{"id":1381,"date":"2020-09-20T13:10:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T12:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2020-09-22T18:10:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T17:10:56","slug":"we-ride-our-luck-but-saka-inspires-two-fine-goals-to-sink-the-hammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1381","title":{"rendered":"We Ride Our Luck But Saka Inspires Two Fine Goals To Sink The Hammers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Laca scores against West Ham (Photo by Julian Finney – Getty Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is very rare that I do not watch an Arsenal game live,\neither at the game, or on TV. However that late move of the game from Sunday\nafternoon to Saturday night totally snookered me. We had arranged to visit two\ndear friends in North Norfolk. Although only in her 50s, she has very serious\nbrain cancer. Her husband is devotedly caring for her. We have known them for\n30 years. For once Arsenal had to come second. So a DVR and an early Sunday\nmorning rise is how I came to watch this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coincidentally, this same fixture was the last one I saw\nlive before lockdown. We scraped a 1-0 win, and were constantly caught on the\ncounter attack. Surely today would be different, given the very different\nstarts to the season?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early bad news was that KT3 had aggravated a hip injury in the warm up and had been withdrawn. Kola came in as left sided centre back in a three (the ringing sound you may have heard yesterday evening were the immediate alarm bells). However well prepared, this must have unbalanced the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno, Holding, Gabriel, Kola, Hector, Saka, Dani, Xhaka,\nWillian, Laca and Auba started the game. AMN was surprisingly left on the bench\nwhere he joined Macey, Luiz, Elneny, Willock, Pepe and Eddie. West Ham matched\nup with three at the back, despite playing a back four last week. Lucas\nFabianski returned to the Emirates, but sadly LJW did not. Ah Jack. Arteta said\ninteresting things in his pre match interview. When asked why AMN and Elneny\nwere not picked, despite their excellent games against Fulham, he said every\ngame demands a different approach \u2013 evidence of his research. He also picked\napart the fact that we were lucky last March and said we were poor against the\ncounter attack. Wise and prophetic words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an early chance for Laca, we started giving the ball\naway. A characteristically poor pass between our penalty area and the centre\ncircle from Xhaka left West Ham on the attack. Fortunately it came to naught.\nAn early corner led to an easy save from Leno, but the space they were finding\nin our penalty area was disturbing. In particular, Rob Holding was suffering\nwith his lack of pace against the lively Antonio. During this early period the\nmost frequent sound I could hear was MA8 hollering Dani! Dani! West Ham had a\nshout for a penalty as they broke free on the left (Kola\u2019s) side. Gabriel\nmissed a ball in the air under challenge from Antonio and Bowen carried the\nball into our area. Gabriel recovered and nicked the ball back but Bowen hurled\nhimself to the ground after brief and slight contact. Michael Oliver, VAR and\nour own Smudger on co-comms all dismissed the claim with disdain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we closed in on 20 minutes, like they did in March, the\nHammers were knocking it around nicely, with Declan Rice quarterbacking well. The\nneed for more grip in midfield was very apparent. When we got forward the\ninterchanges looked good but in central midfield we looked slow, square and\njust not quite on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in the 25th<\/sup> minute, it clicked. Saka slid\nin Auba with a sumptuous and perfectly weighted pass. Auba drove forward and,\nlike so many goalscorers are able to do, stood it up perfectly with his left\nfoot, first time to allow an unmarked Laca to power the ball in with his head\nfrom the six yard line. Bosh! John Radford would have enjoyed that one. Offside\nagainst Auba looked marginal but again VAR came down on the red side, with\nDiop\u2019s heel just playing him onside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\n1-0 West Ham (Lacazette 25\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another lovely flowing move saw Saka in space in the area\non the left again. Now we\u2019ve seen him convert from that position before (e.g.\nBournemouth in the Cup). He hit it well, but just over the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 33 minutes, some aerial head tennis on the edge of the\nbox saw the ball strike Gabriel on the upper arm. It looked very similar to\nthat given against Lindelof of Man Utd in the game earlier in the day. Oliver\ndidn\u2019t give it, VAR took a long look and decided no penalty. For my money\nneither should have been given, but the handball rule continues to be the one\nthat is most inconsistently applied, despite FIFA\u2019s intervention in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fredericks was rightly booked for a murderous waist high\nchallenge on Saka. However Oliver played a great advantage and Dani just failed\nto meet a cross in the six yard box. Again I thought we were looking sharp\naround and in their area, with Laca showing some lovely hold up play to link\npasses and Willian looking constantly dangerous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the half approached it was looking like we had weathered\nthe (modest) storm from the Irons, scored a very nice goal and were going to go\nin 1-0 up. But this is The Arsenal my friends! From a promising attacking\nposition for us, with plenty of Arsenal players forward, Fabianski cleared his\nlines with a hoof to the left wing on the centre line. It was collected nicely\nand then switched to Bowen on the right. Instead of closing down, Kola just ran\naway deep into our area, allowing Bowen to set Fredericks up on the overlap\nwith no pressure. Unchallenged again by Kola, who was a good three yards off\nhim, Fredericks drove a cross into the six yard box. Rob Holding had somehow\ngot the wrong side of Antonio who finished well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\n1-1 West Ham (Antonio 45\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guys, we have to talk about Kola. His passing is awful,\nespecially from his own penalty area. His defending is worse, consisting of\neither running away or clumsy efforts that are often penalised. When attacking\nhe gets in great overlapping positions, but his delivery is poor. He won\u2019t do.\nGet rid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HT\nArsenal 1-1 West Ham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No changes at halftime. After Saka went close, courtesy of\na delicious Auba off the ball run and well timed pass, Leno released his full\nManuel Neur by collecting one clearance on the half way line and recycling the\nball rather well. A change of underpants was required by the watching Arsenal\nCommunity with memories of another Manuel, this time Almunia, still vivid. He\nwas then seen to be prowling fully 20 metres outside his box to block out the\nlong ball over the top. An Arteta instruction to support a high line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel was having a rather enjoyably physical battle with\nthe very athletic Antonio. Honours were just about even. But our new Brazilian\ncentreback clearly does not shirk the heavy stuff. We dodged a bullet when\nMasuaku delivered a fine cross from their left and this time Antonio couldn\u2019t\nquite finish, with Leno clutching the ball on the line after Gabriel had made\nlife awkward for the centre forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A frankly dull period followed, with West Ham looking\ndangerous pumping back post crosses in from their left to either Soucek or\nAntonio. Now who was at the back post playing left centre back (who was\nfrequently nowhere to be seen)? Oh yes \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 64 minutes, Willian, who had been buzzing nicely in a\ncentral number 10 position, was taken off for the mercurial Pepe. Xhaka was\nleft for dead in midfield and then recovered to crash clumsily into a West Ham\nplayer. Another cross was pumped in. Leno claimed well but fell over Ceballos,\nspilling the ball in the process. A dangerous shot came in but Leno recovered\nto get his legs in the way. Antonio hammered a header against the bar. We were\nclinging on more than a bit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 75 minutes, Laca, who put in a good shift, came off for\nthe fresh legs of Eddie. As we went past the 80th<\/sup> minute the Hammers\nbarrage slowed. Were they settling for a point? If they were it came back to\nbite them. Another fabulous line splitting pass from Saka saw Ceballos clear in\nthe area. He unselfishly squared it to Eddie who had been alert enough to stay\nbehind the ball and hence onside. He duly completed a trademark tap in. Last\nweek\u2019s sparring partners had combined to win the game!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\n2-1 West Ham (Nketiah 85)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 88 minutes Luiz came on for Saka, who another highly\neffective game, with great and visionary output. Before the goal, Ceballos was\ngoing to be hooked for Elneny evidently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the board went up for 4 minutes added time, the ball\nfell to Auba for his first clear chance of the match. He hit it well but\nstraight at Fabianski. We saw the game out without serious alarms. Played 2 won\n2 baby!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FT\nArsenal 2-1 West Ham<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought Saka (my MOTM), Auba, Laca and Dani were rather\ngood. Kola was awful. Xhaka and Holding definite room for improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you play badly and win, that\u2019s how you get competitive\nin league football. We rode our luck, with all the VAR calls going our way, but\nscored two very high quality goals. We are only behind Everton by virtue of\ngoals scored. A fine start to the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is very rare that I do not watch an Arsenal game live, either at the game, or on TV. However that late move of the game from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night totally snookered me. We had arranged to visit two dear friends in North Norfolk. Although only in her 50s, she has very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"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\/1381"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}