{"id":6883,"date":"2022-10-31T05:35:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T05:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6883"},"modified":"2023-09-07T19:41:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T18:41:03","slug":"venerunt-vidimus-asinum-calce-fecimus-5-star-arsenal-clearcut-nottinghams-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6883","title":{"rendered":"Venerunt, vidimus, natibus calcemus:  5-star Arsenal clearcut Nottingham&#8217;s Forest"},"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\/1437735944\" 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:63.131313% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1437735944?et=JnM16Lq5RXdSYqh0p6b5NQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=0bnusTAVdJeLSWOgGXJa-DjTb3JT2gPiJp6HtE_MR5c=&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=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Nottingham Forest visited Ashburton Grove for a 2 pm kickoff (London time) on Sunday, fresh off their 1-0 defeat of Liverpool last weekend in the League.  To think they should be flying high would not be a surprise.  Likewise, after Arsenal&#8217;s draw at Southampton last weekend, and our defeat in the Europa League in Eindhoven, it would be a fair shout to wonder if the Arsenal squad would be down, or thirsting for recovery.  A 5-0 thrashing of the team propping up the League table by a resplendent Arsenal said &#8220;thirsting for recovery&#8221; writ large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will be a short review, as just as halftime clocked at 7:45 am here in California I had a violent, 5-hour vertigo attack.  I didn&#8217;t get to see the second half until mid-afternoon, and then I had to rewatch the first half because I couldn&#8217;t remember what happened.  Apologies.  And as the fundamental story of this game was that Arsenal scorched Forest&#8217;s earth, I&#8217;ll be focusing on our play, players, and what it means for us to have played so well (&#8220;say we&#8217;re top of the league!&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forest had something like 3 or 4 good moments in 90 plus minutes, all of which seemed to stem from mistakes by Arsenal:  a wayward pass at the back from Gabi led to a tame shot by Lingard blocked by White.  Another poor pass by Xhaka led to a shot by a Forest player, but it was likewise tame and easily saved by Ramsdale.  And really, that was about it.  In all the time I&#8217;ve been watching Arsenal I can&#8217;t recall a team that offered as little as Forest did on this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, to Arsenal.  Our first goal came in the 5th minute.  Tomi intercepted a pass deep in their half on the left and passed to Gabigol.  Gabi cut across the middle of the pitch and rifled a pass to Saka near the top right corner of the box, and kept on running.  Saka timed a beautiful curling pass to perfection for Gabi to stoop and head past Henderson into the bottom right corner of goal (Arsenal 1-0 Forest).  Wonderfully worked, and the dedication of the goal to Pablo Mar\u00ed after brought a tear to the eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We played some attractive football the rest of the half, but with 10 men behind the ball Forest&#8217;s rearguard action was stout and effective.  Shortly after our goal Jes\u00fas curled a shot just wide of Henderson&#8217;s far post, but otherwise we just couldn&#8217;t make the final pass, or gather our efforts into a pattern that unlocked them.  Perhaps the best moment was down the left when Xhaka cut back for Martinelli whose slightly scuffed shot was cleared off the line by a Forest defender.  The other two moments of note were Saka having to be subbed off for Nelson in the 27th minute, and Xhaka being hammered by a tackle that could have done the same for him right before the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I could finally watch it, the second half was some of the most beautiful football I&#8217;ve seen us play this year.  Four goals, three of which came in an 8-minute span of domination starting just after play resumed, all of which were different and all of which were top, top class.  Of the four, Partey&#8217;s curving ballistic missile of a shot (a repeat of his beauty against that little team from Middlesex earlier in the year) from a Nelson layoff in the 57th minute could be the pick of the litter (Arsenal 4-0 Forest).  But Nelson&#8217;s first (in the 49th minute), after fine linkup play by Party, Xhaka, and Jes\u00fas, might have been even better.  After getting the ball passed through to him by Jes\u00fas from the middle of the box, he completely fooled two Forest defenders with a fake shot, had his real shot saved by Henderson, and returned the rebound with an arrow into the top corner of the net above two other defenders (Arsenal 2-0 Forest).  It was Nelson&#8217;s first goal for Arsenal in two years, and it&#8217;s clear the whole team was chuffed for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Nelson&#8217;s second and \u00d8degaard&#8217;s to finish the scoring had the kind of intricate play we&#8217;ve come to love from our team.  Three minutes after his first goal Nelson started the move deep in our defensive half, and after a series of passes that brought Jes\u00fas and M\u00f8 to interplay a sweet short pass away from goal allowed Jes\u00fas to chip the ball into Nelson&#8217;s path; he scored with his near foot, which was certainly a difficult option (Arsenal 3-0 Forest).  M\u00f8&#8217;s goal, coming 12 minutes from time, was again the result of intricate passing and quick feet.  Jes\u00fas again was the provider, feeding M\u00f8 in the middle of the box to shift the ball left, then laser it in to the top corner before Henderson could react (Arsenal 5-0 Forest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that was it.  The game finished without incident, though our subs reduced our fluidity and, I thought, exposed that Vieira really needs to hit the weight room in the next couple years.  I think the MOTM was Partey, even in the face of Nelson&#8217;s brace.  His deep passing, either through the defense or on angles around it, was brilliant; his pass to Xhaka for Nelson&#8217;s first was inch-perfect, and the nicest pass I saw all day.  Another excellent player was Tomi, who half the time lined up as an auxiliary midfielder, with our defense playing a back 3.  It gave us so much control of the ball I tip my hat to MA8 for using it in this game.  There was a rare C\u00e9dric sighting; I thought he played well, as did Tierney after coming on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one had a bad game, even Jes\u00fas played well despite not bringing his shooting boots.  Two assists will do that for you, and the number of times he tracked back to defend deep in Arsenal&#8217;s defensive third was impressive.  Saliba and Gabriel were imperious, in spite of some small mistakes; White worked effectively with Saka and Nelson, in turn, and was consistently disposessing or altering the runs being made by Forest on their few breaks.  Xhaka continues to impress, using space beautifully; he actually did some hesitation moves and shoulder dips that enabled him to beat his defender, not something I associate with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our biggest worry out of today is Saka, for the Chelsea game.  I have to believe Nelson did enough to start against Zurich this coming Thursday, which will give Saka an entire week to be treated and get into the bus stop with fire in his eyes.  Also for Zurich, I think we should rest Partey for Sambi, and if Mo&#8217;neny is back start him instead of Xhaka (both can be retained on the bench in case it gets skittish).  It was clear by the timing of their substitutions that Tomi, Saliba and Martinelli were being withdrawn with an eye to (at least) the midweek fixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it goes.  We&#8217;re top of the league!  I was so happy to watch the second half of this game, almost as happy as I was to no longer be nauseous from the vertigo.  We have four more games before there&#8217;s a break in the season for some event happening in a desert during November and December.  Win all four and we&#8217;re top of the league at the break, top of our EL group (thus avoiding extra games and CL drop-downs), and one game further on in our quest for the League Cup.  Not a bad place to be with many of our players NOT heading to the desert, able to heal, rest, and train ahead of the resumption of the League in the festive period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Nottingham Forest visited Ashburton Grove for a 2 pm kickoff (London time) on Sunday, fresh off their 1-0 defeat of Liverpool last weekend in the League. To think they should be flying high would not be a surprise. Likewise, after Arsenal&#8217;s draw at Southampton last weekend, and our defeat in the [&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\/6883"}],"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=6883"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8342,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions\/8342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}