{"id":11086,"date":"2025-04-11T09:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T08:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11086"},"modified":"2025-04-13T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T09:18:13","slug":"can-our-b-team-draw-the-bees-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11086","title":{"rendered":"Can Our \u2018B Team\u2019 draw the Bees\u2019 Sting?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cAfter the Lord Mayor\u2019s Show comes the rag parade\u201d is a time honoured phrase that one of my father\u2019s bridge partners used to deploy regularly to describe a disappointing hand at Bridge – a phrase repeated so often that it has been seared into my cortex. Hopefully it isn\u2019t going to be an appropriate descriptor for this weekend\u2019s match after the Arsenal\u2019s phenomenal performance on Tuesday evening – widely and aptly described in the last few days as the greatest night in the Emirates Stadium\u2019s history (so far) in the twenty years, or so, since it opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up, on Saturday evening, is a visit from Brentford FC. The Bees currently sit in 12th place on 42 points, 4 and 5 points above Manure and the Marshdwellers respectively, i.e. firmly mid table mediocity, safe from relegation but with little prospect of bagging a European place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Brentford\u2019s fourth successive season in the Premiership and they are on course to improve on last season\u2019s 16th place which was a severe disappointment to them after their high-water mark of 9th in 22-23, after establishing themselves in 13th place on their return to the top flight the season before. Of course, we all remember their first game back in the top flight on Friday 13th August 2021 when the defeat at the Community Stadium of a patched-up Arsenal team bearing little resemblance to today\u2019s eleven (only White, Tierney and Martinelli survive) provoked wild celebrations from the two most execrable pundits on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that defeat, we have won all but one of our six Premier League meetings – a draw at our place in February 2023 – usually by a one goal margin. The cumulative scoreline of all seven games in the Premiership era is 12-6 in our favour. Our results in the modern era stand in stark contrast to a dismal record against Brentford in the old First Division where, before their extended exile in 1947, they were, for no clear reason, Arsenal\u2019s bogey team, against whom our record was two wins, three draws and five defeats with a cumulative scoreline of 8-14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no reason to expect Thomas Frank\u2019s philosophy to have radically changed since we beat them 3-1 at the Community Stadium on New Year\u2019s Day with Mikel Merino providing a preview of his striking future by scoring our second goal. We can again expect a high press when we play out from the back, a congested central area of the pitch and a low block if we don\u2019t move the ball swiftly upfield, then whenever we lose possession, a rapid transition to breakaway attacks involving Mbuemo, Wissa and Schade, supported by Damsgaard, Norgaard and the wing backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brentford boast an excellent away record in 2025, having won five of their six Premier League matches on the road. Although they lost their last away game 2-1 to Newcastle, their prior away defeat was on 15 December, 2-1 at Chelsea. That was followed by a scoreless draw against Brighton before beginning a sequence of away victories: 0-5 at Southampton, 1-2 at Palace, 0-1 at West Ham, 0-4 at Leicester and 1-2 at Bournemouth. While the drubbings of hapless relegation fodder can be expected for any competent, well-organised team, the results against Palace and Bournemouth, and perhaps West Ham, are more impressive and suggest that Brentford will approach this game reasonably confidently. Especially as we played a demanding match against Real Madrid only 4 days before while they were being drilled by Thomas Frank all week on how to neutralise the Arsenal\u2019s threat and exploit our weaknesses. We certainly can\u2019t expect Brentford to roll over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In selecting his team, I expect Mikel to have more than half an eye on the second leg against Los Blancos<\/em> next Wednesday and to make as many changes to the obvious first XI as he did against Everton. Nonetheless, he will put out a team that he expects to win the game. Predicting his selection is therefore rather difficult. However, I think that players with recent fitness issues, such as Timber and Saka, will be rested for at least the first 45-60 minutes while I expect Partey, Martinelli and possibly also Rice, \u00d8degaard, MLS and Trossard to start on the bench. On the other hand, there are players who need minutes who will almost certainly start. As too, almost certainly, will Saliba and Kiwior, to further build that defensive partnership \u2018under fire\u2019 while I expect both our starting fullbacks from Tuesday may be rested. On the right, Ben White needs minutes while Timber needs rest. However, on the left, the youthful vigour of MLS may be preferred over the option of Tierney while the Scot would be preferable to Zinchenko given the threat of Mbuemo. However, the Ukrainian may get an opportunity to strut his stuff in midfield, if \u00d8degaard is rested. I think Partey will almost certainly be replaced by Jorginho to allow the Ghanan to prepare himself for a reprise of Tuesday\u2019s masterclass when he takes the field at the Bernab\u00e9u but my instinct also to save Rice for Madrid may not be shared by Arteta and his energy and forcefulness would certainly strengthen our midfield against Brentford\u2019s midfield giants. If Rice plays, Trossard may get the nod to replace \u00d8degaard at \u2018inside right\u2019, given his ability to alternate with Merino up front. Merino will almost certainly get another chance to sharpen his striking instincts but this time he will be flanked by the up and coming Nwaneri and, for at least a half, the generally down and going Sterling, perhaps more appropriately described as regularly down-going Sterling. None of our longterm walking wounded can be expected to return, though there were rumblings yesterday that Havertz might be available before the season\u2019s end if there was a big occasion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, I expect the following starting XI or possibly something completely different:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White, Saliba, Kiwior, MLS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trossard, Jorginho, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I expect the familiar scenario of Arsenal dominating possession, camped on the edge of a nine or ten man defence and working the ball across the pitch and back again trying to create an opening. I also expect the appearance of several first team regulars from the bench as the game progresses if we do start with such a makeshift team and we need the extra creativity and threat. Hopefully the central defence who performed so brilliantly against Real Madrid will build further mutual understanding and preserve another clean sheet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic Pound? Oddschecker offers the classic 1-0 to the Arsenal at 15\/2 or a 2-0 victory at 8\/1. I have a sneaking suspicion that 2-1 to the Arsenal, also available at 8\/1, is the smart bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go win, Arsenal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cAfter the Lord Mayor\u2019s Show comes the rag parade\u201d is a time honoured phrase that one of my father\u2019s bridge partners used to deploy regularly to describe a disappointing hand at Bridge – a phrase repeated so often that it has been seared into my cortex. Hopefully it isn\u2019t going to be an appropriate descriptor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"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\/11086"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11086"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11102,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11086\/revisions\/11102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}