{"id":6944,"date":"2022-11-06T22:16:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T22:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6944"},"modified":"2022-11-09T11:27:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T11:27:06","slug":"its-so-easy-at-the-bridge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6944","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s So Easy At The Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal won by a goal to nil at Stamford Bridge at Sunday lunchtime for the third season running as they reclaimed their two point cushion at the summit of the Premier League table. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side largely dominated proceedings in West London, and in truth probably ought to have scored more. However Gabriel\u2019s goal just after the hour proved decisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta made one change from the side that thrashed Forest last weekend, with the welcome return of Zinchenko, as the Ukrainian came in to replace Takehiro Tomiyasu who picked up a knock on Thursday. Kieran Tierney remained on the bench despite his stunning goal in midweek. Arsenal started brightly as they so often do although there wasn\u2019t an awful lot going on in the way of clear-cut chances for either side. Gabriel Jesus provided the game\u2019s first bit of spark as he danced round a couple of Chelsea defenders before his shot was blocked by his Brazilian compatriot, Thiago Silva. And Jesus was in the thick of the action again as he got on the end of Martinelli\u2019s fantastic ball following some breath-taking football from Arsenal. However, the Son of God headed wide when he really ought to have scored or at least forced a save from Mendy. His goal drought will be a form of concern for him especially as we are now only a fortnight away from the World Cup. Luckily for him, Richarlison is also Brazilian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Chelsea are concerned, there was little to get excited about. Aubameyang struggled to get into the game (sounds familiar, doesn\u2019t it?) and the former Arsenal captain was booed by the away fans on his every touch. All eight of them. Meanwhile, Saliba had Havertz and Mount in his back pocket and Chelsea created very little if anything in the opening half. The game had a bit of a strange feel to it as these early kick offs so often do. But Arsenal would\u2019ve gone in at the break the happier of the two sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal again started the second half strongly winning a succession of free kicks and corners. The imperious Thomas Partey headed wide from a corner and then Jesus forced a decent save from Mendy with a low and fierce drive from a tight angle. And finally, the breakthrough came. Saka drove a low and dangerous corner which looked to be heading all the way in, but Gabriel was there on the goal line to make sure as he poked the ball into the roof of the net to send the away end into delirium. Get in. There was some hilarity as Aubameyang was taken off reinforcing the belief that Mikel Arteta made the right call-in shipping him out. Once again, he was invisible in a big game only someone else is paying his hefty wages now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chelsea were now forced to press for an equaliser, yet it was Arsenal who looked most likely to nick a second goal. First, Saka sent an effort flying over the bar from a tight angle, and then Odegaard also fired over after outstanding play from Gabriel Jesus who again danced around a couple of defenders before the Norwegian squandered his effort. Would these missed chances come back to bite Arsenal? No was the resounding answer. Chelsea huffed and puffed but did not come remotely close to blowing the Arsenal house down as Ramsdale was largely untroubled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a late scuffle in the corner between Xhaka and the poisonous plastic Italian that is Jorginho. Xhaka laughed at him. He wasn\u2019t alone there. The ref blew his whistle, and we began to celebrate something that we have now become accustomed to in recent years and that is a win away at Chelsea. Once again Arsenal were given another demanding examination and once again, they passed. With distinction. Tottenham, Liverpool and now Chelsea have all been put to the sword by Artetaball. Mind you, we still haven\u2019t played anyone half decent yet, I suppose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We now sit pretty at the top (as we have done since August) on 34 points from a possible 39. We really are quite good. Better than a certain soulless, oil rigging organisation from Manchester perhaps? Time will tell. But today was further evidence that we can go toe to toe with Manchester City right to the end. We\u2019re going more than toe to toe with them now. Maybe we should be asking ourselves if they have what it takes to go toe to toe with us? I think there is a certain inferiority complex amongst some Arsenal fans which I can understand to some degree given that we are eighteen years without a league title and five years without a top four finish. But a golden opportunity has slowly began to present itself, mostly of our own doing of course. Let\u2019s give ourselves some credit. It is not as though City have had a slow start to the season as they have done in the past before recovering to canter to the title. Results wise, they\u2019ve been largely dominant as ever, winning 10 games from 13. But the problem for them is we\u2019ve won 11 from 13. Against, I would argue, mostly the better teams. The bulk of their squad will be heading to Qatar next week, most of them starters for their respective nations. The same cannot really be said of our players. The general narrative has been that we will drop off after the World Cup due to injuries and fatigue. But we have the least players going of any big six side. That is a perk of having a young squad. Yes, City have a larger squad but that doesn\u2019t make them immune to injuries or fatigue. I\u2019m not wishing injury on any City players, but it is part and parcel of elite sport. Like I said, time will tell. But personally, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going anywhere. I think we\u2019re quite happy to stay cosy at the top. Onto the next\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal won by a goal to nil at Stamford Bridge at Sunday lunchtime for the third season running as they reclaimed their two point cushion at the summit of the Premier League table. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side largely dominated proceedings in West London, and in truth probably ought to have scored more. However Gabriel\u2019s goal just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/6944"}],"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=6944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6947,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions\/6947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}