{"id":2432,"date":"2021-02-25T02:18:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T02:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2021-02-26T10:36:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T10:36:38","slug":"home-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2432","title":{"rendered":"Home at last?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Steely Dan - Home at Last (Aja, September, 23, 1977)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cGMjGaiIxtY?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Keep that wax in your ears, boys&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Home, what is it that drives us home?  What drives us on <strong>at<\/strong> home?  And when home is away from home, how can we cope?  Putatively &#8220;at home&#8221; for Thursday evening&#8217;s tussle with a gritty S.L. Benfica side, we must make our Homerian trek across the sea to Athens&#8217; Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis.  Now, if we have to be away (but at home), it seems to be fitting it happens in this time of Covid.  Isn&#8217;t that how we&#8217;re all vacationing right now, in any case?  But will we find our hosts evincing <em>xenia<\/em>, fulfilling their moral obligation by supporting an Arsenal victory?  If so, we therefore must fulfill <strong>our<\/strong> obligation, and play football with a depth of beauty unseen in Athens since <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7E_8EjoxY7Q?t=3\">Griechenland FC<\/a> plied their trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We sail on this odyssey along the winds of a slim away-goals advantage, having ridden the tide of our young hero Saka&#8217;s second half equalizer.  It&#8217;s a narrow gap we hope to thread, between the Charybdian whirlpool of Benfica&#8217;s defense and the Scyllian monster of our own folly.  As a team again we must find our inner Odysseus, and remain tied to the mast to resist that Sirenian temptation to give up a goal; and yet we must retain enough strength to string our bow and score&#8230;for the prize is another step forward on our remaining path into Europe next season (which is greater than any other prize for our club, with apologies to Penelope).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Benfica come to &#8220;the home of Arsenal&#8221; with a full squad, carrying no injuries or suspensions they didn&#8217;t bring with them to their home away from home in Rome.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2392\">BT8&#8217;s excellent preview<\/a> of the game last week is available for who they have and who play where.  As we saw in Rome they are a relatively strong defensive side, capable of playing us offside or clearing our forays over the top.  However, their lack of offensive production was highlighted by the penalty they scored against us.  If we can avoid such errors our defense should be enough to keep them from the Thrinacia of our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Capitola Rob missing the game due to &#8220;the concussion Jon Moss didn&#8217;t see&#8221;, our options in central defense are less replete; our midfield options might be augmented by the return to the Partey of Thomas, but it would take Tiresias himself to say if the Partey will start before the lineups are announced.  Given the rest of our squad is running a bit ragged, or on the ragged edge, I expect our helmsman to crew his galley as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Bellerin &#8212; Luiz &#8212; Gabriel &#8212; Cedric<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Xhaka &#8212; Ceballos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8212; \u00d8degaard &#8212; P\u00e9p\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Lacazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lacazette is due to start, and after Auba&#8217;s tired-looking game against the $heiks this past Monday I think he should watch from the bench as his friend leads the line.  ESR is due for a rest, and given the intensity \u00d8degaard is used to (NOT that presented by the selfsame $heiks) this seems to be a game tailor-made for him to fill the central creative role.  I could see Martinelli on the left rather than P\u00e9p\u00e9; the latter&#8217;s nondescript game against the Oilers might force the former to be on the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holics Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we&#8217;re doing a &#8220;purdie&#8221; shuffle off to Athens, and the travel comes on the heels of a game every three or so days in the last couple weeks, I hesitate to think that Phaeacian riches will be our reward, regardless of the scoreline.  An old-fashioned 1-0 to the Arsenal will be just fine, and that can be found for 7s; a 3-0 win is on for 14\/1, but the good money again might be at 4-0, which would double that return.  Put a fiver on the latter and you can buy many a bottle of smooth retsina&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home, what is it that drives us home? What drives us on at home? And when home is away from home, how can we cope? Putatively &#8220;at home&#8221; for Thursday evening&#8217;s tussle with a gritty S.L. Benfica side, we must make our Homerian trek across the sea to Athens&#8217; Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis. Now, if we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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\/2432"}],"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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2432"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions\/2443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}