{"id":6187,"date":"2022-05-13T09:37:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T08:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6187"},"modified":"2022-05-15T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-15T14:07:20","slug":"disappointing-night-at-the-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6187","title":{"rendered":"Disappointing Night At The Lane."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTread softly, because you tread on my dreams\u201d \u2013 W.B. Yeats<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having stayed busy all day in order not to have to think about the game, around 7pm tonight, my thoughts began to turn to the great North London derbies at the predecessor to The Armitage Shanks. Of course, May \u201871 will live long in the memory whether you were there or, as in my case, were probably tucked up in bed by kick off time; December \u201878 and the 5-0 at the Lane with Brady scoring THAT goal; \u201804 and the ridiculous way that their fans treated a draw, meaning that we had won the league, as if they had achieved anything at all.   Then again, it hasn\u2019t all been good. I was there in April \u201883 for a 5-0 drubbing followed by more than a gentle jog back the mile to Seven Sisters encouraged, as a fox by a pack of hounds, by their sweet-smelling fans. Which set of memories would be added to tonight?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams came out and I was delighted to see an unchanged side from the defeat of Leeds, with the return of Ben White to the bench adding weight and strength there. For their part, they were missing Romero, who has been talked up by the media and recalled Sanchez to take his place. For the first time in a while, our bench also looked the stronger with theirs seemingly populated by a series of unfamiliar names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started brightly, pressing them all over the pitch which was encouraging. They performed a trademark break in the 5th<\/sup>minute with Kulusevski being well marshalled by Gabriel and resulting in some petulance on the part of the former when he didn\u2019t get a penalty. In many ways this was to set the tone of the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal continued their bright start and in the 8th<\/sup> minute fashioned a chance for Saka who unfortunately slipped over. Is it me or do our players tend to slip more than others? Perhaps we can hire a studs coach to ensure the right level of grip on the pitch. I am only half joking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 10th<\/sup> minute, we had the first of the tussles, you can\u2019t really describe them as more than that between Holding and Son. With Tomi playing left back, it seemed to me that Arteta, rightly, did not want to allow Son time to turn and run at Cedric so Holding was tasked with pushing right up on him when he received the ball back to goal in midfield. Son of course used this first coming together as an opportunity to roll around as though hit by a sniper when in fact it was some minor contact from Holding. Manc miserabilist Gary Neville tried to talk this up on Sky commentary, as he would and again, the tone had been set..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of minutes later Son, not being allowed to get his own way, deliberately tried to wind up Holding, after some more handbags, with Holding laughing at him. Once again Neville, the high priest of fair play himself, said it ought to have resulted in a booking. This is the Gary Neville who kicked Reyes off the park. The referee was by now beginning to climb into Son\u2019s pocket, perhaps encouraged by the vociferous crowd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 15th<\/sup> minute, we had an excellent break resulting from a superb ball inside the Tottenham right fullback from Xhaka to Martinelli, but it came to nought, followed in short order by a booking for Davies in the left back position deliberately clamping on Saka, having been nudged off the ball by the former and preventing a run towards goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly though, the pendulum began to swing their way and in the 20th<\/sup> minute, the referee correctly gave a penalty for a pretty crass push in the back by Cedric on Son, who, clearly thinking it was Easter, had risen from the afterlife following his previous rolling around on the floor to get into a great position for a header from an excellent cross.  Kane took it and the result was never in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-0 Spurs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 25th<\/sup> minute saw the renewed battle between Holding and Son this time resulting in a booking for Holding, with which I won\u2019t quibble. Holding should now have been advised to minimise contact. The goal and booking had us rattled and we began to revert to sloppy play, losing the ball in poor positions as they pressed us, with Tomi making an excellent tackle to block a shot from Kane on 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the night was well and truly decided as in the 32nd<\/sup> minute, Holding was sent off. An aerial through ball towards Son was clearly going over both his head and that of Holding to the keeper, Ramsdale. However rather than simply watching it, Holding stepped across Kane and appeared to lean into him with his shoulder. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Son took this as his cue to roll around and the inevitable second yellow was brandished. The referee could have simply given a foul since the ball was clearly harmless and the contact was not exactly that of a Roberto Duran right hook. However, he had by now been conditioned by Son, and in fairness Holding\u2019s impetuousness did nothing to alleviate this, to see it as a serious foul and so the die was cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was then only a matter of time and Kane scored a goal from a corner, crouching to nod in a knock on, with Eddie sleeping rather than tracking his man. We had gone to pieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2-0 Spurs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We staged a brief attempt at a comeback shortly before half time with what I believe was our first shot on target in the 42nd minute by Nketiah, followed by an appalling hash from Odegaard after splendid work from Martinelli in the 44th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time Sp*rs 2 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The players came out for the second half and most noticeable from my perspective was that there was still no sign of Ben White. Perhaps this was Arteta mentally consigning the game to the dustbin of history. I prefer to hope this is the case, rather than that White is not yet fit enough to play. Either way, we started like an old Austin Morris after it had been parked in a field for 30 years with the lights on and conceded another soft goal in the 47th minute to our nemesis, Son. If the game were not already lost, it was now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In truth there was little to talk about in the second half, beyond the fact that Gabriel had to go off after 79 mins with what looked like a hamstring strain. As if the evening hadn\u2019t already treated us like an unwanted guest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score Spurs 3 Arsenal 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

With Gabriel going off injured, Holding banned and White seemingly not rated as fit enough, we are struggling for Monday night. At the end of the season the chickens are coming home to roost in terms of squad size, but let\u2019s remember we have made considerable progress this season even to be in with a shout for 4th<\/sup> place. The other concern is that the squad needs to be smarter. Holding has been around long enough now to know what Son is all about and that the combination of noisy crowd, known play actor and weak referee would need to be managed. These are the kind of issues which the manager now has to deal with, having got rid of nearly all of the dross and built an excellent team spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onwards and northwards to Newcastle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COYG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTread softly, because you tread on my dreams\u201d \u2013 W.B. Yeats Having stayed busy all day in order not to have to think about the game, around 7pm tonight, my thoughts began to turn to the great North London derbies at the predecessor to The Armitage Shanks. Of course, May \u201871 will live long in […]<\/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\/6187"}],"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=6187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6197,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions\/6197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}