Fourth play tenth tomorrow evening at the bus stop in Fulham\nwith a ten-point gap between them. Despite the gap, there are several parallels\nbetween the clubs. Both have experienced recent decline in status, though Arsenal\u2019s\ndecline is currently more severe. Both have responded by appointing ambitious,\nyoung, former players as coaches and have unveiled exciting crops of youngsters\nwho are making an impact on their first teams. However, Fat Frank had a preseason\nto work on a squad which finished last season respectably in fourth place and as\nEuropa League winners. In contrast Mikel Arteta has had to pick up the reins of\na club in meltdown at the busiest period of the season but he has quickly transformed\nseveral key players and the team\u2019s performances without yet capturing winning\nform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2017, the Guvna observed that our visits to the\nbus stop at Fulham hadn\u2019t been the happiest of trips for a few years and while\nwe haven\u2019t taken all three points in the interim, we have achieved respectable\nperformances and results. We bagged consecutive nil-nil draws from our visits\nin 2016-17 and 2017-18 and in 2018-19 were unlucky not to take at least a point\nfrom a 3-2 defeat in Unai Emery\u2019s second game in charge before his dead hand\nhad its full negative influence on our play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mikel Arteta is at an early stage of rebuilding Arsenal\u2019s\nconfidence, belief, organisation and strategy and has had a few more weeks to\nwork with the players than when, only three weeks ago, we were treated to a\n30-minute first half glimpse of Artetaball, a game sadly tarnished by a late\nsecond half collapse and undeserved defeat. The late concession of a 1-0 lead\nand two points has become an unfortunate pattern in our last two games and is a\nfrailty that has to be rectified swiftly. The bus stop would be an excellent\nplace to start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hosts got off to a brisk start under Fat Frank but have\nstuttered recently, apart from their undeserved 2-1 win at the Grove. Since\nNovember they have lost at home to West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton, drawn\nat home to Bournemouth and lost away to Everton and Newcastle. They are by no\nmeans invincible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are handicapped by Pierre Emerich Aubameyang\u2019s suspension.\nHis goals earlier this season have prevented us being in even deeper doo-doo\nthan we are. The substitution of the hard-working but unproductive Lacazette\nagainst Sheffield United was clearly with this fixture in mind. Surely Laca\u2019s\nluck must turn eventually? Chambers and Tierney remain long-term absentees\nthough the latter is apparently back in light training. Kolasinac and\nReiss-Nelson are both still side-lined by muscle strains and will not be\navailable before the Barcodes game in mid-February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I expect minimal change to Saturday\u2019s starting line-up\ndespite the short interval between games. Sokratis will probably replace\nMustafi if the Greek has recovered from illness when assessed pre-match.\nAlthough Mustafi did little wrong against Sheffield United, his propensity to\nunexpected \u2018brain-farts\u2019 makes Sokratis the better bet. Hector was on the bench\non Saturday and may regain his starting place from Ainsley Maitland-Niles\nthough AMN has looked more and more impressive at RB under Mikel. Thus, I\nexpect a probable starting 11 of Leno; Bellerin, Sokratis, Luiz, Saka;\nTorreira, Xhaka; \u00d6zil; Pepe, Lacazette, Martinelli. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Holic pound, you ask? A classic 1-0 to the Arsenal is\noffered at 14-1 while a 1-0 win with Lacazette the scorer is a rather generous\n50-1. Have it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth play tenth tomorrow evening at the bus stop in Fulham with a ten-point gap between them. Despite the gap, there are several parallels between the clubs. Both have experienced recent decline in status, though Arsenal\u2019s decline is currently more severe. Both have responded by appointing ambitious, young, former players as coaches and have unveiled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"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\/167"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}