{"id":11162,"date":"2025-04-23T23:44:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T22:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2025-04-28T19:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:17:00","slug":"poor-draw-bore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11162","title":{"rendered":"Poor Draw Bore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It started so well. A couple of minutes in we got an early free kick on the left which \u00d8degaard went to take. Kiwior jogged over and had a quiet word in his shell, before taking up a central position. When the delivery came, the Polish international found himself in acres of space. Still with plenty to do, he powered a wonderful header into the back of the net. All we needed was a clean sheet and we were home and hosed. Instead, we put together a disjointed performance, low on quality and rhythm, that will have left most of Paris wondering what all the fuss is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard gave away a shocking ball deep in our half and from the resultant corner Eddie, formerly of this parish, headed wide after Raya flapped at the ball. Our keeper had as poor a game as he has had since those first few dodgy months. He did so much flapping tonight you\u2019d have thought he expected to fly home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not a fun watch. We were slow and sloppy. Palace looked more likely to score but they lacked incision, and we made a couple of useful blocks, Kiwior being the pick of our back line. However, after twenty-six minutes we left Eze in acres of space on the edge of our box as a Palace corner came in, and Trossard could not get close as he volleyed the ball into the ground and in off the post. Quality finish, but Arteta will have the video out and he won\u2019t be happy with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace got in far too easily with a series of diagonals over Timber, but Eddie is the same player that left us, decent in the box but rarely creating much anywhere else. At the other end, as half time drew near, our Dutch right-back fired a ball into Trossard\u2019s feet, and the diminutive Belgian collected it sharply, twisted onto his left foot and squeezed a shot into the bottom corner via a deflection. We did not really deserve it, and we had to hope that his continued efficacy in front of goal would be enough to take the points when our performance didn\u2019t necessarily deserve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ref gave Rice a yellow for nothing just before the break and then gave Devenny one for a similar flavour of nothing just after. He also gave Palace possession via a drop ball after he\u2019d stopped the game because Eddie had crashed into his own keeper. Strange rule, or incorrect application of whatever the rule is \u2013 I\u2019ve given up trying to work out which, the rules only feature intermittently anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka came on just before the hour for Sterling, but he was my triple captain in Fantasy League, and so destined to go without goals or assists. He had a decent chance when he volleyed a Martinelli cross at goal, but Henderson made a solid save. Devenny messed up a header on sixty-five minutes, shouldering a cross he should probably have scored from. Raya tipped his loopy effort over the bar and then saved a Guehi header from another dangerous Palace corner. A minute later Eddie tried a spectacular overhead kick but missed the ball. He\u2019s a good lad and when he was subbed off he got a generous reception, but the scissor kick air swipe did make me smile. Raya\u2019s subsequent continuing efforts to defy the strictures of gravity saw him nowhere near another corner, Munoz headed it back and Sarr touched it wide. Palace should really have scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then did score, \u00d8degaard flicking the ball over for Timber who hooked it back over Henderson for Martinelli to tap in. The flag immediately went up, apparently for offside, and the goal was ruled out. A long VAR check established that Timber was not offside but that the ball had gone out of touch. It was a bit hard to see as the net was in the way of the line camera, but it looked a correct, if annoying, call in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With eight minutes of normal time remaining, it looked like we were going to be able to see this one out, but William Saliba gave Palace an equaliser, failing to return a short ball to \u00d8degaard and instead gifting it to Mateta. Our captain tried to win it back, but hindsight suggests a far more cynical lunge at the striker would have been a better bet (although perhaps not as he plays for Arsenal so it would probably have resulted in a red card not seen in a similar situation before or since). In any event, Mateta provided Palace\u2019s second wonderful finish of the night to chip the ball past Raya and in off the underside of the crossbar. That is the second goal Saliba has given away in a week and this time it proved costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We huffed and puffed for a winner, but we could just as easily have conceded. A Tierney long throw caught them napping but Martinelli raced away only to shoot tamely into the side netting. The whistle went and I was just glad it was over. I did have two Palace supporting mates at the game and after seeing their fantastic away fans myself earlier in the year I can\u2019t grudge any of them a point and two outstanding goals. And good luck to them at the weekend in the FA Cup. At no point this evening did any of our own fellow fans opine that they had only come to see the Arsenal. Anyone who did would have been sorely disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was talk before the game from pundits about how Arsenal needed to avoid defeat or Liverpool would be champions. As usual, they missed the point entirely. Liverpool will be champions and when that is confirmed is utterly irrelevant to Gooners. We needed to take the points because we have a huge semifinal coming up and we need to wrap second place in the league up with the minimum of fuss. Instead, we threw in a horrible performance that didn\u2019t deserve more than a point. Kiwior and Partey were pretty good. A handful were okay, and a few were on the poor side of okay. No-one was awful, but we looked like a side too used to drawing matches, and that is a bad habit if we want to have a proper crack at the league next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose we will have to take this one in the context of the PSG tie. If we turn up over those two legs, no-one will remember this dire game. Frankly, I shall be making extra effort to forget myself, although this may not be required. Nothing to see here folks, please go about your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started so well. A couple of minutes in we got an early free kick on the left which \u00d8degaard went to take. Kiwior jogged over and had a quiet word in his shell, before taking up a central position. When the delivery came, the Polish international found himself in acres of space. Still with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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\/11162"}],"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=11162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11166,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions\/11166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}