{"id":1375,"date":"2020-09-19T07:04:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T06:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2020-09-20T13:11:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T12:11:19","slug":"early-season-feelgood-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1375","title":{"rendered":"Early Season Feelgood Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal v West Ham Match Preview, Saturday 20:00 19 September <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

In Saturday\u2019s late game Miguel Arteta\u2019s\nhigh-flying and sharp-shooting Gunners will try to make it two wins in as many\ntries when they host predicted relegation candidates West Ham United.  In\nthe last few seasons I would look at this fixture and think \u201cpotential banana\nskin\u201d but with the feelgood factor flowing ever more freely at the moment after\nTuesday\u2019s announcement of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang\u2019s contract extension,\nsurely there can be little reason to expect Arsenal to slip up this\nweekend.  Knocking on wood never hurts, but it feels that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to say the undefeated (and yet to concede) Gunners have only beaten Fulham, but considering the short off-season they have also recently defeated Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.  The last time I checked those three are all top four clubs so Arsenal have a right to be feeling confident, if not cocky, which would be Tottenham\u2019s bailiwick.  What\u2019s more, Arsenal come into their second straight London derby with Brazilian recruits Willian and Gabriel having made superb debut performances.  Against Fulham, Willian notched a hat-trick of assists and managed to pep up the attack by a tick or two; and Gabriel, his man-mountain compatriot, plugged a few holes in the permeability of Arsenal\u2019s defence in several of the moments when he wasn\u2019t banging in the Gunners\u2019 second goal from a Willian corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gunners have not lost a home fixture to West\nHam since August 2015, upon Petr Cech\u2019s debut, when Arsenal were unable to turn\ntheir ample possession advantage into scoring chances before they ended up\nconceding a couple of soft goals.  The seemingly unlikely pair of Mikel\nArteta and Calum Chambers were unused Arsenal substitutes that day; but nobody\nelse in that Arsenal squad remains under Arteta as manager, as he is now to be\ncalled rather than head coach.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels like a new era, and indeed it is. \nThe Gunners will hope to improve on their performance against West Ham at the\nEmirates of five months ago, in the final game before the Covid-19 shutdown,\nwhen Arsenal emerged victorious after VAR proved that Alex Lacazette\u2019s 80th\nminute goal, assisted by Mesut Ozil, was not offside as it was originally\ncalled.  In a match of few chances Arsenal were plainly short of creative\nideas but they were buoyed by an inspired performance from Bernd Leno in goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Arsenal may have an edge in fitness not having\nplayed for the whole week, whereas West Ham hosted Charlton in the Carabao Cup\non Tuesday evening. If so, any such advantage must be only slight as David\nMoyes made 10 changes in his midweek starting eleven.  Haller (who scored\ntwo goals), Manuel Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, and Robert Snodgrass were among\nthe Hammers who featured against Charlton, but sadly for LJW as we know him,\naccording to a media report Jack Wilshere didn\u2019t make the squad to face\nCharlton \u201cwith writing on the wall for his Hammers future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Saturday West Ham hosted Newcastle in their\nfirst match of the new season.  Hoping to gain some clever insights, I had\nplanned to watch the game on television, but arriving home a bit late, saw\nbubbles blowing past the players as they returned for the second half. \nNewcastle scored ten minutes later amid confusion and passivity in the West Ham\ndefense.  David Moyes tried to spark his attack by bringing on Sebastian\nHaller and Andriy Yarmolenko for Pablo Fornals and Mark Noble, but half an hour\nlater I awoke from a nap to see the Hammers had lost by 2-0.  It seems the\nHammers conceded again in the 86th minute, and Felipe Anderson replaced Jarrod\nBowen two minutes later in the Hammers midfield, but to little effect and to my\nsuspicion even less entertainment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The players were not particularly shy in\nrecognizing that West Ham played a stinker.  After the match, Newcastle\nstriker Callum Wilson said \u201cI like playing against West Ham. It is not a\ndisrespectful thing but I keep scoring against them.\u201d  This sort of admission\nsounds quite honest to my ear but perilously close to \u201cCan we play you every\nweek?\u201d (a phrase only the fans are usually brave enough to use).  More to\nthe point, West Ham midfielder Declan Rice admitted: “I don\u2019t think we\ncould have played any worse to be honest.\u201d  As renowned for their\ninconsistency as they seem to be, are the Hammers saving up their best\nperformance for the Arsenal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season David Moyes was forced to play his\nyoungsters more often than planned as he was short at both the full-back and\ncentre-back positions.  Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop formed the\nestablished centre-back pairing, but Diop started the season slowly before\nimproving his form after lockdown as West Ham fought off relegation. \nBased on his pre-season form Ogbonna should start against the Gunners, and Diop\nreturned from an unspecified injury to play in both of the Hammers matches this\nweek, so may rejoin Ogbonna in their familiar pairing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hammers\u2019 summer transfer market activity was\nrather quiet, with the main drama surrounding the future of defensive\nmidfielder Declan Rice, as Chelsea were rumoured to be keen to bring him back\nto Stamford Bridge having released him as a 14 year-old in 2014.  But as\nno such deal has materialized we should expect Rice to start in midfield alongside\n33 year-old captain Mark Noble, who has exceeded 500 appearances for the club\nbut by now must be treading on his last legs, or so one might suspect. To put\nhis durability into context, Noble made his senior debut for the club in August\n2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Ham fans, as well as Noble, criticized\nmanagement for the recent sale of young midfielder Grady Diangana. \nApparently, Moyes was told he needed to sell players before he could buy new\nones.  Anticipated deals involving midfielders Felipe Anderson and Manuel\nLanzini failed to materialize, forcing the sale of Diangana to free funds for\nthe signings considered necessary to avoid another relegation battle. Whether\nthe Hammers can complete either task is still to be determined.  A West\nHam fan, Pete May, conveyed the downcast mood around the club when he wrote:\n\u201cWe\u2019re not in a good place: the defence is still poor, we\u2019re not spending and\nexpensive players such as Haller, Anderson, Fornals and Lanzini all\nunderachieved last season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of September the Hammers reportedly\nfailed on consecutive bids of \u00a327m and \u00a330m for Burnley’s 27 year-old centre\nback James Tarkowski.  More recently, the Sun reported that the Hammers\noffered Arsenal a \u00a35m package to take Rob Holding on loan for the season, an\noffer that was also rejected. The timing of the story, just a few days before\nHolding is likely to feature against the Hammers in the Arsenal defence, is\ninteresting to say the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hammers\u2019 failure to complete new signings\nthis summer could signal that West Ham\u2019s owners may not have full confidence\nthat Moyes is the right man to make them.  This week a website that\nhandicaps which Premier League manager is likely to be next to receive the sack\noffered its lowest odds (2\/1) on Moyes; so there may b a chance of the Hammers\nholding off on signings until a new manager is in place in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

At Fulham debutant Willian was primarily\nresponsible in my opinion for making the Arsenal attack look more fluid than it\nhas in ages. Confident and relaxed on the pass, the dribble and in tight\nspaces, he helped transform Arsenal\u2019s attack into a more smoothly methodical\nunit as they probed and eventually broke down the opposition defence.  The\ngood news for Arsenal is that Willian can deploy his skills effectively not\nonly from the right wing position as he did at Craven Cottage, and I would be\nexcited to see him play against the Hammers in a more central playmaking tole,\nallowing Pepe to make his first start of the season at right wing, playing\nalongside the Brazilian.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are very strong arguments for keeping\nthe side that won at Fulham, primarily to keep the momentum going and to\nsolidify the foundation of the first XI.  The defence that held Fulham\nscoreless fully deserves to retain their places, and indeed it would be a bit\nharsh on any of the starters to be taken out of the side following a 3-0\nwin.  I suspect that the resolute Arteta may make no changes at all,\nretaining Elneny in the midfield and Maitland-Niles on the left, so the team I\nam predicting is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding Gabriel Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellerin Xhaka Elneny Maitland-Niles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willian Lacazette Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time I\u2019ve been wondering if it might\nhelp the progress of the team if Arteta were to tinker slightly so as to figure\nout where Saka and Pepe will fit in the overall scheme.  Inclining\nslightly for the latter scenario, I would like to see starts for Saka alongside\nXhaka in midfield, and for Pepe to come in on the right side with Willian\nshifting into an attacking central midfield role behind Lacazette.  We\nknow that the Arsenal team against Fulham clicked, including the attacking\ncombinations that outshone most of what we saw last season, but it is ever so\ntempting to want to find out which variations on that team can click if and\nwhen we run into difficulties along the course of the season.  Ceballos\nand Nketiah will certainly be involved as well before long, but if not from the\nbeginning, then at some stage I would love to see how this lineup might be able\nto break through a packed Hammers defence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding Gabriel Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellerin Willian Xhaka Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Holics Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is one thing Mikel Arteta still must\ninstill in this Arsenal team, it is the instinct to kick an opponent when they\nare down.  I don\u2019t mean it in a literal sense though, because if they see\na decent opportunity this pack of Premier League referees are itching for the\nchance to dole out another handful of red cards to Arsenal before the holiday\nseason hits, so we must not afford them any such openings.  Rather, I mean\nthat Arsenal must not just protect one goal leads but keep pressuring the\nopposition in their half of the field, probing weaknesses, taking advantage of\ntiring opposition legs, and putting a few more goals in the net to keep the\nfeelgood factor flowing, rather than just scraping by or risking a late\nreversal.  This certainly must be the approach against a club in relative\ndisarray such as West Ham find themselves, so I am predicting a 5-1 win with\nfour second half goals as an implementation benchmark of the \u201ckick \u2018em when\nthey\u2019re down\u201d theory.  Rob Holding and friends will on the other hand be\nputting all their efforts into a second consecutive clean sheet, and who is to\nsay they can\u2019t do it so if I were a betting man I might put a second fiver on\n4-0.  The game may turn out to be a good deal more difficult than I have\nprognosticated, but if so we should remember we are headed in the right\ndirection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a good one, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Moment In Saturday\u2019s late game Miguel Arteta\u2019s high-flying and sharp-shooting Gunners will try to make it two wins in as many tries when they host predicted relegation candidates West Ham United.  In the last few seasons I would look at this fixture and think \u201cpotential banana skin\u201d but with the feelgood factor flowing ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"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\/1375"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}