{"id":12636,"date":"2026-01-11T18:51:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12636"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:15:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:15:58","slug":"the-arsenal-swayze-into-town-and-everyone-puts-gabi-on-the-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12636","title":{"rendered":"The Arsenal Swayze Into Town And Everyone Puts Gabi On The Corners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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First, further fanks – sorry, thanks – to Ned for stepping into the breach yesterday at literally no notice. Brilliant job, Ned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did consider it myself but had to at least make a start on that least appealing of tasks – the annual accounts \ud83d\ude31. At least this mission gave me 24 hours leeway. I did have a very quick look for some Portsmouth info this morning, fearing that the match might not be much to write home about, and was quite impressed with the place, particularly the number and quality of famous people who have emanated from it\u2019s environs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever emanated from an environ, Mrs? No, not him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we all know Portsmouth, at least in football terms,as \u201cPompey\u201d. But why? Well, the term is deeply tied to its Royal Navy history, with popular theories pointing to sailors scaling Pompey’s Pillar (Matron!) in Egypt (earning them the “Pompey Boys” handle), or perhaps a reference to the Roman general Pompey, but no single origin is definitive, with connections to \u201cancient ruins\u201d and football club chants also cited. Hands up, anyone who is not now thinking of Harry Redknapp ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the main theories: Pompey’s Pillar:<\/strong> In 1781, sailors from Portsmouth climbed the large column in Alexandria, Egypt, becoming known as the”Pompey Boys,” a name that eventually attached to the city. Aggie Weston’s Talk:<\/strong> A popular story involves naval temperance worker, Agnes Weston, giving a talk on the Roman general Pompey the Great, a sailor supposedly shouted, “Poor old Pompey!” at his downfall, a phrase that was later adopted by fans of Portsmouth Football Club. Shakespeare:<\/strong> Another idea links it to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, with the line “Pompey is strong at sea,” connecting to the powerful naval presence in Portsmouth. French Warship:<\/strong> Some believe it came from the captured French warship Le Pompee, which became a guardship in Portsmouth Harbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there you have it – whether you wanted it or not ! While the nickname is firmly established for the city and its football club, Portsmouth FC, it\u2019s exact origin remains a \u201ccharming mystery, with strong naval roots\u201d – according to whichever robot wrote that for Mr Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also inform you, as I had no idea, that the impressive list of literary, entertainment, and political figures who have hailed from Portsmouth includes Charles Dickens, probably the most globally recognized figure, actor Peter Sellers, musician Roger Daltrey (The Who, and famous Gooner crooner). Other famous names include author H.G. Wells, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and former Prime Minister James Callaghan. And let\u2019s not omit sporting Olympians, sprinter Roger Black and sailor Ben Ainslie. And now, with all this talk of Pompey, Pompeii and Pompey\u2019s Pillar – no, don\u2019t titter, Mrs! – I feel a Frankie Howerd moment coming on \u2026\u2026
The Prologue! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least the match was able to go ahead – a matter of some speculation after Storm Goretti had wreaked its havoc across the southern end of the country. Sympathies must go out to those people injured or worse by the storm, and those still without power or unable to clear up as a fresh band of weather makes conditions extremely difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The much guessed at Arsenal line-up for this FA Cup 3rd Round tie turned out to be:
Kepa; White, N\u00f8rgaard, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Merino, Nwaneri, Eze; Madueke, Martinelli, Jes\u00f9s; Subs: Raya, Timber, Salmon, \u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice, Saka, Havertz, Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Half<\/strong>
Portsmouth started with high energy and aggression while Arsenal over elaborated much of their passing out from the back. Not a great ploy for a much changed, disconnected back four and Portsmouth took advantage on just 2 1\/2 minutes, with Colby Bishop firing home Kepa\u2019s parry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth 1-0 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal responded well and earned their first corner of the game on 6 minutes. It was taken by Eze, headed on by Martinelli, and scrambled home by N\u00f8rgaard through a mass of legs and bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth 1-1 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of our two youngsters, MLS was struggling to cope with the physicality of Portsmouth\u2019s forwards and was still straying infield, on occasion occupying N\u00f8rgaard\u2019s territory on the right side of the defence. He did seem to restrict himself as the half wore on – maybe after a word of caution from a tense looking boss on the touch line. Nwaneri, meanwhile, was showing some great touches in midfield and demonstrating good determination to keep the team moving forwards whenever possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Portsmouth were really lacking ten first team players, they didn\u2019t look like it and were making life difficult for the Arsenal, doubtless fuelled by a noisy crowd and the adrenaline of a big occasion. On 24 minutes Nwaneri and Madueke earned our second corner with a nice flowing move. It was taken by Madueke and, this time, Martinelli rose to head straight home with a well directed header. That was no less than our 16th goal of the season from corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth 1-2 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our scorer curled a long shot just wide of the far post before Nwaneri and Madueke combined in a move which saw the latter brought down in the box and awarded a penalty. He took the kick himself and unfortunately shot wide after a stuttering walk up which beat the keeper and the right hand post. Three minutes of added time did, in fact, produce little to write home about and the half ended with no further score. It could have been 1-4 at that stage had we converted the penalty and not hit the post shortly beforehand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HT: Portsmouth 1-2 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half saw early pressure from Pompey and two great blocks from Ben White. He has quite different qualities to Jurrien Timber and it would be great to see him back in the squad with those options to offer. On 50 minutes, Arsenal broke from a free kick and Gabi Jes\u00f9s arced a brilliant ball to the far post where the outrageous thug, Gabriel Martinelli netted with the outside of his right foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth 1-3 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Arsenal began to increase their control, Portsmouth decided to kick as many players as possible in the shortest possible time and picked up a couple of yellow cards for their trouble. Their fans got a bit antsy too and, in tune with their strong naval connections, appeared to be calling Gabriel an \u201canchor\u201d over on the left touch line. \ud83e\udd37\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the hour mark, Madueke took corner number 3, which was inevitably headed by Martinelli, but this time into the crowd.Portsmouth brought on a couple of subs – substitutes, not submarines – and the immediate, resulting pressure saw Ben White given a yellow card before he was in turn brought off with Jes\u00f9s and Nwaneri, in exchange for – drum roll please – Kai Havertz!!, Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber. Almost immediately our \u00a360 million of drain fodder played a beautiful ball for Madueke whose shot was deflected for corner number 4. Up jumped Gabi Martinelli who completed his first senior hat trick with a superbly directed header beyond the Pompey keeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth 1-4 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth made further substitutions which marked Zak Swanson\u2019s swansong, and Arsenal responded by bringing on 16 year old Marli Salmon, our youngest ever representative in the FA Cup. He looked smooth and calm on the ball but, disappointingly, was not required to leap, at all. I don\u2019t know exactly how big our squad is but the debutant wore Number 89!
Eberechi Eze forced corner number 6 as Martinelli was replaced by Zubimendi. Portsmouth breathed a sigh of relief that Martinelli was no longer there to head home and one Pompey defender breathed similarly, for different reasons, as he collapsed with a hamstring injury. Luckily for him, he had already rolled well clear of the pitch and Martinelli was already settled on the bench, way out of shoving or ball hurling distance! 
Corners number 7 and 8 passed without further ado and the final whistle blew after just three minutes of added time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FT Portsmouth 1-4 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was great to see the return of Kai Havertz. Eze was unspectacular but was also calm on receiving and in using the ball. Mikel Merino, our Mr Adaptable, played flawlessly at No 6 – yet another role in this team.
We all know that we have a lot of high quality players in our squad. Some of them looked a little hesitant or uncertain in the first half today. That may have been because so many of them came into the team at once, maybe because of some aggressive but mostly fair pressure from the opposition, and maybe because of what the commentator referred to as \u201cwild weather on the south coast\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manager\u2019s options are currently governed by injuries, but to get the best out of all of these players over the season, maybe it will be on the agenda to rotate them in one or two at the time, once everyone is available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I know \u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, the middle of January finds us top of the Premier League, top of the Champions League, in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup and in the 4th Round of the FA Cup. Arteta ahhttt!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

First, further fanks – sorry, thanks – to Ned for stepping into the breach yesterday at literally no notice. Brilliant job, Ned! I did consider it myself but had to at least make a start on that least appealing of tasks – the annual accounts \ud83d\ude31. At least this mission gave me 24 hours leeway. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"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\/12636"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12636"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12654,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12636\/revisions\/12654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}