{"id":7295,"date":"2023-01-20T18:17:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T18:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7295"},"modified":"2023-01-23T01:01:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T01:01:45","slug":"mid-season-revenge-opportunity-v-red-mancs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7295","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Season Revenge Opportunity v. Red Mancs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sunday afternoon, in the last game of the season\u2019s opening half, Arsenal will get the chance to avenge  their one and only defeat to date when they host the Red Devils of Manchester.  In early September Sunday\u2019s guests beat the Gunners 3-1 in the reverse fixture thanks to two second half counterattacking goals scored by Marcus Rashford after Bukayo Saka had scored an equalizer.  Thomas Partey was unavailable that day due to injury, and our weakened midfield looked uncertain at times.  The game turned after Martinelli\u2019s opening goal was ruled out for a dubious foul in the build-up after a pack of angry Mancs surrounded the referee demanding a VAR check.  Needless to say, the authorities never sanctioned United, but I digress.  Arsenal need to maintain their focus, prove their maturity once again, and prevent United from catching them out at the back as they did last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the World Cup break, Arsenal\u2019s critics were predicting that Arsenal would fall away after the season resumed.  So how have the Gunners fared so far?  I\u2019d say that three wins and a draw in four matches doesn\u2019t sound so bad, and certainly not when Arsenal have maintained their five point lead over second placed Manchester City while having played one match fewer.  The critics will be saying that Arsenal\u2019s fixture list wasn\u2019t difficult but those three wins were over 5th placed Spurs and 7th placed Brighton as well as relegation-threatened West Ham, and the draw was with 3rd placed Newcastle, so it\u2019s actually been a quite rigorous test for Arsenal so far this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 14th press reports suggested that Arsenal were confident of completing the Mykhailo Mudryk signing in time for the Ukraine winger to make his debut in this game but the very next day Chelsea signed the player in question.  A few days later, transfer window frustration had receded and Arsenal announced the signing of left winger Leandro Trossard who is in the prime of his career, has 25 Premier League goals to his name, and promises to provide needed depth in Arsenal\u2019s attacking positions.  Here\u2019s hoping we get a glimpse of him on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third-placed Red Mancs are on an excellent run of form having defeated Burnley and Charlton to get into the League Cup semifinals after dispatching Everton in the FA Cup.  In the Premier League they are undefeated since the World Cup break, pulling 3-0 home clean sheets on Forest and Bournemouth, a 0-1 away clean sheet on Wolves, a 2-1 derby win against Citeh on January 14th, and Wednesday\u2019s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.  Prior to the Palace game United had won nine games in a row in all competitions equalling their longest run since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.  Despite failing to score at Palace, Rashford had scored eight goals in his previous seven games.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Erik ten Hag deserves a lot of credit for turning United in a positive direction in a short time, notably by forcing out the negative influence of Cristiano Ronaldo just before the World Cup, but also by easing out the previously untouchable Maguire from United\u2019s starting back line.  The signing of Casemiro boosted the effectiveness of United\u2019s midfield, but his suspension means we may see Fred or McTominay instead.  Keeper David de Gea commented: \u201cIt’s a big blow to lose Casemiro for Sunday.  Now we are missing one of our best players for a big game and it is a big loss for us.”  How very sad for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United defence, young left back Tyrell Malacia has shared that position with Luke Shaw.  Martinez and Varane were first-choice centre-backs until the World Cup, but ten Hag played Shaw there until the Argentine came back from his national side celebrations for the Palace game, and Shaw returned to left back.  Diogo Dalot had taken over on the right side for most of the season but Aaron Wan-Bissaka has returned with Dalot missing the last few games due to injury.  Early this week the Mancs signed giant Dutch loanee Wout Weghorst, the Burnley forward who began the season at Be\u015fikta\u015f.  He started against Palace on Wednesday but his partnership with Rashford didn\u2019t seem to produce ten Hag\u2019s desired result against a packed defence.  I expect another of United\u2019s pacy mobile forwards like Garnacho or Elanga will replace Weghorst to increase their counterattacking threat with Arsenal on the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The signing of Trossard gives the Arsenal squad additional attacking depth, and alleviates concerns about the length of time they will be missing Gabriel Jes\u00fas as well as the possibility of any new injuries along the front line.  It remains to be seen if Arsenal\u2019s transfer window will bring cover for Thomas and Xhaka in midfield.  With a FA Cup match against Manchester City looming on Friday, and the resumption of Europa League play a little over a month away, it is good to have capable players like Tierney, Tomiyasu and Trossard available but Arsenal should line up against United with this settled side: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Thomas  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard  Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka  Nketiah  Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018holic pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the Gunners\u2019 September loss at Old Trafford and last April\u2019s win at the Grove, the last two league encounters between these clubs resulted in 3-1 wins to the home side, making another such result either more or less likely in a statistical sense.  I\u2019m tempted to predict another 3-1 home win but my gut tells me this one is going to end up 1-0 to the Arsenal with William Saliba powering home the winning header in the second half, and the Arsenal fans to erupt in Saliba song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those who are attending, please be sure to cheer Arsenal on to victory but don\u2019t neglect to let us know how the singing went, and may the revenge be filled with merriment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, \u2018holics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday afternoon, in the last game of the season\u2019s opening half, Arsenal will get the chance to avenge  their one and only defeat to date when they host the Red Devils of Manchester.  In early September Sunday\u2019s guests beat the Gunners 3-1 in the reverse fixture thanks to two second half counterattacking goals scored by Marcus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7314,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions\/7314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}