{"id":12380,"date":"2025-12-07T11:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T11:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12380"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:26:23","slug":"all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12380","title":{"rendered":"All Good Things Must Come To An End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal Women won 2-1 against Liverpool yesterday and this image seemed happier than any of the Arsenal Men\u2019s photos! Image courtesy of Arsenal FC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the old clich\u00e9 in the title turned out to be true as our long unbeaten run ended cruelly at Villa Park when the home side snatched a last-minute winner after several desperate blocks in a goalmouth scramble. Until then I had been happy enough that a stretched looking Arsenal team had held on for a creditable and deserved point after the second half had seen us come back from a goal down through a Leo Trossard equaliser and then press for a winner until we seemed to run out of steam in the final 15 minutes. What to make of it all? Losing at the death is always tough and makes it more difficult to provide a sound perspective, however I thought Mikel Arteta spoke well after the game and some of his observations certainly bear repeating (well, stealing really as this is my match report but if you\u2019re going to steal\u2026..)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c In the manner that it happened at the end, it was really difficult to take. \u2026\u2026..in the second half, we started really well, scored the goal, we were very dominant. But then we had periods that again the same issue appeared <\/em>(Mikel is referring to our poor ball management here). And then we didn\u2019t have the dominance, and we allowed certain open spaces. We gave two balls away ourselves to the opponent that could have cost us the game before the goal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then [before] the last kick of the game, we had the chance with Declan [Rice] to put the ball across for Noni and Viktor. We don\u2019t score.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, goal kick long, second ball, clear the ball, individual action, a lot of chaos inside the box, and you end up losing it. So it is painful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the game itself\u2026\u2026\u2026..well, we all know the ending and so I have only briefly covered the high and low points below<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The game had started 95 minutes or so earlier with an Arsenal line up including both \u00d8degaard and Eze as well as Saka and Merino up front. Saliba hadn\u2019t made it and so the White \/ Timber partnership continued on the right. Hincapi\u00e9 and Calafiori on the left side of defence behind Zubi and Declan. A team selected to attack Villa was my thought, whereas Villa had loaded the midfield as usual, looking to overload and then play through the gaps for Rogers or Watkins. In fact, the teams largely cancelled each other out for the first 10 minutes before an \u00d8de shot straight at Martinez was followed by excellent work from Raya as he got out to block Watkins at close range. It might not have stood as there was a clear foul on Riccy in the build-up but that scare seemed to wake us up a bit and our best spell of the half followed as we pushed forward to more purpose. Saka should have done better with a header he put wide, and we had a goal from Eze disallowed, fairly, as Saka was just off in the build-up, but we generally looked the more dangerous of the two sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momentum switched however as the half wore on and Villa got more possession. They made it tell in the 38th<\/sup> minute when the ball came across from their left, was inadvertently nicked on, by Timber I think, and fell to an unmarked Cash at the far post who just smashed it through Raya\u2019s legs.  Cash had moved smartly to get the space for the goal though from Eze\u2019s reaction he obviously realised he should have done better as well. A nervy couple of minutes followed the goal before we collected ourselves and pressed forward for an equaliser before half time, chances for White and Rice came and went before a final Villa chance for Rogers was smothered by good defensive work and that was it for what had been a fairly even first half but had finished with us 1-0 down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel decided he\u2019d seen enough and the 2nd<\/sup> half started with Viktor and Leo on for Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze. Whether from those subs or a jolly good talking to by the boss the improvement was almost immediate as the 2nd<\/sup> half got going and after a couple of sighters Leo made it third time lucky when he tapped in the equaliser at the back post.  The goal had started when Declan efficiently won the ball back in midfield; from there Saka and \u00d8de worked the space for Saka to cross and a fingertip deflection from Emi diverted it nicely to the waiting Leo. 1-1. I thought us the more likely to win at this stage but, in all honesty, there were chances for both sides after that \u2013 by hook or by crook, Saka, \u00d8de, Malen and Timber all nearly scored but didn\u2019t, Timber\u2019s would have been an own goal!  As Mikel said in the earlier comments, the game started to slip away in the final 15 minutes, I felt we started to give it away too easily and lose out in several 50\/50 challenges (I know, I know, I am supposed to say duels but honestly neither of them has a sword or a pistol). We did make an excellent final chance to score but it ended with Noni putting it in the side-netting \u2013 those infernal small margins \u2013 and then we got done at the death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game then ended in defeat and brought Villa to within three points of our lead, which later became two as Man City won as well. Chelsea and Liverpool did drop points, though whether that is relevant is certainly debatable. I expect we will in due course be treated to the \u2018Have Arsenal imploded? doom, gloom nonsense\u2019 in the media. On the other hand, I am also reasonably certain the sorry Slot\/Salah saga will at least distract the attention of headline writers for a day or two. I do realise that sharing is healthy etc. etc but there was also something to be said for the old graceful, dignified and relatively silent exits of what seems like a distant yesteryear. That\u2019s not to take sides or throw stones at Liverpool by the way, they are just the latest and it has certainly happened to us too. Regardless of whether you see it as petulance from the player or cold and impatient from the club I honestly struggle to see the benefit of all this noise for anyone not of a parasitical nature. I realise I am adding to the noise I am busy deploring, but this is a non-profit, non-parasitical Arsenal blog read by perhaps less than 100,000 people worldwide, a whole different thing! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on a more positive note, we remain top of the league, William Saliba is back soon and will be followed by Gabriel and Kai, and last, but not least, we can end December by gaining sweet, sweet revenge over Villa at our house. Things to enjoy right now and to look forward to as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, in practical terms it\u2019s a trip to Bruges for beer, nice old buildings and chocolate <\/s>an away game in the Champions League. Mikel will have some decisions to make as, clearly, we need to give a few players a break but we also we do not want to lose two in a row from a confidence perspective. Part of me would happily watch a Jes\u00fas, Viktor, Max front three take on the Bruges defence just for the hell of it but I suspect a more practical approach will prevail, however the detailed nature of that approach I will leave to our next intrepid correspondent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of a final word, I think I will leave that to Mikel again (if I had any sense of shame I would split my fee for this report with the boss)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c We have to focus on ourselves and set standards that today, particularly individually, we didn\u2019t raise that level. But the effort was absolutely there. Use that pain to go again. That\u2019s football.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly boss. See you all next game!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willow Christmas Challenge!<\/strong>
A message from Willow. The link is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, the old clich\u00e9 in the title turned out to be true as our long unbeaten run ended cruelly at Villa Park when the home side snatched a last-minute winner after several desperate blocks in a goalmouth scramble. Until then I had been happy enough that a stretched looking Arsenal team had held on for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/12380"}],"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=12380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12390,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380\/revisions\/12390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}