{"id":5016,"date":"2022-03-13T22:58:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T22:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=5016"},"modified":"2022-03-15T21:15:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:15:38","slug":"and-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=5016","title":{"rendered":"&#8230;And Leicester."},"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.com\/detail\/1384881539\" 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:59.42761% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1384881539?et=yCgJ_T8STi54tqjrJNxcVA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=BHRvohJbCNb8DsV5CemqbXB0pkXYMbFDbH_b5GENnSQ=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\" width=\"594\" height=\"353\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, that was pleasant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leicester City&#8217;s Foxes came to London today, to play our Arsenal at the Grove.  They came in on a winning streak of four, whereas we&#8217;d won 8 of our last 10.  Our ongoing success since December, and their relative inefficiency in gaining points over the same period saw us start the game 15 points and 7 spots above them.  After a fine 2-0 victory we&#8217;ve extended those gaps, and regained 4th place in the table above Manchester&#8217;s red team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And such a fine victory it was.  Arsenal started with Baff&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4989\">predicted<\/a> lineup, Martinelli preferred for Smith-Rowe after the latter&#8217;s recovery from Covid.  Well-played for that, sir, as well as calling the final score, the shakiness of S\u00f6y\u00fcnc\u00fc, and Leicester&#8217;s poor record of defending set pieces.  All came good today, in an Arsenal performance that was professional, exciting, and assured (for the most part).  Strangely (?) Leicester opted to start with Tielemans on the bench, leaving only Maddison and Barnes to express their creativity.  Iheanacho started ahead of Daka in the absence of Vardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was Arsenal who had the best of a vibrant and engaging first half.  We started the game under a little pressure for the first five minutes or so, then broke out and started playing some lovely stuff.  We moved up into their half with ease, in part due to deep passing from White, Partey, and Ramsdale that was effective and accurate. Early on we kept getting Saka free on our right, creating trouble that led to little except mounting pressure on the Leicester defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we lost the ball our press was excellent.  It seemed like every time Maddison or Barnes (or just about anyone, really) had the ball on the Arsenal side of the center circle we had two or three players closing down the ball and cutting off the forward passing lanes.  It forced Leicester to play like Emery&#8217;s Arsenal, employing back passes to their defense, and, at best, playing the &#8220;horseshoe-of-death&#8221; looking for an opening.  Schmeichel rarely had time to pick a pass other than to his close defensive partners. We dispossessed them in their half often enough that by halftime we had 9 shots, 3 on target, even as they had a fair number more passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the 11th minute we had our goal.  After good work down the left by Gabi Tierney earned a corner, which Gabi took. Partey rose highest, mostly unmarked, at the near post and flicked it in to the net past a static Schmeichel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1-0 Leicester (Partey, 11)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal was nothing more than he deserved. His play all half was excellent, his passing accurate and incisive, he shielded the ball well, and he drove us between Leicester\u2019s lines.  Seven minutes later his second shot of the game came after we were camped in their box, trying to find a way through with Saka, Laca (who nearly put Saka in AGAIN with a sweet little backheel), and Xhaka. Xhaka\u2019s blocked shot was passed to Partey, who shifted feet and curled a shot that beat Schmeichel, but hit the angle of the crossbar and the post. We were very close to being up 2-0 at that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A second goal then would have been deserved.  Saka, Martinelli, and Xhaka all had efforts blocked or saved between the goal and Leicester&#8217;s first meaningful challenge to our defense.  Dewsbury-Hall sent a lovely diagonal ball from about the halfway line to Barnes at the right edge of the box.  Barnes controlled it pretty well, then tried to shoot past the onrushing Ramsdale, who parried it out for a City corner.  Ramsdale punched away the resulting corner nearly to the center circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That pass from Dewsbury-Hall was the start of a fifteen-minute period of Leicester ascendency, where they raised their game to match Arsenal and were a bit the better team.  Dewsbury-Hall, rather than Maddison, was the architect of their (relative) success; he put a pass into the box that was barely touched by Ramsdale to Maddison.  White proved his mettle with an excellent tackle in the middle of the box as Maddison sought to shift the ball to shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leicester continued to pass the ball, a lot; Albrighton showed his usual skill and verve, thankfully to little effect.  After a City throw-in on the left of our box, a rare Arsenal mistake.  Gabi and Gabriel miscommunicated who was to do what with Maddison&#8217;s flick into the box for Pereira, leading to a corner.  Albrighton kicked the corner off of Laca at the near post, leading to a second corner.  It was played short, then Albrighton put in a beautiful cross that Barnes headed towards the top corner of Arsenal&#8217;s net from inside the penaly spot.  Ramsdale stuck out a strong right hand and blocked the shot; Tierney put it out for a corner.  An excellent save, impressing even Rodgers, who&#8217;d thought it was in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramsdale was excellent all game, catching or punching everything that came his way.  His distribution was spot-on again and again.  Only late in the second half did one or two of his long kicks go awry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ihenacho\u2019s only contribution of the first half was to flick Gabriel in the face as halftime approached. This earned him a yellow card from the strangely competent Anthony Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Halftime:  Arsenal 1-0 Leicester<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second half, by and large, was ours.  Leicester never really threatened, and except for a few notable incidents was an exercise in us controlling the game with our pass and move play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first incident was (yet another) moment of Granit Xhaka stupidity.  Fortunate for us, it didn&#8217;t bite us at all hard.  After a passage of play we worked the ball back to Ramsdale, who sent a slightly overhit pass to Xhaka on the left, near to the halfway line.  Rather than just let the ball bounce out of play he backpedaled to the touchline, jumped up, and caught the ball.  Both the linesman and Taylor adjudged the ball to have been in play when Xhaka caught it, and awarded the free kick to City.  We were lucky not to have Xhaka given a yellow card (Taylor&#8217;s one real mistake today, imho), especially given what came shortly thereafter.  As well, Leicester didn&#8217;t do anything from the freekick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We ended up on a break down the left, and Gabi took it smartly and quickly to the endline, passing back to Laca, whose shot was blocked.  Laca passed the rebound to Xhaka, who looped the ball far post to Saka, whose shot was parried out by Schmeichel.  We recycled the ball, but it led to nothing.  Great stuff by Gabi, using hesitation and acceleration to shake loose from the defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 54th minute Mendy pulled Gabi back as he ran through for a Xhaka pass shortly thereafter, and it earned us a free kick from the left, even with the edge of the box.  M\u00f8 put in a curler to the near post, and after a short rebound White fired in a shot that was saved by Schmeichel.  From the rebound Partey stooped and headed the ball goalwards &#8212; wait was that a touch of the hand by S\u00f8y\u00fcnc\u00fc? The ball was cleared by Leicester to Ramsdale while the Arsenal players were all calling for handball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After about 30 seconds play was stopped for an Arsenal throw-in while VAR was checked.  After another 90 seconds Taylor ran over to review the replays himself; after another half-minute he gave the penalty, and the yellow card for handling.  Maybe if he caught it with two hands it wouldn&#8217;t have been a yellow?  Notwithstanding the minimal touch on the ball by the defender, Laca stepped up and smartly dispatched the penalty high to the diving Schmeichel&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2-0 Leicester (Lacazette, 59)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leicester brought on Justin for Pereira, and Ndidi for Mendy, hoping to make enough of a change to gain an advantage in their push to get back into the game.  Ramsdale saved a ping-ponging effort from Albrighton, but Arsenal&#8217;s defense was alive to all the chances City were taking.  Our defensive structure was coherent and active.  We forced the Foxes wide and backwards, keeping 10 men behind the ball (or nearly so).  When the opportunity arose we broke for their goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iheanacho was lucky to be left on the pitch after catching White with a flailing arm in the 68th minute.  He very well could have been sent off, as his first yellow was really for the same thing.  It would have been harsh, though, to be sent off for that.  Thomas should have gotten a yellow a short while later when he slashed Saka&#8217;s leg.  Iheanacho was replaced by Daka, who by the end of the game had earned his own yellow card for bringing down Saka outside of the City box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ndidi did force a save from Ramsdale with a snap shot, but City was largely bereft of ideas during the final 20 minutes of the tie.  Arsenal gave as good or more than they got, forcing Leicester into a number of blocks; Xhaka put a long-range effort over the bar.  We were treated by appearances by ESR and P\u00e9p\u00e9, on for Martinelli and then Saka.  Both played fine, but neither created anything of note.  We used our final sub to bring on Eddie for Laca, with Tierney becoming captain (now and for the future!); aside from  one chance to set ESR free on the break Nketiah didn&#8217;t have much time to be very effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stoppage time of 5 minutes was a bit of a surprise, but no matter.  The defense blocked everything, and even when the ball was loose Ramsdale bossed his area; Daka&#8217;s collision with him caused a good minute to come off the clock while he was treated.  Every Leicester thrust was repelled, and finally Taylor blew the whistle for full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Full time:  Arsenal 2-0 Leicester<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal outshot City 21 to 6, with 8 on target for Leicester&#8217;s 3&#8230;this despite having only 46% possession.  Even when Leicester was relatively on top of the game, it wasn&#8217;t so much to be worried about.  The defense was in top form, and the team stayed calm regardless of what Leicester was doing.  Our breaks were dangerous all game long.  On another day we could have had three or four goals, but only Ramsdale&#8217;s save from Barnes&#8217; header could have been one for Leicester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another clean sheet, finally goals for Partey and Laca, and another decent refereeing performance (maybe PGMOL&#8217;s money from Chelsea didn&#8217;t make it for this month, so they&#8217;re auditioning suitors?).  Back into fourth place, and our games in hand slowly mean less and less.  We may lose points to Liverpool (though I wouldn&#8217;t bet that way even if I wasn&#8217;t an Arsenal fan), but we&#8217;re in a strong position to defend to get into the Champions League places at the end of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did I say pleasant?  Delightfully so, yes.  Enjoy the glow, Gooners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Well, that was pleasant. Leicester City&#8217;s Foxes came to London today, to play our Arsenal at the Grove. They came in on a winning streak of four, whereas we&#8217;d won 8 of our last 10. Our ongoing success since December, and their relative inefficiency in gaining points over the same period [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016"}],"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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5016"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5043,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions\/5043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}