{"id":2459,"date":"2021-02-27T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T18:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2021-02-28T15:09:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T15:09:51","slug":"fortune-favors-the-brave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2459","title":{"rendered":"Fortune favors the brave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Given the unanimous popularity of the somewhat tangential Valentine musings in the Leeds match report, I thought it is all the more desirable to start this preview with reminiscing about another Valentine\u2019s day victory, in 2016, this time maybe with a higher degree of relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Welbeck, playing his first match since April 2015, came on as a substitute for Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 83rd<\/sup> minute with the game evenly poised at 1-1. As the table stood, Leicester was leading with 54 points, some other London team was second at 51 points and we were at 49 points with only 12 games left to play in the league. Leicester had earlier gone ahead with a Vardy penalty but lost a player to a red card, Schmeichel pulling out a string of extraordinary saves to keep us at bay until Giroud brilliantly headed down a Bellerin free-kick for Theo to equalize.  Then came the 95th<\/sup> minute, possibly the last kick of the ball as we got a free-kick in our right side of the Leicester half. Mesut \u00d6zil, pulling strings all match as he used to do in those days, sent in a wonderful dipping cross in the box for Danny to jump up and head firmly down into the goal past Schmeichel\u2019s desperate dive. And then he ran ecstatically into the corner to be mobbed by the supporters and his teammates. It was a moment of such pure euphoria and celebration that remains in the footballing memory forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I myself had thought that after that match we would win the league that season. We had a relatively clean bill of health \u2013 though the captain himself, one Mikel Arteta, was unfortunately spending much of his last season with us plagued by injuries, and I think in this match we also lost Koscielny to injury \u2013 with Alexis and \u00d6zil ably supported by Ramsey, Giroud, Theo and now Danny I had felt we could now go on a run now and build on our successes in the previous two seasons FA Cups that finally had ended the much discussed \u201ctrophy drought\u201d for Ars\u00e8ne. At the end of this match we were only two points behind Leicester, on the same number of points with the neighbors \u2013 who, frankly speaking, we all knew would start to implode soon as they dutifully did \u2013 and with 12 matches to go. From that position we continued to lose ground to the Foxes as they ended the season on 81 points, 10 more than Arsenal who finished second. I still feel we had underachieved that season and given our pedigree and overall quality in the squad and given that all of City\/United\/Chelsea were in transitions we missed out. We were the only team in that season to have beaten the champions both home and away, and for much of the season we had played some wonderful football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that league win Leicester have remained a force to reckon with in the premier league though they haven\u2019t won any other trophies after that. And their European adventures have all suffered unceremonious ends. Including this season\u2019s Europa league round of 32 where Czech football\u2019s second best team \u2013 historically speaking, behind the much more successful Sparta Praga, the old stomping ground of one of my favorite Arsenal players ever, super Tom\u00e1\u0161 Rosick\u00fd \u2013 Slavia Praga dumped them out 2-0 at their home of King Power stadium last Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the Czech, we ourselves too of course came very close to suffer an ignominious exit last Thursday in a style of such absurd follies that easily brings to mind the comic ineptitudes of people populating the literary universe of Jaroslav Ha\u0161ek. And let us be honest, this is also a style we have not only trademarked in recent years but worked tirelessly on it to improve upon its sheer unpredictable brilliance. Over the two legs we won against a competent but very limited Benfica team 4-3 where we scored four sumptuous goals and conceded from a questionable penalty, a free-kick at the end of the penalty box given away due to a tired looking challenge, and an absolute howler of a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now back in the premier league, we really cannot afford to give away such chances against Leicester — our opponents for the Sunday lunchtime clash \u2013 who have been remarkably efficient in their football this league season and currently stand as the runners-up to the by now runaway league leaders Manchester City. In this strangest of seasons Manchester City have made their squad depth — with two world class players almost in every position \u2013 count, and Leicester, despite not possessing that sort of quality across the entire team, have maintained a high degree of consistency by playing a brand of efficient football effectively. Defensively compact and well organized by their veteran goalkeeper, their attacking efficiency comes from the complementary qualities of Maddison, Barnes and Vardy, Vardy continuing to successfully deploy all the tricks of his trade, even the ones that one would have thought by now VAR should have been able to root out of English football. However, the highly talented and skillful Maddison remains the creative heartbeat of that team and I have no problem accepting my hope that the injury that kept him out of the Europa league match keeps him sidelined for our game too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing back on us, I think we do have the right players now and have arrived at a certain degree of dynamism in our creative attempts to give Leicester defense a real test. We had already met them twice this season, winning away 2-0 at the Carabao Cup in late September, and then losing 1-0 at home in League in that string of wretched results where we were not creating enough chances, not taking the few that were coming our way, and not being defensively solid enough (though much better compared to the shapeless glob that Mikel inherited) to not present the occasional chances to the opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our attacking play since then has improved significantly, with the two Hale End graduates Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe being the driving force behind that transformation. Their energy, quality and desire have inspired in their teammates a sense of urgency and purposefulness that saw us starting to play better, create more chances, and recently our talismanic captain returning back from a prolonged slump — much of which was, as we learn, due to personal circumstances that everyone can sympathize for \u2013 to start scoring again, getting goals now has started to be less problematic. Aubameyang now has 13 goals from his 26 appearances this season and let us hope he is planning on catching up quickly to keep up with his own prolific numbers in Arsenal colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that there is a one-week rest before the next match, given Auba\u2019s renewed confidence after the heroics at \u201chome away from home\u201d Athens, I think Arteta will start him on the weekend. The temptation to start Saka will be very high indeed given the quality of his performances even when he is visibly not physically at his best, but I feel that he looked sluggish on Thursday and yes even though that didn\u2019t stop him from making such match winning contributions, giving him a breather will serve us better in the rest of the season. I would like to see Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 \u2013 who had finally started to put together a few consistent performances on both ends of the pitch, and not rely only on unpredictable moments of brilliance \u2013 given a chance to express his frustrations at being left out in a constructive manner on the pitch. Lacazette too hasn\u2019t been playing much lately and he had combined well with Aubameyang and P\u00e9p\u00e9 at the tail end of the last season and that front three \u2013 though missing the superlative quality of Saka on the ball \u2013 have a good combination of qualities and mutual understanding to trouble defenses, especially when ably supported from an attacking midfield position. ESR has lately been asked to play on the wings following the arrival of \u00d8degaard. He has played well enough on the flanks, but I think he is at his best centrally as he can then use his superb positional awareness and the mastery of the half-spaces to great effect. Martin may also feel the physical intensity of Leicester\u2019s game a little hard to handle coming immediately after his string of energetic performances in the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xhaka had reverted back to his ponderous worst in the Benfica match, he might be well served with a rest too, and Dani should be given some chance to cool down after a few nightmarish moments on Thursday. The Partey-Elneny combination complemented each other very effectively in our away win at Manchester United and their fresh legs will help as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cedric should definitely start ahead of Bellerin who too looked jaded on Thursday. I don\u2019t think Bellerin has been as bad as some have portrayed him to be, but he has not really fulfilled his promise of the earlier years. There has been matches where he has played well enough, but he hasn\u2019t really put in a Bacary Sagna-like consistent run of performances on both ends of the pitch. I was originally very skeptical about Cedric\u2019s role in the team but in the recent past given a chance on the right fullback position he played well enough, and has a very good cross from the right. His more typical right back playing style too combines better with P\u00e9p\u00e9 compared with Hector; the latter pair has yet to find a good tactical understanding, both preferring to attack the box more than go on the outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding remains in post-concussion recovery \u2013 and thankfully nothing more alarming following his head injury \u2013 and I myself worry about a temperamental Luiz against Vardy and his little sneaky ways. I like the composure and calmness of Mari but can he and Gabriel make it work both being primary left-footed? Gabriel too had an unusually off day against Benfica and maybe having a seasoned cool head in Mari next to him would protect Luiz from his own maverick temptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hard to predict Mikel\u2019s starting eleven \u2013 except for the fact that we will see Willian at some point of time etc. etc. :–) —  but this would be my preferred line-up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cedric \u2013 Luiz \u2013 Mari \u2013 Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey \u2013 Elneny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

However, I won\u2019t be surprised if Arteta sends this team out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cedric \u2013 Luiz \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey \u2013 Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka \u2013 ESR \u2013 Willian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we will score at least a couple of goals but won\u2019t keep a clean sheet either. So, a 2-1 win for the mighty Arsenal with Aubameyang riding the crest of his goalscoring waves with another double. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on Arsenal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the unanimous popularity of the somewhat tangential Valentine musings in the Leeds match report, I thought it is all the more desirable to start this preview with reminiscing about another Valentine\u2019s day victory, in 2016, this time maybe with a higher degree of relevance. Danny Welbeck, playing his first match since April 2015, came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"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\/2459"}],"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=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}