{"id":6975,"date":"2022-11-12T05:28:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T05:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6975"},"modified":"2022-11-12T23:06:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T23:06:51","slug":"fearless-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6975","title":{"rendered":"Fearless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Soccer Football – Premier League – Chelsea v Arsenal – Stamford Bridge, London, Britain – November 6, 2022 Arsenal’s Gabriel celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates Action Images via Reuters\/John Sibley<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So accustomed I have become to see us play in the Premier League this season on Sundays I had completely overlooked that this weekend\u2019s away match at Molineux is a rare Saturday evening affair. Fortunately, I read this wonderful (possibly the best, if you haven\u2019t heard of them yet) Arsenal blog called \u201cGoonerholics Forever\u201d where a bunch of misty eyed — but with a steely resolve and an overdeveloped sense of humor \u2013 Gooners keep talking about Arsenal in honor of their spiritual leader, the inimitable Goonerholic, who had sadly left us way too soon, and one of their posts sent a jolt of reminder to me that I need to write this preview today, not tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is only a pleasure and a privilege. And while mentioning \u2018Holic in the previous sentence, the thought came to my mind that how much he would have loved this version of talented, hungry, humble, disciplined Arsenal team and their fearless approach to the game. And I must confess that at a time when some of the worst proclivities of mankind are on brutal, shameless display, it has often been very difficult to look forward to weekend football. And yet, for that very reason enjoying the simple pleasure of watching Arsenal play felt a kind of defiance, and also a source of inspiration. Good people outside the Goonerverse may have kept their admiration limited to Arsenal\u2019s results and the performances, but I myself \u2013 and going by the full-throttled singing reverberating across grounds home and away, may be also the match going fanbase \u2013 found an emotional resonance that I felt goes beyond the regular connections of a football fan, beyond tribalism, beyond pride, beyond the vicarious triumphs. The only explanation I can offer \u2013 aren\u2019t we always a mystery to ourselves? \u2013 is that the kind of lucid fearlessness that has characterized Arsenal\u2019s performances this season is perhaps a glimpse into what I myself can strive to be.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that we always played swashbuckling attractive football, or always played with tactical acumen, or always shown the right know-how to control matches. We have shown all those qualities to indicate a team that is constantly growing in abilities and confidence, but not consistently enough to be called anywhere close to the finished article. However, what we have consistently shown is the ability to respond to any situation, especially difficult situations, with resilience, camaraderie and an unpanicked focus on the end goal \u2013 unruffled by persistent thuggery or incompetent officiating. That kind of authentic courage is a rare quality, whether on a football field or in a nation. It is not entirely impossible that my impression of the Arsenal team is somewhat influenced by witnessing such rare courage on a larger, grander, national scale, as it has been unfolding in a troubled corner of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last match before the unfortunate hiatus in the league season offers Arsenal a golden opportunity to strengthen their position at the top until the season restarts after Christmas, when different players will resume their club duties with wildly different levels of rest, physical\/mental preparedness, and as a consequence teams will likely to find it very hard to maintain consistently good form and even by the unpredictable nature of the premier league, results are likely to throw up surprises with unexpectedly high frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal has ten first team squad members traveling to this unique winter World Cup in the desert, but not all of them are expected to go too far in the knock-out rounds. The Brazilian duo of Martinelli & Jesus, the English trio of Saka, Ramsdale, White, the young Frenchman Saliba and maybe Xhaka captaining the Swiss team are the ones likeliest to go far enough to require post-World Cup recovery to potentially render them not fully ready for our first match at home on Boxing Day once the season resumes. I myself think the encouraging showings by Reiss and Eddie notwithstanding, and even considering ESR\u2019s likely return from injury, we will struggle significantly in the final third if all three of our current forwards cannot return to the squad quick enough back to their absolute best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, we will have some key players fully rested during this month-long break and that should counterbalance some of the concerns about players\u2019 unavailability: \u00d8degaard, Gabriel the defender, Zinchenko, Tierney, ESR (hopefully he recovers completely by then and with enough practice under his belt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning back to the immediate concerns of the away trip to Wolves, my predicted starting eleven has no surprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White \u2013 Saliba \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard \u2013 Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka \u2013 Jesus \u2013 Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4-1-2-3 is purely a nominal formation. As many here have already observed, Arteta\u2019s team attacks with all the five front players down parallel channels, Zinchenko drifts in towards the left sided central midfield position next to Partey, and the three- man defense of White-Saliba-Gabriel stays as high up the pitch as possible, relying on their qualities on the ball and athleticism to thwart breakaway attacks from any quick turnovers. The superior technical qualities and the calmness in possession of Partey and Zinchenko also allow Arsenal to play rapidly and incisively through opposition press without losing tempo.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta and his coaching team are meticulous in preparing specifically for the opposition with often surprising but highly effective tactical tweaks \u2013 Tomiyasu as a left back against Liverpool to cut off the long diagonals to Salah was an inspired move, and like a Holmesian de-puzzling to Watson, feels obvious only after the genius has been explained \u2013 and I am sure they will have something special in mind for the dangers of Traore or Neves. I haven\u2019t followed Wolves closely \u2013 well, haven\u2019t really followed them at all \u2013 this season but a look at the league table and their recent run of results tells me that they haven\u2019t been as consistent as often have been the case in recent seasons. The team still has many seasoned internationals, some technically gifted players in key positions and despite the recent spate of managerial changes retain the high pressing physical qualities that make them very hard to beat, and anything less than our very best will be punished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible that the World Cup bound players would be \u2013 albeit unconsciously and not intentionally \u2013 little less committed in fifty-fifty challenges compared to what they have shown until now, but I am hoping the spirit of fearlessness and that admirable professionalism that now runs through the spine of this team would be enough to see us through. In our last two league encounters \u2013 both in February earlier this year \u2013 we had beaten them 1-0 away before winning at home by a similarly slender margin of 2-1. We should expect a tight and cagey affair like those two games, but a match to ultimately turn comfortable for us towards the end, giving us a 3-1 victory is my (acceptedly optimistic) prediction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the match everyone. Come on Arsenal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So accustomed I have become to see us play in the Premier League this season on Sundays I had completely overlooked that this weekend\u2019s away match at Molineux is a rare Saturday evening affair. Fortunately, I read this wonderful (possibly the best, if you haven\u2019t heard of them yet) Arsenal blog called \u201cGoonerholics Forever\u201d where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"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\/6975"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6975"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6984,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6975\/revisions\/6984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}