{"id":4009,"date":"2021-09-25T10:06:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T09:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2021-09-26T20:58:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T19:58:52","slug":"never-mind-the-bollocks-just-mash-the-spuds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4009","title":{"rendered":"Never Mind the Bollocks. Just Mash the Spuds."},"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:509px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1342291535\" 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:116.69941% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1342291535?et=oVBdXoYbQ0FlLLO64qDgPQ&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;sig=2Rj4Kg0NDN73YeP0bpWqo96VyyeRsgx_YAlP9hPAfGs=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"509\" height=\"594\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>&#8220;Pepe prepares to face Eric Dier&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every season, this is the biggest game we play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the fixture list is out, if you asked me which is the one match I most wanted to win, it would be Spuds at home, every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, it is also the match I most hate to lose. Getting turned over at our own ground, against any incarnation of the shower from the wrong end of Seven Sisters Road, is one of the worst things in my footballing experience. I detest that feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, a quick recap of how we got here\u2026 an unfortunate situation against Brentford led to a gloomy loss, followed by two predictable losses against top sides. Since then, we have won one-nil twice. And we\u2019ve won a couple of League Cup matches along the way. For me, the Brentford game is the only unexpected result in there (although I would never consider the away game at Burnley a banker for this team!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This match against our old rivals could go either way, we have not seen enough of our new look side to know how they will approach this one. Of course, if it goes to the good guys, then we will all be feeling a lot better when we look at the league table on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as we get Partey back, introduce Tomi, White, Ramsdale, Lokonga (and Odegaard) into regular first team duties, and generally look to reshape our team and the way it plays, I am not sure how much we will learn about our prospects from this one-off game. We will need longer to evaluate where this team is headed this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think that is a great thing to focus on\u2026 Amid all the varying opinions about the manager, the executives, the owners (maybe there are less varied opinions about the Kroenkes, heh) and where the team is going, perhaps sometimes we spend too long worrying about the big picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m going to take this derby as a one-off, on its own merits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All I want to see from our lads on Sunday is full commitment. The new boys will have been told about this one and I want to see them give everything they have against the worst club in football. I don\u2019t care if it ain\u2019t pretty. I don\u2019t care about the evolution of the team, the tactical nuances of Arteta vs Nuno, or how scrappy our goals are. I just want us to win. By any means necessary. Just win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Personally, I am sick to the back teeth of the constant drama at our club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its like a soap opera. I suppose that\u2019s why we make such an effort to teach all our young foreign players to speak like they want roles on EastEnders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seriously though, there are so many different voices, all talking at cross purposes, and I (as a long-time regular in Dave\u2019s bar) am finding it hard to feel connected to those Arsenal fans who express their views without a level of respect for fellow fans. Add this to the untold waves of biased, agenda-driven tripe that the wider media, in all its glorious forms, is heaping down upon our beleaguered fandom, and the current existential crisis of our club does seem to have outrun the focus on the, you know, actual football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do not want to get into the rights and wrongs of that. Everyone has their opinion. And opinions are like noses \u2013 everybody has one, and everybody picks their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just want to observe that there is nothing to galvanise a fanbase, a club, and bring everyone into unity, like the marshdwellers leaving their own Toilet Stadium and squelching their way over to our place with plans to take a result back to the sewers. For a couple of hours on Sunday we can tune out all the noise around the club and make some noise cheering on The Arsenal as we go toe to toe with the chicken-basketball worshipping servants of evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his presser, Arteta made a distinction between fans and supporters. I guess he is just saying that it is important we all get behind our team. He is right that the supporters in the stadiums (home and away) have been absolutely stellar recently. They have led by example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am really up for this, because we need to be pulling together, and on Sunday we all will be. Every Gooner, everywhere, without exception, will be willing us on for a victory we could really do with. There is nothing like a North London Derby to remind us of our club motto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Tomiyasu \u2013 White \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey \u2013 Lokonga<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Pepe \u2013 Odegaard \u2013 Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Auba<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unusually, everyone is fit and available for selection. That almost never happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t see Leno back in for this one. I think the jersey is Ramsdale\u2019s to lose and I am happy with that. The back four picks itself. I think Arteta will partner Lokonga with Partey to add some extra stability, although he could play ESR instead, with a dual role for Odegaard and the Croyden de Bruyne. Pepe might be on the bench for ESR anyway, but I am plumping for Pepe to be the Agent Of Chaos tasked with pegging Reguilon back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Xhaka is available to start. I will support him if he does. I hope he does not. The holics\u2019 pound assumes that he won\u2019t start. If he does then I will be less confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes last season it was hard to be certain of more than about five players in the starting lineup. I hope we continue with a more settled eight or nine guys in the league, with adjustments being measured and fluid, rather than wholesale and jarring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Scum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hate this bit. I don\u2019t care about their team, or their tactics, or anything to do with them, really. But this is a preview, and some of the learned patrons of this bar will doubtless have thoughtful contributions to make about how we might setup to counter the threats posed by a team that we absolutely cannot lose to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, since I can\u2019t just say that we should do a Tuchel (bring on Kante at half-time to win us the game) I suppose I\u2019ll do a bit of research and see what they have been up to since the ironically named Senor Espirito Santo began leading the hordes of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>* Give me a minute. Talk amongst yourselves. *<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I feel somewhat dirty. Don\u2019t say I don\u2019t go into bat for you lot. After a rummage through the muck, it turns out they won three without conceding a goal, and then lost 3-0 twice, to Chelski and to a Crystal Palace side who cast them out like the snakes they are. Top coaching from St. Patrick, that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are playing a 4-3-3 that morphs into a 4-3-2-1. Kane will not necessarily start highest up the pitch, that may be Son. Both are dangerous and Kane would love to kick-start his season with a goal against us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hojberg, Alli and Ndombele may start in midfield. I\u2019d prefer to play against Harry Winks, but there is nothing to be afraid of either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The French chap captains them and keeps goal. New signing Emerson Royal will play at right-back, so we will all be hoping Tomi comes out looking much the better player. Reguilon will be left back. Good player, but very annoying (ditto Hojberg). Romero partners Eric Dier at CB. I dearly hope Dier has one of those days of his where he looks like he\u2019d get subbed off on Hackney Marshes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently, they have not created many chances but have finished well, whereas we are the other way round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s all I have to say about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The holics\u2019 pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For my first prediction of the season, I am going to go with the underlying stats, which say Spurs are not creating many chances, and with Aaron Ramsdale\u2019s bloody-minded determination not to concede his first goal in our colours against this disgrace of players (if anyone has better suggestions for the appropriate collective noun for Spuds players then please let them loose in the drinks.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, having decided Spurs won\u2019t score\u2026 how many do I think we will manage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, a classic 1-0 to The Arsenal is available at around a predictably meagre 7s. That would be a hat-trick of 1-0 wins for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A 3-0 thumping can be had at 1\/20 to 1\/25, depending on where you shop for it. That would be a hat-trick of 3-0 defeats for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the money is going down the middle. 2-0 to The Arsenal is available at around 11\/1, and goes up to around 20\/1 if you put Auba down to score one of them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wherever you are on Sunday, I wish you all the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when the match rolls round and you are screaming our lads on, in the stadium, the pub, your own lounge, or anywhere else, then I, and all the other Gooners around the world, will be screaming along with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Victoria Concordia Crescit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images &#8220;Pepe prepares to face Eric Dier&#8221; Every season, this is the biggest game we play. Before the fixture list is out, if you asked me which is the one match I most wanted to win, it would be Spuds at home, every time. Furthermore, it is also the match I most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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\/4009"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4018,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/4018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}