{"id":7265,"date":"2023-01-10T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7265"},"modified":"2023-01-15T03:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T03:36:15","slug":"the-treble-is-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7265","title":{"rendered":"The Treble Is On!!!"},"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\/1455363006\" 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:69.52862% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1455363006?et=_CkAoYQvTfxZ4hfnw7dpKQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=v8wPTVQ2P8LHNgDCigodzMwzLOLqTcVRpzJ57nYn43g=&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=\"413\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone up for a treble? Of course, this isn\u2019t a \u201creal\u201d treble but that doesn\u2019t really matter. We can pretend it is. Arsenal kept their \u201ctreble\u201d dreams alive with an enthralling 3-0 win at Oxford on Monday evening. In the same way watching paint dry is enthralling. Arteta made seven changes from the Newcastle game although it was a team almost exclusively made up of full internationals even if they didn\u2019t play like it for the opening two thirds of the game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The less I say about the first half the better. In fairness Oxford gave as good as they got in the opening forty-five minutes. Both sides failed to register a shot on target before the break. It was a difficult watch. Oxford\u2019s midfield included former Hale end Academy graduate, Marcus McGuane. He initially left us in 2018 to join Barcelona B. He now plays for a team who are 14<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;in League One. The grass isn\u2019t always greener after all. They also had Josh Murphy who is the brother of Newcastle\u2019s Jacob. If I am correct, I believe he was also on the Magpie\u2019s books at some point.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first half passed without much incident other than that we should have had a penalty when Lokonga saw his shot quite literally saved by an Oxford defender. The Arsenal players surrounded the referee but in the absence of VAR, not that it would\u2019ve made a difference, there was nothing doing. Other than that, there was very little of note to report. It was the kind of game where if it was being played in your back garden, you would draw the curtains. Due to the Kassam Stadium\u2019s unique design, there were only three stands, with the other \u201cstand\u201d being a car park! A couple of fans decided to watch the game standing on the roof of a car. Can\u2019t do that at The Emirates. Magic of the cup and all that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We did improve after the break. Perhaps an Arteta rocket up the backside was all that was needed. That or the half time oranges. There was a brief moment of panic where an Oxford player was sent through on goal, but Matt Turner\u2019s excellent starting position snuffed out any danger. On the hour mark, Martinelli was scythed down and we had a free kick which was beautifully floated in by Fabio Vieira and Mohammed Elneny headed in expertly to break the deadlock. It wasn\u2019t the Pyramid Pirlo\u2019s usual howitzer from outside the box but a goal is a goal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We began to turn the screw as the U\u2019s were forced to commit more men forward. Granit Xhaka, who had replaced the mostly ineffective Lokonga in midfield, won the ball back in midfield, Elneny fed Vieira, who sent a delicious through ball to Eddie Nketiah who rounded the keeper and passed the ball home for number two. It was two assists in less than ten minutes for Vieira who Arteta said, in the build up to the game, was now at the physical level to compete. He could still do with a bit more bulking up but there really is no questioning his technical ability. Every time he plays, he seems to make a big contribution and you sense he is a player who is only going to get better. A brace of assists won\u2019t have done him any harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just six minutes later we had a third. Martinelli carried the ball into the final third before releasing Nketiah who sumptuously chipped the \u2018keeper for his second of the game. That\u2019s four goals in four starts since the resumption of club football following the World Cup. Our number 14 has had a lot of pressure foisted upon him following the injury to Gabriel Jes\u00fas but at the moment he is seizing his chance with both hands. I said at the end of last season, I would be disappointed if we let Eddie go for free and I don\u2019t think I was alone in celebrating when he signed a new long term deal in the summer. That\u2019s seven goals in all competitions this season in just eleven starts. He is now level with Bukayo Saka, \u00d8degaard and Martinelli. That\u2019s a rather good front four. We then saw Emile Smith Rowe make his long awaited return from injury as he got on for about 15 minutes or so. With our number 10 back and the news that the Mudryk deal is inching closer to completion, we seem to have a fair amount of depth in attacking positions, particularly on that left hand side. And we are going to need it if we are going to be competitive on all three fronts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will now travel to Manchester in round four to take on our title rivals, Manchester City at the Emptihad. It will be interesting to see how we get on with that game coming a couple of weeks before our eagerly anticipated league encounter with the champions at the Emirates. It means our next three games are against Spurs and Manchester United in the league followed Manchester city in the Arsenal Cup. We then have league games against Everton and Brentford, before the potential title deciding clash at the Emirates. The next few weeks are set to be season defining.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COYG!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Anyone up for a treble? Of course, this isn\u2019t a \u201creal\u201d treble but that doesn\u2019t really matter. We can pretend it is. Arsenal kept their \u201ctreble\u201d dreams alive with an enthralling 3-0 win at Oxford on Monday evening. In the same way watching paint dry is enthralling. Arteta made seven changes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/7265"}],"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=7265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7280,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265\/revisions\/7280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}