{"id":1983,"date":"2020-12-15T17:42:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T17:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1983"},"modified":"2020-12-17T19:56:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T19:56:03","slug":"lets-send-the-saints-marching-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1983","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Send The Saints Marching Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well,\nI\u2019m back, a little older and a little wiser than a few days ago\nwhen I happily predicted a 4-0 win over Burnley. However, I am afraid\nthat anyone expecting criticism of the manager, players, my fellow\nsupporters or anyone else involved with The Arsenal just now is in\nthe wrong place. It is not a time, to my way of thinking, to be\nblaming all and sundry for our current problems. It must be faced\nthat we are having a bad time and a long old season seems likely.\nIt\u2019s happened before for those of you with memories of the mid 70s\nwhen we scraped by for a couple of seasons with a very ropey side. A\nside much worse than this one in all honesty and even then we weren\u2019t\nrelegated. I do not buy into the relegation battle panic, didn\u2019t\nlast season and don\u2019t now. We are having a bad run so I will suck\nit up and continue to support the club and the manager and players\nwho a few short months ago delivered the FA Cup to our mantelpiece. I\ndo understand that times have changed and that the pressure for\ninstant results is much greater now than when it took George Graham a\ncouple of seasons to whip us into better shape in the mid 80s\n(probably literally in GG\u2019s case as he wasn\u2019t known for his warm\nfuzzies) but I see no reason to bend my views to a modern demand for\ninstant success and relinquish the values I hold as a supporter to\nshrill cries of off with his head. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nare not Chelsea or Spu#s (though Bertie, Don and Bruce might\ndisagree).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, of course I respect the right of my fellow supporters to exercise their Dennis given right to express their own opinions as forthrightly as they wish, whilst observing The Guvnor\u2019s Rules in this establishment, and to those of you that think we face a relegation battle or should change our manager then I would just politely agree to differ. I certainly hope that the Arsenal board will hold steady and remember that Twitter and its noisy friends are as William Shakespeare might say full of sound and fury that signify nothing. Or in other words, it\u2019s just noise Stan, stick with the plan. It must also I suppose be admitted that I couldn\u2019t give a toss about the media or public opinion and it is far easier for me to simply ignore it. Anyway, that is my view and obviously I hope I am right and that we will turn things round starting with this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A s prep for this article I watched the game against Burnley again in the colder light of day as well as our game against Southampton back in June when we won 2-0 with goals from Eddie and Joe W. In all honesty I saw no lack of fight or spirit in either game and the performances were actually fairly similar, though Southampton were certainly not as rubbish as Burnley, and if anything we were actually more passive and less creative against Southampton. The similarity was not unexpected of course as our XI was pretty much the same faces. To sum up, we were not world-beaters when we won and we are not suddenly completely useless cowards who don\u2019t care about the club now that we are losing. What I did see against Burnley was a lack of confidence and composure in front of goal, as we really should have scored two or three and that remains the biggest problem we are facing now, just as it was before the Burnley game. How we overcome that problem \u2013 or not – against Southampton will again basically decide the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nArsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis not the easiest task to choose an XI tonight, MA will have a far\nbetter idea than me who has the stomach for a fight when the going\ngets tough but there will be at least two forced changes as Hector is\nnow suspended for his booking along obviously with Xhaka for his\nindiscipline. Fortunately, Elneny escaped his own indiscipline (an\nodd decision that only looked odder on second watching) and will I\nsuppose, with Dani, take a place in the centre of midfield tonight,\nalthough personally I would prefer to have AMN in there just now or\nif he was ready Calum. I believe Luiz is still unavailable, though I\nwould play him if he was fit, and it may be too early for Mari,\nMartinelli or indeed Calum. Therefore, given the limited options\navailable, I think the XI Mikel will pick is\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soares Holding Gabriel Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani Elneny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe Laca Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auba <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though\nWillian may start again and Saka may be rested after a difficult few\ngames where luck has not been with him. As I said earlier it is not\nthe side I would pick as I believe it is time to find out if Eddie\ncan step up and also I would like to see Balogun on the bench to at\nleast give us an option if Laca\/Auba and Saka are not able to end\ntheir own droughts in front of goal. I am also doubtful about the\nright side of the defence with Rob and Cedric but the options of Mus\nor AMN don\u2019t I believe offer us any greater defensive solidity.\nMostly, I am simply curious to see which way MA will go for this\ngame. Perhaps he will surprise us and throw ESR in at the deep end. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOpposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nhave all seen The Arsenal play Southampton several times over the\nlast few years. They have a reasonable defence, a workmanlike\nmidfield and Redmond, Ings, Che Adams and Feo in attack. Plus,\nWard-Prowse from set-pieces. There are no surprises there and with\nSouthampton in good form we will have to be careful not to\nover-commit in our desperation to score. They have beaten Sheff Utd\nand Brighton recently, lost to Man U and drawn with Wolves. So, seven\npoints from twelve in their last four. Luxury. However, apart from\nshowing them a certain degree of professional respect we also need to\nkeep in mind they are not suddenly world-beaters either, or a far\nbetter side than us or any other such defeatist nonsense \u2013 they are\naverage and that\u2019s it. They also have a bad record away at The\nArsenal \u2013 4 wins in 45 trips (I know, I know, so did Burnley). If\nwe approach the game in the same way as in June then I see no reason\nwe cannot get the win. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

If\nwe can avoid giving the other side a man advantage or nodding the\nball into our own net then I think I will go with a tense and nervy\n2-1 victory tonight at 19\/2. Why bookies can\u2019t just give 10s I\ndon\u2019t know but perhaps this isn\u2019t the place for that digression.\nI know two seems an awful lot of goals just now but I would say, in\nanother dazzling display of statistical mastery, that we have scored\nagainst Southampton the last 8 times we have played them in the PL.\nMeans nothing of course tonight but unless you believe we won\u2019t\nscore again this season then we must get one sooner or later!\nPerhaps, Santa will drop by a little early with a helping hand \u2013\nthough dressed in red, good in the air, and with a penchant for\ndelivering presents he may find himself leading our attack if he\nhangs around too long. Regardless, we will see, though only on\ntelevision sadly, as once again the faithful must (not unreasonably)\nstay away. A mixed blessing some may argue but personally I\u2019d go in\na heartbeat if I wasn\u2019t 6,000 miles away!! The best of luck as\nalways to us all tonight and COYGS!!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I\u2019m back, a little older and a little wiser than a few days ago when I happily predicted a 4-0 win over Burnley. However, I am afraid that anyone expecting criticism of the manager, players, my fellow supporters or anyone else involved with The Arsenal just now is in the wrong place. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/1983"}],"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=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1989,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}