended his report with the curious sentence: So the Bonanza was over, and out came the aspirins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of historical footnotes on the participants that day: Jimmy Greaves and Micky Block both also played in the Chelsea U-18 team that lost the FA Youth Cup final that season, with Wolves turning around a 5-1 first-leg deficit to win 7-6. Almost Spurzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Herd is one of a handful of players to have played in a league match with his father. In 1951, he made his senior debut in the same Stockport County XI in which Alec Herd was seeing out his career. Herd Snr had won the old Division One and the FA Cup with Manchester City and had been a wartime Scottish international. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, another future Arsenal legend would join that select group: George Eastham. He made his debut for Ards in Northern Ireland, where his father, George Snr, was player-manager. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is only one other known UK example: Ian and Gary Bowyer at Hereford United in 1989-90. However, Alexei Eremenko, a Russian midfielder who played in Finland, turned out with one of his sons at HJK Helsinki and then with another at FF Jaro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

On much the same principle that an infinite number of monkeys given a sufficient number of typewriters (mechanical writing machines, for younger \u2018holics) would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare, it was inevitable that Boehly’s hoovering up of players on an industrial scale would eventually yield a combination of eleven bodies that would comprise a decent team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enzo Maresca arrived from Leicester City last July to take over that Herceulan lottery picking exercise from Graham Potter. He has, however stutteringly, got Chelsea into the top four. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His team employs a 4-2-3-1 positional system quite conventionally: 3-2-4-1 when in possession and, after losing the ball, a high press and then falling back into a 4-4-2 low block. His team plays out from the back, inverts a full-back to provide the extra man in midfield, allowing five to attack, with wingers hugging the touchlines, the 10s working the half-spaces, and the nine aiming to break the lines. Chelsea likes to counter fast; only Liverpool has had more shots on the break this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Maresca has a magic sauce, it is the combination of centre-back Wesley Fofana and defensive midfielder Rom\u00e9o Lavia. Together, they provided the physical defensive dominance that lets the rest of the expensively assembled high-tekkers scurry up the pitch and be the PL’s second-highest goalscorers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chelsea has lost only once when the pair has played this season, their opener against Man City. Maresca’s misfortune is that he has only had both simultaneously for seven matches. Lavia has had three spells out with a hamstring injury, and Fofana injured his hamstring in December. Since then, Chelsea has failed to win over half of its games and has only beaten two sides outside the bottom six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, both will be available on Sunday for the first time since early December. Fofana played 73 minutes last weekend in the 1-0 win against Leicester, his first game back. Lavia was on the bench but stayed there. Both sat out the mid-week game against Copenhagen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fofana’s return will relieve some pressure off Levi Colwill in the heart of the defence. The young England centre-back’s form and scope to carry the ball forward deserted him during Fofana and Lavia’s absence. Tosin Adarabioyo will likely find himself on the bench with Trevoh Chalobah, who returned from loan at Crystal Palace in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cloak of hair beneath which lurks Marc Cucurella should start at left-back but continue his recent role as the inverting full-back alongside either Lavia or Mois\u00e9s Caicedo. Reece James, another who has missed games because of a hamstring injury, may start at right back. He missed the Leicester game because of illness but came off the bench against Copenhagen. The one-cap France international Malo Gusto would come in otherwise, assuming he passes a late fitness test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filip J\u00f8rgensen or the putative first-choice keeper, Robert S\u00e1nchez, will start in goal. The uncertainty explains why acquiring a fresh glove butler is a summer priority for Maresca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up front, Cole Palmer, who is going through a barren spell but is still their leading goal scorer with 14 goals and a club-high six assists, will be in his familiar role as one of the 10s. Argentina international Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez will be the other, but deeper, one. However, Maresco has had to juggle the rest of his attack following thigh injuries to Nicholas Jackson and Noni Madueke. Both will be off games until after the international break. Their absence costs Chelsea the speed it relies on for fast breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two potential replacements, 19-year-old Spaniard Marc Guiu and 22-year-old David Fofana, are also gone in the fetlock. Pedro Neto, a right winger, has been playing as the nine, with Christopher Nkunku, a centre-forward, on the left wing and Jordon Sancho, a left winger on loan from the Red Mancs, playing on the right. Camden-born winger Tyrique George, another 19-year-old, has been getting a few minutes. It’s all a bit makeshift. But needs do as needs must, as we know only too well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Mykhaylo Mudryk is still provisionally suspended after failing a urine drug test. A bullet dodged all-round there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

With the perfunctory dispatch of PSV Eindhoven from the Champions League completed in midweek, the priority now is to stop the league season from getting away. We still need 24 points from our last 10 games to guarantee a top-four finish (beating the Chavs would make it 19 from nine). Every place we finish higher up the table is worth an extra \u00a33.1 million in merit prize money that can be kicked into the summer transfers pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta’s selection turns on whether Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli are ready to start a league game. As we don’t play again until April Fool’s Day and Benny Blanco has had no Tuchel tap-up, my guess is that he will start. Jurien Timber would then switch to left back, and MLS can celebrate his England call-up from the bench. Parsing Arteta\u2019s pre-match press conference \u2014 always a fool\u2019s errand \u2014 I think Martinelli will come off the bench. Sterling is ineligible against his parent club (curb your enthusiasm, please). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Partey, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The gentlemen of the turf have us as firm favourites. However, on Sunday, Chelsea will be battling to hold onto a place in the top four and will be buoyed by their midweek success in Thursday night football. We shall need to keep the ball from Palmer and hope Cucurella\u2019s hair wreaks some terrible vengeance on its owner. Yet, a 3-1 home win has a ring to it. I\u2019ll take any result that brings us the bonanza of three points and leaves the aspirins for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, far and near.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to the Stadium of Stone, to welcome the Boehly boys early doors Sunday. With no wins and only two goals in our last three league matches, it is difficult to recall when we scored freely in the league. Thus, this preview\u2019s sojourn on memory lane takes us to March 8, 1958. Some at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"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\/10935"}],"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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10942,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions\/10942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}