{"id":7364,"date":"2023-02-03T17:22:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T17:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7364"},"modified":"2023-02-06T03:06:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T03:06:44","slug":"the-importance-of-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7364","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Three"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Celtic three-point knot.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hello my fellow Gooners, long time no see, but once again I have the privilege of previewing The Arsenal. I hope the day finds you fully recovered from the stresses and strains of deadline day and ready for a top vs. bottom clash as The Arsenal, who I have heard are top of the league, take on Everton, who have just appointed Sean Dyche as their new saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first a quick look at how the week has gone for The Arsenal. Rough with the smooth as is life\u2019s wont I guess. The roughest in this case being an unfortunate injury to the popular Mo Elneny that sees him lost to the squad for several months. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Mo. The smooth on the other hand is the news that TP5\u2019s injury is not serious. If there is a gooner anywhere who has not realised the importance of TP to our current title challenge then I can only urge them to Pay More Attention!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transfer Window<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Mo\u2019s injury did leave us short in midfield, and that brings us handily to the transfer window. Much has been posted, wise, wild, or windy, as the case may be, in the Goonerverse already about the impact of this window on the present and future. To the wild, I would only say that on reflection you might find that now is not the most opportune moment to fire Edu.   Amongst the many wise words, I hope that we can all agree that Jorginho is now an Arsenal player and deserves our full support \u2013 we have the most positive match-going support in the country this season and long may that continue. Windy, you can safely leave to me as I have added a very personal view below on the key benefits from all these transfer window shenanigans….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 We signed three players. Some may mundanely think this was simply to strengthen the squad or align to the Ropey League Rule that you can only add three players for the knock-out stages, but I have no doubt it was actually because Mik and Ed have recognised the importance of three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree is the first number to which the meaning ‘all’ was given. It is The Triad, being the number of the whole as it contains the beginning, a middle, and an end. The power of three is universal and is the tripartite nature of the world as heaven, earth and waters. It is body, soul and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, having all the spirituality of a garden lawnmower, that is wasted on me, but I am certainly glad that we have men such as Mik and Ed at the helm, and to whom such wisdom is meat and drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 We didn\u2019t sign Jonjo Shelvey. That is always a good window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 We are still top of the league no matter how many players the other teams signed, loaned or created artificially in laboratories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, we done good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team news<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gabriel Jesus is still a few weeks away, Thomas Partey apparently fit, and MA has answered the Ben\/Tomi question in Ben\u2019s favour every time, I think the starting XI will have a very familiar look. In fact, it\u2019s so familiar that I am going to save myself the trouble of typing it out. We all know who they are by now. We trust them and they have delivered with a regularity that has delighted all season; all powers to their elbows, heads, feet and knees for this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Everton have had a reasonably successful past, winning the league nine times, the FA Cup five times and the Cup Winners Cup once since their formation in the late 1870s. They have also been in the top level of English football since 1954. Not as successful as us to be sure but not too bad I can patronisingly say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that past lies in stark contrast to their miserable present. From an outside perspective they appear, since the departure of the mediocre Moyes, to be badly led, poorly managed and, in general, useless. They have lost five of their last six games (amusingly the only point was at Man City) and are in deep trouble. A step forward was taken when ‘Lamps’ was finally fired and then two steps back.  When I read of Dyche\u2019s appointment I found myself contrasting my own ‘all-is-well-in-the-world’ feeling as we happily continue our glorious title challenge with the feelings of the average Evertonian just now \u2013 what a truly bitter ginger pill Dyche must be to swallow. To quote the writer David Gerrold  \u201cLife is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order\u201d.  Except of course it isn\u2019t happening in that order for Everton fans. Dyche may save them this season, and even restore them to mid-table nothingness next season but the football will be terrible. I wonder if it would have been better to reign in the hell of the championship than to be served the heaven of the saviour Dyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea who they will select so cannot advise with any confidence but we should expect some changes I suppose. Needless to say, we should win well this weekend despite any new manager bounce or our last two defeats at Goodison Park. Time to toss tasteless toffees to the trashcan. Take the three points and on we go lads. And finally, my personal commiserations to Alex Iwobi, a likeable fellow who had been one of their few players doing well this season. I fear for him under the new management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As a quick bonus extra, it is time for a mid-season review of the 14 staunch gooners chasing our prestigious fantasy league title. I am happy to tell you that, like The Arsenal, your writer has headed the table for most of the season. I am not sure which was the bigger surprise to me! Unfortunately, unlike the PL, the chasing pack are not a hapless rabble that have tamely fallen away but an astute and determined bunch. Led by ATG the chasing group includes TTG, Bath, GSD, Uply  and reigning champion bt8 to name a few. Many twists and turns to come no doubt but it has all been good clean fun so far \u2013 thank you gentlemen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can imagine an Arsenal win is prohibitively short odds and even a 3-0 prediction in line with the title of this piece is a skinny 8s. Personally, I feel Mr. Martinelli is due a goal, and I noticed he was 6\/1 for first goal-scorer. Be nice to see Leandro come on and open his account as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is about it for this preview folks. For any of you attending, I hope you have a safe trip and for those of us watching I hope we have another great Arsenal performance to enjoy. Come On You Gunners!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello my fellow Gooners, long time no see, but once again I have the privilege of previewing The Arsenal. I hope the day finds you fully recovered from the stresses and strains of deadline day and ready for a top vs. bottom clash as The Arsenal, who I have heard are top of the league, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/7364"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7364"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7380,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364\/revisions\/7380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}