{"id":13439,"date":"2026-05-17T07:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T06:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13439"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:11:28","slug":"complacency-is-not-our-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13439","title":{"rendered":"Complacency is Not Our Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Courtesy of Arsenal.com  – We want it back!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then there were three!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the season winds its way to its terrifying<\/s> exciting do or die conclusion this Monday night will see The Arsenal play their final home game of the season against Burnley. To be honest this is one of the easier previews I have ever had to write, everything that needs to be said has been said at varying lengths already. Firstly, Sky\u2019s usual pig-ignorant disregard of the match-going fans (no surprise!), secondly our options at right-back (I will be surprised if Mosquera doesn\u2019t start) and thirdly the need to maintain focus on one game at a time (of all things, a Japanese doctor provided me with a timely example of complacency just this week!). On we go then to our starting XI\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquera Saliba Gabriel Hincapi\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rice Lewis-Skelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka \u00d8degaard Eze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gy\u00f6keres<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the XI that I believe Mikel will start. Personally, I would start Havertz up front, and would also include Leo on the left. No doubt others amongst our Holic community will have their own thoughts. Basically, I wouldn\u2019t argue with any of them because in the cold light of er\u2026 Monday night, we should certainly have more than enough defensive strength and attacking ability to see off Burnley regardless of who starts and who finishes the game. Is that a tad dismissive of Burnley? To be honest not really, I think it\u2019s an honest assessment of the two sides, but on that note, let\u2019s have a brief look at Burnley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnley have already suffered the indignity of another one and out stand in the Premier League.  They were relegated mathematically a couple of games back but were probably down by Christmas in most people\u2019s minds. What went wrong? Well, obviously they made the elementary mistake of not firing Little Scottie Parker before the season started. Ignore history at your peril. Bournemouth knew, and look at them fly now. Additionally, the quality of their recruitment was simply not good enough. Yes, they spent some money and there was plenty of churn from the Championship squad but punts on the unproven young and desperate elderly are rarely going to work. They\u2019ve shipped 73 goals so far and have won only one league game since October. Given the nature of parachute payments, I expect they will bounce back in good time, but I can\u2019t imagine it has been an enjoyable season for the Burnley support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what can a Japanese doctor teach us?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a routine medical procedure this Thursday, a planned leg angioplasty with stent insertion, after a previous balloon catheter had failed to clear a peskily occluded section of artery. All went well until it was time to insert the stent and it was realised that we didn\u2019t have one big enough to fit snugly in my un-Japanese sized artery! Ah well, these things happen you are probably saying but in fact two weeks earlier in a pre-op meeting I had checked this very point with my surgeon \u2013 are the stents big enough? I asked. No problem at all, he breezily replied. As the title of this piece says complacency was not our friend. You think it\u2019s an easy one but it\u2019s the little things that get you! Anyway, fortunately we have Mikel Arteta and his team. They have never struck me as men to stent on the pre-game research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is our last home game of the season and the league is agonisingly close. The crowd will be screaming us forward from the first minute on, the atmosphere will be electric (I am very happy for all \u2018holics who have a ticket, tinged with a tiny slice of envy of course), and the team and the manager will be fiercely determined. I honestly don\u2019t see how Burnley will cope. Any win will do of course, but I hope for a calming 3-0 half-time lead and a cruise to victory. That\u2019s about all I have to say, in truth, I hope those of the supporters who don\u2019t have transport difficulties will be able to stay and show their appreciation of this Arsenal side. They richly deserve all the praise they get, in an arduous season where others have fallen away or made excuses when they lose, we are still there and still fighting as hard as we know how.  A team that has got us to the middle of May with the PL and CL firmly in the line of sight of the mighty Gunners! We know their worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a great one all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS I should add for those of you with keen medical minds that I survived the operation. Actually, we winged it with a pincer movement and cleared out the blockage quite nicely so the claudication issue is solved (for now). As the doctor said afterwards, \u201cwell, you didn\u2019t really want a stent anyway\u201d. And people say doctors don\u2019t have a sense of humour! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And then there were three! As the season winds its way to its terrifying exciting do or die conclusion this Monday night will see The Arsenal play their final home game of the season against Burnley. To be honest this is one of the easier previews I have ever had to write, everything that needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13439"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13460,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13439\/revisions\/13460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}