{"id":12741,"date":"2026-01-29T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12741"},"modified":"2026-01-31T02:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:47:25","slug":"kai-helps-arsenal-to-carrot-of-a-two-match-break-with-nine-carat-performance-in-win-over-kairat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12741","title":{"rendered":"Kai Helps Arsenal to Carrot of a Two Match Break with Nine Carat Performance in Win Over Kairat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal became the first team to win all of their group games since UEFA revamped the group stage of the Champions League, with a 3-2 win over Kairat Almaty who are the best team from Kazakhstan that I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I must crave your indulgence with this report as a change to our train timetable meant that, had I stayed to the final whistle, I would have been an hour and a half later home than if I\u2019d missed the last ten minutes. I\u2019ve managed to catch the highlights of that period on the train, so you\u2019ve missed none of the action but as the last ten minutes featured a disallowed goal for Gabriel Jes\u00f9s and a headed goal for Kairat by Ricardinho I think my early exit was a portentous move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Pre-match I had the privilege of a drink with BtM and Bath although Bath was partaking of Bovril, not a bad choice on a January night! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta picked almost a complete second string to face Kairat with Havertz returning to start a game for the first time in many months. Calafiori also started – at centre back – and Eze and N\u00f8rgaard joined Havertz in midfield – or was that Havertz\u2019s position? See later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The game began at a frantic pace and we were ahead after just over a minute. Kai showing Kairat that his long lay- off had not left any signs of Kai rot, threaded a ball through to Gy\u00f6keres who ran onto it, moved it to the right and bent it past the Kairat keeper who was irate at the lack of cover (couldn\u2019t find a K for that one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal 1 Kairat 0 – Gyokeres, 1 min<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No sooner were we toasting (metaphorically) this breakthrough when a nasty VAR notice appeared on the screen for a penalty review against Arsenal. After a visit to the screen the ref awarded the penalty which Jorginho despatched past Kepa. Jorginho looked very different from when he played for us but that\u2019s life in Kazakhstan for you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal 1 Kairat 1 – Jorginho, penalty, 6 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are making a habit of letting sides with an xG of not very much score against us but the game had an open feel to it and we were soon ahead again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz was playing in an advanced role which seemed to increase the threat from both him and Gy\u00f6keres and he showed pace, control and a fierce left-foot finish to restore our lead after he and Gy\u00f6keres chased a ball threaded forward by captain for the night, Ben White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Kairat 1 – Havertz, 16 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We were notably more dangerous albeit that Kairat were playing a high line that verged on the disastrous. Eze, Madueke and Martinelli caught the eye, Gy\u00f6keres missed some presentable chances and MLS combined with Martinelli in an incisive left wing move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our third goal came when Havertz turned the ball across and Martinelli
made a better job of finishing the pass than Gy\u00f6keres. It was immediately disallowed for offside call on Havertz but you can\u2019t trust these identical twins on the line and after another thrilling VAR review the goal was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal 3 Kairat 1 – Martinelli, 36 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal\u2019s fluidity was pleasing but they were wasteful in finishing and the overall impression at the end of the first half was that we hadn\u2019t fully emphasised our superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Half Time – Arsenal 3 Kairat 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz and Calafiori were withdrawn at halftime for \u00d8degaard and Hincapi\u00e9. \u00d8degaard was diligent but failed to finish a couple of very basic headed chances and Kairat who defended notably deeper found it easier to repel us, although we created plenty of chances. Martinelli and Madueke had their fullbacks on a piece of string but we couldn\u2019t capitalise. Jes\u00f9s replaced Havertz and Brandon Bailey-Joseph made his first team debut to relieve Martinelli.  Later, Ife Ibrahim also made a late debut. Jesus had a late effort disallowed for offside and then Ricardinho nodded home from close range to create a very misleading scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 3 Kairat 2 – Ricardinho 90+2 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full time – Arsenal 3 Kairat 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal fans should be very proud of our achievement of gaining a 100% record from a schedule that included four tricky away games and two home games against European giants in Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid
But not the two entitled idiots I met on the tube before the match who described our form as \u2018terrible’. Plastic fans like those two are intensely irritating and help to create what can be an underwhelming atmosphere in the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight was a strange game with zero jeopardy but some exciting football. I was impressed with Mosquera and Eze. Madueke combines brilliance with a regularly errant final ball, Gy\u00f6keres showed us what he is capable of with a fine finish and a number of misses from straightforward opportunities but the big dividend from the night was the return of Havertz who brought real quality to our attacking play. At the moment, I\u2019d choose a fully fit Havertz above \u00d8degaard in the ‘right eight’ position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, our next European involvement will come in March when we will find out just how good we are. The presence of five English clubs in the top eight underlines the strength of the Premier League and that is where we must now turn our attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal became the first team to win all of their group games since UEFA revamped the group stage of the Champions League, with a 3-2 win over Kairat Almaty who are the best team from Kazakhstan that I\u2019ve seen.  I must crave your indulgence with this report as a change to our train timetable meant that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"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\/12741"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12741"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12751,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12741\/revisions\/12751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}