{"id":1674,"date":"2020-10-30T08:52:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T08:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2020-10-31T17:08:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T17:08:21","slug":"young-guns-prove-an-interesting-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"Young Guns Prove An Interesting Alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I dreaded the prospect of\nThursday night football before it eventually arrived at the Grove. The level of\nthe Europa League is substantially below the Champions League and the game with\nDundalk illustrated this graphically. But the chance to refresh our line up and\nto play with less pressure meant that this was a game we could enjoy with a\nslightly more relaxed perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal lined up for the\nmatch with a back five which included the \ncaptain Xhaka, taking the armband almost exactly a year after his surly\ndeparture from the field of play against Crystal Palace. My respect for Arteta\nis huge but I found the formation overly cautious for opponents like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dundalk lined up with something like a back seven but still forced the first goal chance when Mohammed\u2019s Gaelic cousin, Mceleny forced a decent save from the debutant Runarsson who then proceeded to catch a corner that Leno may well have punched (he later caught a second).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal were far from fluid in the early stages which begs the question when we did last start dynamically? Nketiah had a decent shout for a penalty when his legs were removed from under him. The referee realising that it wasn\u2019t Old Trafford declined to give the home team a penalty. In fact the referee who I thought was awful failed to give us three penalties – later when Nelson was brought down in the second half and Joe Willock was clearly pulled near the end as he made exciting progress into the box. He also failed to spot a single Dundalk foul in ninety minutes. That is an extraordinary statistic and not one he should be proud of.  If UEFA use him again they must be desperate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ten rather tedious minutes\nCedric blazed wildly over. I\u2019m afraid Cedric may be a blaze wildly over sort of\nfull back and he wasn\u2019t alone tonight as I put regularly \u2026.. blazed over \u2026..citing,\nElneny, Willock and Nketiah as well. But at least we were shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early amusement came from Dundalk who forced a throw in to Arsenal from their own goal kick by trying to play out from the back. Emperor\u2019s New Clothes football has spread across the Irish Sea. Utter madness by them in a game where they weren\u2019t going to be able to get out of their area without supreme difficulty. Two yard passes in the six yard box were not a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 12 minutes Pepe blazed\nover (!) trying to emulate Cedric and then hit one of the worst corners I have\nseen for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willock looked lively and\nlike Nelson injected a quicker tempo into our game. He put a tempting ball over\non 16 minutes for Nketiah, presumably, but he was nowhere to be found.\nFrustration would  have been  building in the crowd had there been one and\nthe inability to test the Bank of Ireland bank manager in goal for Dundalk (it\u2019s\nso gratifying and rare to find a player who looks older than me and  possibly has less talent), was particularly\ngalling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kolasinac did test him with a header from a Willock cross on 33 minutes and after 38 minutes Nketiah almost converted after a fierce Pepe shot was blocked. But concern was building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deadlock was eventually broken on 41 minutes when the bank manager flailed at a cross and Nketiah darted in to convert the loose ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Dundalk 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two minutes later Willock\nfinished smartly after Pepe\u2019s drive was blocked <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Dundalk 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly as the break neared\nArsenal had crept into a comfortable lead without giving a coherent or fluent\nfirst-half performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time Arsenal 2\nDundalk 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game had effectively\nceased to be a contest in those last four minutes of the first half. Arsenal\nbegan the second by making it three goals in five minutes when we saw a\ncollector\u2019s item- a Pepe goal with his right foot. It was a beautiful piece of\ncontrol embellished by a fine curling shot. There is a huge player reaction\nwhen Pepe scores and he seems a popular character in the dressing room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 3 Dundalk 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it had seemed rather\nnegative to start with a back five against a team like Dundalk, after Mustafi was\ntaken off we still persisted with the shape using Elneny in the defence. Xhaka\nwas later replaced by Tierney to retain the shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nelson and Willock continued\nto impress. Nelson lacked an end product despite some dazzling footwork but\nArsenal had a smarter tempo and Maitland-Niles who like Cedric played in a very\nadvanced position as a wing-back forced a full length save from Rogers after 69\nminutes. Willock turned superbly on 72 minutes but Nketiah \u2026.yes ..blazed over\nafter his pull-back. Nelson was wide after an enterprising run and the game wound\ndown with Arsenal comfortably in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final score Arsenal 3\nDundalk 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Arsenal currently top the\ngroup and face Molde next week in a clash which could secure qualification\nafter only three matches. There will inevitably be criticism including some on\nthis board that we perhaps did not record a more comprehensive victory. I\nthought the second half was encouraging as we increased the tempo and injected\npace and effective combination play against a team who played most of the\nsecond half camped in their own penalty area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had two debutants,\nRunarsson, who looks good with his feet but was largely unemployed and Folarin\nBalogun who replaced Nketiah but struggled (understandably) to adjust to the pace\nof the game. Hopefully this is a sign to him that he may be in Arteta\u2019s first-\nteam plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our standout players were\nNelson who not only justified his inclusion but staked a strong claim for a\nregular starting berth and Willock whose mobility in midfield made such a\nrefreshing change. Paired with Partey we may see an Arsenal side sustaining a\nhigh tempo and moving the ball much more effectively between the lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s game is daunting because\nwith Mike Dean in charge at Old Trafford we are at least one nil down before\nthe game starts. But many of our main players were able to be rested and let us\nhope this not only lifts morale in the dressing room but impresses on Arteta\nthe need for a quicker, slicker passing game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I dreaded the prospect of Thursday night football before it eventually arrived at the Grove. The level of the Europa League is substantially below the Champions League and the game with Dundalk illustrated this graphically. But the chance to refresh our line up and to play with less pressure meant that this was a game […]<\/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\/1674"}],"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=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}