{"id":6524,"date":"2022-08-26T05:22:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T04:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6524"},"modified":"2022-08-28T10:06:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T09:06:52","slug":"will-we-ride-a-renewed-happy-train-from-the-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6524","title":{"rendered":"Will We Ride a Renewed Happy Train from the Arsenal?"},"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\/1416924313\" 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:69.36027% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1416924313?et=yyGwYIp8QVdSpvX0unbGUQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=IZrEmuxXvYWVHjIyP-x471Fw1GnFkVOaDfga4zwuatc=&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=\"412\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The better team from Fulham travels to Ashburton Grove on Saturday for a late afternoon kickabout, with a 1730 start, local time.  The Cottagers currently sit five places above their neighbors from the Bus Stop (ok, only a point above with three more goals in the differential basket, but still \ud83d\ude42 ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal, of course, sit atop the table after three games (sing &#8220;we&#8217;re top of the league!&#8221;).  Admittedly, and with the rose-tinteds set on the side table, our three games were against teams we are expected to beat.  And, yeah, it&#8217;s only three games.  But it was the manner, the method, the verve, the vitality, and the beauty of the football we played that has launched a thousand happy trains into the Arsenal <em>lebenswelt<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of happy trains, and taking up the rose-tinteds, we can hope that for the first time in more than a decade The Goonerholic(sforever) Happy Train will pick us up at Arsenal or Holloway Road and carry us along home after the match, its Columbian medicine cabinet restocked with free samples of green goodness from California (and perhaps a new wine bar).  Just don&#8217;t forget to shelve Shaft&#8217;s moustache wax, and certainly avoid stepping on Wofie&#8217;s Jimmy Choos (or his MiuMius, or whatever brand he&#8217;s currently sporting).  If the twins are still on the train, tell them I&#8217;ll be over in October!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And long may we ride.  But first we must remember that the skin of a banana can be slippery underfoot, or under the wheels of the Happy Train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cottage, er, Pie<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming off the weekend win at Brentford the Cottagers played Tuesday at League 2&#8217;s Crawley Town in the 2nd round of the Carabao Cup.  Led by ex-Arsenal U23 skipper Kevin &#8220;To&#8221; Betsy, Crawley Town strolled to a comfortable 2-0 victory against a largely second-string Fulham.  Fulham started 10 players who usually don&#8217;t start PL games; now that another ex-Arsenal man Bernd Leno has debuted against Brentford in the league it may well be that none of the side that played Crawley Town will make an appearance except from the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mitrovi\u0107 is their leading goalscorer with 3 (and he has previous with us from his time at Newcastle, earning a red-card in 2015 for stamping on Coquelin).  They offer threat from others in their 4-2-3-1 formation, including second striker De Cordova-Reid and Pereira from the midfield.  Their defense hasn&#8217;t been terrible, but can be expected to exhibit porosity, having let in 4 goals so far this season (2 from Liverpool and 2 from Brentford).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fulham&#8217;s injury list is short, with long-term absentees Solomon and Wilson possibly joined by Kebano, who picked up a groin injury in training before the Brentford game.  He&#8217;s scheduled to be a game-day decision for coach Marco Silva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Da da da da da da da da&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal will have had a full week&#8217;s rest after our 3-0 juicing of Bournemouth&#8217;s Cherries (nurse!), and with the exception of long-termer Reiss Nelson Super Mik has a full squad from which to choose on Saturday.  Given the consistency of our first three lineups, unless there&#8217;s a refined tactical or a red-zone reason for not starting a player I expect we will start as we have been starting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White &#8212; Saliba! &#8212; Gabriel &#8212; Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">M\u00f8 &#8212; Thomas &#8212; Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8212; Jes\u00fas &#8212; Gabigol<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I expect us to be fast out of the blocks, with the interplay between our forwards and midfield augmented by our tucked-in or overlapping fullbacks.  Our defense should be solid against Fulham&#8217;s wing play, with Saliba! and Gabriel cementing their partnership into a wall through which Mitrovi\u0107 will have a hard time scoring.  But, remember, the banana skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I expect a good game from Saka, and with an assist or perhaps a goal; while he has been excellent this season his contributions have been in the build-up rather than the final product.  His Ego seems to be such that he can continue that way indefinitely, but I have to believe that same Ego is going to burst through and we&#8217;ll see him catch fire.  Gabigol is another who is right on the edge of blowing up, hopefully adding assists to this season&#8217;s goalscoring threat.  Indeed, M\u00f8&#8217;s brace against the Cherries might have given him the taste for more; his silk is mixed with steel, and that lovely left foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there&#8217;s our savio(u)r, Gabriel Jes\u00fas, who leads the team in both goals (tied) and assists, and rests tied atop the League table for goal involvements with Leeds&#8217; Rodrigo.  His presence and its effects have been written about <em>ad infinitum<\/em>; needless to say we have leveled up at least a few notches since he has joined the team, and can expect that to continue.  Such a potent front three plus midfield we haven&#8217;t seen in any number of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our bench will be uncertain, but won&#8217;t include P\u00e9p\u00e9, and shouldn&#8217;t include Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Bellerin.  P\u00e9p\u00e9 has been loaned to Nice in France&#8217;s League Un; AMN may be off to Southampton in the PL, also on loan.  Bellerin still doesn&#8217;t know where he&#8217;s going, but longs for one of the white cities of Al-Andalus.  This might be a game for Super Mik to blood one or another of our young tyros.  We&#8217;ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holics&#8217; Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping in mind the banana-skin potential <em>contra<\/em> our security at the back and our firepower up front, your best odds are on the final score or goalscorer.  It&#8217;s clear the bookies see our fourth straight win as the likely outcome.  For final score 4-0 gets you 14s, 4-1 gets you 18s, and, if you think a draw is likely 0-0 or 2-2 are 20-1 or above.  Gabigol is your best bet at 11\/2 to score anytime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So have at it, enjoy the game wherever you are, and pack at least your toothbrush so that you can jump onto The Happy Train as it is leaving the station&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images The better team from Fulham travels to Ashburton Grove on Saturday for a late afternoon kickabout, with a 1730 start, local time. The Cottagers currently sit five places above their neighbors from the Bus Stop (ok, only a point above with three more goals in the differential basket, but still \ud83d\ude42 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524"}],"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=6524"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6550,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions\/6550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}