{"id":12096,"date":"2025-10-19T09:50:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12096"},"modified":"2025-10-21T06:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:14:47","slug":"i-like-winning-after-the-interlull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12096","title":{"rendered":"I Like Winning After The Interlull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Leo steers it home – Courtesy of Arsenal Football Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am sure I am not the first to make this point but a few years back I became heartily sick of patched up Arsenal sides shipping points in listless performances directly after the interlull. I have no evidence (and I suspect it probably seemed worse than it actually was) to back up that particular perception on my part, but it certainly looked that way to mine own eyes. This season\u2019s first opponents after the thrice-damned interlull were Forest at home but they were led by Agent Ange and we couldn\u2019t really read too much into that 3-0 stroll – alas poor Ange by the way, we knew him well, though he wasn\u2019t in all honesty a man of infinite tactics, he probably deserved better than the discourteous second-hand sacking he reportedly got from the Forest owner whose name I forget (I know, I know, but even a seasoned pro like myself can\u2019t be expected to remember the name of every shifty crook who owns a football club these days).  Anyway, I digress.  Yesterday evening UK time, we faced Fulham away, a somewhat sterner test of late than of yore. How would it go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I must say that I much prefer this new, improved version of Post-Interlull Arsenal. It gets those difficult to shift stains<\/s> three points and keeps the sheets clean! So, it\u2019s no thank- you to two boxes of my old powder<\/s> the old and in with the new! Yesterday at the Cottage it was the turn of Fulham to experience our ariel threat and once again our masters of the lower skies were bold enough to clinch a good though admittedly not quite dazzling win and make it five on the spin for Mikel and his merry men. How on earth did they do it you ask?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, first things first, the team news at kick-off showed only one change from the side that started against West Ham in early October. Captain \u00d8de will be out for a few weeks yet and so Eze came more central and Zubi dropped into midfield, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Timber Saliba Gabriel Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Saka Eze Tross<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gy\u00f6keres <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first 10 minutes passed fairly uneventfully, we were controlling the game in our now customary manner, until our first misplaced pass led to a quick attack from Fulham and a deflected shot from Wilson going out for a corner. Cairney had a shot blocked by Zubi from the corner and then a minute or two later Wilson steered the ball wide of Raya\u2019s far post. Fulham had announced their presence, though Cairney\u2019s shot was going wide and Raya had Wilson\u2019s effort covered and realistically they were far from the very good chances that a straw-clutching Silva tried to claim afterwards.  Our own marker was thrown down with far greater aplomb on 15 minutes when a long diagonal from Timber found Leo on the edge of the box, his nicely cushioned knock-down was rammed home first-time from the edge of the box by Cala. It really was a superb finish by our wandering minstrel marred only by the mean-spirited application of some obscure rule I believe to be called offside.  Much probing followed and we looked to get Saka more involved, never a bad plan, but little to report in terms of clear-cut chances. We did finally manage to get Gy\u00f6keres in on goal at one point but our former glove butler Leno was out quickly to manage the angle and saved well. Fulham, who in fairness had a couple of important players out, lost another when Andersen limped off on 40 minutes. Declan flashed a shot across a goal and that was it for the first half. Really, I couldn\u2019t say I was particularly anxious at the 0-0 as we generally find a way and have a variety of options but of course it is always better to be in front. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/strong>nd<\/sup><\/strong> half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loudspeakers knocked out London\u2019s Calling and the 2nd<\/sup> half of our own clash got under way. An encouraging start saw Leo with a chance, quickly followed by a goalmouth scramble in which ball nearly sneaked into net and then a couple of corners. Journalistic integrity (eh? Is that some new-fangled thing? ed.) compels me to admit that after the 2nd<\/sup> corner I thought we\u2019re not going to score with this near post corner lark. Then, just as I was forgetting Fulham actually had an attack, they broke well and a decent Iwobi cross was volleyed over by Wilson, a half-chance but about as close as they got. Then we scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulham 0 The Arsenal 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the hour mark we won a corner on our right. Saka pinged in a cross at a better trajectory to the near post and Gabriel, as is his wont, won a header amongst a throng of players competing for the ball. The ball flashed across the largely deserted six-yard box to a waiting Leo who thighed it home ahead of the just too slow Fulham defender. We had \u2018persil\u2019-vered and finally Saka\u2019s skill, Gabriel\u2019s athleticism and Leo\u2019s speed of thought had given us the lead. A good and deserved goal for a largely dominant first 15 in the 2nd<\/sup> half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate aftermath of the goal saw Merino come on for Eze and another of own, ESR come on for Fulham. A defensive change by us? Not really as it turned out, we simply controlled the game even more. Our supporters were in good voice by now too, knowing perhaps that with a defence of this calibre the game was no longer afoot for Fulham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was pretty much it in truth, Saka and Gy\u00f6keres both had chances, Taylor gave us a penalty, which VAR overturned (rightly I thought after about 5 seconds watching but take 5 minutes if you want lads). Saka was given man of the match \u2013 he certainly had a good 2nd<\/sup> half. N\u00f8rgaard came on for his PL debut. Fulham had huffed and puffed, I suppose. Taylor blew his whistle. The End. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Round-up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We played well enough for post-Interlull and got a deserved three points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would have been nice if Viktor had scored but I thought he played fine again<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our defence was outstanding and from memory Raya didn\u2019t have a save to make<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought Declan was very good too<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel made me laugh after the game when he said \u201cthree weeks ago the league was over if we lost at Newcastle, now we\u2019re top of the league\u201d.  A pint of perspective anyone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not sure if any of my fellow Holics had made the journey but the away support looked very cheerful after the game, hope you had a nice time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenging game up next, home in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid, however we go on in seemingly good heart and need fear no one these days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are Top of the League!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sure I am not the first to make this point but a few years back I became heartily sick of patched up Arsenal sides shipping points in listless performances directly after the interlull. I have no evidence (and I suspect it probably seemed worse than it actually was) to back up that particular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/12096"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12096"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12101,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12096\/revisions\/12101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}