{"id":13384,"date":"2026-05-05T23:23:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13384"},"modified":"2026-05-09T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:06:08","slug":"playing-football-the-arsenal-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13384","title":{"rendered":"Playing Football The Arsenal Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2274689629\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.498314% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2274689629?et=aX3pldfASUlQaQoBrjukug&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=el9VgXBPfmlLrmzm5E-ur4hUXURqRadzK-lvcqCJBXw=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"395\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Playing Football The Arsenal Way<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A magnificent night of football at The Emirates stadium ended with Arsenal deservedly making the final of the Champions League for only the second time in our history. The scenes at the end showed what it means to the players, the fans, the manager and everyone associated with our great club. This was the biggest European night at the Ems and from the moment the team arrived in the bus, it felt like it. Thousands arrived early to greet the team, and the energy was only ramped up from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pre-match tifo read \u2018Over Land and Sea\u2019 &#8211; referencing the amazing support our fans offer the club. The ships were perhaps a nice reference to the Spanish Armada, a fine historical precedent for a Spanish invasion repelled with a classic British combination of steel and insouciance. Although tonight there was more of the former than the latter &#8211; despite Ben White getting a special Sir Francis Drake tattoo on his left bum cheek to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team was unchanged from Saturday, MLS keeping his position and putting in a remarkable performance that all but guarantees the end of the rumours we might look to cash in on him this summer. We won\u2019t \u2013 that lad is a keeper (as in, we should retain his services, not stick him in goal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the board, our players put in a shift. Viktor Gy\u00f6keres followed up his best game for us with one that was almost better. He worked his balls off, and showed some real quality, even holding the ball up in a way I did not think he had in his locker. &nbsp;He missed a difficult second half chance on the half-volley, but rather than blame him for the miss, we should take heart from the move that saw us move the ball quickly from Gabriel to Trossard to Hincapie to Big Vik. That is how to use him. We even gave him balls in the channels to run onto and he thrived. Keep playing to his strengths, Gunners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The match started with us dominating the game but not creating clear cut chances. The crowd were immense, willing the players on. In the 35<sup>th<\/sup> minute Griezmann brought down Trossard from behind in the box. I think it should have been a penalty, but the ref gave nothing and VAR kept quiet. If the ref had given it, I think it would have stood, but then again, I thought the same when Eze was fouled last week. Certainly, Atleti got the rub of the green throughout the tie. I have got zero time for Barcelona (horrible club) but ask any of their fans why they had a man sent off in both QF legs against Atleti for last-man challenges, yet Pubill was given a yellow for cynically hauling down Gy\u00f6keres in the second half and they won\u2019t have an answer I can repeat here. I don\u2019t know the Spanish for \u2018cheating wankers\u2019, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We took the lead just before half-time when Saliba played a ball into the right channel for Gy\u00f6k to latch onto. He held it up well and crossed deep, the ball finding Trossard via a slight deflection. The excellent Belgian twisted and turned, got a shot away which Oblak palmed into the path of Saka, who reacted quickest to burst through two defenders and knock it home from point blank range. Absolutely deserved and the already noisy stadium went wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We rode out the second half. At times we dominated and looked so secure, at times Atleti put their foot on the ball and we had to dig in. But at no point did they seriously threaten our goal. They could have had what would have been a hugely unjust penalty after a Cala tackle, but the ref gave us a free kick after Gabriel threw himself to the floor moments earlier. Apart from that, we weren\u2019t threatened. This is an Atleti side who are supposedly much better in attack than defence, but over two matches they managed to score a single goal, from a penalty that was only awarded because UEFA have perverted the handball law in such a disgraceful way that all sane observers agree they have to change it before next season starts. Put another way, they were damned lucky to score one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we have already achieved this season, given our squad and injuries, is essentially a miracle. Arteta is a bloody genius. If he had Kane, Olise, Doue and Kvaratshkelia then we would look better in attack. But he has Raya, Gabriel, Saliba and Rice, so we look good in defence. Make no mistake, Saka is our only attacking player who would make it into a PSG or Bayern team (and we have not had a properly fit Saka all season). But none of their keepers or defence would make it into our team if we had everyone fit (my Kingdom for a Timber!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we rely on organisation, guts, discipline and no small amount of quality. But, we don\u2019t have truly elite attacking talent on the pitch as much as our direct CL rivals. That\u2019s just a fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know what else is a fact? Neither PSG nor Bayern will fancy playing us one little bit. We are a fantastic football team. We have four more games this season. It is time to bring it on home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until next time \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Playing Football The Arsenal Way A magnificent night of football at The Emirates stadium ended with Arsenal deservedly making the final of the Champions League for only the second time in our history. The scenes at the end showed what it means to the players, the fans, the manager and everyone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13402,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384\/revisions\/13402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}