{"id":13053,"date":"2026-03-18T00:39:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13053"},"modified":"2026-03-21T14:05:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T14:05:56","slug":"declan-rice-we-got-him-at-a-third-of-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13053","title":{"rendered":"Declan Rice – We Got Him at a Third of the Price!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal  smoothed their way into the last eight of the Champions League with one of their most stylish and mature performances of the season as they overcame a decent Leverkusen side 2-0. It was a night when, notwithstanding the fact that they have a Cup Final to play in five days time, the side worked aggressively from the off, suffocating Leverkusen with their press and pouring forward as their passing was more vertical and creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ned’s preview suggestion of the team was very close. Benny Blanco came in at right back and seemed to liberate Bukayo tonight meaning that there was no need to bring on our sixteen year old big gun, Super Maxie Dowman. Trossard returned at wide left with Gy\u00f6keres playing as a lone, and very mobile striker. Leverkusen’s crisp passing caught the eye early on. They played largely on the counter-attack, more by circumstance than design, as Arsenal won most of the key midfield battles with Zubimendi complementing Rice very effectively in recycling the ball and probing the German club’s defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gy\u00f6keres and White went close early on and Gabriel missed what were by his standards decent chances with several headers from corners. After a difficult first ten minutes, Arsenal started to dominate although Hincapi\u00e9 had to make a superb interception when Kofane (a very useful and mobile striker) had caught Saliba out of position. A few weeks ago CER described Eze as ‘a moments player’. An excellent description which he fully justified in the 36th<\/sup> minute taking a bounced pass from Trossard, a few yards outside the area, and pivoting to lash it home past the excellent Blaswich  who had provided a formidable barrier up to that point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Leverkusen 0 – Eze, 36 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trev who I am delighted to say was sitting very near me likened it to that iconic goal that Henry scored against Barthes on one of the occasions that we beat United and it was indeed reminiscent of that great moment. The Eze that we hoped we were getting was very much in evidence tonight, showing some superb flashes of skill and being denied by two last-ditch tackles by Leverkusen defenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal continued to press until the interval and took a deserved lead into the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time: Arsenal 1 Leverkusen 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interval there was considerable mirth among watching Gooners  as Chelsea and C130y’s travails were shown on the big screens. Arsenal were by no means done and dusted but after an initial second half flurry, they began to dominate again. Declan Rice was exhibiting a prodigious work ethic, covering all the key areas of the pitch and he effectively put the tie to bed in the 63rd<\/sup> minute when he strode on to a hurried clearance and buried a fierce right foot shot low in the right corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Leverkusen 0 – Rice, 63<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leverkusen still threatened on occasions, Saliba unconsciously bunting over his own bar at one stage, but Arsenal added a third when Havertz touched home a Saka header after great work by Gy\u00f6keres only for the dread hand of VAR to rule it out for Kai’s (fairly clear) handball. Raya produced an outstanding save to deny Kofane in the 86th<\/sup> minute, the sign of a top-class keeper and Arsenal took the opportunity to substitute White, Zubimendi, Gy\u00f6keres, Trossard and Eze after the second goal, bringing on Mosquera (who might have scored after brilliant approach work), N\u00f8rgaard, Martinelli, Havertz and MLS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score: Arsenal 2 Leverkusen 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several ways to win 2-0. Last Saturday illustrated one way. This was  a much more assured performance and we saw the value of our summer investment with the performances from Eze, Zubi, Hincapi\u00e9 and Gy\u00f6keres, who were all excellent tonight (one assumes the Hincapi\u00e9 deal is effectively done). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

C100 texted me after the game noting that we had a swagger about our play  and this was indeed the case. It was an extremely impressive performance with none of the angst of a few days earlier and no need for Maxie Dowman to leave his maths homework and bail us out from the bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We now face Sporting Lisbon in the quarter final, a team we beat 5-1 on their own  ground last season before we bought their centre forward. He cost upwards of \u00a355 million and Declan Rice was virtually double that . Frankly the latter was an absolute steal. His performance was awesome and on a scale of 1-10 merits at least an 11. On a night of high professionalism, his was the outstanding performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We now roll on to Wembley and whisper it gently, we are the only team able to entertain the Q word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal  smoothed their way into the last eight of the Champions League with one of their most stylish and mature performances of the season as they overcame a decent Leverkusen side 2-0. It was a night when, notwithstanding the fact that they have a Cup Final to play in five days time, the side worked aggressively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"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\/13053"}],"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=13053"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13078,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions\/13078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}