{"id":6629,"date":"2022-09-09T16:05:01","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6629"},"modified":"2022-09-17T05:27:16","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T04:27:16","slug":"endings-and-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6629","title":{"rendered":"Endings and Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Picture courtesy of Daily Express<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal kicked off their Europa League campaign with a 2-1 win against FC Zurich away in Switzerland on Thursday afternoon. Arteta named a strong side whilst giving full debuts to Marquinhos and Fabio Vieira. The Gunners made a shaky start before composing themselves after about ten minutes. Martinelli saw a glancing header flash wide following an excellent cross from Marquinhos. Then on 16 minutes the deadlock was broken following a fast break. Vieira gained possession just outside the Arsenal box spraying an exquisite pass out to Nketiah. Our number fourteen drove forward before his deflected cross found Marquinhos who was arriving like a steam train into the box and the Brazilian teenager finished emphatically with his right foot. He then set off on an emotional celebration following his first senior goal for Arsenal on his debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the rest of the first half Arsenal had nearly all the ball without creating an awful lot. You could tell the intensity wasn\u2019t as great as it would be for a league game and there was almost a pre-season friendly feel to proceedings. Then, right on the stroke of half time we gifted Zurich a way back into the game after Nketiah conceded a penalty following a tangle of legs. The penalty was converted, and the Gunners went in level at the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at half time the significance of the game was put into perspective when it was announced by Buckingham Palace that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away at the age of 96. Earlier in the day news had broken that the Queen\u2019s doctors had placed her under medical supervision so for many this was the news they had all been dreading. But the news still came as a huge shock, not just to us in the UK but in the Commonwealth and around the globe. She had reigned for just over seventy years; it was merely a couple of months ago when we were all celebrating her Platinum Jubilee. For the majority, she was the only monarch we had known; there is not one person on the planet who hasn\u2019t lived most of their lives under her reign. But this morning we wake up under the reign of a king for the first time in seven decades and it will take some time for the nation to process this ground-breaking news. May she rest in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, there remained a football match to be completed. The players would have been told of the news in the dressing room and before the start of the second half a minute\u2019s silence was held. Arsenal began the second half on the front foot with a lot of possession being had. Tierney saw his low drive saved, Nketiah also had an effort saved. And on 62 minutes, we restored our lead. Martinelli switched the play to Marquinhos on the right who cut inside and sent a delicious floating cross over to Nketiah at the far post who nodded in for his first goal of the season. The first Arsenal goal under the reign of King Charles III was scored by an Englishman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta made a raft of substitutions with Sunday\u2019s encounter with Everton in mind. Off came Tierney, Vieira and Marquinhos, on came Zinchenko, Odegaard and Saka. Arsenal continued to dominate without extending their lead. Jesus then came on to replace Nketiah and the Brazilian saw his left footed effort well saved by the Zurich \u2018keeper. But the game was won on an emotional day. It was a low-key affair where the events of the game paled into insignificance following the death of Her Majesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up for The Arsenal, we face the visit of a winless Everton at the Emirates at lunchtime on Sunday. That is if the game does go ahead. [All Premier League fixtures were postponed by publication time – Eds.] But in the meantime, Arsenal now sits on the top of Group A as well as the Premier League. Long may that continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Arsenal kicked off their Europa League campaign with a 2-1 win against FC Zurich away in Switzerland on Thursday afternoon. Arteta named a strong side whilst giving full debuts to Marquinhos and Fabio Vieira. The Gunners made a shaky start before composing themselves after about ten minutes. Martinelli saw a glancing header flash wide following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/6629"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6631,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6629\/revisions\/6631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}