{"id":3935,"date":"2021-09-12T12:12:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T11:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2021-09-17T14:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T13:48:47","slug":"one-nil-to-the-arsenal-as-our-season-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3935","title":{"rendered":"One Nil to The Arsenal as Our Season Starts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Slightly blurry image courtesy of Countryman 100, taken from the North Bank<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My thanks to Dr Faustus for his excellent and erudite preview which set the scene nicely. So the car was pointed down the M11 towards The Emirates. I parked up about 2pm and strolled to the ground. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was an excited buzz in the air. As I walked in through gate D, there was a huge roar. Distinguished old boy Patrick Vieira\u2019s Crystal Palace had just gone two up against our undistinguished neighbours down the Tottenham High Road. Attaboy Paddy. The Vieira chant rang round the concourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now part of the joy of this blog is the occasional meet up with fellow Arsenal fanatics, especially those who are long time contributors to this fine emporium. This time it was a great pleasure to meet Steve T. Longtime friend of our founding Father, Dave Faber, he was there with his son Ben. Steve\u2019s season tickets are just three blocks away from mine. We learnt that we shared a passion about cricket as well as Arsenal, and also discovered that all three of us either were (me and Steve) or was currently (Ben) wicketkeepers! We shared reminisces of our favourite glovemen. Steve comes originally from the West Country and knew Jack Russell, via Stroud CC. \u201cMad as a bag of spanners but what a player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clock was creeping towards 3pm so I made my way to block seven and walked down the steps into the sun filled stadium. Aaron Ramsdale had been preferred to Bernd Leno in goals (good) and, following on from the very warm welcome we gave him against WBA, greeted the North Bank like a long lost friend, a gesture that was warmly reciprocated. Our debutant, whom I will call Tomi-san (from Osaka Matt\u2019s current homeland) graced the right back birth, White and Gabriel were the centre back pairing, Lokonga and AMN were the midfield duo (hurray, no Xhaka, thanks to his stupid red card at Manchester City). Up front we saw \u01fedegaard, Saka, Pepe and Auba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report is of my impressions during the game. I have seen the brief highlights on MOTD, but no more and I may make mistakes. I am sure any errors will be corrected in the drinks. We started well. Lively passing and crossing, with Tomi-san covering miles up and down the right wing. Somebody put Auba clean through (\u01fedegaard?) and he was one on one with the goalkeeper. Could this be it? Tim Krull saved well. In the first 20 minutes we dominated, with Norwich rarely passing the half way line. Crosses and shots rained in, with Pepe, KT3, Tomi-san and Saka particularly involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Canaries saw out this first period and began to get more involved in the game. Pukki was looking constantly dangerous. A cross was met by McLean and just flashed wide, probably their best moment of the game. Norwich break quickly, using wide men, but our defence stood firm, with our Japanese debutant looking good and the centre backs dealing well with any threat. Tomi, by the way, is a big old lad (for height, not weight) and looked pretty good in the air. Best right back we\u2019ve had in the air since Sagna, was the general consensus. As the half ended, Kieran threw in a cross, it went over Pepe\u2019s head and fell to Tomi on the volley. He hit it sweet as a nut, with great power, but just over Krull\u2019s bar. What an entrance that would have been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HT: Arsenal 0-0 Norwich<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half began and again it was all Arsenal. Buzzing around the box, forcing saves and blocks from the Norwich defence. I enjoyed seeing a free kick just outside the area and Tomi and Ben White, both over 6ft, overloading the back stick. Nothing came of it but I predict we may score a few more goals from set pieces this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 60 minutes (approximately) came the changes. Tomi came off (he only joined the club on Friday) and AMN moved to right back. ESR, held back at the start due to illness during the week, moved into attacking midfield and Thomas Partey came on for the admirable Sambi. Hopefully it won\u2019t be long before we see them in partnership. We now had a front five consisting of \u01fedegaard (largely on the left), ESR (largely on the right) Pepe, Saka and Auba. I would argue that that\u2019s our most creative five players all playing together. It really showed as we went up a gear and dominated the rest of the game. My mind went back to that season when Santi, Alexi and \u00d6zil were all playing well, playing little triangles round the edge of the box. This was like that, with ESR driving in straight runs and Pepe looking dangerous all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe is far from the world\u2019s tidiest player but whilst he can miscontrol on occasion and choose wrong options on others, he puts the fear of God into defences. It was his contribution that led to our first goal of the season. Another interchange on the right, led to Pepe making space and swinging in a shot which Krull touched onto the far post. From there, the ball caroomed back across goal for Pepe to hit it onto the near post, from which it then bounced onto the still prone Krull who knocked it back across the goalmouth to Auba who couldn\u2019t miss from one yard out. I have to say that Auba looked dangerously close to offside and Norwich surrounded Michael Oliver but VAR confirmed the goal. Watching later on MOTD it was clear that in the final movement, either Pepe or Krull played the ball backwards to Auba, who was therefore onside. Cue huge celebrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1-0 Norwich (Aubamayang 66)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd had been loud, magnificent and very supportive through the whole game (a point later made by Arteta) and now came into their own. After celebrating the goal, the following songs rent the air in quick succession:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One nil to The Arsenal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We scored a goal, we scored a goal, we scored a goal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, reflecting the gallows humour which had been present amongst the Emirates faithful all afternoon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are staying up, say we are staying up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacks flowed on and several times Norwich defenders made Tony Adams like blocks to prevent seemingly certain goals. Auba and Pepe could both have had hat tricks, ESR could have had a couple, but the Norwich goal bore a charmed life. It was of course still only 1-0 and Norwich got a little more ambitious, bringing on a massive striker (didn\u2019t catch his name) to whom they launched long balls. A couple of Norwich players took a tumble in the box but Michael Oliver was having none of it. I can\u2019t really comment as it was 100 yards away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the time ticked down Arteta brought on Cedric Soares for AMN (WTF?) but we safely saw the game out. Yes we had only won 1-0 and you could call it a narrow victory, but we had 30 shots on goal, 8 of them on target and really could have put 4 or 5 past them. What we have been saying, possibly more in hope than expectation, was that once we got the first team on the pitch, this would look a different team. The midfield looked so much quicker and direct without Xhaka and we pressed well. All that was missing was clinical finishing.  Hopefully that will come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FT: Arsenal 1-0 Norwich<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On to Burnley next week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My thanks to Dr Faustus for his excellent and erudite preview which set the scene nicely. So the car was pointed down the M11 towards The Emirates. I parked up about 2pm and strolled to the ground. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was an excited buzz in the air. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"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\/3935"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3954,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions\/3954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}