{"id":7153,"date":"2022-12-26T23:59:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T23:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7153"},"modified":"2022-12-30T17:26:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T17:26:35","slug":"arsenal-welt-west-ham-with-wenger-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7153","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Welt West Ham with Wenger Watching"},"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\/1452576483\" 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:65.15151% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1452576483?et=8CizUkTRSddTKO5ShiaCbA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=whxDZ6oGyb5hgBcivW8vfIe9RyTt2w2cBk0TH7HECHs=&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=\"387\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, <strong>that<\/strong> was interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Moyes brought a slightly spirited West Ham to the Grove for an evening kickoff against an Arsenal squad that leads the league.  The game played out under the watchful eyes of Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, who came to a game for the first time since his departure day in May of 2018 (&#8220;Hope to see you soon, well done, bye bye&#8230;&#8221;).  And, this was our first game without talisman Gabriel Jesus, after a seven plus week break for some tournament that was happening in the Middle East.  So, no pressure lads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Writ large, we tonked them.  It wasn&#8217;t as easy as all that, though, just as some holics thought.  While West Ham isn&#8217;t going to fool anyone with their approach, their defensive organization and ability to land a punch against the run of play stood them in good stead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BT8, in his excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7140\">preview<\/a>, got the team nearly spot-on; only Saliba for his Holding marred the perfection.  After five minutes we were ahead after some beautiful passing down the right; unfortunately the goal was called back for offside.  It looked like Saka touched it through to Eddie, who was past the last Hammer, before Eddie returned it to Saka to score.  For the first quarter hour it was all Arsenal, except for a goal:  calm, cool possession, intricate passing play, and lacking the final ball.  Ars\u00e8ne must have felt like he was watching an old home movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Ham looked to have nothing other than Bowen breaking down the right on the counter, and maybe some Antonio able to create something from a long ball over the middle.  I&#8217;d have to call Bowen their man of the match, as he was integral to almost everything they created (Declan Rice who?  Oh, that mote of dust in M\u00f8&#8217;s pocket?).  On 13 minutes Bowen powered up the right side on a break, and fired a shot-or-cross that Ramsdale snagged before it could do any damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After another equally-long period of Arsenal dominance, where final balls just didn&#8217;t come off, or where last-ditch defending forced a corner or a recycle of the ball.  We nearly broke free when Ramsdale bowled out from a save after a Hammer corner, but while Xhaka got it to Eddie his turn and attempt to pass for Saka was cut out by their defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then it happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Completely against the run of play, again down their right, Bowen and one of his teammates brought the ball up at speed, and Bowen was tripped by Saliba just inside the box.  I say tripped, but it really should be &#8220;tripped&#8221;.  Their feet touched.  And Bowen took another couple steps and when he realized he wasn&#8217;t going to get the ball, he went down.  To the letter of the law it was a foul, so I won&#8217;t complain, but those types of foot touches are NOT given all over the pitch all game long.  The game would be boring, slow, and unwatchable if they were&#8230;  Benrahma stepped up and took the spot kick, and Arsenal were behind for the first time at home all season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 0-1 West Ham (Benrahma, 27&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the rest of the half Arsenal ratcheted up the pressure, to no avail.  Ars\u00e8ne must have been going through PTSD watching the team suffer and work with no response other than excellent effort.  In the last decade of his reign how many times were we hit on the counter by clearly inferior team sticking to their gameplan?  Too many times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We completely controlled the last twenty minutes of the half, getting into their box through a variety of routes, to no avail.  Gabi kept putting in crosses, then was crunched by Coufal&#8217;s follow-through after the defender got the ball; he got the top of Gabi&#8217;s foot, though, and it earned him a yellow card.  The freekick resulted in nothing, but a corner just before the end of the half led to what could have been controversial in the days before VAR.  Fabianski saved a shot from the corner, and the ball was passed to M\u00f8; his vicious slapshot hit Cresswell, and the MWTW Oliver pointed to the spot for a handball.  VAR correctly chalked off the call, as the ball clearly hit Cresswell in the head, not in the arm.  And then it was halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the second half Arsenal came out full of purpose, clearly intent to get back into the game and power on to a win.  We came at them again and again, winning the ball back almost as soon as we&#8217;d lose it, with the outstanding Boxing Day crowd in full voice of support.  And they were rewarded when M\u00f8 finished a great passing move with a beautiful reverse pass to Saka, who slotted past Fabianski while being played onside by Sou\u010dek.  It capped the number of minutes Arsenal had been behind all season at 82, for now.  Game on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1-1 West Ham (Saka, 52&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roger Waters must have been thinking of a game like this for West Ham&#8217;s defense when he wrote &#8220;Comfortably Numb&#8221;, because we were coming through in waves.  Saka outmuscled Rice to a high ball, heading it to M\u00f8, who passed it to Xhaka.  Granit found Gabi outside on the left, and once Gabi left his man stranded in the box there was only going to be one outcome:  2-1 to the Arsenal as Fabianski was beaten at his near post by a Brazilian arrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2-1 West Ham (Martinelli, 58&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly the mood of the crowd was lightened, and Ars\u00e8ne was serenaded with the famous old chant &#8220;One Arsene Wenger&#8221;.  The gaffer must have felt warm to his toes, as well as being happy that we&#8217;d turned over the scoreline.  There was still work to do, though, and we set about it with an industry that astonished.  West Ham was reeling, and couldn&#8217;t keep the ball for any meaningful amount of time.  Every time we lost it, or they took it, we took it right back.  Our pressing was full of intent, cooperation, and delightful amounts of energy, from the entire team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there were three.  A complicated team move involving damn near everyone (I even thought I saw MA8 and Ars\u00e8ne on the pitch) circled the D with passes from Gabi to White to M\u00f8, who slipped a delightful pass into Eddie inside the box.  Eddie rolled his man and struck a sharp shot into the far corner of the flailing Fabianski&#8217;s net.  It was all Eddie deserved, he worked harder than I&#8217;ve ever seen him in Jesus&#8217;s stead, showing how much he has grown in his all-around play this season.  He was running full tilt, pressing and harrying West Ham, all the way to the end of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 3-1 West Ham (Nketiah, 69&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was it, really.  We controlled play beautifully, passing the ball with the crispest of confidence.  An illustrative moment was when, just before he was subbed in the 87th minute, all Antonio could do was turn in circles as we passed the ball around him again and again.  M\u00f8 even beat two of their defenders with a nutmeg Cruyff turn away from their trap on the sideline, to much applause.  Our captain and MOTM deserved a goal for his sparkling play on both sides of the ball, but his three attempts in the second half were just wide or high of Fabianski&#8217;s far post. West Ham offered no real threat until a shot from Fornals in the 94th minute that was well-saved by Ramsdale, just before MA8 symbolically lit his victory cigar by bringing on Mo&#8217;neny for Partey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So a welcome return to league football and another milestone is passed.  Our old gaffer will have left the grounds pleased to see that his ex-captain is an able helmsman for the Arsenal caravelle, and that the crew assembled by our management team can win even when it&#8217;s ugly-delicious.  We took the Hammer&#8217;s punch, dove right back into the fray without swaying, and emerged victorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eight points clear of Manchester City on Boxing Day:  who would have thought?  Revel in it, &#8216;holics.  Let it roll aroud on the tongue like a fine port or Armagnac, savo(u)r it, enjoy it, bathe in it&#8230;it&#8217;s been a long time since it felt like this to be an Arsenal fan.  So, so good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Well, that was interesting. David Moyes brought a slightly spirited West Ham to the Grove for an evening kickoff against an Arsenal squad that leads the league. The game played out under the watchful eyes of Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, who came to a game for the first time since his departure day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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\/7153"}],"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=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7175,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions\/7175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}