{"id":6345,"date":"2022-07-17T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T07:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6345"},"modified":"2022-07-21T06:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T05:56:35","slug":"giving-everton-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6345","title":{"rendered":"Giving Everton the blues"},"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\/1409221059\" 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\/1409221059?et=qudv4HwySpVnoc20kynXKw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=MvO9McTpiLVBHX0WCSjn4IKR9bJde_ewpIna9fhy6uE=&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>Arsenal played the first game of their preseason trip to America Saturday evening at 7 pm in Baltimore, Maryland&#8217;s M&amp;T Bank Stadium.  The unlucky opponents were our Premiership co-strivers Everton, who were playing their first preseason game, period.  A crowd of nearly 40,000 watched the two teams wage their on-pitch battle; though the stadium was only filled to about half-capacity, the majority of those attending were wearing the red and white.  It was a warm, humid night that necessitated the now-standard preseason water breaks midway through each half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given that Arsenal travelled to the States with only one Academy tyro (Reuell Walters) it was no surprise to see that Mikel Arteta opted to start with a fairly strong team.  He gave first Arsenal starts to William Saliba, and Gabriel Jesus, and offered Thomas Partey a welcome return:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Turner<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Cedric &#8212; Saliba &#8212; Gabriel &#8212; Tavares<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey &#8212; Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8212;  \u00d8degaard &#8212; Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Jesus<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lampard set out what seemed to be a very strong team, with Calvert-Lewin up front ahead of Gray, Davies, Doucoure, and Alli (boooooooo), with a back five of Godfrey, Mina, and Holgate in the middle flanked by Nkounkou and Patterson.  England favorite Pickford started in Everton&#8217;s goal, and he was called into action repeatedly in the first half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We started by far the brighter of the two sides, having within the first two minutes two chances, first from Martinelli then from Saka blocked from inside the penalty spot after good wing play down the left.  We were on top of Everton, pressing them every time we lost the ball, winning it back through forcing errors or with our pressure on the ball.  Every time we went forward we carried threat, from cutbacks, diagonal balls, and crosses, and for the first twenty minutes was really one-way traffic.  Jesus stole the ball just outside their box and laced a shot off the far post.  Everton were reduced to a couple of counter-attacks, and a dive by Alli attempting to win a penalty.  The first of those counter-attacks was offside, the second Turner saved well from Nkounkou, leading to a corner and a Mina header wide in the 23d minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon we were back in their faces, forcing them to pass into touch or straight to Arsenal players.  Doucoure tried to hit Gabriel with his handbag, but Gabriel just laughed and suggested he should pick up something from Fendi.  At the 30 minute mark we&#8217;d had 2\/3 of the possession, had outshot them 3-1, and were clearly the better squad on the pitch.  The crowd could occasionally be heard, but no doubt the intermixing of two sets of fans whose knowledge of chants is less than encyclopedic led to the library atmosphere.  Until we scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After some nice work by Partey through to Saka that was cut out by Pickford, the Everton goalie threw the ball out to be intercepted by Martinelli; he carried the ball to the endline and tried a cross that was cut out well by Mina for a corner.  M\u00f8 took the corner, Pickford flapped, and it landed at the feet of Jesus (how weird it does feel to write that).  His first touch was a miracle, and his second raised the roof of the net like Lazarus from his tomb.  Ok, ok, no more.  I can&#8217;t wait to see how Trev handles it, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1-0 Everton (Jesus 33&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our second goal followed just three minutes later.  Gabriel threaded a long pass to Jesus in the midfield and he turned quickly down the left channel towards goal, with Martinelli and Saka in support to his right.  Jesus flicked a perfect pass beyond Gabi to the feet of Saka, who made no mistake from three yards out.  The announcers said there might have been a question of offside, but Saka was clearly onside when Jesus sent the pass.  It was a lovely goal, and so good to see glimpses of Arsenal&#8217;s future in the way they played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2-0 Everton (Saka 36&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that was it, largely.  We traded fouls for the rest of the half, though Godfrey on Jesus led me to wonder if the latter would have to be substituted right then.  But he rose and from the resultant free kick M\u00f8 fired high from just above the D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To start the second half  the teams combined to make 17 substitutions.  Arsenal ended up&#8230;well, I couldn&#8217;t really tell the formation.  3 center-halves, a full-back, and no recognized creator in midfield, with Maitland-Niles joining Mo&#8217;neny and Xhaka.  Eddie came in up front with P\u00e9p\u00e9 on his right.  Everton&#8217;s changes of note were to change Pickford for young Billy Crellin, and for our old boy Iwobi to come in for the still-scum Alli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All those changes seriously put paid to the flow of the game.  Turner was given a fright in the first minute from the active Rond\u00f3n, who tried to lob the Arsenal keeper after winning an Arsenal mistake inside the halfway line.  Turner saved well.  After that it was choppy, stop start, and Everton had more and more of the ball, even if chances were few and far between.  Rond\u00f3n tested our defense again in the 66th minute, but his shot was blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 71st minute Arsenal made again a raft of changes, bringing off Saliba and Gabi for Mar\u00ed and Nelson; Lokonga and young Walters replaced Xhaka and Magalh\u00e3es.  Eddie worked his socks off trying to make something happen, and had a couple of shots blocked and passes nicked away at the last moment.  Right at the end of the match P\u00e9p\u00e9 had a shot saved after intricate work from Nketiah.  And there were more handbags, with Sambi thrown to the ground by Tarkowski; our players gathered and showed Tarkowski where to get off.  From within the scrum the ref whistled for full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we won 2-0, and showed some movement at times that teams better than Everton are going to find hard to defend against.  Our front group of Gabigol, Jesus, Saka, and M\u00f8, with support from Partey and Xhaka (today) pressed intelligently and interchanged well, leading to two delightful goals.  Partey looked very good, moving well within a crowd and usually finding the right pass.  Turner made a sharp save and, while not tested much, passed this next test.  I wasn&#8217;t particularly impressed with Bellerin or Nelson when they came on, but Eddie showed continued sharpness, guile, and a hunger I don&#8217;t recall seeing last year until the end of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our defense wasn&#8217;t really troubled by Everton&#8217;s (lack of) forward play, but I noticed Saliba was calm and cool and controlled the back line well for his first attempt.  Nuno was rocking up and down the left side, and had some nifty footwork that allowed him to play passes inside that could have led to good things.  I still don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s our future there, but good for him for persisting and trying to raise his game.  Cedric was strong, but largely anonymous, and I think he&#8217;s going to cement the #2 spot behind Tomi when it comes to the season.  The most revealing thing of the game was young Walters, who was excellent going forward and quick to defend, getting into the right spots and picking a few good passes.  If he comes good in the Europa League and League cup games he will be a welcome addition to the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I enjoyed the first half much more than the second, and for a training exercise it made me wonder about charging \u00a35.99 to watch.  Arsenal should perhaps rethink that policy\/process, or at least pick better teams against which to play.  Lampard&#8217;s men were sorely outclassed in nearly every phase of the game, even as it was clear Arsenal were playing the game of exploration at a deeper level than they were the game of football.  But it certainly gives me the taste and desire for more Arsenal football, and I&#8217;ll be happy when the season starts and our results become meaningful.  Oh, and I am really glad we dodged the bullet that is Calvert-Lewin!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The HolicsRopeyLeague Returns!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Older than time and more prestigious than Crufts, the HolicsRopeyLeague is back.  Family friendly footy fun!  Any and all Holics are welcome to join and pit their wits against the experts (who they? Ed.) over the 2022\/23 Arsenal Premier League season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only two simple rules:  (1) No spuds (2) At least one player from The Arsenal in the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you joined the league last season then you will be automatically placed in the league once you enter a team for this season &#8211; it&#8217;s just like the Hotel California \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For first-time entrants &#8211; please just post a comment asking for details and we will e-mail you the entry code for the HolicsRopeyLeague. It&#8217;s a very easy process and the more the merrier!&nbsp; See you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal played the first game of their preseason trip to America Saturday evening at 7 pm in Baltimore, Maryland&#8217;s M&amp;T Bank Stadium. The unlucky opponents were our Premiership co-strivers Everton, who were playing their first preseason game, period. A crowd of nearly 40,000 watched the two teams wage their on-pitch battle; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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\/6345"}],"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=6345"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6369,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345\/revisions\/6369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}