{"id":6150,"date":"2022-05-09T12:57:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T11:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6150"},"modified":"2022-05-11T17:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T16:35:16","slug":"north-london-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6150","title":{"rendered":"North London Forever"},"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\/1240535792\" 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\/1240535792?et=3rc2ndo8TP9TPgHpjtJ1cg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=yUXaJF-gYQK30zwacF4-b7al5j6_0adGLNZIbrVukmA=&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=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It was about 2pm on a glorious sun kissed afternoon at the Emirates when it came. The Arsenal big flag had been up and down the North Bank as the teams ran out and then, as they huddled, over the PA came Louis Dunford\u2019s \u2018The Angel\u2019. As the chorus began, the whole crowd joined in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>North London Forever<br>Whatever the weather<br>These streets are our own<br>And my heart will leave you never<br>My blood will forever<br>Run through the stone<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This song had gone viral amongst the Arsenal fanbase in the last few weeks and many, including your correspondent, would love to see it as our anthem. It\u2019s about Islington rather than Arsenal. But You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone doesn\u2019t mention Liverpool FC and Sunshine on Leith doesn\u2019t mention Hibs. Dunford is a local lad and an Arsenal fan and it\u2019s nice to have something come up via the fans rather from the top down (like that dreadful dirge The Wonder of You in the early Emirates years). When I shared this a few days ago, it brought back evocative memories from our ex pat Gooners like bt8 and North Bank Ned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other emotional thing yesterday was the celebration of the 70\/71 double winning team, a year on from their 50<sup>th<\/sup>anniversary but delayed because of Covid. In attendance were Bob Wilson. Charlie George, Eddie Kelly, Sammy Nelson, George Graham, Pat Rice and Captain Fantastic, Frank McLintock. You will recall that this blog went big on the 50th anniversary last year (well most of us are old enough to have been there) and our interview with Bob and Pat is still available on the top bar. Sadly the club messed up the presentation of the players. It was short, perfunctory and, to be frank, not well handled by Arsenal. Ah well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, to the football. As the teams lined up the surprising thing was not that Super Tomiyasu had replaced Nuno in the team but that he was playing at left back, obviously to counter the dangerous Raphina. The team started like a train, perhaps buoyed up by the very vocal support. We poured down the left flank again and again and pressed hard. After 9 minutes Luke Ayling (of whom more anon) played a shallow back pass to the Leeds goalkeeper, Meslier. He should have put it into row Z, but took a touch, miscontrolled, and Eddie was on him like a cheetah on a gazelle, tackling the ball into the net. I thought this was a key point in the game, making both the goalie and the Leeds team very nervous.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Martinelli was giving Luke Ayling a torrid afternoon. He was played in to the left bye-line where he slalomed past several Leeds players before delivering a cutback to Eddie who swept the ball in with his left foot. Great run, great finish, great goal. Two nil up in 11 minutes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few minutes later Gabi again received the ball on the left, this time a strongly hit pass that he did well to keep in by the corner flag. The former Arsenal player, Ayling dashed in and jumped two footed at Gabi who was probably lucky not to be badly hurt. The ref came over and gave a yellow card, a brain dead decision that was shortly changed to a red by VAR via a ref review. Off he went and rightly so. Leeds have the highest number of yellow and red cards in the whole Prem, a new record. \u201cyou dirty Northern bastards\u201d sang the crowd. Dirty Leeds indeed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, a quarter of the game gone, 2-0 up and Leeds down to ten men. Surely this would be the day we knocked in five or six and improved our goal difference? Er, no! We made chance after chance but butchered them all. Eddie could have had his hat-trick. \u00d8degaard and Martinelli should have added the third in the second half. All were missed and then with 25 minutes to go, Leeds won their first corner of the match. Despite the fact that we have been one of the best teams in the league at defending corners, the ball fell to an unmarked Llorente on the back post where, with Leeds first shot, he pummelled it past Ramsdale.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well it all got a bit nervy after that. Leeds didn\u2019t make clear chances, but won another corner. Meslier was urged forward into the box. The ball was cleared and fell to Pepe on the half way line, with an open goal at his mercy and only Dan James near him. Instead of pushing the ball forwards and making it a foot race, he tried to check inside James who dispossessed him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was one final free kick for Leeds at the half way line. Pumped into the box with the Leeds goalkeeper again sent forward, it bobbled around and there was a half chance&nbsp;&nbsp;for Leeds before Ramsdale grabbed it, gratefully. And that was pretty much that. We needed to win, we had won and are now 4 points clear of Spurs with three games to go and the NLD on Thursday. Win then and a Champions League place is ours and St Totteringham can begin singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this end of the season it\u2019s the results that matter, not the form. But I thought Eddie and Gabi were outstanding, as was Tomi (my how we have missed him) and Elneny (new contract please) and Xhaka ran midfield, with the much vaunted Phillips reduced to defending instead of creating.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we filed out, the chorus of The Angel was played again. We all joined in.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An emotional day indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images It was about 2pm on a glorious sun kissed afternoon at the Emirates when it came. The Arsenal big flag had been up and down the North Bank as the teams ran out and then, as they huddled, over the PA came Louis Dunford\u2019s \u2018The Angel\u2019. As the chorus began, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6150"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6175,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions\/6175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}