{"id":12332,"date":"2025-11-29T22:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12332"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:37:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:37:46","slug":"bun-fight-at-the-bus-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12332","title":{"rendered":"Bun fight at the Bus Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"1cRURxXkSK59I7unqyLNwA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2184028444\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1cRURxXkSK59I7unqyLNwA',sig:'qaolszvl8efpQEpPiD5yuutfWOJLKFTcKV1MU8z4VSE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2184028444',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, to the small bus stop in Fulham. The Arsenal visits Chelsea for Sunday afternoon\u2019s final fixture, which will also conclude Matchweek 13. Going into the weekend, this was a top-of-the-table clash as well \u2014 although that is no surprise to the three GHF Predictathoners who have the two teams finishing the season in the same order they occupy now.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stamford Bridge has not been a daunting trip of late. We have not lost there since August 2018, the last knockings of a dismal run of six defeats in seven league visits. Kepa, David Luiz, Jorginho, Willian and Ollie G all played against us that day, and Petr Cech for us. Retreadalooza.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have to go back to the Swinging Sixties for a worse run, seven defeats in seven in the days of Peter Bonetti, Charlie Cook, Peter Osgood and Chopper Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Of Mears and men<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our first visit there was in November 1907 for a match in the old First Division, two years after the Football League admitted Chelsea. Stamford Bridge\u2019s owner, Gus Mears, had failed to persuade Sir Henry Norris, then still Fulham\u2019s chairman, to move his team the mile and a half across the borough. So \u2014 and here history is a prologue \u2014 Mears and his well-heeled, well-connected fellow directors formed a club to play at his stadium. Chelsea remains the only team to join the Football League before playing a competitive game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The club\u2019s first chairman, Claude Kirby, is believed to have been the anonymous source who told the Sporting Life, \u2018behind this concern there is an influential body of gentlemen who will not hesitate to spend whatever is necessary to get together one of the best teams in the country\u2019. Mears\u2019s associate, Jack Parker, travelled across the country to recruit the best available footballers, paying top prices. It was an Edwardian version of Abramovich firing five-pound notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The November 1907 match was notable in two other respects. It was the first Football League game between two London clubs, and it set a record attendance for a First Division match. Officially, 68,000 paid to get in. Unofficially, between 70,000 and 80,000 watched the game. Either way, the crowd exceeded the old record of 59,000 for Newcastle v Sunderland in 1905.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We lost 2-1 in a game that started in bright sunshine, but by the end, according to the correspondent of The Weekly Times &amp; Echo, \u2018a smoky mist hung over the ground [making it] impossible to see what was happening on the other side of the field, or, in fact, to see what one was writing in the Press seats\u2019. The smoke may have come from the chimneys of nearby pottery kilns, which gave the team one of its early nicknames, the Chinamen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Maresca<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team was also known as the Buns after the sticky spiced buns first baked in England at the Old Chelsea Bun House, but originating in Hanover. Equally far from home, Italian-born Enzo Maresca began his playing career at the Hawthorns (how about that for a segue?). Now Chelsea\u2019s head coach, he has been granted a privilege that none of his predecessors since Thomas Tuchel have received \u2014 a second season of employment. That was a reward for winning last season\u2019s Thursday night fiesta, the UEFA Conference League, and a fourth-placed PL finish, which qualified them for this season\u2019s CL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was also a tacit acknowledgement by the ownership \u2014 an US consortium led by billionaire asset manager Todd Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital \u2014 that, third time lucky, they had found a manager whose playing philosophy style suited the type of players they had been buying by the bushelful since acquiring the club in 2022 \u2014 more than \u00a31.5 billion spent on over 50 players across three seasons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of those acquired are better fits for the Pep Guardiola-schooled Maresca\u2019s football than Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s. Not needing to force square pegs into round holes and having pared his working squad to manageable numbers, Maresca started to implement a clear structure on the team, slowly evolving the inherited 4-2-3-1 last season into a 3-1-3-3 with a Pep-like single pivot midfield diamond, touchline-hugging wingers, a high defensive line and loads of rotations to create overloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thrice-capped and occasionally error-prone Spaniard Robert Sanchez will be glove-buttling. His ability to deliver long and short passes is key to Chelsea\u2019s build-up through the centre. However, his footwork blows hot and cold. High-pressing teams that force him to kick with his weaker left foot can wreak havoc.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Levi Colwill sidelined by long-term injury, the back three will probably comprise Trevoh Chalobah, who was given an England debut by Tuchel in September, the as-lightly-capped Frenchman Wesley Fofana, and another young France international, Malo Gusto. Maresca\u2019s options include Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Ach\u00e9ampong, and Beno\u00eet Badiashile, a young man from Limoges, a place devilishly difficult to incorporate into a limerick. Try it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mane of hair beneath which lurks the annoying Marc Cucurella and club captain Reece James will play as the inverting full-backs\/wing-backs on either side of Mois\u00e9s Caicedo, the Ecuador international who will be the single pivot. I shall spare BtM\u2019s nerves by not recounting that Caicedo has amassed a half-century of caps at 24. Maresca\u2019s other top-notch DM, young Belgian international Romeo Lavia, is off-games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cucurella and James will push forward, inverting, overlapping and underlapping to join Enzo Fernandez as the forward three of the midfield diamond that forms Chelsea\u2019s secondary line of attack, and, as they like to recover the ball in their opponent\u2019s third, its first line of defence. Expect Caicedo and James to go man-to-man on Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze\/Martin \u00d8degaard as soon as Chelsea lose the ball anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maresca says that talisman Cole Palmer, who has missed most of the season with a groin injury and the last two games with a broken toe, is fit to start. If he does, Fernandez and James will likely drop back a row, and Gusto to the bench, to allow Palmer to play as a 10. If he does not, the right-sided forward spot should go to Joao Pedro or the much hyped Brazilian teenager Est\u00eav\u00e3o.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I fancy Maresca will opt for Pedro Neto over Antony Garancho, Jamie Gittens or the promising Tyrique George on the left, with a brief to negate Jurien Timber, as he did Achraf Hakimi in the Club World Cup final. Good luck with that, given Timber\u2019s form. Liam Diap, acquired from Ipswich in the summer and recently returned from injury, should complete the forward line, unless Maresca prefers to deploy brains over brawn and start Joao Pedro there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s attack is potent. It has the highest xG in the PL. Oddly, its home XG is lower than its away one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus, Havertz, Gabriel, and Gyokeres are unavailable. Trossard is a doubt. In his absence, it will be a toss-up between Martinelli and Mandueke for the left. The same case can be made for either as the impact sub. The big call would be to start M\u00d88 over Eze. Despite the club releasing a video suggesting otherwise, not quite yet, I suspect. Arteta might have other ideas. Nonetheless:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Zubimendi, Rice, Eze<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka, Merino, Madueke<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boehly\u2019s boys in blue come into this game having beaten Burnley last weekend less convincingly than the 2-0 scoreline suggests, and then a 10-man Barca 3-0 in their CL game on Tuesday. That extended their unbeaten run to six games in all competitions since losing at home to Sunderland in the league on October 25.&nbsp;Our unbeaten run is 16. Just saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless, this will be a challenging match between the two in-form sides in the league. Both are well-managed and play similarly dynamic, shape-shifting football, but their high lines are vulnerable to counterattacks. It is a game that will be contested as much on the touchline as on the pitch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What will give us the decisive edge, in my view, is our relentless determination to win and, most importantly, the consistency that our hosts are still building. At 23.6 months, they have the youngest squad in the PL, and without Colwill, few natural leaders. We average two years their senior and have leaders all over the pitch. That is what will secure us a 2-1 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the game, \u2018holics near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images And so, to the small bus stop in Fulham. The Arsenal visits Chelsea for Sunday afternoon\u2019s final fixture, which will also conclude Matchweek 13. Going into the weekend, this was a top-of-the-table clash as well \u2014 although that is no surprise to the three GHF Predictathoners who have the two teams [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332"}],"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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12332"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12352,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions\/12352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}