{"id":2682,"date":"2021-04-04T10:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T09:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2682"},"modified":"2021-04-07T16:19:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T15:19:34","slug":"gunners-fail-the-3es-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2682","title":{"rendered":"Gunners Fail the 3Es Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Grandmother used to tell me, when I was a wee lad, that \u201cif you haven\u2019t got anything nice to say, then don\u2019t say anything at all\u201d. A fine sentiment Granny, but I fear you never had to write a match report after a 3-0 home defeat. Anyway, moving on, some of you may have noticed the lack of the customary image at the top of this report, it is entirely deliberate since I want no reminder of a game that I will, if Dennis is merciful, forget by this time next week. A picture paints a thousand words it\u2019s said \u2013 I promise yesterday was not a game worth anything like a thousand words. Speaking of mercy, I will also spare you a detailed account of the game with instead a brief summary \u2013 in the 1st<\/sup> half we were poor but didn\u2019t concede any goals, in the second half we were again poor and did concede some goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the benefits of writing a day after the game is that it allows time for some reflection and assessment of the team\u2019s performance. It was in that spirit that I decided to apply the famed 3Es Evaluation Framework* to The Arsenal\u2019s 90 minutes yesterday. As you no doubt know the 3Es are Effort, Effectiveness and Entertainment. Taking them in reverse order, I believe that I can award us an E for Entertainment as, with the possible exception of the first three minutes (I was laughing at the ref\u2019s ridiculous barnet), there was at no point anything entertaining whatsoever. Effectiveness next then, and again a well-deserved E is awarded. In Mikel\u2019s words \u201cwe gave every ball away, we could not put three passes together\u201d; couldn\u2019t have put it better myself Boss. I assume the plan was to let them come forward and punish them on the counter as we did (effectively) last season, but it is difficult to counter-attack when you don\u2019t have the ball. Finally we come to Effort, and the title of this piece, Gunners Fail the 3Es test, you may have your own opinion of course but I can only give us a D for Effort I\u2019m afraid. As evidence I would cite Laca, in particular, who put in a real chasing shift 1st<\/sup> half. Two Es (no, not that kind) and a D it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on from the players, let us get to the managers for yesterday. There was some criticism after the game and I have to agree there was indeed a very poor managerial decision, but, unfortunately for The Arsenal, Klippity corrected his slippity and brought Jota on around the hour mark. Soon enough he did for us and I suppose given the form he\u2019s in we were probably lucky he didn\u2019t start the game. Turning back to The Arsenal and Mikel, who said after the game \u2018 At the moment, I\u2019m in shock\u2019, well you and me both Mikel but at least it was Saturday evening for you and you could have the customary large medicinal brandy for shock, it was 6 in the bloody morning for me in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious!\u201d some of our astute readers may be thinking by now \u2013 well no actually, but to trot out another old saying \u2018laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone\u2019. If we would like serious, then I would have to say I don\u2019t think we learned anything new yesterday. When we play poorly teams like Liverpool will tonk us every time. When we don\u2019t pass well, players like Auba and Pepe will look completely ineffective. When we are timid we will get nothing. As it is, I see no point in lambasting all and sundry or any of the individuals who were particularly poor yesterday as there really is nothing that can be done right now other than remember that the same team has produced some very good performances this season. We must move on to the next game with the hope that those same players play like they understand the Europa League represents the one remaining chance of some redemption for this season. Hopefully, we will have ESR and Saka back for the next game, though the latest news is not positive on Luiz or KT unfortunately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is about it for this match review (I did promise less than a thousand words) and I hope you will join me in wishing I never have to write another in the same vein! To finish, let me wish you all a decent holiday weekend wherever you may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come ON<\/strong> You Gunners!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a lighter note, we can announce that our commemoration events for the 50th Anniversary of the 1970-71 Double will begin on Monday 3 May with a conversation between Bob Wilson and Pat Rice about the road to the title, exactly 50 years to the day from THAT night at the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My Grandmother used to tell me, when I was a wee lad, that \u201cif you haven\u2019t got anything nice to say, then don\u2019t say anything at all\u201d. A fine sentiment Granny, but I fear you never had to write a match report after a 3-0 home defeat. Anyway, moving on, some of you may have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/2682"}],"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=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}