{"id":3848,"date":"2021-08-26T08:06:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T07:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3848"},"modified":"2021-08-27T12:20:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T11:20:36","slug":"baggies-slaughtered-at-the-highest-ground-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3848","title":{"rendered":"Baggies slaughtered at the highest ground in England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1336397423\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:78.95623% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1336397423?et=Ewgj_FOKR6VwolTGsh8fWA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=t2nX2VLq1GMNXSG1jtT2KI0E-ffDPunvFOnEhGQXgUQ=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"469\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Carabao Cup in August?  Surely some mistake!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kolasinac back from the Balkans or thereabouts, Elneny and Xhaka in midfield.  As Steve T commented&nbsp;poignantly pre-match \u2018Xhaka and Elneny &#8212; how is that actually a thing?\u2018  We played a West Brom side who made eleven changes from their last game, with five debutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We began with a back five morphing into a four, sort of &#8212; it was a flexible arrangement &#8212; and Castro went through \u00d8degaard in the first minute.  It was a frantic Cup tie from the off.  Chambers missed a great chance to put in Saka and then compounded the error with an awful backpass to Ramsdale which had hospital pass written all over it.  Ramsdale then almost had a clearance charged down.  Welcome to Arsenal, Aaron!  He then made a fine low save in the eleventh minute.  Arsenal then nearly conceded from the resulting corner but on seventeen minutes Aubameyang forced the ball in from close range after the debutant Baggies goalie had spilled Saka\u2019s low shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 1 &#8211; Aubameyang 17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were getting joy with balls out wide to P\u00e9p\u00e9, and then almost doubled our lead when \u00d8degaard hit the post from a narrow angle after Tavares had a shot deflected.  After a decent spell of possession, in which Elneny was conspicuous, Holding was booked for a rash challenge on Zohore on a West Brom break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was noticeable how Countryman was leading the Arsenal fans in song.  A sizeable contingent had made their way into the Midlands fuelled by curry and lager.  I\u2019m certain their mood was ultra-positive as away fans are usually the most loyal and positive part of the fanbase.  They watched as Aubameyang caught&nbsp;the West Brom line napping and saw their keeper just foil him, albeit flattening his defender in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kolasinac joined Holding in the book with an ill-timed challenge in a dangerous position.  The free-kick came to naught but Arsenal had not yet&nbsp; made their clear superiority and extra experience count.  Arsenal were enjoying over 70% possession and Tavares was catching the eye with dangerous forward runs but it was Saka who always looked most likely to create danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Closing on halftime Elneny found P\u00e9p\u00e9 with a delightful ball.  The Ivorian was calm but hit the post from a great position; Aubameyang slotted home the rebound showing the speed and anticipation that is his hallmark but which seemed to be absent for much of last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 2 &#8211; Aubameyang 43<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of minutes later Saka sent Aubameyang through beautifully and though his shot was blocked his overhead kick from the rebound fell to P\u00e9p\u00e9 who slid the ball&nbsp;home, his sixth goal in six games.  Interesting that all three goals so far were tap-ins, a situation that we have not seen for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 3 &#8211; P\u00e9p\u00e9 45<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our football on the break was smooth and incisive and the danger was compounded by the naivety of the Baggies defence, whose high line was suicidal.  The half ended with Arsenal on top and hopefully taking confidence from a satisfactory first forty-five minutes.  The intelligence of Aubameyang\u2019s movement, Saka\u2019s ability to find holes in the West Brom defence and \u00d8degaard\u2019s and Ramsdale\u2019s encouraging starts were pleasing.  Tavares looks excellent but needs to get longer studs as he was continually slipping over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Half-time West Brom 0 Arsenal 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the margin the rather dense Kevin Campbell was far from pleased, but I regard him as one of the increasing ranks of less than impressive ex- pros whose opinions attract more interest than they deserve to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal began the second half&nbsp;with a raft of pass and move football and decorated it with a delightful&nbsp;early goal by Saka with \u00d8degaard and Aubameyang showing quality and craft to set him free in the area to curl the ball home<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 4 &#8211; Saka 48<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramsdale had largely been a spectator after his early save but he blocked a fierce header from Zohore and then parried a low shot at the near post. From the resulting corner he took a cross in fine style but landed heavily, resuming thankfully&nbsp;after treatment.  Another good break saw Saka in acres of space but his cross was blocked.  \u00d8degaard\u2019s confidence and class were increasing as the half wore on but he was&nbsp;replaced on the hour by Ainsley Maitland-Niles returning to the&nbsp;club where he played on loan last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 63 minutes Aubameyang completed his third hat-trick in Arsenal colours with a superb trademark curling shot after being neatly found by P\u00e9p\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 5 &#8211; Aubameyang 62<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lacazette came on for Xhaka after the goal and immediately found P\u00e9p\u00e9 with a great pass through the defence.  His impudent chip hit the crossbar. One was tempted to claim it was men against boys but the Arsenal side had a very low average age itself.  Lacazette announced himself with a crisp near post finish from a fine P\u00e9p\u00e9 cutback to make it six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>West Brom 0 Arsenal 6 &#8211; Lacazette 69<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramsdale then made another fine save at his near post as West Brom hit back.  Tavares was catching the eye with his bursts down the left wing &#8212; Kieran who? &#8212; and had a decent shout for a penalty after being bundled off the ball before firing a right foot shot wide.  His ability to use his right foot was notable and suggests we may have another&nbsp;real option as a right back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aubameyang was replaced by Martinelli on 75 after a reassuring performance in which he looked close to his sharpest.  Lacazette was also influencing the game from&nbsp; a deeper central midfield role.  At this point Mrs TTG was not amused when I pointed out that our TV was clearly broken as it was showing Arsenal winning 6-0!  No sense of humour, women &#8212; \u2018 I thought you called me in to discuss something important\u2018 was her riposte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Brom tonight were possibly the biggest football side I\u2019ve ever seen. They looked slightly muscle bound but raw and naive in the extreme and it was hard to work out how impressive this Arsenal performance was.  I\u2019m regularly told how big the gap is between Premier League and Championship.  When you extend that to the second strings the disparity is even more obvious.  The most worrying sight of the night was Bukayo Saka felled by a careless challenge from another West Brom gormless&nbsp;giant.  He resumed after treatment.  A fine night ended with another piece of good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Full time &#8211; West Brom 0 Arsenal 6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tomorrow\u2019s opinions will be split between those who believe this was a breakthrough performance and those who think Arsenal are flat-track bullies putting a fairly useless West Brom U23 side to the sword.  In reality the City match will tell us much more about our potential this season, but we need a full and fit side on the pitch before we can really measure what is possible.  There were lots of positives &#8212; Ramsdale started with a clean sheet and has a notable presence I don\u2019t think Leno has, Tavares is an interesting attacking wing-back, and it was good to see \u00d8degaard settling into the team so intelligently.  Saka looked superb and Lacazette was very impressive in a deeper role.  MOTM had to be Auba and he looked to have rekindled the spark that makes him such a fine striker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Countryman\u2019s on-the-spot reflections will be interesting and an insight into how the travelling fans reacted to the first good night of the season.  May there be many more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images The Carabao Cup in August? Surely some mistake! Kolasinac back from the Balkans or thereabouts, Elneny and Xhaka in midfield. As Steve T commented&nbsp;poignantly pre-match \u2018Xhaka and Elneny &#8212; how is that actually a thing?\u2018 We played a West Brom side who made eleven changes from their last game, with five [&hellip;]<\/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\/3848"}],"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=3848"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3881,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions\/3881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}