{"id":231,"date":"2020-01-11T18:24:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T18:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adobrzanski.ddns.net\/goonerholics\/?p=135"},"modified":"2020-01-11T18:24:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T18:24:39","slug":"arsenal-life-through-a-letterbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"(Arsenal) Life through a letterbox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Every picture tells a story and the photo above explains quite a bit about this match report. This was my view from the Arthur Wait Stand which might explain a number of things about today\u2019s game. I spent the entire match standing to see anything and had I been able to sit down I would have had a better view of some of the key moments including Aubameyang\u2019s red card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I toasted the Guvna\u2019s birthday while spending a very pleasant hour with an old friend and his son and a couple of other friends before the match discussing prospects for the match. It would be fair to say Palace fans are not hugely enamoured with the excitement generated by Woy Hodgson\u2019s football and they predicted that Palace would start slowly and not press us high up the pitch. I took this with a pinch of salt but I did empathise with their frustration at the failure to provide a better stadium than Selhurst Park given the significant transfer profits they have made and the revenues generated by several seasons of Premier League football. The ground to be honest is old, outmoded, uncomfortable and not fit to stage Premier League football in 2020. I\u2019m not a great lover of every aspect of modern stadia but at least you can see a lot more than I saw today .But Selhurst is in many ways a throwback to the sixties and seventies with the strains of \u2018 Glad All Over\u2019 ringing out and majorettes greeting the teams as they made their way onto the field while a majestic and fierce-looking eagle flies from end to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very fond of Palace, they were my local club as a boy and if we can\u2019t win a trophy I\u2019d be delighted if they did . I didn\u2019t believe for a second they wouldn\u2019t press us or hassle us but amazingly they let us completely dominate the first part of the match. We were unchanged from the United game and whilst our midfield isn\u2019t the most mobile ( nothing with Xhaka in it could be described as mobile) we were massively on top and scored after ten minutes after a slick move between Ozil ( newly recreated by Arteta as an inside right- remember them? ), Lacazette and Aubameyang. Palace eventually, inevitably rallied after an incredibly one- sided half-hour and I was already getting concerned that we had only one goal to show for our superiority but we made it to half-time with Palace showing little \u200bthreat other than the combative Ayew. Zaha seemed glued to the left touchline and we seemed as solid as this Arsenal defence can seem away from home on a cold January afternoon. Losing Torreira at half-time for Guendouzi was a disappointment. I so wished we had lost the static and slow Xhaka. The game was immediately more frenetic, Palace raised their energy levels and we had Xhaka , Ozil and Pepe on the pitch, a couple of luxury players too many for the sort of assignment this rapidly became.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace equalised through Ayew about ten minutes into the half, his shot taking a deflection off Luiz and leaving Leno stranded and I feared that we would become overwhelmed by Palace driven forward by McArthur, De Riedewald and Ayew. Luiz was solid and almost commanding at the back, a player reborn under the new manager , Guendouzi worked hard and was fitfully effective in getting us forward and then on 67 minutes over on the other touchline, bleeding miles from us, Aubameyang caught Meyer late on halfway and knowing our luck with VAR especially against this mob, I feared the worst and was not surprised to see a red card brandished towards Auba after an eternity. The replays I saw and presumably the fact that you could have cooked a decent omelette whilst Stockley Park were deliberating , suggested it was a rash and dangerous challenge, especially as Meyer was taken off to be replaced by a Tosun (careful how you read that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta brought on Martinelli for Ozil, an attacking move in the circumstances. I would have withdrawn Pepe who was having little effect but Lacazette appeared to be limping . Ultimately he was replaced by Nelson which suggested to me that either Arteta felt Arsenal could still win it or he really doesn\u2019t rate Joe Willock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were two close shaves towards the end. Tomkins having a looping header for them scrambled away at the far post and then Pepe driving a shot firmly against the right-hand post and then seeing the Palace keeper make a brave, instinctive block from point-blank range to deny Lacazette from the rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does a point away to Palace with ten men for half of the second period represent progress? Certainly the team showed some spirit and decent defensive resilience and it is a game that we would have managed far less professionally were Emery still in charge but I have an inescapable feeling that our relative conservatism after\u200btaking the lead in the first half cost us victory. Palace were there for the taking in the first half of that first period but we let them back into the game or possibly were unable to resist their strength and determination. Whatever the case we need more dominant and mobile midfield players than Xhaka for a task like this and starting Martinelli with his pace and enthusiasm might have been a better choice than using Pepe. Nevertheless we are unbeaten away from home under Arteta or as the BBC put it \u2018 Arteta has still failed to win away from home after taking over on December 20th\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One final word- the referee didn\u2019t have a great game. VAR makes officials too conservative and our foul count will rise as Arteta gets us to foul rotationally especially in midfield. There are far too many free-kicks and bookings in modern football and today, a decently fought local derby against a physical team was a case in point . Onwards to Sheffield United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every picture tells a story and the photo above explains quite a bit about this match report. This was my view from the Arthur Wait Stand which might explain a number of things about today\u2019s game. I spent the entire match standing to see anything and had I been able to sit down I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"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=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}