{"id":4313,"date":"2021-12-06T05:35:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T05:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4313"},"modified":"2021-12-07T01:10:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T01:10:22","slug":"return-to-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4313","title":{"rendered":"Return to Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After a rather disappointing loss last Thursday in an away ground that has historically been one of Arsenal\u2019s unhappiest, we hit the road again towards the rugged (and I am not talking about the terrain here) North-West in the hope of maximizing the outcomes of our strenuous efforts \u2013 my admiration of the away supporters who would be making two weekday trips from London towards the rainier corner of the island is unbounded \u2013 and recover swiftly from the bitter feelings of a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Monday night\u2019s opponent has traditionally \u2013 given that in the hallowed history of English football the temporal interpretation of tradition<\/em> can generate endless arguments, let us set the time period of this tradition to the recent past of the Premier league era only \u2013 presented a less thorny proposition at home. Even taking into account all of English first division football history, our away record against Everton — 31W, 27D, 42L — is respectable enough, though obviously not as dominant as our home record:  67W, 16D, 17L. Of these thirty-one away victories a good percentage came in the last 25 odd years, but this is where my football history researcher self, lazy and easily bored, gives up further effort and walks himself up to the living room to listen to the recollections of my (unreliable) anecdotal self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recollections come up some away victories of large margins, a 6-1 in 2009 season opener (Denilson forgetting to hide his Brazilian identity, Vermaelen scoring on his debut etc.), a 5-2 in 2017, a few 4-1s in our halcyon days of late nineties-early noughties\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While getting six, or at least four points off Everton in the league season for a long time was a very routine occurrence, last season the Blues from Liverpool had their long-awaited revenge, a home and away victory against (no longer so mighty) Arsenal: 2-1 at Goodison Park and 1-0 at the Emirates. Under the watchful eyes of Carlo Ancelotti Everton had even threatened to finish above Arsenal for the first time since \u2026 1987\/88 when they finished fourth and Arsenal sixth (thankfully chimes in the lazy researcher, for such a time period is beyond the grasp of the living room raconteur\u2019s memory). They came quite close, only two points and two positions behind Arsenal who again finished the season on an embarrassing 8th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, things have changed rapidly, as they always seem to do in the fervid world of modern football. The suave Italian of the perennially arched eyebrows has returned back to the warm certainties of Madrid, and the gruffly Spaniard of pragmatic attitude was chosen by the new ambitious owners of Everton to steady the ship. Rafa Benitez, since his trophy winning days with Everton\u2019s much hated derby enemies, has always been a prime candidate for clubs in trouble to steady the ship. I believe some Arsenal faithful had earlier suggested that possibility too, especially when the fledgling captain of the ship Arsenal was rocking rather dangerously the stormy sea of last season.  However, while Mikel Arteta has improved the quality and consistency of our performances in the league compared to last season, Everton — despite starting promisingly under Benitez with players like Doucour\u00e9 and Gray impressing — are going through a particularly difficult sequence of results. They have earned only one point from their past five league matches, losing to Liverpool (1-4), Brentford (0-1), City (0-3) and Wolves (1-2), and drawing against some small club from London. They are positioned at 16th<\/sup> in the league table, and are a far cry from the exciting team showcasing the effervescent skills of James Rodriguez or Richarlison, and goalscoring form of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that makes them a dangerous opponent because in recent years we have been known to be rather generous in how we help struggling oppositions to find their form when they meet us after a poor set of results. Let us hope Mikel and the team are still hurting from last Thursday\u2019s throwing away of three points and have convinced themselves that anything other than a victory tomorrow would be unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their poor run of form and results, Everton boasts a lot of established high-quality players with club and international experiences across all positions, starting from Pickford in goal, Doucour\u00e9, Allan in the midfield, Richarlison in the forward line. According to Everton FC website Calvert-Lewin and Yerry Mina are sidelined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta may feel that he had made a few errors in selecting his first eleven and in his substitution choices in the last match and would be desperate to get Arsenal back to winning ways and on the fifth position in the league table. A popular and successful player with Everton from 2005-2011, he of course knows all about the stadium and the vociferous home crowd, and one expects that in his meticulous preparations those details too would be highlighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope he will also prepare the team to not slow down and drop back once they take the lead. And not give away possession cheaply in the middle of the park, and not to make lunging tackles in our ow penalty box etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club website injury report says Leno is out \u2013 which explains his absence from the bench at Manchester \u2013 and so is Emile Smith-Rowe. Hopefully Saka has completely recovered and can start the match and play the full ninety minutes at his best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The starting line-up I would like to see has no place for our misfiring captain \u2013 I believe it would be beneficial for Aubameyang to watch the proceedings from the bench for one or two matches \u2013 and also has no place for Partey who too may find a bit of time spent on the bench to be inspirational. Though Tavares has performed more or less impressively, with the odd bit of youthful indiscretion mixed in it, this match may also be a good time for our future captain Kieran Tierney to return to the left back position to add leadership in the playing eleven. I would like to see Gabriel Martinelli keep his place and played down the middle of a fluid front three, with Saka on the right and the forgotten man Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 on the left, with Saka and P\u00e9p\u00e9 switching positions as needed. Ainsley has enough experience to go with his new-found focus in the middle of the park, and I would like to see him combine with Sambi Lokonga who has been one of our best players this season. So, my preferred starting line-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomiyasu \u2013 White \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMN \u2013 Lokonga<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka \u2013 \u00d8degaard \u2013 P\u00e9p\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I think to a manager whose job of selecting first eleven has more significant consequences than that of a blog writer\u2019s, this line-up may appear a bit too early in time to be relied on. I think Mikel will choose a more experienced team, in the 4-2-3-1 formation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomiyasu \u2013 White \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey \u2013 Lokonga<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka \u2013 \u00d8degaard \u2013 Martinelli <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A win is a must, and any win will do. I am predicting a 3-1 victory for Arsenal, but a 4-1 or 5-2 or 6-1 will be fine as well (the 7-0 was at Highbury, so not counting that).  Let these new new days be just like the not-so-old old days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy viewing everyone!   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a rather disappointing loss last Thursday in an away ground that has historically been one of Arsenal\u2019s unhappiest, we hit the road again towards the rugged (and I am not talking about the terrain here) North-West in the hope of maximizing the outcomes of our strenuous efforts \u2013 my admiration of the away supporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4335,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions\/4335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}