{"id":12041,"date":"2025-10-05T12:11:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12041"},"modified":"2025-10-07T10:41:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:41:42","slug":"easy-like-saturday-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12041","title":{"rendered":"Easy Like Saturday Afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Courtesy of the author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Storm Amy was blowing along Holloway Road as we strolled up to the Emirates on a warm but blustery autumnal day. Transport links were affected up and down the land. I bumped into BtM desperately in need of sustenance after his train from Bishops Stortford was cancelled due to the weather and he had to take an Uber to Epping. Never leave a Scotsman with an empty stomach!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we had a job to do. To avenge the desperately disappointing home defeats to West Ham of the last two seasons. The team news was out and it was exciting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya, Timber, Gabriel, Saliba, Calafiori, Rice, \u00d8degaard, Eze, Saka, Gy\u00f6keres, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A midfield with two 10s and Rice sitting. Clearly no handbrake. The crowd were buzzing. How would the team respond after a week which had two tough matches since the previous Sunday, a tough physical battle with Newcastle and a slightly tense CL win over Olympiacos, both games resolved with goals in injury time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Away we went. One of the questions we had been asking ourselves was how would the swirling wind affect the game? We got an early answer when West Ham won a corner and it soared, very unusually, over Raya\u2019s head. We cleared it but it had been a danger (spoiler \u2013 probably the most dangerous moment in the game from our opponents).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we didn\u2019t have the very high tempo start of the last two games, we slowly got into gear. A typical Nuno low block faced us and we had to unpick the lock. Rice chipped a lovely ball to Saka and he smashed it in. Unfortunately he was just offside. The dose was repeated and after a scramble on the goal line the ball fell to Eze six yards out. Amazingly, he blazed it over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came a key moment. \u00d8degaard had a clash of knees with Summerville (no fault of the West Ham player). He went down, he got up and tried to run it off. He went down again. He got up again and went down again. Finally, for the third time he went down and was clearly in pain. He had to be subbed. Zubimendi came on and dropped in at 6, Rice moved up to 8 and Eze continued as the solitary 10. Poor old Martin. He had just come back into form and again was cut down by injury. We await the medical diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we were back in a more familiar formation and the admirable Zubimendi began pulling the strings. Patrolling along the horizontal axis, he was constantly scanning, either for an interception or for a progressive forward pass. A Swiss watch of a player whom I love watching. On 39 minutes, after another Saka attack on the right wing, he received the ball maybe 20 yards outside the penalty area and spotted Eze making a run into the box. He played a delicious slide rule pass between two defenders right into Eze\u2019s path. The latter hit a fierce shot which was going into the far corner. Areola did very well to save it, parrying it into the path of Rice who smashed a controlled half volley into the roof of the net. Lovely goal. One nil to the Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calafiori hit the post. The ball cannoned back and hit Areola on the back. Just for a minute I thought we had a replay of one of the funniest goals ever when Jorghino did the same thing to Martinez away at Villa, when it hit his head and bounced in but no, this time it fell safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One nil at half time, with Arsenal dominant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began the second half in similar attacking style. Trossard sent a lovely arcing ball over the defence to Rice marauding down the left wing. He slid in a lovely ball towards Gy\u00f6keres charging towards the six yard line but he missed it by a toenail as he fought off a defender. Then, on 67 minutes, Zubi the creator struck again. He sent in a beautiful ball to Timber on the edge of the area where he had the step on his defender. He moved forward, was fouled and the tussling continued into the area. Timber went down. Peter Brookes pointed to the spot. Michael Oliver on VAR tried to find a reason to deny the penalty but it clearly started outside the box and continued into it. Penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interesting discussion ensued between Saka, who was Captain after \u00d8degaard went off and Gy\u00f6keres who was clearly suggesting he\u2019d like to take it. It ended amicably, they fist bumped, Gy\u00f6keres stepped back and Saka stepped forward. That familiar stuttering run up, then he smashed the ball into the top corner. Two nil and probably game over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That made it 100 goal involvements for Saka in his two hundredth PL game. It was interesting to see on MOTD that in Arteta\u2019s first game as manager he had started at left back. Afterwards, Saka praised Mikel, saying he had developed his game so much. Amen to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was about that. Declan went off with a back problem. A raft of substitutions saw Nwaneri, Martinelli, Lewis-Shelly and Merino come on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A regular, comfortable, tension free win. We had 21 shots to West Ham\u2019s 5 and Raya didn\u2019t have a save to make. The quality of the subs we brought on was superb, showing the value of the club\u2019s summer transfer work. The crowd were not raucous, but there was no tension and nothing really to complain about. It was just a regulation 2-0 win and a further three points gained against last season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who played well? I thought Zubimendi was superb once he came on for \u00d8degaard. A Swiss watch of a player who defends the back four by his intelligent reading of the game and a player of top passes vertically which can unlock a packed defence. Jurien Timber, once again was brilliant. Such a strong player who is developing his attacking play every week to go with his strong defending. Timber never lets you down and always seems to have at least a strong player rating of eight every game. There is news that he will be the latest player to begin negotiations on a new contract. Pay the man! Declan had a really good game, taking his goal well and going easily from a 6 to an 8. He is equally strong in each position. I thought Saka had a great game, looking right up for the fray. He had a good right back up against him in Diouf but, even when he couldn\u2019t get past, was able to recycle the ball positively (the first goal came from such an occasion). Calafiori is clearly feeling the heat of MLS behind him because he has raised his game. He was all over the pitch from defending his own corner area to being the most advanced player. His heat map for the game must be ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally what of Gy\u00f6keres? I thought he had a very good game, almost always with two defenders on him (making space for others), playing well with back to goal and laying it off well. He is never going to be the most elegant of players, and can look clumsy but he is having a real impact. Don\u2019t follow pundits\u2019 agendas. Give him time, as we urged here when we bought him. I, for one, will be very surprised if he doesn\u2019t finish the season with 20+ goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, as we go into another interlull, how are Arsenal doing? We have played 10 games, won 8, drawn one and lost just one. We have scored 20 goals (boring, boring Arsenal!) and conceded just 3. We are top of the league, well placed in the Champions League and through to the last 16 of the Carabao Cup. I call that a very satisfactory start to the season, especially with injuries in 6 of the 7 league games so far and visits to Anfield and St James Park out of the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up next before the next Interlull is Fulham (A), Atletico Madrid (H), high flying  Palace (H), Brighton (H \u2013 CC), Burnley (A), Slavia Prague (A) and Sunderland (A).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me? Well I\u2019m off to watch the slightly stuttering Women\u2019s team play Brighton at the Emirates next Sunday. Enjoy your Interlull, whatever you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storm Amy was blowing along Holloway Road as we strolled up to the Emirates on a warm but blustery autumnal day. Transport links were affected up and down the land. I bumped into BtM desperately in need of sustenance after his train from Bishops Stortford was cancelled due to the weather and he had to […]<\/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\/12041"}],"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=12041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12043,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions\/12043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}