{"id":4075,"date":"2021-10-16T16:36:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T15:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4075"},"modified":"2021-10-19T19:23:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T18:23:44","slug":"hello-patrick-how-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4075","title":{"rendered":"Hello Patrick. How are you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"JEAvTOzLQU5stQcwYbx1eg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/981147\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'JEAvTOzLQU5stQcwYbx1eg',sig:'KQXTkkmtJTa8-tmStgcbuf6HnoMsHgFHnRNUVTvE3LA=',w:'519px',h:'594px',items:'981147',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Happy days!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week the Gunners will welcome Crystal Palace in a game that provides an opportunity for us to say hello to an all-time great, the one and only Patrick Vieira. Hopefully, he will be able to feel the love from the faithful before we go on to completely ruin his day. For myself, it\u2019s been 16 years now since he last played competitively for us and I still miss watching him play. What a player he was. I thought MA summed Paddy up very well when asked if he\u2019d like to have played against peak Vieira more often.&nbsp; \u201cNo!\u201d, he laughed. \u201cBecause he was very dominant, physically gifted, technically he had the right temper, he was brave, he could score goals, he could do a bit of everything. He was a remarkable player.\u201d I think I will just let the last sentence stand as a statement on Patrick Vieira and say no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for The Arsenal, we are entering a run of four games, three at home, which present us with a good opportunity to ascend the table, get the support excited, and show that the team are capable of more than they have shown in the league for the past two seasons. A chance too for our new look back five featuring future England No 1 Aaron, Tomi and call me Benjamin to continue the gelling process. Some suggestions in the media that talk of Aaron taking over from Pickford is premature and perhaps that is so, but ask yourself this \u2013 do I want to buy Pickford? Exactly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as pointed out in the drinks recently, caution may be warranted as our home performances against Palace and Villa last season were poor, yielding a solitary point. Can we do better than the drab 0-0 draw with Palace in January? Well, the first thing to consider is that only three of the starting XI that day are likely to start on Monday; a mere 9 months later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing is that those three are Saka, Smith-Rowe, and Aubameyang, who we will need to score the goals we signally failed to get that day. Let us pray.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Boys to Entertain Us<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Selecting the side is I think, barring late injuries, a fairly simple task and so let me get that out of the way with our game face XI front and centre (and left and right too) \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Tomiyasu White Gabriel Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey Lokonga<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka Odegaard Smith-Rowe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we drew 0-0 as mentioned with Palace in January, actually the last time we played Palace was a 3-1 win at their homely little ground in May, two late goals enough to take the points. That broke a run of 4 draws and a defeat and will in an ideal world give us the confidence to stick another three in their net. Certainly, the goal difference could do with a little good news. As far as I know, at time of writing, everyone is back and healthy after the damned interlull, and of today\u2019s anticipated 11 I think only Tomi would be a concern as he had quite the little trek during the last week or so \u2013 first to Saudi Arabia, then Japan, and then back to the UK. I can tell you first-hand the jet lag is a pain with the 8 or 9-hour time-difference but hopefully he will be ready to go. Equally, I hope that he will have been fully briefed on the cheaty Zaha\u2019s cheatiness. For the rest of the team, I suppose it\u2019s possible that MA may consider moving Martin back to partner Thomas and finding room for Gabi or Pepe to add more goal threat, but I suspect that will have to wait until later in the game and only if we are chasing a goal. However, our major concern going into the game remains Auba\u2019s form and our ability to bring him into the game, if we can get that right then all should be well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crystal Palace are currently in their now customary mid-table position having managed four draws (Leicester, Brentford, Brighton and Wham) two defeats (Chelsea, Liverpool \u2013 both 3-0) and one highly amusing win over the spuds in their seven games to date. Patrick has them playing more attack-minded football, and he has also kept a settled back five (wonder where he got that idea from), behind the usual mediocre \/ journeyman midfield and, this season, a wider variety of forwards. The good news is that the defence is settled but isn\u2019t particularly good and looks exploitable down both flanks. In attack Zaha, as usual, is a threat if he has one of his five good games a season and we will probably see Ayew and one out of Benteke, Olise or Edouard starting as well. Edouard looked good when he came on against the spuds but has been dragged off a couple of times since \u2013 could he be a flat-track bully against little teams?&nbsp; In all honesty, as usual, I don\u2019t much care which starting XI they put out as it will just be various shades of mediocrity and the only question is whether we can rise above it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, we\u2019ve scavenged from Seagulls, what to do with Eagles? Eviscerate would be best. However, I think I\u2019ll settle for a 3-0 win at 14\/1. After all, Palace have lost 3-0 twice already this season so why not do it again. If we can remain as solid defensively as we have been in the last four league games then I think a clean sheet should be achievable. There is also a chance that Palace\u2019s more adventurous approach under Vieira\u2019s management will allow us the space to find Auba\u2019s runs and give our captain the chance to knock-in a couple of confidence boosters. As it\u2019s a 4AM kick-off for me I won\u2019t be knocking back any pre-game confidence boosters, but I hope my fellow Holics, wherever you may be, will have the time and leisure for the pre-game beverage of your choice, enjoy all and Come on You Gunners!!&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Happy days!! This week the Gunners will welcome Crystal Palace in a game that provides an opportunity for us to say hello to an all-time great, the one and only Patrick Vieira. Hopefully, he will be able to feel the love from the faithful before we go on to completely ruin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/4075"}],"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=4075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4078,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions\/4078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}