{"id":14229,"date":"2026-08-22T00:56:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14229"},"modified":"2026-08-29T12:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:39:35","slug":"quantum-of-tzolis-as-arsenal-purr-towards-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14229","title":{"rendered":"Quantum of Tzolis, as Arsenal Purr Towards Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal opened the season with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over promoted Coventry amid a joyous atmosphere as the Champions showed an incredible appetite to expand the range of their play by adding creativity all over the pitch to a gegen press that emphatically put Coventry in their place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had been an unusual day for me as a woman had asked to take my picture in the supermarket this morning. I thought my sexual charisma must still be boiling over but she wanted to order the Arsenal champions polo I was wearing. Then I spent part of the day trying to locate a new, young cat who has been introduced to our home but seems to regard most of Kent as his fiefdom. He returned home just before the match and was apparently purring with pleasure, presumably because he was watching the Arsenal interplay from the sofa where he spends most evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the match we had the pleasure of welcoming new signing Ezri Konsa, but also learnt that Bruno Guimaraes had tweaked his hamstring and is likely to miss several weeks of the season. The starting line up was similar to the one that began in Cardiff although Saka started on the right of the attack and Declan Rice returned in place of Bruno. MLS had retained his place and the synchronicity of our midfield was immediately in evidence. \u00d8degaard continued his Cardiff form; he looks fit, sharp and creative. On the left flank, Tzolis took the eye regularly with penetrating runs inside onto his right foot or going outside to combine with Calafiori. He looks a reincarnation of Brian Marwood with a little of Anders Limpar thrown in. He is an assist machine and timed his passes beautifully as well as unleashing some powerful shots. After an early Coventry flurry we began to dominate and took the lead in 15 minutes when Tzolis won the ball back for Calafiori to roll the ball in to Havertz who finished exquisitely with his left foot from around the penalty spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Coventry 0 – Havertz 15 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tzolis was continually catching the eye on the left and he was involved with the assist for the second goal after Rice, who was imperious throughout, won the ball back. Tzolis whipped it across the six yard box where Rushworth the Coventry keeper could only palm it out to Saka who replicated his effort in the Champions League semi-final to tap home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal 2 Coventry  0 – Saka 23 minutes<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Simms managed to trouble Gabriel a little with his physicality, Coventry were being outplayed in midfield by an Arsenal side playing high tempo football and varying their play by dinking balls  over the Coventry backline or stretching them with their wide men, then looking to cut the ball back. Havertz had a goal bound effort blocked, Saka’s effort rebounded for a corner and Rice curled a left foot shot just wide. Aside from a clever lob, Coventry had never tested Raya in a one sided first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half time: Arsenal 2 Coventry 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interval, I had the pleasure of discourse with one of the 10 greatest Dundonians of all time: the estimable BtM, who was as content with the first half performance as I was. One presumes Frank Lampard would have been telling his lads to keep it tight for the first 20 minutes of the second half but if that was the plan it went up in smoke on 53 minutes when Ben White, overlapping on the right, cut a ball back to \u00d8degaard whose mishit shot seemed to take an odd deflection that took it over the line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 3 Coventry 0 – \u00d8degaard 53 mins<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard  had, thereby, equalled his league goal tally for last season within 53 minutes and he looks back to his very best. This version of our Norwegian captain is a very important player for us and he looked free of the injuries that had so handicapped him last term. Coventry gamely tried to contain Arsenal and Rushworth made some excellent saves,  notably from Saka and Merino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta intelligently started to substitute some of our players who have had less preparation for the season. Saka and Rice were replaced by Madueke and Zubimendi, Tzolis and \u00d8degaard made way for Eze and Merino and Calafiori was taken off near the end for Hincapi\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudoni managed one effort on target for Coventry but Arsenal were in complete control despite the raft of substitutions and ran out the most comfortable of comfortable winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full time: Arsenal 3 Coventry 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly this game panned out almost exactly as Arteta, and indeed most of the Goonerverse, would have planned the match if they had the power to orchestrate it. Arsenal played with a flow and freedom that gave them attacking options and overloads in abundance. Their press was keen and emphatic and the intensity of their play never dropped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us had worried that there was insufficient time to recover after the World Cup especially when several key men had suffered injuries that might not have fully recovered. However, there was little sign of this. MLS had an admirable game holding in midfield but finding opportunities to get forward while Rice always seemed to be in the right place. Ben While looked back to his best and upfront, Havertz who I had expected would be replaced by Gy\u00f6keres midway through the second half gave an object lesson in intelligent hold up play combining this with an ever present goal threat. And awful James Bond puns aside, there was Tzolis in the performance of our new left sided attacker who had a terrific game combining pace, enterprise and deft ball control to suggest that he is more than ready to be our starting preference on the left wing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are truly fortunate to get to watch this side at the moment. They looked to have expanded their repertoire significantly from last season, no doubt freed from the pressure of achieving that first title. If this is a taste of things to come it could be a very exciting season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal opened the season with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over promoted Coventry amid a joyous atmosphere as the Champions showed an incredible appetite to expand the range of their play by adding creativity all over the pitch to a gegen press that emphatically put Coventry in their place.  It had been an unusual day for […]<\/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\/14229"}],"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=14229"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14235,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14229\/revisions\/14235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}