{"id":12692,"date":"2026-01-21T09:50:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12692"},"modified":"2026-01-24T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T20:28:07","slug":"the-italian-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12692","title":{"rendered":"The Italian Job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal did ‘the Italian Job’ on Inter Milan as we sealed a top 2 league phase finish at San Siro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the game we basically knew we were assured of an automatic spot in the Last 16 of the Champions League but being able to put in a performance of that quality and assurance along with the impressive result will come as a welcome boost to our confidence ahead of Sunday\u2019s big showdown with Manchester United. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta made seven changes to the side that drew a blank at Forest on Saturday. We saw a rare start for Eze, Saka returned to the starting 11, Mosquera returned from injury to give Gabriel a breather and Jes\u00f9s got the nod up top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started strongly and we got our reward after only 10 minutes. Following some slick passing around the penalty area the ball found its way to Timber who scuffed his attempted shot into the path of Gabriel Jes\u00f9s who fired home an instinctive finish into the bottom corner. You could argue it was the kind of goal that you wouldn\u2019t really find in Gy\u00f6keres\u2019 or Havertz\u2019s repertoire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Inter who needed a positive result far more than we did, began to up the intensity in response. On 18 mins the hosts got their reward. After good centre forward play from the lumbering Marcus Thuram, the ball deflected towards Susic who smashed home into the top corner from just outside the area. A fantastic strike but maybe we could\u2019ve done more to close him down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inter would find some real joy on the transition for the remainder of the half. It was clear we missed the presence of Rice a bit in the middle of the park. A few of our passes went astray but thankfully we weren\u2019t punished for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just past the half hour we went back ahead and once again it came from a corner. Saka drifted his immaculate delivery over to the far post where it was headed back across goal by Trossard and Jes\u00f9s was there to nod home his second goal of the game. The Brazillian looked delighted and he deserves it after almost a year out. If he can stay fit his contributions could well prove invaluable. Few have forgotten the impact he made on the side upon his arrival in 2022. If Jes\u00f9s is to leave in the summer, he deserves to do so with a trophy or two under his belt. Right now, he looks on course to do just that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second half we had a lot more control. Perhaps Inter, who had done a lot of running in the first half, began to tire. They weren\u2019t pressing with anywhere near the same intensity now. We were quite happy to take the accelerator down a gear or two and put the brakes on as Inter huffed and puffed to little avail. A few half chances here and there but nothing more. Mosquera was enjoying the physical battle with Thuram and Lautaro Martinez wasn\u2019t impacting the game at all. He strikes me as the sort of striker who would really struggle in England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With about 15 minutes to go Gy\u00f6keres came on to replace Jesus and Martinelli was also introduced amongst others. And on 84 minutes we sealed the points. Martinelli broke away down the left and played a defence splitting ball with the outside of his foot to Gy\u00f6keres. The Swede burst forward and attempted to feed Saka who couldn\u2019t take the ball in his stride, but he played an accidental one two with Gy\u00f6keres who ran onto it and curled home a beauty into the top corner. It was by far the best goal Gy\u00f6keres has scored for Arsenal so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three points were sealed and Arsenal made it seven wins from seven in the Champions League for the first time in our history. A top two finish means that we will have home advantage in the second legs in the knockouts as opposed to just in the Last 16. It\u2019s great that rule has been brought in. who knows what would\u2019ve happened had we had the Emirates crowd behind us in the second leg against PSG last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can now take it easy against Kairat Almaty next week and let\u2019s hope City are forced to play an extra two games next month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quadruple remains well and truly on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal did ‘the Italian Job’ on Inter Milan as we sealed a top 2 league phase finish at San Siro. Even before the game we basically knew we were assured of an automatic spot in the Last 16 of the Champions League but being able to put in a performance of that quality and assurance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/12692"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12696,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12692\/revisions\/12696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}