{"id":5965,"date":"2022-04-04T22:52:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T21:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=5965"},"modified":"2022-04-08T13:55:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T12:55:44","slug":"eagles-prey-on-weak-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=5965","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Prey on Weak Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image courtesy of world-bird-sanctuary.blogspot.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The squad was announced at 7pm to the sound of massed intake of breath from Arsenal fans everywhere as Ramsdale returns but no Tierney nor P\u00e9p\u00e9 in the squad at all. Apparently, the former may be out for the rest of the season. International football strikes again. Martinelli is only on the bench following his Brazil debut, along with Swanson, Flores, Ogungbo from the U23\u2019s. It is the first time I can remember where Palace\u2019s bench looks significantly stronger than Arsenal\u2019s. Doesn\u2019t bode well! For Palace, Zaha is fit to play, and I fully expect him to put on his best Greg Louganis impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace start strongly, pressing all over the pitch and creating mild disarray in the Arsenal defensive ranks as early as the second minute. One such piece of pressing though, nearly backfires in the third minute with a quick break from Arsenal as Palace press, just let down by poor final pass from Laca. Despite this, Palace are clearly beginning to dominate and their fans, who don\u2019t need any invitation to create an incredible noise. In the 10th<\/sup> minute, Zaha\u2019s chronic inner-ear problem has already manifested itself twice. A player with such skill but just so irritating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all the pressing and our marked lack of composure all over the pitch, the seemingly inevitable came to pass in the 17th<\/sup>minute.  And in many ways it was the exemplar of how badly we had played up until that point..  Gallagher lofted the ball way to the back post from a free kick. Two Arsenal defenders\u2026well, don\u2019t defend with Tavares performing some kind of a dying swan act to allow his man to head it back to some other bloke to score. I fear for Arsenal now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace 1  Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite possibly shaken by his part in the first goal, Tavares is beginning to look like Bambi on ice when the ball comes near.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in 24th<\/sup> minute Gabriel again decides that tonight we are at home to Mr Cock-Up and charges forward to cut out a pass into Ayew but misses, while Tavares stands on like a bloke admiring the cut of his suit in a shop window reflection\u2026 and Ayew passes it into the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace 2  Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of the first half arrives. Palace have turned Arsenal from wild beasts into carrion in the first 45 minutes. Our only hope is that Palace can\u2019t keep up this tempo in the second half, and that we can\u2019t be so bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, Tavares is taken off at half time and Martinelli is brought on with Arsenal moving Xhaka to left back. It has to be said, not a resounding vote of confidence in Tavares after his last outing against Nottingham Forest in which he was equally undistinguished.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 53rd<\/sup> minute, Partey gets a yellow for a foul on Schlupp and for a number of minor fouls when totalled up, I suspect. We then begin to see some better football being played by Arsenal with Martinelli on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zaha continues to perform like the prima donna in Swan Lake. On roller skates. With a wonky wheel. He really is among the most frustrating and irritating players I can remember watching. So much skill and yet he\u2019s constantly playing up to the \u201cmost fouled player in the league\u201d soubriquet. Of course, that is a misnomer as having the most free-kicks given for you is not quite the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good period from Arsenal continues and we have a couple of decent efforts from Saka and ESR. On 66 mins Cedric is taken off for Nketiah and on 67 mins \u2013 another piece of smooth fast paced passing results in \u00d8degaard screwing the ball past the post. Much better now and Palace possibly wilting. But is it too late?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then in the 72nd<\/sup> minute Bambi finally gets what he wants when the slightest of contact in the box results in a penalty. I have no problem with this being a penalty. But only if the same standard of contact is adhered to every time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace 3 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the re-start the clearly injured Partey is replaced by Lokonga. Before the end, Nketiah hits the bar at 3-0 and if it weren\u2019t for bad luck we\u2019d have no luck at all. Game over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are now well and truly in a poor position. Seemingly both first-choice full backs are injured, the second choice left back frankly shouldn\u2019t start again this season. Partey looks like he\u2019s out for a while. P\u00e9p\u00e9 is not even on the bench for who knows what reason? We still have some winnable games ahead of us. However, it isn\u2019t the defeat so much as the manner of the defeat which is the concern for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The squad was announced at 7pm to the sound of massed intake of breath from Arsenal fans everywhere as Ramsdale returns but no Tierney nor P\u00e9p\u00e9 in the squad at all. Apparently, the former may be out for the rest of the season. International football strikes again. Martinelli is only on the bench following his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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\/5965"}],"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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5965"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5972,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5965\/revisions\/5972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}