{"id":11950,"date":"2025-09-22T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11950"},"modified":"2025-09-23T19:14:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:14:24","slug":"gabi-the-saviour-as-pep-parks-the-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11950","title":{"rendered":"Gabi the Saviour as Pep Parks the Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Picture taken by an emotional author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s begin with the best bit. Deep into injury time, still losing 1-0 as they had been since the ninth minute, Calafiori broke up a rare second half attack by City. A couple of passes later the ball got to Eberiche Eze, in the centre circle, but still in his own half. He looked up and saw Gabby Martinelli, in the centre forward position, signalling and making a run. Almost for the first time in the second half, the City back five were relatively high up the field, a fact which hadn\u2019t skipped the notice of a furiously gesticulating Pep Guardiola, who was telling them to get back. Eze played a superb ball over the top of them perfectly into the run of Gabi who was just onside, but there was still much to do. The ball bounced one, two times and, for the first time in the game, the 6\u20195\u201d Donnarumma in goal was caught in no man\u2019s land. Gabi took the ball at shin height and, with the outside of his right foot lobbed it over Donnarumma from the edge of the area. It soared over him and, in super slo-mo (or so it seemed as we all craned our necks on the North Bank), bounced into the net. A superlative finish under the highest of pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was absolute pandemonium, on people\u2019s sofas, in bars all over the world and, not least, in the stadium where the response was ecstatic, the most intense \u201climbs\u201d so far this season. For the second time in two games, Gabi had played the super sub, scored and saved the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did we get to this position? Earlier that afternoon, as my son and I were having lunch in a Chinese restaurant on Holloway Road, the team news came in. I had to put down my chopsticks as we absorbed the detail. Yet again, we were starting with a midfield of Rice, Zubimendi and Merino. Worse, Trossard was on the left wing. Eze, Martinelli and a fit again Saka were all on the bench. I see what the boss was trying to do. Keep the game tight until 65-70 minutes, then throw on the \u201cfinishers\u201d to win the game, as he had done against Athletic Bilbao in the Champions league. After all, City had thrown away games earlier in the League in the last twenty minutes and had had 48 hours less rest then us since the Champions League as we played Tuesday and they played Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that plan depended on keeping a clean sheet, another fair assumption as we hadn\u2019t conceded a goal from open play all season. But City scuppered that plan early on, as, after just nine minutes, they scored a superb break away goal. Haaland won the ball near his own area and, a few rat a tat passes later Reijnders was striding through our midfield. Fully fifty yards he made, before sliding the ball to Haaland who had sprinted up on his right hand side, having totally outpaced Gabriel who couldn\u2019t keep up with him. Haaland tucked the ball efficiently past a diving Raya. 1-0 City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was now obvious that City would stay as tight as possible. Surely, even as early as this, we had to change it up. Rice and Merino had played together 10 times in midfield in the Premier League. Only once had they delivered a win. But no substitutions were made until half time. With no creators on the field, the plan seemed to be to get the ball to Madueke on the right wing, or score from corners. The ball would be passed from Trossard, to Zubi, to Rice to Merino to Timber. We did not have an attempt on goal until injury time in the first half when the hardworking Noni forced a save from Donnarumma at his near post. Indeed City had the better chances in that first half to go 2-0 up, Raya having to make several saves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in injury time, Bernardo Silva forced the ball out by challenging Trossard on our left wing near the halfway line. His clearance went via Trossard\u2019s wedding tackle and left him winded. As he absorbed the pain, on all fours, Silva, from off the field, threw the ball at his head. Trossard, furious, threw the ball back at him, hitting him also in the orchestra stalls. Silva went down clutching his face. Now this was a piece of pure handbags, pantomine stuff from two mature, highly experienced players. But both had thrown the ball at an opponent. A stern talking to by the referee, a yellow card each and \u201clet\u2019s get on with the game eh lads?\u201d But Stuart Atwell was taking ages to decide what to do. It quickly dawned on us that Silva had already been yellow carded. A second would mean a red. But Atwell bottled the decision. Compare this to Tross kicking the ball away at the Etihad. PGMOL gonna PGMOL!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the half the crowd were restive. We were playing boring football with so many attacking players on the bench. At half time, Arteta acted. Eze came on for Merino and Saka for Madueke (Arteta later claimed that Noni was carrying a knock). We started the second half with verve and determination. Suddenly it was all Arsenal. But now we had to get through a packed deep block defence. And behind that defence was Donnarumma, a giant goalkeeper who had been highly influential in PSG winning our semi final in the Champions League. In particular he nullified our corner threat. Time and again he punched the ball clear. On 76 minutes Haaland was withdrawn, as was Foden, and Pep withdrew to a 5-5-0 formation. The bus was well and truly parked. Nwaneri and Martinelli came on for Timber and Trossard. And so we came to the denouement described at the top of this piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I am a massive supporter of Mikel Arteta. But on this occasion he got it wrong. He seemed to admit that by the changes he made at half time. At home, against a fragile City who had played the same team in three matches in a week, he should have had more confidence to take the game to them. Afterwards a defiant boss denied that the first half tactics were wrong. He always was stubborn. Next weekend, we go again at St James Park. Please, do not play Rice, Zubi and Merino in midfield and Trossard on the wing. All of those players are top drawer. But the balance is wrong. We had a superb transfer window and are packed with talent. Saka is back. Newcastle look dodgy. Let\u2019s take the game to them and silence that crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Liverpool keep winning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s begin with the best bit. Deep into injury time, still losing 1-0 as they had been since the ninth minute, Calafiori broke up a rare second half attack by City. A couple of passes later the ball got to Eberiche Eze, in the centre circle, but still in his own half. He looked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"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\/11950"}],"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=11950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11953,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950\/revisions\/11953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}