{"id":13453,"date":"2026-05-19T01:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13453"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:28:26","slug":"1-0-to-the-arsenal-and-one-win-from-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13453","title":{"rendered":"1-0 to the Arsenal and One Win from the Title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Kai Havertz header six minutes before the interval was enough to clinch victory for Arsenal in a tense  and often bad-tempered game at the Emirates tonight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Holics met to celebrate the season before the match began and this Holic limped to the ground after landing awkwardly on alighting from the train. At this stage I must  be considered a doubt for the remaining matches and my searing pace will be missed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived at the ground there was an atmosphere that veered between tense and triumphant. Opinion was split between those who saw this as an opportunity to post a cricket score and thus boost our goal difference and those who regarded a win, any win as a priority. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta had picked a side that placed an emphasis on creativity in midfield with Eze and \u00d8degaard playing ahead of the imperious Declan Rice. Calafiori kept his place at left back but to most people\u2019s surprise Kai Havertz led the attack with Gy\u00f6keres on the bench. It was not difficult to see the logic of Arteta who felt Burnley would defend deep and possibly suffocate Viktor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz dropped deeper and combined on a number of occasions with Saka to good effect. Arsenal looked most effective moving the ball quickly and created chances for Eze, Havertz and Trossard who hit a fine low effort against the left hand post with Weiss beaten. Saka had what looked from the North Bank Upper a fair shout for a penalty when he was foiled in the six yard box and Eze whipped a shot just wide. Saka had a deflected cross-cum-shot fly just wide of goal and Burnley, while proving resilient, were not getting forward to any great effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\u2019s breakthrough came five minutes before half time. Eze had a shot deflected wide of the right post. Saka\u2019s beautifully measured corner was attacked by Havertz who headed past Weiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Burnley had proved obdurate and committed, underlining the oft ventured opinion that there are no easy games in the Premier League. So often, Arsenal have controlled games by dint of their mighty defence, diligent press and solid possession play in midfield. Both Eze and Mosquera gifted possession the early part of the second half but Arsenal found a way to record their nineteenth clean sheet of the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat from Burnley in the second half was more imagined than actual and Raya was rarely called into action of any significant kind but, at the same time, Arsenal were unable to help their fans breathe a little easier with a second goal. Eze came nearest with a bouncing volley that caught the top of the bar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main controversy of the second half was a high tackle by Havertz on Ugochukwu which was reviewed for an upgrade from yellow to red. My own highly biased view was that there was not enough momentum in the challenge to warrant this and Arsenal completed their 37th<\/sup> game of the season without incurring a red card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz was substituted shortly afterwards by Gy\u00f6keres, now a fully fledged cult hero and his pace and power severely unsettled the Burnley defence, especially the keeper. Despite seven tense added minutes and the substitutions of the excellent Trossard by Martinelli, Eze by MLS, \u00d8degaard by Zubi and Calafiori by Hincapi\u00e9, Arsenal held out reasonably comfortably to secure three precious points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time tomorrow we could be champions if C130y fail to beat Bournemouth. These are heady times as well as tense times and we are very lucky to support a side of this quality. Let us hope that they will receive their deserved reward for their condo this season <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full time Arsenal 1 Burnley 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phew!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Kai Havertz header six minutes before the interval was enough to clinch victory for Arsenal in a tense  and often bad-tempered game at the Emirates tonight.  Several Holics met to celebrate the season before the match began and this Holic limped to the ground after landing awkwardly on alighting from the train. At this […]<\/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\/13453"}],"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=13453"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13466,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13453\/revisions\/13466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}