{"id":6871,"date":"2022-10-28T12:22:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T11:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6871"},"modified":"2022-10-29T09:15:40","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T08:15:40","slug":"gamble-responsibly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6871","title":{"rendered":"Gamble Responsibly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From quora.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the fact that we received such a small allocation of tickets, combined with the renewed zeal of the match-going fanbase ensuring sell-outs for away games occur at very high levels of credit points, means that your correspondent doesn\u2019t write from Eindhoven as planned. At this moment in time, away tickets seem to be the footballing equivalent of Faberg\u00e9 eggs. On the other hand, perhaps the post-match antics of the PSV fans last week makes not going a good thing, with reports far and wide of their trouble making both inside and outside the ground. Apparently PSV have to pay Arsenal \u00a340k for damage caused inside the ground and their fans have been banned from their next game \u2013 away at Bod\u00f8. Hardly a chastening punishment from UEFA. Plus \u00e7a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team announced contained a few surprises; Ramsdale in for the injured Turner who hasn\u2019t made the bench; Saliba at centre back with Tierney, Tomi, Xhaka, \u00d8degaard and Martinelli starting as well. White, Gabriel, Partey, Saka and Jes\u00fas on the bench. Another chance for Lokonga and Vieira to impress and Eddie to show that he continues to step up at the highest level. Ahead of the match, I read this as an aggressive statement that he wants to win or at least not lose, is prepared potentially to suffer as a result on Sunday, and then rest the entire first team in a dead rubber next week against Zurich ahead of Chelsea away. This is a manager who takes measured risks. I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSV started far more aggressively than last week and without creating too much threat their attacking intent was far more obvious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was interesting to see Viera playing in the Saka role \u2013 very much hugging the touchline to spread the defence as wide as possible and keep full backs pinned back. Tomi was noticeably taking careful consideration before getting outside Vieira in the same way that he usually does as he was clearly thinking about Gakpo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 8 mins we saw the first save of the day when Simons took a shot from the edge of the box and Ramsdale comfortably saved low down to his right to push it away for a corner. The chance came from a piece of sloppy play from \u00d8degaard – a very lazy pass in the midfield. This was an indicator of what was to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 18 mins, hearts were in mouths when a superb finish from Gakpo sent the home fans into a state of noisy delirium. However, the linesmen did his job excellently and raised his flag. TV evidence showed that Gakpo made his run far too early and broke a particularly good line being held by the Arsenal defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decent spell of possession and a couple of near opportunities for the Arsenal on and around the the stroke of the quarter game mark showed PSV that we were still in it, but nothing came of these. On 38 mins really good approach play saw Martinelli take a ball on his chest and with PSV players advancing volley his shot rather too early and send the ball into the gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before half time the wasp-like \u2013 in the sense of an annoyance that just won\u2019t go away – Simons muddled through a sea of defenders and stabbed the ball into the net. Once again this came about as a result of Arsenal\u2019s poor play and was compounded by poor defending as the forward\u2019s control was hardly Messi-like. Again, the guy who knocked the ball to Simons was offside so again a good call from Officials and VAR. Are you watching, Riley and Dean? More likely they\u2019re seeing not watching. The visual equivalent of hearing as opposed to listening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the first half, my thoughts were that our touch was way off. Perhaps, while it was 0-0 we were simply trying to contain and conserve energy. Eddie was simply not in it. Vieira looked lively. The difference between Partey and Lokonga looked huge although it did seem as though he wasn\u2019t being deployed in exactly the same role as Partey is. Not a criticism, just an observation. And finally, can I have a pint of whatever Capitola Rob is putting on his hair as his thatch seems to increasingly resemble the thicker, darker areas of the Mato Grosso. I\u2019m not bitter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The start of the second half saw De Jong replace El Ghazi \u2013 two players who played in the PL to no particular note, I thought at the time. What do I know? In his appearances for Newcastle a few years back, De Jong appeared to be providing some kind of a performance art-based tribute to the sculpture of Rodin or Michelangelo, so little did he move. He seems to have developed somewhat in the intervening years, as we were about to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made a bright start to the second half with a good shot from Nketiah going just outside the post, followed by Tierney making a good run down the left, bringing it inside and, channelling the Ghost of Winterburns Past, attempting a right-footed shot towards the far right of the goal <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gakpo started where he left off, by showing that he really isn\u2019t very bright and clearly doesn\u2019t understand the offside rule. It appears, to me at least, we may have dodged a bullet in not attracting him in the summer..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 54 we saw good interplay between Simons and Gakpo \u2013 onside this time – leading to a shot which whistled past Ramsdale\u2019s right post. Arteta was clearly getting nervous, and TV showed a stripped off Partey ready to come on. Too late! Before he got the chance, PSV scored through de Jong. Holding in particular, despite his spectacular barnet, was guilty of poor defending getting the wrong side of the attacker in the build-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately Partey and Saka came on \u2013 Sambi and a rather invisible \u00d8degaard went off. Partey played deep, pushing Xhaka forward and Saka took his usual wide right berth freeing up Vieira to play the number 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was more than a touch of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic about it, as on 62 minutes PSV, through the formerly statuesque but now annoyingly mobile De Jong, scored. 2-0. Again, it was something of a gift as Ramsdale came for and missed a corner. It was rather in keeping with the shoddy performance given by everyone else on the Arsenal side. I suppose this could be seen as some perverse form of collective responsibility and that he didn\u2019t want to stand out from the rest!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just continued to get worse and on 66 Gakpo had the ball in the net once again and was once again offside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at this point that it dawned on me that I couldn\u2019t remember a single genuinely troubling effort on target by Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, PSV were completely overrunning us. Arteta made some changes with Gabi coming on, shortly followed by White and Gabby for Tierney and Tomi. It made not a jot of difference. The game closed out and we were well beaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gamble which Arteta took in resting players backfired spectacularly. I don\u2019t blame him for taking it and, in fact, it was a gutsy thing to do. Orwell described sport as war minus the shooting. We appeared to take that rather too literally last night with very few shots being attempted by us at all. To continue the military metaphor, clearly the deployment of our limited resources is at breaking point. The fact is that we are beginning to appear to be running on fumes and the World Cup break can\u2019t come soon enough. Time for some R\u2019nR for those not going and to look to bring in fresh legs, if that\u2019s possible in this most congested of seasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onwards and upwards, Gunners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forest on Sunday. Let\u2019s go again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, the fact that we received such a small allocation of tickets, combined with the renewed zeal of the match-going fanbase ensuring sell-outs for away games occur at very high levels of credit points, means that your correspondent doesn\u2019t write from Eindhoven as planned. At this moment in time, away tickets seem to be the […]<\/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\/6871"}],"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=6871"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6877,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions\/6877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}