{"id":6008,"date":"2022-04-17T08:10:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T07:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6008"},"modified":"2022-04-19T09:49:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T08:49:42","slug":"good-friday-terrible-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6008","title":{"rendered":"Good Friday, Terrible Saturday"},"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\/1240024656\" 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:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1240024656?et=b_RqK6xwSFtPTbM_-BZraw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=KFB6IFs7MCBAb6aMIFPspDbNMz3x6hzf6lrE2chlHu4=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For the second week running I am forced to report on a game I really don&#8217;t have the stomach to review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal travelled to the South coast to face Southampton at St. Mary&#8217;s Stadium this afternoon.  We were coming off of two straight disheartening defeats, against opponents from whom we should have taken full points.  Poor team selection, awkward play, and missed opportunities cost us all six of the points on offer.  We all were hoping for a reversal of that fortune, especially given Brighton&#8217;s success earlier in the day at that tiny club from Middlesex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With our injured and absent list mounting, we played the best team we could put out, with Eddie up top flanked by Saka and Gabi, M\u00f8 in the middle with Xhaka and Lokonga aside and behind, and the Gabriel White Axis supported by Tavares and Cedric in front of Ramsdale.  ESR was left on the bench with P\u00e9p\u00e9; we brought up Hutchinson, Swanson, Ogungbo, and Azeez to make the numbers next to them with Capitola Rob and Mo&#8217;neny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should have been enough.  We had 3\/4 of the possession, outshot them 23-9, and forced 6 saves from Fraser Forster to the 2 they elicited from Ramsdale.  But it wasn&#8217;t enough.  We were beaten by a fine strike from Jan Bednarek just before halftime.  And the MOTM Forster kept our shots out of his goal with a series of fine saves.  And that was the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could mention Eddie&#8217;s essential absence in the second half after a decent showing in the first.  In the 17th minute he created our most promising opportunity by stealing the ball near the center circle from a Southampton defender (Lyanco?).  The defender held Eddie&#8217;s arm just enough to prevent him from beating the other defender (Valery?), forcing Eddie to pass to Gabi out right.  Gabi&#8217;s sumptious cross to Saka was turned towards goal high to Forster&#8217;s right; just about any other goalie would not have reached it.  Forster did, and that was our moment.  If we had any other striker of note on the bench Eddie should have been substituted early in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had a couple of other minor moments where Forster did well to save or punch away, but persisted in playing the tight horseshoe of death, arcing from corner to corner and never really getting penetration either with a quality cross or by breaking their lines with a quick through-ball.  Everything was overhit, underhit, or not chosen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good notes:  As I said above, Eddie&#8217;s first half was good, not so much the second.  After the last two poor outings, Tavares showed he could play the position for most of the whole game; I thought he did well, and showed good recovery of spirit if nothing else.  Lokonga looked much better than last week with Xhaka in support.  The former looked assured on the ball and was able to move it quickly through the middle with a number of nice turns and some incisive passing.  The latter did the job in midfield, advancing the ball more than he usually does with his tendency to play backwards.  When he was forced to be the 3rd of a back three for the final 20 minutes he played made no major mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>M\u00f8 looks like he must be carrying and injury, or perhaps an illness.  He is not moving as well as he was prior to the interlull, nor making the same kinds of passes to free up our front 3.  Gabi and Saka looked good, though not sharp enough.  They&#8217;re both being found out for their cuts inside, and teams are double-triple-quadruple-teaming them on those cuts in the absence of someone in the middle who can actually score a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defensive lapse that led to their goal was largely down to a slow Ben White not getting up after he barged himself off the post.  When the ball fell to Bednarek White should have been up between him and goal.  Instead, Bednarek had a free shot from six yards which Ramsdale had little chance of stopping (and good on him for getting a forearm on it; it would have been a stunner if he&#8217;d saved it).  Not to rag on Ben, but he made a few mistakes throughout.  Gabriel made fewer; even though Southampton broke through a number of times they held firm until help arrived.  Except the once.  Sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now what?  Three straight losses, wherein we scored one goal, is really worrying.  Had we won all three we&#8217;d be a point ahead of Chelsea in 3rd place, though Chelsea would have a game in hand.  Alas, we&#8217;re now settled into 6th place, behind United on goals for (even though we also have a game in hand).  We will have to try to get a point out of Chelsea, and beat United, West Ham, and Tottenham over the next month, or we could fall out of the European places altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest question: where are our goals?  When teams pack the area, how do we score?  When we break, how do we score?  When we pass and move, how do we score?  We are dying from lack of goals, and I don&#8217;t know what is the solution.  I daresay MA8 and his staff had better figure out something, and quickly.  We are running out of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But enough with the negativity.  On behalf of all of us here at Goonerholicsforever, Happy Easter, Chag Pesach Sameach, and Ramadan Mubarak to Arsenal fans of the world.  Even in our time of (relative) crisis, there is hope!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images For the second week running I am forced to report on a game I really don&#8217;t have the stomach to review. Arsenal travelled to the South coast to face Southampton at St. Mary&#8217;s Stadium this afternoon. We were coming off of two straight disheartening defeats, against opponents from whom we should [&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\/6008"}],"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=6008"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6021,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6008\/revisions\/6021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}