{"id":1199,"date":"2020-08-08T23:20:43","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T22:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2020-08-12T04:53:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T03:53:31","slug":"the-season-that-seemed-to-last-foreverwith-a-very-happy-ending-book-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1199","title":{"rendered":"The season that seemed to last forever\u2026with a very happy ending: Book II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part 3 – The Basque Saviour? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta was a well-timed present from the Arsenal hierarchy to a disgruntled fan base. He was appointed just before Christmas and his first game in charge was at Bournemouth on Boxing Day. For us Holics it was a sombre time. After several months of increasingly poor health we heard on Christmas Day, of all days, that Dave Faber, Holic to us all, had passed away. So many of us felt a real sense of loss and sadness. As a new era was unfolding at Arsenal, so we had to come to terms with life without the insights, wisdom and geniality of a great man. He would have pooh poohed such sentiment and focused on the game at Bournemouth but boy did we miss him. A number of us decided to continue his admirable tradition and this blog is the result.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us on here saw, even in a rather frenetic game at the Vitality a sign of greater belief and organisation. In Arteta\u2019s second, at home against Chelsea, a team that would loom large in his life over the rest of the season, we saw an excellent first-half performance followed by a collapse in the second half, where errors from Mustafi and Leno cost us a rather undeserved defeat. On New Years Day we welcomed Manchester United to the Grove. In the first half we played them off the pitch and led 2-0. In the second we managed the match beautifully and flattened the game in a very professional style. Belief coursed through the club again and it was possible to divine a sense of direction for the first time since Ars\u00e8ne was in his pomp. After disposing of Leeds narrowly in the FA Cup there followed a series of draws, most notable of which was a fight back at Stamford Bridge where, down to ten men after Mustafi sold Luiz down the river (penalty concession and red card followed), we trailed twice but saw a spectacular Martinelli equaliser followed by an unlikely late goal from Hector Bellerin that gave us the draw. After the fairly moribund draw at home to Sheffield United a number of us met to formalise plans for the blog and enjoy a delightful evening of Gooner fellowship despite the absence of our friend and mentor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress at Bournemouth in the Cup was followed in February by a gradual improvement in the League and three successive home wins. During this period we won a difficult Europa League knockout tie with Olympiakos and looked enthusiastically to the second leg: a momentous game in more ways than one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat of Covid-19 was becoming ever more real and after the game it was revealed that the Olympiakos president had tested positive for the virus. That was not the only big shock on the night, as we were taken into extra time and after a spectacular equaliser from our talisman Auba we conceded at the death to go out on away goals, our first defeat of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later Arteta tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of our game at the Etihad. Football in Britain was immediately postponed until further notice and the world took stock of a raging pandemic. Football was very far from our minds for some time to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 4 – Could we finish with a flourish? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football resumed behind closed doors on 17th<\/sup> June with Manchester City welcoming Arsenal. It was actually the second game post-resumption, the first seeing the Villa keeper drag a ball from almost a yard behind his line to earn the point that ultimately rescued Villa and relegated Bournemouth. VAR, the innovation intended to provide fairer and clearer decisions, was not able to be used for a reason which was not properly understood by anyone before or since. VAR had been introduced in August and had done little to endear itself to Arsenal fans who usually saw us on the wrong end of decisions. In truth, VAR was not needed much at the Etihad. Arsenal had two players seriously injured in the first half, then saw substitute David Luiz concede a goal on halftime with an amateurish error…and then (there\u2019s a theme here) concede a penalty with a stupid challenge. When we lost to Brighton after leading through a brilliant Pepe goal with Maupay, who had previously challenged Leno and caused him to seriously injure his knee, scoring at the death, our cup runneth over. It was a significant game as Emi Martinez came on to begin a fabulous run in goal in unlikely circumstances and Matteo Guendouzi (very understandably in my view)  had a flick at Maupay after the game. It was probably his last action in an Arsenal shirt. In the stand, sheltering under an umbrella, the parasitic Mesut \u00d6zil sat as an unused substitute. He had previously refused to follow almost all his teammates in taking a 12.5% pay cut to help the club through the challenges of the pandemic, and seemed happy to pick up his huge paycheque and not worry about being called on to play. Arteta, ostensibly, had problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They eased after a comfortable win at Southampton, and we progressed into the semi-finals of the Cup with a win at Bramall Lane secured by a late strike from the impressive Dani Ceballos. After despatching Norwich to open July we secured one of our very best wins of the season at Molineux, and may well have prevailed over Leicester at home had Nketiah not been dismissed for a challenge that was heavily debated in this bar. I thought the red card very harsh. A week later Trent Alexander-Arnold was guilty of something very similar as we came from behind to beat the champions Liverpool at the Grove. He received a yellow card. So much for VAR providing consistency. Sadly, in-between these matches we lost the North London Derby after leading through a Lacazette rocket, only to see an appalling Kolasinac backpass gift a very average Totts team an immediate equaliser. Alderweireld headed the winner with ten minutes left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few Gooners approached our Cup semi-final tie with Manchester City at Wembley with any optimism, but a really disciplined performance garnished by two superb Auba finishes gave us an impressive and deserved victory. Luiz, so awful at the Etihad was also superb as we repelled everything they threw at us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our remaining league games were something of an anti-climax, as we were very flat in losing to Villa and having lost a Europa place through our  league placing finished by relegating Watford with a fortuitous 3-2 win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so to Wembley and the Cup final, the denouement of our season. Could we reprise the City performance, or would the season end in another disappointing defeat to Chelsea as we had suffered in Baku? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course we know the answer now and it proved a very happy ending. What was most notable was the ability of Arteta to alter tactics after a torrid first twenty minutes and allow us to dominate the rest of the first half. We saw big performances from some of our most controversial players in Luiz and Xhaka but as ever we owed a huge debt to Aubameyang, one of the finest strikers we have seen even in this club\u2019s illustrious history. For us to maintain the momentum Arteta has created we must retain Aubameyang\u2019s services and also persuade Real Madrid to let us keep the excellent and much improved Ceballos. But we have a core of excellent young players, especially Saka, Martinelli, and particularly Tierney, who impressed enormously as the season moved towards its climax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much remains to be done, it always does  at the end of the season, with players needed to be re-signed or moved on, and we hold our breath as we await Auba\u2019s decision. The roller coaster analogy is something of a clich\u00e9 but is apt for this most extraordinary of seasons. At least at the end of this ride we have a sense of direction not apparent to me as I set out from Norfolk almost a year ago. It has been a marathon, one none of us hope ever to repeat, but that marathon has ended in an unlikely garland, the fourteenth such one for our club. If the trophy isn\u2019t irreparably damaged let\u2019s hope it kick-starts a new and very exciting era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a personal note I have been delighted to deepen my personal connection with some quite delightful companions; many of the denizens of this bar. Extremely sociable, caring and intelligent a bond has deepened that I believe would delight Dave Faber, and which has been a great comfort to me personally in a very testing year. Let us hope our futures are bright and positive and that we can enjoy great fulfillment through our wonderful club. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 3 – The Basque Saviour? Mikel Arteta was a well-timed present from the Arsenal hierarchy to a disgruntled fan base. He was appointed just before Christmas and his first game in charge was at Bournemouth on Boxing Day. For us Holics it was a sombre time. After several months of increasingly poor health we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}