{"id":14325,"date":"2026-09-13T20:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14325"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:56:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:56:44","slug":"a-raya-at-the-stadium-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14325","title":{"rendered":"A Raya at the Stadium of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A slight dislocation of services at Goonerholic Towers has left us with a late substitute report which will focus on the issues rather than the detail of the match. Arsenal maintained their 100% record at Sunderland with a very hard fought 2-0 win. If Sunderland play with anything like the intensity they did in this match very few sides will exit the Stadium of Light with three points. It was a hugely committed performance in a game which was marred by a poor decision by the officials which could have left us with a mountain to climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That we didn\u2019t was due to a brilliant penalty save by David Raya who was inspirational in goal as he so often is. The man is a League Champion, a World Cup winner and has a very strong claim to be the best goalkeeper in the world currently. The upgrade on Ramsdale that was so controversial a few years ago was eminently justified. Let us go over the key points of an enthralling Premier League match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal\u2019s starting eleven was the predictable one that had begun the Chelsea match seven days earlier. The ground was throbbing with noise and passion and Arsenal had to adjust to a big challenge barely forty eight hours since returning from Naples. Our three thousand marvellous fans sang loud and proud not cowed by the 8pm kick off time in the far North East. Saka might have done better when Rice found him in space behind the Sunderland defence and then Kai Havertz span onto a probing \u00d8degaard chip and Roefs had to tip over his acrobatic effort. Sunderland responded aggressively to both the challenge of subduing Arsenal\u2019s attack and trying to put pressure on our goal. Ballard, who began his career at Arsenal, looked particularly energised and narrowly failed to connect properly with an excellent Xhaka cross from a free kick on the left. The intensity of the game took its first casualty when Ben White tweaked his groin and had to leave the game at half-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta was particularly wired and the referee decided to show him a yellow card for failing to stay within what looked in truth to be a small technical area . The pressure a physically big and well-drilled Sunderland team were putting us under was a problem for him to ponder in the half-time interval. Brobbey, the man mountain upfront for Sunderland, was proving as obdurate as he was in this fixture last year but Konsa and Gabriel remained redoubtable and prepared for a serious second half battle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time Sunderland 0 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurrien Timber returned to the team in place of Ben White in the second half  and MLS was replaced by Guimar\u00e3es. Myles had been caught in possession a couple of times in the first half but the addition of a former Newcastle skipper, unsurprisingly, did little to dampen down the atmosphere!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game exploded in the 52nd minute. Sunderland earned a throw in level with the penalty area and Ballard seemed to be thrown to the ground as the ball looped into the area. The referee pointed to the spot immediately and VAR acquiesced with his decision fairly instantly. In reality, Ballard had looped his arm into Konsa\u2019s and thrown him over in a move more akin to Judo than football. Konsa was very much the innocent party but there seemed little sympathy for the Arsenal man\u2019s plight . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enzo Le Fee fresh from converting a spot kick at Brentford last week drove a very presentable penalty low and hard to Raya\u2019s left but the Arsenal keeper leapt across brilliantly to turn the ball against the post and away. A huge moment in the match. Within two minutes, momentum in the match had changed. Arsenal built pressure on the left and Rice slipped the ball to Bruno twenty five yards out in a central position. Our new Brazilian paid off a big chunk of his transfer fee with a beautiful curving drive which arrowed past Roefs into the top right hand corner. A wonderful strike which Bruno embellished with a wind up celebration that was very much intended to annoy the Mackems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunderland 0 Arsenal 1 – Guimar\u00e3es 53 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunderland were far from beaten and subjected Arsenal to heavy pressure but as we know Arsenal\u2019s defence is made of very stern stuff and Raya was in imperious form. His best moment was a double block from a close range Mukiele effort. Mr. Brookes the referee moved into yellow card mode penalising players on both sides including Gabriel for appearing to act as peacemaker in a touchline conflagration. Arsenal brought on a brand new midfield (but not a brand new striker, Gy\u00f6keres being unused again). Timber headed in a teasing \u00d8degaard cross but was just offside. Brobbey continued to  try to bully the unbullyable (is that a word?) Arsenal defence and in injury time, Guimar\u00e3es sent Saka through. Reinildo, who was booked in the first half, was fouling Saka for over twenty yards, yanking his shirt off his shoulder and when Bukayo subsided to the ground in the penalty area the referee awarded a spot-kick and gave Reinildo a second yellow card and his marching orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka\u2019s spot kick was in a similar place to Le Fee\u2019s but had more speed and Roefs could only help it into the net. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunderland 0 Arsenal 2 – Saka, pen, 90+6 – & Full Time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counting the Community Shield this was our sixth win in a row, four of them away from home and it was a gutsy, mature performance. Arsenal are making themselves more unpopular with each passing day but under the resentment is a grudging respect for the sheer strength and quality of game management of our squad .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya was named Man of the Match, quite deservedly, but there were a number of notable performances. Our defence was rock solid and it was nice to see Timber back. Rice and \u00d8degaard maintained their excellent form and Bruno added a different dimension when he joined the fray. The verticality of his passing makes us so much more dangerous. Havertz worked his socks off. I don\u2019t feel Bukayo is yet at his best but he has scored three goals already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can now play our second eleven in the Carabao Cup and allow our hard working stars some time off before what will be another very tough match at the Amex. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A slight dislocation of services at Goonerholic Towers has left us with a late substitute report which will focus on the issues rather than the detail of the match. Arsenal maintained their 100% record at Sunderland with a very hard fought 2-0 win. If Sunderland play with anything like the intensity they did in 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\/14325"}],"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=14325"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14330,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14325\/revisions\/14330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}