{"id":4661,"date":"2022-01-22T21:22:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T21:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2022-01-24T12:34:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:34:48","slug":"a-course-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4661","title":{"rendered":"A Course Correction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"524\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-1024x524.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4662\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?attachment_id=4662\" class=\"wp-image-4662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-1024x524.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-300x154.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-768x393.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-1536x786.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection-75x38.jpg 75w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ACourseCorrection.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It was inevitable that the sparkling run of form \u2013 in the early months of the winter &#8212; that helped Arsenal to rapidly propel forward towards the (once quotidian, now hallowed) comfort of planet Champions League \u2013 lest I am misunderstood, I am not claiming that we should or must attain a top four spot at the end of the season, just that the distant glimpse of that tantalizing possibility had started to make itself visible &#8212; is not going to go on smoothly until the end of the season. Even the most starry-eyed optimists among the fanbase would have expected a veering off course sooner or later before the season ends. Stalling of the engine (room), some random powerful asteroid carrying ill omens of injuries and illness dragging the spaceship Arsenal away from its chartered course.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the unfortunate home loss to Manchester City \u2013 in a true Arsenal fashion a loss which is all the more memorable because how impressively well our youngsters played against one of the best teams in Europe \u2013 we dropped out of the two domestic cup competitions in quick succession. Whereas the loss to Liverpool \u2013 following an event of such an extraordinary low probability that the SETI institute (\u201cSearch for Extraterrestrial Intelligence\u201d) has been pondering if they should move their headquarters on the Merseyside \u2013 in the League Cup semifinal was somewhat expected despite the valiant heroics of the first leg, the third-round loss to an efficient Championship side in the FA \u201cArsenal\u201d Cup was disheartening.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mikel Arteta had started his best available eleven \u2013 the squad still considerably depleted by senior players unavailable for one reason or another \u2013 in the second leg of that League Cup semi at home, but it was abundantly clear that many of these players are still recovering from injury or illness, or just very tired. Our options from the bench were so limited that Thomas Partey \u2013 disappointed as his country Ghana had exited in the league stages of African Cup of Nations \u2013 a few hours after arriving in London following a 10-hour flight came on heroically to instill some experience and quality in the midfield to help turn the match around. The tired challenge that led to his second yellow was the price we have to pay this weekend, but we cannot really criticize either him or Mikel for trying their best with limited options.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our opposition this weekend is Burnley, a team that is to football what a drunken guest full of vaguely chauvinistic opinions is to an evening soiree. You cannot ignore them, they make you uncomfortable, you wish they were not there, but as they behave just within the limits of the acceptable you gallantly try your best to make the evening successful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last time this season we had met them away at the Turf Moor our evening was made successful by a perfect freekick by \u00d8degaard, who has since then established himself as a key player in our attack, demonstrating his exquisite technical abilities and remarkable vision and awareness.&nbsp; Martin and Martinelli were two of our better players in our loss against Liverpool on Thursday, and I hope both are fit enough to start the match and play to their best abilities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barring any unfortunate injuries or illness since Thursday, most of the team select themselves. Forced by the lack of options in the central midfield Mikel had set the team up in a 4-3-3 formation on Thursday with \u00d8degaard and Emile Smith-Rowe accompanying Sambi Lokonga. Against a team that is as adept at collective high pressing as Liverpool this didn\u2019t really work out well, and even though Sambi had some impressive moments this was too early in his promising career to carry that responsibility without an experienced head next to him in a double pivot. Given Partey\u2019s one-match back this would probably be the area that would give Mikel most to think about before Sunday\u2019s game. If Chambers is available my preference would be Sambi &amp; Chambers in the middle and ESR dropping to the bench (and then to score his customary goal coming on as a substitute, of course). If Chambers is not available we can play Holding \u2013 his weakness of lack of pace is not going to be exposed by Burnley, whereas his nous, experience and aerial qualities would come in handy \u2013 next to Gabriel and White in the center of the midfield. Assuming Chambers would remain unavailable my starting eleven would be<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Tomiyasu \u2013 Holding \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Tierney&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White \u2013 Lokonga&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka \u2013 \u00d8degaard \u2013 Martinelli&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Lacazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To carry on the flight for the European spots \u2013 and maybe even the Champions League spot, there are still a lot of games left in the season and with a few judicious reinforcements in the January window I think such an achievement is not beyond the realms of possibility \u2013 we must win this match, and given the newfound bond between the players and the fans at home, I am hopeful that the energy feedback loop (paraphrasing Mikel) will give the players the necessary push to overcome what would be a difficult opposition, irrespective of their current league position.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not a betting man, but if I were a 2-0 win in favor of the Arsenal would be the result that I would feel most confident about.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy viewing everyone!&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was inevitable that the sparkling run of form \u2013 in the early months of the winter &#8212; that helped Arsenal to rapidly propel forward towards the (once quotidian, now hallowed) comfort of planet Champions League \u2013 lest I am misunderstood, I am not claiming that we should or must attain a top four spot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"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\/4661"}],"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=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}