{"id":447,"date":"2020-03-06T15:21:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2020-03-08T04:05:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T04:05:10","slug":"moyes-boys-to-get-destroyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=447","title":{"rendered":"Moyes\u2019 Boys To Get Destroyed?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow will see us turn our attention back to the Premier League with the visit of West Ham. Since we beat Everton in that eventful 3-2 win we have played in two cups, with contrasting fortunes. Our disappointing loss to Olympiakos in the Europa League can be offset against our win against Portsmouth in the FA Cup. I think we have a more realistic chance of winning the latter, even if Sheffield United away in the next round would be the first of three tough wins required to do so. The way history views the Europa League exit may depend on our league form until the end of the season. As Mikel Arteta prepares to face the first of two former bosses he will come up against in a week he is cautioning that we must keep our focus and take things game by game. When asked about possible Champion\u2019s League qualification he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026if we beat West Ham it will look more likely. So that\u2019s the only aim.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If game-by-game we go and start grabbing three points and three points and three points, and then we\u2019ll have a chance in the last three or four games of the season.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whilst many of us think we are unlikely to qualify outright\nfor the CL we now have no reason not to give everything we have to climbing up\nthe league and finding the silver lining in the home defeat by the uninspiring Greeks.\nAs the boss notes, if we get a winning run together then we will have something\nto play for in those last few games and that is as much as we can ask for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will be without the unfortunate Lucas Torriera whose\nankle was fractured against Pompey in what we must expect to be a season-ending\ninjury. After fielding a much changed side at Fratton Park it will be\ninteresting to see who gets the nod now there is no Europa League game to\nprovide minutes to those who miss out. Will Mari be deemed fit enough to\nreplace the resurgent Mustafi, whose time without making a drastic mistake\nsurely cannot continue indefinitely? Will Laca start or will his form keep him\nwarming the bench? I will have a guess at the side\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno
Bellerin – Luiz – Mari – Saka
Ceballos – Xhaka
Pepe – Ozil – Aubameyang
Nketiah<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we were to see Papa, Willock, Nelson or Laca get a start\nI would not be surprised so we shall wait and see what MA goes with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of my mates are West Ham fans and I find them, as a\nclub, a lot less objectionable than most in London, although Leyton Orient are\nthe only other London club I have any real affection for. As a youngster I saw The\n\u2018O\u2019s play out many a grim 0-0 with football made out of parts that Arsene would\nnot even have put in his sausages. There is no caviar at Brisbane Road. Recently\nthere has been none at the London stadium either. David Moyes, who our current\nboss has a deep respect for after playing for him at Everton for many years,\narrived in Stratford claiming that winning was what he did. It has not panned\nout like that since his December recruitment by the Two Davids and The Irons\nfind only goal difference and the uplift created by all those bubbles keeping\nthem out of the relegation zone. They bought Jared Bowen from Hull City in\nJanuary in a bid for goals and I have heard he is one to watch. Antonio can be\na handful with his direct, physical nature and Sebastian Haller is starting to score\ntoo. Mark Noble will captain them, and also wash the kits, make the tea and\noffer free haircuts to under-10s at half-time in his 43rd<\/sup> season at\nthe club, whilst Lukasz Fabianski will return to The Emirates a far more\nconsummate performer than he left it. Gooners will have forgiven him his recent\nhorror show at Anfield after the heroics of Watford but we can still hope that\nhe throws in a couple of clangers anyway. Go on Lukasz, for old times\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holic\u2019s pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a tough call as there is very little value out there\non a home win. The 2-0 win I fancy only gets you sixes, so, in search of some\nvalue, we will go with a 5-1 win to the good guys which you won\u2019t find at worse\nthan 40\/1. Dave would consider it a Hail Mary but it is worth throwing to beat\nthe mediocrity available on more staid bets you can make for yourselves. I\nshall be hoping for some backlash from Auba after his miss against the Greeks\n(hat-trick please) and a spirited display from our boys showing that the\nmanager has got them well up for the fight until the end of season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This result also has a personal appeal as I was present in\nthe stadium for this fixture seven years ago when I witnessed a second half blitz\nwhen we scored four goals in what was certainly the most devastating ten\nminutes of football of I have ever witnessed live. More of that would be most\nwelcome. Special apologies to Santi who cannot be seen in the photo header\ndespite a beautiful performance that night (I think he is between Giroud and\nBig Per but too short to be visible!) We repeated the 5-1 scoreline away in\n2016, so we are surely due another one by now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As ever Holics, I wish you all the best for the game, and\nremind you to raise a glass to the Best Barman in Heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow will see us turn our attention back to the Premier League with the visit of West Ham. Since we beat Everton in that eventful 3-2 win we have played in two cups, with contrasting fortunes. Our disappointing loss to Olympiakos in the Europa League can be offset against our win against Portsmouth in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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\/447"}],"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=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}