{"id":2182,"date":"2021-01-15T00:34:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T00:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2182"},"modified":"2021-01-17T16:11:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T16:11:25","slug":"one-point-when-we-needed-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2182","title":{"rendered":"One Point When We Needed Three"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Diver down (Photo by Alastair Grant \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With a chance to make it four Premier League wins on the bounce Mikel Arteta rang the changes from the Cup team that played last weekend: Bellerin came back into the team after he was rested against Newcastle, and the newly re-signed Holding replaced Pablo Mar\u00ed in central defence where he was partnered by Luiz.  Maitland-Niles tried to fill the boots of Tierney at left-back due to the Scot\u2019s \u201cmuscle soreness\u201d.  Xhaka came in for Elneny and was paired with Ceballos who replaced Willock in midfield.  Saka started on the right in place of Willian, and Smith Rowe resumed his Premier League starting role after scoring the game winner as a substitute at the weekend. Lacazette returned at centre forward as Pepe sat back down on the substitutes\u2019 bench where he has watched many games this season. We seemed to be playing a 4-2-3-1 formation like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Maitland-Niles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceballos, Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Smith Rowe,\nAubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal dominated possession in the opening stages, with Ceballos, Xhaka and Smith Rowe making nice contributions in midfield.  After four minutes Smith Rowe got into position on the right but centered too close to the keeper.  AMN sent in a poor cross from the left when he was in position to do better. Hector gave one away near the center circle but Lacazette made a sliding tackle to recover.  Palace countered and Townsend sent a speculative shot over the bar, and on 14 minutes Palace got a free kick near the Arsenal area but Eze shot over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal applied pressure and Bellerin\u2019s cross was deflected\nfor a corner.  Saka\u2019s effort was\ndeflected to Auba who put in a good long distance shot that was parried by Guiata\nwho flapped a second time before gathering. \nSaka put in a long-range left foot shot right at the keeper.  On 22 minutes a good sliding tackle by Xhaka\ndenied Zaha an excellent chance to score after he danced into the area on the\nleft side. McArthur disposessed AMN after Arsenal had strung together a number\nof tidy passes, leading to Benteke getting into position on the left to shoot\npast Holding but not past Leno.  Bellerin\ncrossed for Auba in a dangerous position, but his header was cleared.  Benteke skied a close-range chance after a\ncenter from the left as the half-hour loomed. \nXhaka fed Auba on the left after exchanging passes but it was sent out\nfor a corner.  Saka reached Luiz on the\nfar post but he headed straight at the keeper. \nMany of our attacks were coming from the right which is unusual but not\nsurprising considering that Tierney, our best attacking option, was not\navailable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 35 minutes Kouyate felled Saka near the corner flag with\na knee to the back of the thigh.  Saka sent\nthe free kick into a dangerous area but Tomkins headed it out for a throw.  Xhaka stepped on Zaha\u2019s foot near the corner\nof the area, conceding a free kick that was sent in right over Holding\u2019s head to\nTomkins who headed it onto the bar and the loose ball was gratefully cleared.  Palace attacked from the left and sent in an\naccurate cross for Benteke who headed the ball toward the top right corner but\nLeno made a good save.  With the clock at\n42:22 my TV froze for three minutes but luckily no goals were scored in that\ntime.  The halftime whistle came with the\nscore 0-0 but Arsenal had certainly tailed off in the later stages of the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half began with no substitutes made.  Bellerin\u2019s follow-up shot, after the Palace\nkeeper had parried away from Auba, skimmed past Guaita\u2019s right hand post.  Ceballos\u2019 ball for Saka was sent out for a\ncorner that was taken by Saka but Holding headed weakly and wide.  Luiz made a gallant run to the left and sent\nin a cross that was cleared, as did Saka from the right just after.  Xhaka lost the ball in midfield, Ceballos\nfailed on a tackle, and Benteke had another half-chance that Arsenal\u2019s defence\nmanaged to turn away.  Arsenal worked a\ngood chance for Lacazette who shot wide, but the flag was up anyway apparently\nas AMN had drifted offside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the cameras got an extended closeup of Zaha\u2019s neck tattoo,\nArsenal fans got a thrill as the next shot was of Partey warming up on the\ntouchline. Just as the hour mark had passed Maitland-Nilees made a nice move to\ncreate a shooting chance but his effort was straight at the keeper.  Arteta then replaced AMN with an extra\nattacker, Nicolas Pepe.  Xhaka conceded\nan interception on a dangerous ball but made a good recovery at the other end,\nbefore Luiz and Zaha had a midfield collision that led to the referee carding Zaha\nwhen it appeared Luiz may have deserved it more.  Xhaka did well to clear a cross by Zaha with\nBenteke waiting at the far post before Partey replaced Ceballos in the Arsenal\nmidfield on 69 minutes.  Benteke got into\nposition for a header from a right-wing cross that deflected into Leno\u2019s grateful\narms.  Smith Rowe crossed from the right\nbut his effort was deflected for a corner. \nSaka sent it in for Holding who made a better effort this time but sent\nit wide to the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace sent Ayew on for Benteke in search of the goal to\ngrab the three points, and Arsenal sent on Nketiah in place of Lacazette.  Saka\u2019s well measured ball helped Smith Rowe\nwin a corner on the left but in the next sequence the best Arsenal could do was\na blocked shot by ESR.  As Palace broke\nZaha appeared to be getting into the clear but Holding did well to keep him off\nbalance.  Nketiah won a free kick near\nthe Arsenal area giving Saka the chance to send in another left footer but it\nwas parried by Guaita and Pepe\u2019s follow up went well over the bar.  In stoppage time Partey won a free kick in\nmidfield leading to another chance for Saka to send in a free kick but it was\ndeflected.  Palace broke and Ayew had a\nchance to shoot but Bellerin put him off as time ran out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time – Arsenal 0 Crystal Palace 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A disjointed and drab game to be honest.  We really missed the attacking threat of\nTierney, but even though Arsenal defended decently they never came close to\nscoring.  Clutching at straws, it\u2019s a\npositive I suppose that we didn\u2019t make a mistake near the end, but\ndisappointing that we couldn\u2019t muster a more coherent scoring threat against a\nclub like Palace.  As Tierney faces an MRI scan, it certainly feels like Arsenal\ncould use some refreshment at the moment.
\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a chance to make it four Premier League wins on the bounce Mikel Arteta rang the changes from the Cup team that played last weekend: Bellerin came back into the team after he was rested against Newcastle, and the newly re-signed Holding replaced Pablo Mar\u00ed in central defence where he was partnered by Luiz.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"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\/2182"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2182"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2205,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}