{"id":11501,"date":"2025-07-23T17:47:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11501"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:11:21","slug":"arsenal-are-hot-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11501","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Are Hot in Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Singapore Chilli Crab. Take me now, Lord\u2026.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Are we sitting comfortably? Then I\u2019ll begin.  After a sleepy summer with no meaningful football (outside of the Ladies Euro\u2019s) for nearly two months, it was time to rouse ourselves from our collective slumber. A trip to the Lion City is always a treat and even from 7,000 miles away, I could smell and taste Chilli Crab wafting over from the Newton Circus hawker centre with the promise of a few cold ones to be sunk later at Harry\u2019s Bar at Clarke Quay.  Unfortunately, it was only the waking remembering of times past. Ahh, thems the days.   Damn you, Marcel Proust.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with the preamble, this will be a suitably impressionistic rather than detailed match report, as much in the interests of time as the fact that there is not much to be gleaned from the first pre-season friendly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, to the game. The Arsenal started with a strong line up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White, Saliba, Calafiori, Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norgaard, Nwaneri, Rice, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fair side, it has to be said. The only tourist not on the bench was Gabriel, which was odd as he was shown in pretty full-on training in the video released ahead of the game.  I\u2019m all for slowly reintroducing him back in though, so I managed to put down my pitchfork and flaming torch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milan, I thought, started pretty slickly and were the more impressive side for the first 20 minutes.  After this point, it was all Arsenal though really. Nwaneri worked his way into the game and looked threatening in the \u00d8degaard role, with a couple of really clever manipulations of the ball making his victims look very uncomfortable. He also managed a really good shot which well saved by the Milan keeper. As the half wore on, the game settled into the pattern so familiar to us from last season, wherein a fairly pedestrian Arsenal build-up was thwarted by an 11-man defence. 30-degree heat and 90% humidity are, though, a genuine excuse so once again I managed to fight off the urge to incite the peasants to burn down the evil baron\u2019s castle.  Everyone acquitted themselves well and Milan were restricted to Leao running down blind alleys, pretending he was comfortable to take on Saliba without actually doing it. Saka was far and away the most impressive player on the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time went and I reached for a Singapore Sling and considered throwing some peanut shells on the floor.  The wife was not pleased. For I was not in the Long Bar at Raffles.  So, water and an apple it was for my half-time refreshment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were treated to a mass team change for the second half and the team which started was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Saka, Trossard, Havertz <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, a fair side.  We were immediately brighter with \u00d8degaard bringing a little more zip to proceedings, ably assisted by Kiwior who played some very nice passes from the back. And it was Kiwior who provided the excellent bending cross from 10 yards outside the box on the left-hand side over to Saka on the right-hand side of the 6-yard box to scuff in for the only goal of the game.   It was in truth well deserved. On around 70 minutes Arteta introduced Salmon, 15, for Saliba and Dowman, 15, for Saka, as well as Nichols, a hoary veteran who will be 19 at the weekend, for White. After a bit of a tentative start, Nichols settled in and had a good 20 minutes,.  Dowman started like he belonged from minute one, although his tendency to hold on to the ball a bit too long does grate a little. Of course, at that age none of us ever did that. He is not 16 until December.  Salmon played as if he were Saliba. By which I mean faultlessly, assuredly.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game ended and we won probably one of the most comfortable 1-0\u2019s you will ever witness. We were then treated to penalties as a bit of a digestif. \u00d8degaard missed our first to keep up his recent habit of poor striking of the ball at set pieces.  Both keepers saved a good few. Dowman and Nichols both took excellent pens but unfortunately Salmon missed the last for us and we lost the shoot out when the next Milan player scored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was all jolly good fun and a nice work out. Expect to see the pace picked up increasingly over the next couple of weeks. Next up Geordie Arabia, also in Singapore, at the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are we sitting comfortably? Then I\u2019ll begin.  After a sleepy summer with no meaningful football (outside of the Ladies Euro\u2019s) for nearly two months, it was time to rouse ourselves from our collective slumber. A trip to the Lion City is always a treat and even from 7,000 miles away, I could smell and taste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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\/11501"}],"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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11501"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11526,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions\/11526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}