{"id":4116,"date":"2021-10-25T18:53:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T17:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2021-10-27T09:58:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T08:58:23","slug":"records-are-nice-but-a-performance-will-suffice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4116","title":{"rendered":"Records Are Nice but A Performance Will Suffice\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"q9Rd-ys-RwxY-Uo-9c1lgA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1458526\" 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:'q9Rd-ys-RwxY-Uo-9c1lgA',sig:'6GDZe72J8hp5iPAXjOo7-H7F3x0eiVny__Nz5rzCbuQ=',w:'594px',h:'397px',items:'1458526',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>Arsenal take on fellow premier league outfit Leeds United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates on Tuesday night. While the Gunners are fresh from an excellent 3-1 victory over Aston Villa, the Yorkshire side had to contend with a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves thanks to an injury-time equaliser from the spot from Rodrigo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal come into this cup fixture unbeaten in all competitions since the end of August, a run of eight games, six of those in the league. Leeds now has just one league win in nine games leaving them floundering in 17<sup>th<\/sup> place, hovering precariously above the relegation zone. Second season syndrome perhaps? The Leeds faithful will hope not, although they only have to look at their Yorkshire rivals, Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United, both of whom stayed up in their first season in the top flight before finishing rock bottom in the second. However, Leeds is always a dangerous side as we saw last season. Last season the Gunners were lucky to come away from Elland Road with a point after the home side hit the woodwork three times and carved out plenty of opportunities. You might remember we also finished that game with ten men after Pepe was sent off following an altercation with Egan Allioski. The return fixture was a much happier affair for Mikel Arteta\u2019s side as a Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang hat trick helped us to a 4-2 victory on Valentines Day.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have endured many fierce and not so fierce encounters with Leeds over the years. In 2002 we made history fielding nine black players for a league encounter at Elland Road (Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Lauren, Kolo Toure, Vieira, Gilberto, Wiltord, Henry and Kanu) as we ran out 4-1 winners.&nbsp; This game also saw us break Nottingham Forest\u2019s then record of 22 away games without defeat and Chesterfield\u2019s record, held since 1929\/30 season, of scoring in 47 consecutive league games. A prefiguring of the extraordinary feats achieved in the following season, if only we had known it. And in the Invincible season there was another memorable encounter, this time at Highbury, with Thierry Henry at his electrifying best scoring four goals to help us to a 5-0 win as we cantered our way to the title and the only golden Premier League trophy ever awarded. While we were celebrating making history, Leeds fans were grieving relegation from the top flight despite being Champions League semi-finalists only four years previously. Little did they know it would be sixteen years before their return. Despite their exile from the Premier League, we still seemed to draw them regularly in cup competitions. In 2011 they gave us a scare in the third round of the FA Cup where a last gasp Fabregas penalty forced a replay as we avoided an embarrassing early exit. We ran out comfortable 3-1 winners in the replay in Yorkshire. Coincidently we faced them at the same stage the following season in 2012. An otherwise forgettable encounter was then launched into the archives when Thierry Henry, returning for a loan spell from New York Red Bulls, came on as a substitute and it was only a few minutes before he rolled back the years as he collected a Bergkampesque through ball from Alex Song, opened his body and curled the ball into the far corner.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as the team selection goes we can expect a mostly changed side from the eleven that eased pass Aston Villa so impressively. You would expect to see Bernd Leno in goal, having lost his place as first choice \u2018keeper to Aaron Ramsdale. Then it will probably be Cedric at right back, a centre back pairing of Rob Holding and Mari. At left back it gets interesting as it could feasibly be any one of Nuno Tavares, Tierney or even Kolasinac. Given that Tierney may still be shaking off his supposedly bruised ankle and it is Premier League opposition we\u2019re up against, I would expect to see Nuno at left back following his very impressive performance on Friday. In midfield we will probably see a pivot of Elneny and Maitland-Niles, with Odegaard in the number ten role. On the left you would hope to see Gabriel Martinelli get a run out after being restricted to substitute appearances since the Chelsea game. On the right flank Pepe should start with Eddie Nketiah up front, the Englishman having spent six months on loan at Leeds at the start of the 2019\/20 season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that would rack up ten changes from the side that beat Villa so convincingly, while still being a very strong second-string side capable of beating another premier league side comfortably. Gone are the days where Wenger would use the league cup as a chance to field a starting eleven that looked like a GCSE English class.&nbsp; But now that European qualification is no longer a given, we have no choice but to take it seriously.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COYG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal take on fellow premier league outfit Leeds United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates on Tuesday night. While the Gunners are fresh from an excellent 3-1 victory over Aston Villa, the Yorkshire side had to contend with a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves thanks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/4116"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4126,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions\/4126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}