{"id":4099,"date":"2021-10-23T12:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T11:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4099"},"modified":"2021-10-25T18:53:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T17:53:49","slug":"heroes-not-villains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4099","title":{"rendered":"Heroes, not Villains"},"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.co.uk\/detail\/1348129088\" 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:77.10438% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1348129088?et=kG8Kp8qZQOVcOVSNAnx4KQ&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;sig=Q1d3xAlBDJUcprWPUuNhhy1S8f-Oj_svd2x7g_T9CPQ=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\" width=\"594\" height=\"458\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, well, well! Where did that come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The starting XI brought some surprises with changes from both the XI that faced Palace and Ned\u2019s predicted XI. KT3 hadn\u2019t recovered from a knock sustained in the Palace game and was replaced by Tavares. Sambi replaced \u00d8degaard alongside Partey in midfield to provide more muscle than the Norwegian had displayed on Monday. The final change was a result of Lacazette\u2019s energetic contribution against Palace winning him a starting place at the expense of P\u00e9p\u00e9. As a result, Aubameyang was expected to start on the left with Lacazette up the middle, Saka on the right and ESR as a \u2018ten\u2019 in a 4-2-3-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first half started with a burst of aggression from Watkins who kicked out at Gabriel for shielding the ball as it ran through to Ramsdale and promptly received a yellow card. Whether this gratuitous violence was the source of the energy displayed by Arsenal, whether the team simply continued with the drive and focus with which they finished the Palace game or whether Arteta\u2019s work at Colney during the week was the cause, this Arsenal team was unrecognisable from Monday\u2019s display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every member of the team showed aggression and intelligence both with and without the ball, winning first and second balls all over the pitch, moving the ball quickly in transition and finding team-mates in space. Our high press was organised and effective and Villa were unable to create any coherent moves (recognise that?) with Buendia and their front pair completely starved of the ball. Villa\u2019s players were clearly rattled by the early course of the game\u2019s flow and whether it was as a result of Arsenal\u2019s quality or Villa\u2019s failings, Arsenal seemed able to pass their way through them with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aubameyang began in a central position rather than on the left with Lacazette playing as a mobile \u2018ten\u2019. Saka and Tomiyasu threatened down the right but even more frequently ESR and Tavares rampaged down the left while Lacazette, Sambi and Partey drove periodically through the centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first five minutes a sweet through ball from Partey found Saka on the edge of the Villa box. His cross to the far post found Aubameyang near the spot from which he had scored against Palace but on this occasion, he attempted an overhead kick which flew back across goal to Saka whose shot flew over. It was a clear declaration of intent. Seconds later, Tavares sprinted into the box but his shot was wide then White drove through midfield, like a vintage Beckenbauer, and laid the ball off but the attack came to nothing. When Aubameyang then blocked a Martinez clearance the Villa players threw a collective hissy fit that suggested instability rather than collective strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly thereafter, Aubameyang had the ball in the net but it was disallowed as Lacazette was deemed to have fouled Konsa when he robbed him in the Villa box before squaring for Aubameyang to score. The Arsenal stayed on the front foot with dangerous low and high crosses repeatedly coming in particularly from the left from Tavares, one leading to a melee in front of Martinez and a blocked shot by ESR, another to a high shot by Tomiyasu from 20 yards. The interplay down the left between ESR and Tavares was marvellous and a constant threat which Cash was unable to cope with. The game became somewhat tetchy with strong challenges from both sides resulting in generally unrewarded appeals to an uninterested referee.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramsdale had been little troubled but a clear feature of this game was his ability to make raking long passes to the feet of a teammate standing at the halfway line. He did it with outstanding accuracy several times. This was not, I might add as a result of a Villa press which was of little effect throughout this first half and Arsenal were able to pass their way out of defence throughout without hindrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the first half reached its halfway point, a Saka free kick from the right was prodded by Partey against the bar from close range and a Tavares shot at the end of another nice move down the left involving interplay with ESR was deflected wide. Therefore, your correspondent began to wonder whether we would consummate our clear dominance or once again, as has happened so frequently, be left to rue missed opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ESR took the corner resulting from that deflected shot. Partey leapt like a salmon despite the attentions of McGinn and Mings and the ball bounced off his shoulder into the goal past the desperate fingertips of Martinez for his first goal for the Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Partey, 23 minutes:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1 \u2013 0&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations Thomas. Now keep up the momentum, lads. Don\u2019t sit back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, we had to live with a referee who believed it was always open season on Arsenal players and after the goal Pawson waved away late challenges on Tavares and Lacazette though in the latter case he did give Mings his long since deserved yellow card.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inevitably, the goal roused Villa and within 5 minutes we appeared to be allowing them more space and time on the ball in midfield. But this was not the passive approach of Monday. Arsenal were like a coiled spring and several quick breakaways showed our continued threat and intent. Once again, we were quick to win the ball back and with quick interplays through midfield turned defence into attack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A quick break by Saka found Tomiyasu running into the box but our Japanese full-back was tackled before he could get his shot away. On the half hour, ESR broke out of midfield, found Tavares on the left whose unselfish pass to Saka, free on the other side of the Villa box really should have been buried. His first-time shot was firmly struck but Martinez\u2019s outstretched foot turned it wide.&nbsp;&nbsp;That should have been a deserved 2-0! Tavares was next to test Martinez with a firm shot from 20 yards after a clever through ball from Sambi. As the half drew to a close, Sambi drove through midfield and passed to Lacazette in the box. He twisted and turned to get a sight of goal but was smothered at the cost of a corner to which Partey rose again but this time headed over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In added time a rare foray from Villa saw Sambi concede a free kick near the right corner of our penalty area. Surely, after such dominance, we wouldn\u2019t concede an equaliser in the dying seconds of this first half when we deserved to be OFS? (Californian wine drinkers will remember the fine beverage bearing that acronym.) For that free kick, Villa players engaged in an elaborate deception merely ending in a punt to Ramsdale who initiated the next Arsenal attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That attack appeared to end with Targett\u2019s challenge on Lacazette as the Frenchman attempted to trap the ball in the box with his back to goal. Lacazette fell clutching his ankle but Pawson showed no interest and Villa brought the ball out. Play continued for several seconds until Pawson blew his whistle with the ball in midfield. Everyone assumed it was half-time. But no! Pawson had been called by VAR to the monitor and after a few more seconds, he pointed to the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Could we get the 2-0 that our play in this half more than deserved? Martinez began his now familiar and frequently successful penalty kick gamesmanship. Aubameyang picked up the ball and looked entirely focused on his task as he placed it on the spot. He struck it firmly to his left but Martinez dived the right way and pushed the ball away only for it to fall to Aubameyang. He struck his shot into the ground thus looping it over Martinez\u2019s desperate lunge. Deliberate? Luck? Who cared?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aubameyang, 45+2:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2 &#8211; 0&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Martinez crouched distraught between his posts. He\u2019s such an emotional chap!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was just enough time for Villa to kick off while Dean Smith angrily got in the ear of the fourth official. However, that second goal was no more than we deserved.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HT:&nbsp;&nbsp;2 \u2013 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had been magnificent in that half in comparison to recent outings. Our dominance was confirmed by the first half stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;14 attempts on goal, 5 on target, 21 touches in the opposition box<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Villa:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0 attempts on goal, 0 on target, 3 touches in the opposition box<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether as a result of our team selection, our shape, our work on the training ground, Villa\u2019s hangover from their late collapse against Wolves or their inability to make their three-at-the-back system work, we had been quite simply magnificent. Surely Villa would improve in the second-half? They could hardly be less effective. Could we maintain our dominance?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the second half, Villa replaced Tuanzebe, a centre back, with Bailey, a fleet-of-foot forward and changed to 4-3-3 with a back four, pushing Watkins onto the left and Ings through the centre with the substitute on the right and Buendia playing as a \u2018ten\u2019. Frankly, in the first half we had hardly seen anything from Watkins, Ings or Buendia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was immediately clear that things had changed. A long ball found Watkins running through on the left and his low, hard shot towards the near post was turned for a corner by Ramsdale. Their first attempt on goal! In the first five minutes of the second half Villa probed and shot more often than in the whole 45 (+2!) minutes of the first half. Ings dived at Gabriel\u2019s feet with his back to goal, claiming a penalty \u2013 nothing doing as Gabriel had merely stood his ground.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite Villa\u2019s new-found zeal, we kept our mettle. We had a couple of shots, one deflected wide, another from Saka flying well over before White blocked a dangerous shot from Ings and another Villan\u2019s shot was deflected for a corner. Sambi marauded up the middle slipping in Saka whose shot was blocked. Then Sambi had a shot himself from a central position but off target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we had been pushed back more often than in the first half we were far less passive than we had been against Palace. We were actively closing down ball carriers rather than simply watching and waiting as seemed to be the rule on Monday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ESR intercepted a Villa forward pass midway inside our half, prodding it to Sambi who quickly passed to Tavares on our left. He sent it quickly to Aubameyang on the half-way line who flicked it over two Villa defenders to ESR who was then racing towards goal (we\u2019ve seen that flick before). Mings scuttled back to close ESR down as he entered the box and took aim but Mings\u2019 intervention simply deflected the shot past Martinez at his near post for ESR\u2019s 4<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Premier League goal in his 50<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;PL appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Smith-Rowe, 56:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3 \u2013 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This somewhat took the wind out of Villa\u2019s sails though they didn\u2019t revert to the depths of their first half performance. However, we looked to have rediscovered our organisation and dynamism. White blocked a good effort by Watkins at the edge of our box.&nbsp;&nbsp;Targett gained Villa\u2019s fourth yellow card for bringing down Saka as he broke out of the Arsenal half. Gabriel&nbsp;<em>et al<\/em>&nbsp;epitomised our newly rediscovered determination when he blocked a Bailey breakaway forcing him to delay and being quickly assisted in the task by Tavares, ESR and Sambi. Ramsdale and Gabriel then combined to block a driven shot by Buendia from within the 6-yard box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was lovely interplay between Aubameyang and Lacazette at the edge of the Villa box that might have ended spectacularly but Lacazette\u2019s pass to an unmarked Saka on his right was cut out. Aubameyang then took a yellow for the team by preventing a breakaway&nbsp;&nbsp;with a captain\u2019s challenge and Lacazette then went off to warm applause to be replaced by \u00d8degaard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shots were exchanged at both ends. Ramsdale smothered a Bailey shot from 15 yards after the Villan had robbed a dilatory Sambi at the edge of the box \u2013 that talented lad will hopefully learn to be more careful. Then Aubameyang moving in from the left curled a lovely shot towards the far post but Martinez made a Hollywood dive to push it wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last quarter of the game, there seemed to be waves of Arsenal attackers breaking forwards interspersed with sporadic thrusts by Villa. Several times Arsenal forwards were tackled in the Villa box. Again Partey leapt like a salmon to meet a corner but headed over\u2013 he should work more on that shoulder move! On 72 minutes, Sambi made way for AMN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>White made an excellent clearing header, facing our goal in the 6-yard box, from a lofted ball from a centrally positioned free kick with Mings rushing in to finish it off. Meanwhile Ramsdale continued to make excellent long passes to team-mates\u2019 feet and we continued to threaten. Saka was pulled down by Luiz as he sprinted through on the right and \u00d8degaard\u2019s free-kick was on target at Martinez\u2019s near post but was grasped by the keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 82<sup>nd<\/sup>&nbsp;minute, Bailey ran with the ball unchallenged along the edge of our penalty area and Ramsey who was standing in his direction of travel stepped forward and took the ball off his team-mate\u2019s feet, striking it into Ramsdale\u2019s top left corner. Our keeper was rather annoyed at his defence\u2019s failure to challenge and quite clearly told them so!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ramsey (Villa) 82:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3 \u2013 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Confidence surged into Villa. Could they pull off a Wolves-style recovery in the last ten minutes? A long throw bounced across our goalmouth past our keeper, defenders and Watkins. Two decisive challenges by Gabriel stemmed the tide: first a strong face-on challenge on an onrushing McGinn at the edge of our box ended a dangerous drive then cleverly nicking the ball off Bailey as he ran with it towards our box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless Arsenal still threatened and an interchange between Saka and ESR led to another sumptuous low cross from the overlapping Tavares which just begged for an Arsenal toe as it traversed the 6-yard box. Tavares then honoured the departed Hector Bellerin with a foul throw in the 88<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal seemed to have effectively dampened Villa\u2019s late resurgence but Partey\u2019s slip in the box allowed Ramsey another shot at goal from Ramsdale\u2019s right which fortunately rolled past the far post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 90<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;minute, Aubameyang limped off to be replaced by Martinelli. In the third of four added minutes, Villa were awarded a free kick when Bailey was brought down near the left corner of our box and resulted in a good effort that went just over the near post. The final whistle sounded shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FT: 3 \u2013 1 to the Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As predicted by Northbank Ned. At 16s as well! I hope you all acted on Ned\u2019s tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What no-one could predict was the excellent first half performance that this team produced and the spirited defence of our lead to see the game out once Villa had revived. When will we see that again? Who knows?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hopefully, next week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heroes, to a man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Well, well, well! Where did that come from? The starting XI brought some surprises with changes from both the XI that faced Palace and Ned\u2019s predicted XI. KT3 hadn\u2019t recovered from a knock sustained in the Palace game and was replaced by Tavares. Sambi replaced \u00d8degaard alongside Partey in midfield to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"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\/4099"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4099"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4118,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions\/4118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}