{"id":13407,"date":"2026-05-10T20:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13407"},"modified":"2026-05-17T08:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T07:00:10","slug":"playing-football-the-arsenal-way-back-to-the-old-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13407","title":{"rendered":"Playing Football The Arsenal Way \u2013 Back To The Old School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At half-time I was considering the tactical nuance of a game that changed completely with Ben White\u2019s twenty-fifth minute injury. By the time the match finished in the 101st minute, tactics were the last thing from my mind. I was just trying to stop my hands shaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was tough. We were really put through the ringer by a resolute West Ham side, aided and abetted by an uneven performance from Chris Kavanagh, who nonetheless made the correct decision at the end of the match, in a moment that may well have a big say in where the league ends up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that was at the end of an intriguing match. So, if I can still my racing thoughts and rewind a touch, let us begin\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta named an unchanged side. In the early stages I could not believe just how intelligently Myles Lewis-Skelly positioned himself and used the ball. He has essentially made himself undroppable. His forward passing, his turning on the ball and even his understanding of when to play a simple wall pass are all those of a much more experienced player. If I were Tommy T the England manager, then I would be seriously considering starting MLS, Rice and Eze as my midfield in the World Cup. I\u2019d also start Saka and White, if the latter\u2019s injury is not as bad as we fear it could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could have been ahead after eight minutes when Hermannson made an excellent save from a Trossard header after a Rice corner. The Belgian\u2019s follow up hit the post. Soon after Todibo hit a dead ball into Arteta. Older and wiser than he was when an incident at Anfield played out a few seasons ago, our manager laughed it off, offered his hand, and focused on the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, we were close again as Mavropanos hooked a foot around a Calafiori header from a Rice free kick that had beaten the keeper. Saliba was just unable to make it to the rebound. We were seriously on top though. We had possession, control and were carving out chances. That was until White went down (no foul given) and looked pretty miserable as he was subbed off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Arteta mis-stepped. He brought on Zubi and moved Rice to right-back. I would assume his thinking was that if he brought on Mosquera in a straight swap for White, the Spaniard would be a far more defensive presence. So, if he moved Rice over there, then he would not have too much defending to do and would still be able to affect the game. I am sure he meant it as an attacking option. But it did not work. Rice was unable to progress the ball to Saka, passing back to Saliba far too often and leaving our talisman bereft of service. Worse still, was that we lost our grip on the midfield. Zubi was fine, but MLS gels more naturally with Rice at this point and we slightly lost our way. MLS had a learning moment as he was turned by Summerville – who ended the game with a yellow card but responsible for three of our players getting the same for taking him down \u2013 and he went on to take a shot that went wide but was still a sign of the match swinging somewhat; West Ham had not been taking shots!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kavanagh got worse as the half went on. He ignored a blatant foul on the industrious Gy\u00f6keres right in front of him, then let a couple go on MLS. When he finally gave one for our nineteen-year-old, he indulged Soucek in a thirty second rant. Very odd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On WhatsApp at half-time, wise heads opined that we needed to get Rice back into midfield. I suggested moving Zubi to right-back and telling him just to focus on feeding Saka. It is probably a marker of how brilliantly MLS has taken to his new role that none of us even considered the option that Arteta took, bringing on Mosquera to play RB, moving Rice back into midfield, and pulling MLS to left-back. I\u2019d forgotten he could play there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were a bit better. Saka had a couple of wild shots from decent positions outside the box. As we passed the hour mark, Gooners worldwide got more tense. Personally, I went full-on positive. What I call the Love-Bomb. Every Arsenal action was greeted in my lounge with clapping, support and encouragement. We all deal with the anxious moments differently, and I just needed to stay super-positive and believe in the team. Or, at least, act as if I did!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 67 mins, Zubi and Eze came off for Havertz and \u00d8degaard \u2013 good subs from Arteta, and easy enough for the substitute Zubimendi to take, as it was so obviously tactical. \u00d8degaard was immediately busy, linking up with Saka, Rice, Havertz and Mosquera high up the pitch on the right. It looked promising. Gy\u00f6keres headed over from a decent Saka cross (Unlucky Big Vik. Next one, next one!) Kavanagh started dishing out yellows like confetti at a wedding. Pablo handled the ball on the floor in the penalty box \u2013 it would have been given in Europe but no-one wants a penalty given for that. He was actively trying to get his hands out the way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka made way for Madueke, who was bright and caused some chaos. In the 83rd<\/sup> minute, the aforementioned players on the right kept the ball and worked a wonderful opening. After some nice interchanges, \u00d8degaard got on the ball, played a give and go with Rice, and then managed to lay the ball off for Trossard to shoot past the keeper, the ball taking a slight deflection off Soucek. We all went wild. I screamed at the TV in joy and defiance and relief. That felt massive. There was no offside, no way VAR could disallow it, and we could celebrate that one at full tilt. I am surely not the only one who did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a bit of Noni shithousing. I loved it. One of the West Ham assistant coaches got a red for something or other and before we knew it the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time. With barely two minutes to play, they sent the ball into the mixer where Mavropanos headed it down to Callum Wilson whose shot was goal bound until Gabriel made a last-ditch block off his shin. I gotta say, I was nervous as the corner came in. Bowen whipped it, Raya missed it, it bounced off Saliba\u2019s knee to Wilson who fired it home. In real time it was hard to see if it had crossed the line before Rice blocked it. The replay showed it was two feet past the line. Arteta turned away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then VAR had a look. It soon became clear that Pablo had blocked Raya\u2019s arm from punching\/catching the ball. I never look at what anyone else has said before I write my reports, so I don\u2019t know if this decision has proved controversial (although, in these days where the media try to whip up a frenzy about anything and everything, I assume it has sparked mass outrage) but there is no way to say this other than that it is a clear foul. The only issue was the time it took VAR to send Kavanagh to the screen and him to make a decision. But I suppose they all knew how important a call it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely, after the decision was correctly given, and the goal disallowed, my TV showed for the first time a reverse angle showing Todibo clearly pulling Raya\u2019s shirt. I\u2019m not sure why the ref wasn\u2019t shown that, but two fouls for the price of one ain\u2019t a bad deal for Raya. Never in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kavanagh kept adding time, but in the 101st<\/sup> minute he blew the whistle and we had won the match. There will be those who suspect we had also won the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I am going to do what the team should do and just take it one game at a time. This was the result we needed, and in the coming days (eight of them before our next match!) there will be time for analysis. For all that we went through today, we got the result. No-one expected this to be easy, but we march on. It is still in our hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At half-time I was considering the tactical nuance of a game that changed completely with Ben White\u2019s twenty-fifth minute injury. By the time the match finished in the 101st minute, tactics were the last thing from my mind. I was just trying to stop my hands shaking. That was tough. We were really put through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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\/13407"}],"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=13407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13412,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13407\/revisions\/13412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}