{"id":1934,"date":"2020-12-09T20:05:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T20:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2020-12-10T20:35:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T20:35:52","slug":"fun-and-frolic-in-the-forgiving-irish-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1934","title":{"rendered":"Fun and Frolic in the Forgiving Irish Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was sure that in our long and cherished history Arsenal\nmust have played a competitive match or two on Irish soil, but I didn\u2019t remember\nwatching any since I had started to follow the red-and-white in the Ars\u00e8ne Wenger\nheydays. A quick walk-through in the Arsenal museum\u2019s European history section\nbrought me to a minor display \u2013 dust-covered and neglected in a corner \u2013 of a\ndouble-header against Glentoran of Northern Ireland in the Inter-Cities Fairs\nCup in 1969-70 season. We had won 3-0 at Highbury before losing 0-1 away at\nBelfast. But the gleaming showcase at the well-lit center of that section in\nthe museum tells me that we had won our first European trophy in that\nInter-Cities Fairs Cup. First of only two, and I can never shake off that\nfeeling that it is a record of singular underachievement for a club of\nArsenal\u2019s history and stature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as it happens with everything in life that we take for\ngranted, only after we have fallen off the high standards required to maintain\nour (now all the more so) enviably consistent record of Champions League\nparticipation, the entire fanbase now appreciates the value and significance of\nthat consistency and is now<\/em> reunited with the aspiration<\/em> of the\nreturn back to where we think we belong. Hope<\/em> is probably a more\nsuitable word than aspiration<\/em>. We are currently a Europa League team \u2013\nwith a few players on Champions League wages \u2013 and with a squad that has been\nbuilt with the strategic foresight of a Chekhovian aristocrat who after falling\ninto hard times mortgages his estate to pay for a gala reception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, however unsatisfying it might be, the Europa League has this enticing (and a little paradoxical) allure of providing an avenue to get out of its Thursday night clutches, and back into the comforts of Allianz Arena or Camp Nou on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Win me, this Europa whispers — even if you are a tame indistinguishable bull in the herd of your fellow league strugglers \u2013 and the Mount Olympus of Champions League football is yours to stroll onto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though decidedly tame have been our performances and results lately in the league since the memorable away win at Manchester United, in the Europa group stages we have won all of our first five matches and tomorrow gives us an opportunity to put on a sixth consecutive win — however inconsequential that might be in the context of our group as we have already topped the group B and Dundalk F.C. with zero points cannot progress to the next stage irrespective of results \u2013 to at least bring a sense of relative calm before the all-important six-pointer against fellow relegation strugglers Burnley in the weekend\u2019s PL fixture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dundalk F.C. may be a minnow in the context of European\nfootball but they are one of the most successful (and oldest) team in the Irish\ndomestic league, winning it 14 times, the last of which came in the 2018-19\nseason. They are also currently the highest-ranked Irish club in European\nfootball. And this is the second time they have qualified for the Europa league\ngroup stages after successfully navigating the qualifying rounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal players, irrespective of the starting line-up,\nshould be able to enjoy this game and play with some flair and verve that\nprovide entertainment to the Irish football fans attending the match, and also\nto us who in the wider Goonerverse who have been subjected to an array of\nlistless, drab performances in the league lately. Our Europa performances have\nhad a few joyful moments this season where the extra amount of space and time\nallowed by opposition players were exploited by the higher technical and\nphysical qualities of our players. We saw a few well-orchestrated moves,\nmoments of individual brilliance, and sumptuous strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday’s home match against Burnley will be in the forefront of Arteta\u2019s mind while choosing the starting line-up for this match. However, I don\u2019t think he will start more than one or two players who haven\u2019t yet started for Arsenal this season in any competition. Given the unfortunate recurrence of Partey\u2019s injury last Sunday, combined with Xhaka\u2019s alarmingly slow-paced performance, I think both Elneny and Dani should be in contention for the starting line-up for this Sunday\u2019s match. Neither Joe Willock nor Reiss Nelson (who wasn\u2019t even in the squad) had played a single minute in the loss last weekend \u2013 in my opinion, quite inexplicably as both could have brought some directness and impetus that were obviously lacking \u2013 so they too should be in contention at least for making significant contributions from the bench if not in the starting eleven. I think at least one of them will still start this match as Mikel will want to ensure that there is a sense of continuity in the technical quality of our Europa performances.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 still has one more match to sit out for his uncharacteristic red card against Leeds, he will start. I hope Ainsley is given a chance to continue to impress in his preferred central midfield role. Balogun will obviously get a chance at some stage in this game, if not starting in tandem with Eddie then replacing Nketiah in the second half. Given our well-known paucity of creative outlets in the midfield the home-grown talent of Emile Smith Rowe is an enticing prospect to be used in Premier League, even if sparingly, and Mikel may want to test his consistency over the span of a full match in this game. Callum Chambers played his first few minutes of professional football after a long recovery so he should continue that process again as a second half substitute, with five subs being allowed in European competition that option becomes much easier to implement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My predicted line-up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R\u00fanarsson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cedric \u2013 Mustafi \u2013 Mari \u2013 Kolasinac<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMN-Willock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9p\u00e9 \u2013 ESR \u2013 Reiss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the likes of Chambers, Balogun, Miguel Azeez, Ben\nCottrell coming in the second half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A win with a few goals and some entertaining football will\nbe most welcome. I am guessing another 4-1 victory. \n\n\n\n\n\nHappy viewing everyone!\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was sure that in our long and cherished history Arsenal must have played a competitive match or two on Irish soil, but I didn\u2019t remember watching any since I had started to follow the red-and-white in the Ars\u00e8ne Wenger heydays. A quick walk-through in the Arsenal museum\u2019s European history section brought me to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}