{"id":3888,"date":"2021-08-29T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T14:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2021-09-04T09:18:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:18:11","slug":"pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3888","title":{"rendered":"Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Well, that was about as much fun as a visit to the dentist at which you are strapped into the chair and forcibly given root canal treatment un-anaesthetised while having to listen to a soundtrack of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, we started pretty well.  You there at the back \u2013 stop laughing\u2026  We pressed reasonably high and played positively. We were forcing City back and into making uncharacteristic errors while they tried to play out.    It didn\u2019t generate any efforts on goal but was nonetheless encouraging. Until the 7th<\/sup> minute (!). A hopeful and not very good ball was hoisted forward by Gundogan into the left-hand edge of the Arsenal box.  Despite being favourite to get there first and then either kick the ball out for a corner or free kick, Tierney gave up his position in order to ensure he could jockey Jesus.  A couple of passes between Gundogan and Jesus gave the latter the time to pump in a lofted and again not terribly good cross. Which ought to have been won by our defenders.  Now we played with 3 nominal central defenders – Kolasinac, Holding and Chambers.  They are all 6 feet plus.  And yet the circus dwarf sized Gundogan managed to get on the end of the aforementioned rather average cross and nod it in. Laughable defending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City 1- Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now at this point, while all was not lost, City started to exert control.  5 minutes later we gave away a free kick in a fairly innocuous part of our half.  City played it short, with no real drive or apparent intent, engaging in some passing amongst 3 players. Again, a poor low pass into the Arsenal box was the result. Tierney managed to perform some kind of cross between a highland reel and the hokey cokey, throwing in short order his head and then leg at the ball, which managed to take a deflection and run through to some bloke to hit in from short range.  I mean, again, this was comical defending from a nothing ball.  Further viewings showed that Calum Chambers was in fact punched in the face in the build-up, resulting in him going down.   This was shown to VAR who decided that this punch to the face didn\u2019t constitute a foul.  I\u2019m sorry but this is ridiculous.  As usual when Arsenal play, the pundits, aided and abetted by the professional referee apologist Walton, decided that this punch in the face did not constitute violent play.  We live in a world where the meanings of words are increasingly being traduced, but I would love to know under what definition this act was not an act of violence.  And if not, what was it?  A philadelphic act of love?  More of this later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City 2- Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point the game as a contest was over.  But in the words of the late Roy Walker, there\u2019s more. In the twentieth minute, City almost gave us a chance as once again they were slack in their attempts to play out from the back in the face of some very decent Arsenal pressing. Ederson was closed down by Smith -Rowe who very nearly turned the keepers hurried attempt at a punt up field into the net.  In keeping with the luck, we have enjoyed thus far this season, The ball crept past the outside of the post and off for a goal kick.  In the 24th<\/sup> minute an accidental clip on the heels of preening, floppy-haired, serial cheat Grealish gave the referee the opportunity to flourish a card at Soares.   This being Arsenal, this enabled compulsory Scouse co-commentator McManaman to state this was a definite yellow card.  Its funny, but Fernandinho has made a career out of just this kind of thing and yet has an excellent record in terms of bookings.   I would say this is inexplicable, but it clearly isn\u2019t.  Arsenal continued to try to play and again nearly had some success from pressing the keeper Ederson who passed very poorly out to the edge of the box, from which the resulting slick, quick passing saw Xhaka put in for a shot which he tamely hit at the keeper.  He was just offside anyway, but again it was hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 28th<\/sup> minute, the referee managed to perform the by now typical PGMOL doublethink by booking Kolsinac for a flat handed palm off into the face of Jesus, a man who constantly looks as though he was bout to burst into tears anyway.   Now given the earlier assault on Chambers, leading to the 2nd<\/sup> goal, this was a decision showing a mind-boggling ability to hold two opposing views of the same event in mind at the same time and manage to come up with contrary decisions for each.  Not only did he give a foul, but this was also a booking.  The whining, mosquito pitched voice of compulsory scouse co-commentator McManaman at least managed to understand the ridiculousness of the decision and declared there was nothing in it.  Which is of itself ridiculous since flat handed palm offs into the face are not and never have been legal in football.  No mention of why there shouldn\u2019t be a VAR call to overturn this mistake by the referee, given the earlier decision.   I don\u2019t want decisions to be made in our favour every time.  I just want consistency in refereeing, which arguably we have. It\u2019s just consistently, appallingly against Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 35th<\/sup> minute the referee was able to celebrate by giving Xhaka a red card.   Now it was an off the floor, one straight-legged straight tackle. Contact, I\u2019m not too sure about. Neither clearly was the referee, who pulled his yellow card out. Then realised it was Xhaka and changed his mind deciding it was red.   I don\u2019t mind it being red.  I hope every tackle like this is given as a red.  They won\u2019t be though, as Xhaka can\u2019t do every one of these tackles.  Of course, Xhaka should have learned by now.  But he is incapable of learning, as he is an inveterate idiot.  Two years ago, he was bawled out by the home crowd for his serial repetitions of stupidity \u2013 fouls in poor parts of the pitch, giving the ball away when under the slightest pressure, straight legged front on tackles.  Two years later he has learned the square root of sweet FA.  We now have 3 games without him.  He will not be missed.  Hopefully, he will never play for the first team again.  By now, all hope of saving the game that has not already been lost was jettisoned.  7 minutes later and with gaps all over the place as a result of the sending off, we still decided to press high when their keeper had the ball.  Unsurprisingly he managed to find a straight pass into the midfield, the ball was switched out to the left then passed into the box for some bloke to slot home from 4 yards.  Embarrassingly easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City 3- Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half time saw Elneny replace Saka.  It made sense.  The game was gone, and there was no need for the young man to suffer any more, and Elneny could take up more space in the centre of the pitch.   Nominally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half was a procession, unsurprisingly.  On 53 minutes the lottery winners scored an excellent goal, with a shot from the edge of the box right into the corner.  No blame attached to Leno or necessarily the players.  It was just an excellent goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City 4- Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 67th<\/sup> minute saw a nasty foul on Tierney who had his left leg planted while Rodri deliberately kicked him.  With the game decided, the referee rightly booked the offending player.  The 70th<\/sup> minute saw Odegaard withdrawn for Maitland-Niles. City had all the ball and we had by now given up the pretence of trying to get back into the game.  It was all damage limitation.  By now, the odious cheating hobgoblin Sterling had come on and in the 75th<\/sup> minute did his party piece pathetic dive in the box to try to get a penalty.  With the game already gone, the referee ignored it.  Then in the 84th<\/sup> minute, after a period of concerted pressure and near misses by City, a cross from the right from Mahrez found a very good Torres run, albeit, as usual, wholly unmarked and it was 5. And we managed to keep it at that without further real chances or mishap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City 5 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fairness, and as been pointed out in the comments to the preview, we are only 3 points worse off than any sane person expected us to be given the start the computer inflicted on us this season.  And Arteta has been unable to pick the kind of side that we all think he wants to.  At the same time, serious questions are being asked.  We have no more discernible pattern of play than we had under the last 5 years of M. Wenger and his unfortunate successor. There is no evidence whatsoever, as per the previous 2 incumbents of any work on the training ground in regard to defensive drilling.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will resist joining the growing band of supporters clamouring for the head of Mikel Arteta at the moment.  In any case, I believe that with the financial backing provided this summer, he will have until December to turn it round.  We have eminently winnable fixtures coming up after the break, by which point one would hope that the Covid sufferers will have returned and the large band of accumulated dross for whom we are still paying will have been further whittled down.  I am not hopeful, but I seek to remain calm until then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that was about as much fun as a visit to the dentist at which you are strapped into the chair and forcibly given root canal treatment un-anaesthetised while having to listen to a soundtrack of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard. First Half Actually, we started pretty well.  You there at the back \u2013 stop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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\/3888"}],"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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3918,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions\/3918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}