{"id":1730,"date":"2020-11-04T15:17:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2020-11-06T12:02:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T12:02:54","slug":"the-arsenal-vs-the-norsemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1730","title":{"rendered":"The Arsenal vs. The Norsemen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Vikings are coming. A shout to strike fear into the hearts of some of the older denizens of this bar, however, fortunately, rampaging Vikings have not posed a threat for several centuries now and were after all among my forebears so I will malign them no more. The current bunch are a far more peaceable lot, known these days more for Nobel prizes, mice-made fjords, the finest salmon in the world, and their very own pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance, the invention of the paper-clip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molde itself is a small town on the west coast of Norway with a football team that has been relatively successful over the last few decades despite being subject to a double helping of Ole\u2019s hobbitine leadership. Molde\u2019s best-known  son in the wider world is probably Jo Nesbo, an ex-Molde FK player and a writer of fairly stylish, if a tad repetitive, Scandinavian noir, who has sold a ton of books to those that enjoy that type of thing, which I do myself \u2013 for the main character think Rebus a bit farther north \u2013 though I may have to rethink any future purchases now that I have learned Nesbo\u2019s dream was to play for the spuds. Never mind, those that think small are people too. Of course, Molde FK\u2019s best-known son in the Goonerverse is Pal Lydersen, once, somewhat murkily perhaps, of this parish. Pal finished his career at Molde FK after a stint in Austria, annoyingly un-coincidentally with Sturm Graz and not Rapid Vienna but there you go – into each life a little rain must fall as my Dad used to say. Of course an actual coincidence is we just stuffed a team managed by Molde\u2019s ex-manager.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Bit About Football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, to the match, and Molde FK arrive sharing leadership atop our group after victories at home to Rapid Vienna and away to Dundalk. They sit 2nd<\/sup> in the Norwegian league 23 games into the season and have won their last four games. They have set up in a 4-3-3 formation in their two Europa League ties so far though they have also used other formations in the Norwegian league this season. That I am afraid is about the limit of my knowledge on Molde though I believe it is probably fair to assume they are around the same level as Rapid Vienna. In other words, we should treat them with respect but it is a game that we should win. I would say a win would go a long way to ensuring qualification from the group but actually qualification was pretty much assured from a very easy group once we won in Vienna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team News & Line-up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Arsenal then, fresh from our fully deserved 3 points at Old Toilet there appear to be no new injuries for Mikel to consider. On the return front it appears that David Luiz will be available but though Calum Chambers is now training again it is likely to be soon for his comeback.\u3000ESR has not featured in any U23 games of late, which leaves me to surmise that he will be short for this one too. Pablo Mari is back in light training though his comeback has again been delayed and Martinelli\u2019s return is still scheduled for the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not an easy game physically last weekend and I trust MA will continue his policy of resting most if not all of his expected starting XI for this weekend\u2019s visit of Aston Villa.  If so, the team seems to pick itself and I am fairly sure we will see Runarsson, Soares, Kola, Mustafi, Joe W., Dani, Xhaka, AMN, Nelson, Eddie and Pepe in the starting line-up. Happily, that only leaves one place for me to ponder and I believe MA will start Luiz if fit. The other options seems to be another start for Rob with the obvious risks that entails or the possibility of some tinkering with Granit slotting into a back three with Mus and Kola. I am all for adventure but personally that back three is not the type of wild camel ride down the foamy rapids I would have in mind. Therefore, I will go with the below XI and hope that Luiz\u2019 powers of recovery remain undimmed by the fading of the football light. Go not gingerly, David. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                           Runarsson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                         Mus, Luiz, Kola<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Soares, Dani, Xhaka, AMN,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Pepe, Eddie, Nelson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of hoping the often admirable David Luiz will bring stability to your back line is not lost on me but he is capable of the odd goal and some excellent passing which may come in handy on the night as the starting XI above though certainly solid does not in all honesty look like an XI with an avalanche of goals in it. In the circumstances I think a conservative 3-0 to the Arsenal is the way to go for a punt this time round at odds of around 9 or 10\/1. If we do go with Mus, Xhaka, Kola then a 3-1 at 11\/1 would start to look a little more attractive. Mostly I would like us to get through with a minimum of fuss, no injuries and a cheery wave for Molde FK as they set off home in the club longboat with a hearty so long and thanks for all the points ringing in their ears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s about it for now other than to say that any historical or factual inaccuracies in today\u2019s piece are all my own responsibility and were entirely intentional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COYGS!!! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vikings are coming. A shout to strike fear into the hearts of some of the older denizens of this bar, however, fortunately, rampaging Vikings have not posed a threat for several centuries now and were after all among my forebears so I will malign them no more. The current bunch are a far more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/1730"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}