{"id":11637,"date":"2025-08-18T11:39:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11637"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T17:56:12","slug":"work-to-do-but-a-win-is-a-win-is-a-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11637","title":{"rendered":"Work to Do, But a Win is a Win, is a Win!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Gooner faithful salute the team as we take all all three points (taken by the author)<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So here we were again. A glorious morning and my son and I were packing up the car ready for the long journey up to Manchester to take on the Stretford reds. The journey up the M6 wasn\u2019t too bad, 3 hours 45 minutes with lots of stop-start traffic. It\u2019s always busy when we play United; Arsenal and United fans all heading North using the same roads and trains. Finally into Manchester\/Stretford and onto Chester Road. Our parking was brilliant, less than ten minutes to the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The usual throng outside and straight in through the visitors\u2019 entrance, security minimal. For the first time here we had digital tickets but they worked fine. Up into the upper tier to find we were right in the middle of the travelling Gooner army. The usual very tight seats (my knees were pressing against the row in front, good job we were stood up for the whole game). It was like a sauna up there and the sun beamed in through the plastic roof that let in all the rain two years ago. It really is a crappy ground, with its tiny screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team was in and we were playing a strong side with a noticeably strong bench \u2013 the result of all that activity in the transfer window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White (Timber 71), Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori (MLS 72)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice (Merino 83) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Gy\u00f6keres (Havertz 60), Martinelli (Madueke 60).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referee, Simon Hooper<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minutes silence for Jota and Silva was immaculately observed by all 73,000. Bravi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we were off. In the first minute, Zubimendi was struck across the face by a swinging elbow from Mbuemo. Free kick? Yellow\/red card? No, play on. Mr Hooper making his intentions clear from the start. In the first 10 minutes we were under the cosh. United were finding a lot of joy down the wings, especially their left, right in front of us. Mbuemo seemed to have acres of green grass in front of him. Where was Calafiori? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we grew into the game. After 13 minutes \u00d8degaard danced into their penalty area and won a corner. Declan walked over and swung in his usual perfect inswinger. Bayindir flapped and only succeeded in knocking the ball into the path of Calafiori on the line, who nodded it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandemonium!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set piece again!
Set piece again!
Set piece again, Ole Ole!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a VAR check but it was dismissed and the goal stood. I\u2019ve watched the goal back on both MOTD and Sky, and both Joe Hart and Gary Neville were agreed that United were poor and that there was no foul. Saliba made his presence felt. He was being marked by Mason Mount, but easily brushed him aside and stood right by the goalkeeper. No hands were raised, the contact was slight and it was just bad goalkeeping and bad defending. Cheers for the gift!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The home team continued to play very direct football with lots of space on the wings. Dorgu hit the post. Cunha (who was dangerous throughout) forced a brilliant save from Raya, low down with his left hand with a shot that looked as though it was creeping in at the far post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go blow by blow for the rest of the game, but you all saw the match and, to be honest, it continued in much the same vein. But, a few talking points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya used the long kick time and time again. Two possible reasons, firstly to bring Gy\u00f6keres into the game and secondly to avoid the very aggressive press of United. I enjoyed the way Gy\u00f6keres bodied De Ligt a couple of times but to be honest he had little impact. Don\u2019t write him off, give him time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya and the centre backs were, again, superb and deserved their clean sheet. We had a few hairy moments but there was always a body in the way, a ball hooked clear or, if they did get a shot away, Raya proved equal to it. The best back three in the Premier League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard had a curious match. He started brightly and dribbled his way past players multiple times. But his passing was off and he burned several opportunities to slip Saka in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subs were strong when they came on. Timber and Havertz were very good and helped to see the match out. MLS didn\u2019t see a lot of the ball but his positioning was good, unlike Calafiori who was good upfront but showed that Zinchenko-like tendency to be beaten by a long diagonal and Mbuemo found lots of space behind him. Madueke also showed some defensive weakness and was skinned several times by the excellent Amad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal faithful were strong throughout, singing their hearts out (the singing bounces nicely off that plastic roof) and supporting the team very positively. But as we gave the ball away in midfield time and again, or butchered a passing opportunity, there were a few muttered North London obscenities. Two new songs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly one about Gy\u00f6keres that I may not have quite right yet, especially the line about his girlfriend<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came from Sweden
To play in red and white
He asked his girlfriend
To play in red and white <\/em> (may have this line wrong)
He\u2019s scoring goals
With a cannon on his chest
His name is Viktor
Viktor Gy\u00f6keres!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly a simple little ditty about Madueke that just consisted of chanting his name with a few Na Na Naahs thrown in. I was disappointed that Zubi didn\u2019t get the Kaiser Chiefs song Ruby, Ruby,  Ruby, Ruby!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to just comment that Simon Hooper was absolute pants the whole game. If we were left lying on the ground, it was play on. If they ended on the ground, instant free kick. Plus ca change, plus c\u2019est la meme chose!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we saw it out and, as you can see from the pic at the top, both the team and the crowd were ecstatic. My daughter\u2019s boyfriend is a Man U fan and she messaged me saying \u201c Matt says MU were the better team. I told him that a win is a win!\u201d I replied saying \u201c You were both right!\u201d Bath messaged me on the way home reminding me of all those times when we played them off the park and drew or lost, e.g. in 2022 when we were clearly the better team but somehow lost 3-1. Damn right. This was a tough start to the season but a win to savour. A tough watch but I loved the result. Lots and lots to do on the training ground, especially on the attack. Time for Arteta to work that magic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way home we were looking for somewhere to eat and chanced upon a lovely little Portuguese restaurant in a residential street, lots of small plates, seafood and steaks. No beer or wine as we had a long car journey, but very nice. We\u2019ll go there again. Back down the M6. We stopped on the M6 toll road services for a comfort break to find the place rammed its Man United fans! Home at 11.30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up Leeds, then Anfield. We need to be better at Anfield for sure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So here we were again. A glorious morning and my son and I were packing up the car ready for the long journey up to Manchester to take on the Stretford reds. The journey up the M6 wasn\u2019t too bad, 3 hours 45 minutes with lots of stop-start traffic. It\u2019s always busy when we play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11637"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11637"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11645,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11637\/revisions\/11645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}