{"id":4123,"date":"2021-10-27T09:56:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T08:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4123"},"modified":"2021-10-30T07:00:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T06:00:40","slug":"leeds-shackled-in-artetas-chambers-of-horrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4123","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Shackled in Arteta\u2019s Chambers of Horrors"},"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\/1349266507\" 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:67.171715% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1349266507?et=hAwJG9IURoNADPjNx12cdQ&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;sig=FQkZVzKQy5sO5Sly8KHkf181cFcdp3NHK85dnGsrVGI=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"399\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gaffer will be justifiably pleased at the result this evening. After making nine changes, the performance was always of secondary concern here. The goal tonight was, very simply, to get through the tie, while taking the least out of potential starters against Leicester this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately for the players who played tonight, the disappointment of their likely absence from the Leicester game was somewhat mitigated by the kind gesture of Leeds Utd, who played this evening\u2019s match in Leicester kits. Nice touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Arteta, who is sometimes accused of being too proscriptive in the way he choreographs his team, it must have been a supreme pleasure to see his most audaciously planned tactic yet bear fruition\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After having told the lads to keep it tight for the first half, he waited until ten minutes into the second half and a corner for his team, before giving old-school reggae DJ Ben \u2018Jammin\u2019 White the sneaky signal to pull up and feign an injury. This, as planned, meant that&nbsp;<s>Leicester&nbsp;<\/s>Leeds did not pay much attention to Calum Chambers as he came on to the pitch. Little did they know that, far from being a hasty substitute for a better player, he was the Boss\u2019s secret attacking weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pepe, meanwhile, had gone to elaborate lengths to trick the opposition into thinking he was not dangerous enough to mark. Barely ten minutes had passed before he lost the ball by tripping over himself, so deeply had he gone into his method. His commitment was supreme, and they totally fell for his performance of ineptitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And thus, the stage was set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ESR played in a good corner. True to form, our entire team treated the ball as though the young man had just smeared it in dogshit, keeping well away from it as it swung invitingly into the box. Pepe, however, pulled away smartly into space at the back post, and the genius of his performance up to that point could not have been clearer, as the Leeds defence summarily ignored him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ivorian headed the ball into exactly the right space for someone to attack it. And, who would be there to finish a deviously scripted move straight from the playbook of our wily Spanish boss than Mr Deadly himself, Calum \u201923 seconds\u2019 Chambers?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that\u2019s what I call Artetaball!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seriously, though, it was a pleasing result that we should not take for granted. But, beyond qualification for a quarter final, we didn\u2019t gain much more, or learn much we did not know from tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we saw:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leno is a good shot-stopper but flaps and punches at balls Ramsdale would catch. He is a good keeper but I don\u2019t see him taking his spot back. He made a couple of smart stops tonight \u2013 exactly what I would expect from a good goalie, who is no longer the best at our club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elneny is a decent, honest pro. He ain\u2019t great, though. AMN is a player with quality, but he doesn\u2019t have the positional discipline to play CM against tougher opposition than we saw tonight. After a decent opening 15 minutes, a midfield of the pair of them struggled to impose itself on a decent Leeds outfit, but not a great one. Kalvin Phillips is a good player, mind \u2013 I\u2019d love to see him next to Partey in our midfield, although I\u2019ll not be holding my breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kola is Kola. Nothing more to add, m\u2019Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cedric whipped in a few excellent corners. And, from one of them, KOLA HEADED THE BALL AT THE GOAL!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been ages since we won a header from one of our own corners. We don\u2019t usually even bother challenging for them. We seem to turn into a team of twitchers, binos at the ready as we relish in the sight of a Greater-Crested Inswinger in its natural habitat. It was a rare treat for us fans to see someone actually get their head on one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cedric also hit one corner out of play, and generally showed what most of the nine replacements did tonight, namely, that they aren\u2019t pushing for a first team spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ESR worked hard and is becoming an on-field leader. He oozes class in everything he does. (Except when he kicks the ball past everyone on his team and off for a throw in. But then he looks so unconcerned and just gets on with it that the class factor seems to be straight back in play. Top lad.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pepe was frustrating. And then he got the assist for the breakthrough goal. Typical. A bit dodgy, but very effective. Less of the former, more of the latter, please (said every Gooner for the last three years!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie Nketiah was very quiet, but he scooped Sky\u2019s MOTM award for scoring our second goal in a passage of play both sublime and ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He raced on to a slightly short backwards header and, with a beautiful first touch, he lifted it over the keeper. As the goalie and defence ran back at him, he ran past them all and, with a second touch God would have been proud of, he controlled his lob in such a way that he took it straight towards goal from a tight angle. At that point he seemed to have used up all his quality touches, so he endured a nervous moment when he thought he had missed an absolute sitter after doing all the hard work. Fortunately for us all, despite shinning the ball woefully when it would have been better to, y\u2019know,&nbsp;<em>kick it with his foot<\/em>, he breathed a sigh of relief as the ball trickled over the line to put the match beyond Leeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was good to see him on the scoresheet, but personally I\u2019d try to give Balogun more game time as I don\u2019t think Eddie has a future at the club. However, he apparently works hard in training and has a good attitude. I respect him for that, and I respect Arteta for sticking to his guns about giving playing time to those that earn it, so I\u2019m glad he took his chance tonight. And it is probably wise to show everyone in the squad very clearly that hard work and a good attitude are rewarded. Fair play to the Boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabi was a bit rusty, but it is hard to judge him when he had Kola and a quiet Eddie around him to link up with tonight. He showed some flashes of why he is a player that fans are so excited about, although he needs more game time to get back into the form he showed before the injury that kept him out for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally speaking, the game was low on quality and not worth too much rehashing. We started well, Leeds came back into ascendancy and probably just about got the better of the first half. In the second half they began to tire, and we made the most of a couple of decent situations to stop the game becoming attritional and, instead, to hold them at arm\u2019s length as we ran out comfortable winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One further observation is how the narrative around the club is swinging wildly at the moment, based on not much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the caprices of the media and its inbred \u2018social\u2019 cousin: we were shit at the start of the season. Then we got better. Then we were great after the Spurs result. Yet, we were back to square one after Brighton, and worse after Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jamie Carragher has never been so full of praise for Arsenal as he was when discussing our performance against Villa on Friday. Yet, even then, he said multiple times how he thought that, if we had lost that game, the pressure would have been right back on Arteta after two draws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, we are magically on an \u2018eight match unbeaten run\u2019 and everything is rosy again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until, inevitably, we get a disappointing result and people start losing their shit. The media narrative around our club is bonkers. It is almost like they don\u2019t believe any of it, and simply string it out to get people to click on the crap they write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is great to see is that the people in this bar, and, it appears, the vast, vast majority of matchday fans, are not going in for this constant seesawing of opinion, and are instead settling in to see how this young team develops and grows together. Again tonight, it was possible, even through the telly, to hear the home support giving the team plenty to feed off. We are building more unity between the club and fans, something we have not had enough of in recent years, and the whole club is starting to come together around an exciting project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, on a night like tonight, I don\u2019t think we need do more than applaud a committed effort from everyone involved, take the result, and get ready for the next one. Forwards!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have a good one, holics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images The Gaffer will be justifiably pleased at the result this evening. After making nine changes, the performance was always of secondary concern here. The goal tonight was, very simply, to get through the tie, while taking the least out of potential starters against Leicester this weekend. Fortunately for the players who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123"}],"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=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4140,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions\/4140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}