{"id":7390,"date":"2023-02-10T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2023-02-12T09:33:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T09:33:38","slug":"i-busken-af-spogelser-bananskind-eller-maneskin-i-herlighed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7390","title":{"rendered":"I Busken af Sp\u00f8gelser: Bananskind eller M\u00e5neskin i Herlighed?"},"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\/1424885443\" 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:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1424885443?et=3pvTX8bLRb95XZ5T-8o6vA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=keOjjnIIK04M0TPOuoVX-kBzFEVt4liDR7jar1reyw4=&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=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal welcome Brentford&#8217;s Bees to the Grove for a traditional 3 pm kickoff in the league.  The Gunners sit atop of the league (you mean, you haven&#8217;t heard?), 17 points ahead of the Bees with a game in hand.  Brentford is pushing with Brigton against that little team from Middlesex for the fifth place Europa League spot.  As such, they&#8217;ll be keenly interested in banishing the ghosts of Arsenal&#8217;s win at theirs in September, hoping to be a banana skin for Arsenal rather than leaving something that has homeward-bound Gunners glorying in the moonlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brentford are one of the few teams in the league getting closer to Arsenal over the last month or so, having accrued 13 of their last 15 possible points; Arsenal have managed only 10, though that is equal to or better than the rest of the pack.  They&#8217;re unbeaten in the league since Villa thrashed the visitors 4-0 at the end of October, a run of 10 games that includes draws with Spurs and wins over City and Liverpool. As did the Arsenal, they went out of both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup over that same period.  Needless to say, it&#8217;s another game that Arsenal&#8217;s squad have to prepare for and approach with the intensity and quality of most in the first half of the season.  They&#8217;ve beaten teams as good or better than Brentford all season long with their high pressing, high-intensity, fluid goalscoring game.  But, if they play in front of the home crowd as they did at Goodison Park last weekend, it portends a long, unhappy game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brentford, under manager Thomas Frank, has evolved into a team of aggression, able to counter-press and play long ball with equal facility.  Expect their energy to be high; their age profile is similar to Arsenal&#8217;s, though at their average of 2 years older is skewed by their well-aged defensive pairing of Mee and Pinnock.  In leading goal-getter Toney they have one of the better forwards in the League, supported well by Mbueno, ex-Gunner Dasilva, Henry, and Roerslev&#8230;all in their early-to-mid 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brentford will be bring Arsenal their full-strength squad.  Longer-term absentees Jansson, Onyeka, and Baptiste remain unavailable; goalkeeper Raya will look to add to his count of clean sheets (8) while supported by tyro Cox from the bench, his usual back up Strakosha suffering from an ankle injury.  In recent games Brentford sometimes has had a hard time scoring when they line up in what seems to be their favored 3-5-2, using Toney paired with Mbueno up front and Jensen with Janelt as wingbacks. However, against weaker teams (it seems) they line up 4-3-3 with Wissa joining the attack.  It will be a challenge for Arsenal defenders to track their runners; support from midfielders and forwards will be essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the Arsenal, it looks like everyone who was out with long-term injury is still out (Jes\u00fas, ESR, and Mo&#8217;neny), no one is lost to suspension, and Nelson&#8217;s return to the matchday squad adds to the attack.  Arsenal too are coming off a great run of form; using the late October draw at Southampton as a starting point they&#8217;ve won 7 from 9, and beaten United, Spurs, and Chelsea, and drawn Newcastle in that stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All mentions of this coming Wednesday&#8217;s City game have been deferred by the squad and the staff, with Brentford&#8217;s visit being the sole focus.  And coming off two very different losses (the one against City being &#8220;satisfactory in its performance&#8221;, the one against Everton, basically, &#8220;sucking&#8221;) we should expect our best team to start:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White &#8211; Saliba &#8211; Gabriel &#8211; Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey &#8211; M\u00f8 &#8211; Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8211; Nketiah &#8211; Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>though I actually wonder if Nelson will get a start front left, giving Martinelli a breather and a substitute appearance.  It&#8217;s down to how they&#8217;ve trained this past week, clearly, and hopefully the fire and spark they&#8217;ve largely shown this season will be back in abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Expect an active high press and a midfield keen to hold their defensive shape, especially ersatz midfielder Zinchenko, using the Bees&#8217; aggression against them.  Brentford also have height; many on their team are 6&#8242; or above, so playing crosses in from the wing might be a forlorn hope compared to Arsenal&#8217;s backs over- or under-lapping and getting ball to feet in the box.  Something tells me Arsenal&#8217;s speed up front will be a challenge to their center backs.  Eddie should have some good chances, and if he converts them Arsenal should be able to pull off the win.  And I expect the crowd to be loud and boisterous and supportive all game through, regardless of what&#8217;s happening on the pitch.  They&#8217;ve been stellar this season, and their support has contributed to Arsenal&#8217;s success: they&#8217;ve only dropped two points at home all season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my 23 years of supporting Arsenal I&#8217;ve come to hate February and March, for the most part. The squad tend to run into their walls at this time, sometimes choosing it for the worst run of form in the season; a potential banana skin against the Bees is now at hand. And yet: regardless of losing their last two games in all competitions Arsenal are 5 points clear at the top of the table, with at least one game in hand on all chasers back to 6th-place Brighton. Their defensive record is second best in the league, as are their goals scored and goal differential. They&#8217;re in a brilliant position at this point, with a brilliant manager and an outstanding (if small) squad, to bring us glory in the moonlight this season. Wherever you watch this from on Saturday get up, get loud, and give our rip-roaring, never boring Arsenal every last drop of your energy and support!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holic&#8217;s Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bookies apparently think Arsenal will win this.  Anything shy of 4-0 doesn&#8217;t get above 9-1, while that scoreline could get you 18-1.  If you think Arsenal are not going to hold a clean sheet but are still going to hammer them, take a chance on 4-1 at 22s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COYG!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Moonlight in Glory\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmYuOsw-pKc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal welcome Brentford&#8217;s Bees to the Grove for a traditional 3 pm kickoff in the league. The Gunners sit atop of the league (you mean, you haven&#8217;t heard?), 17 points ahead of the Bees with a game in hand. Brentford is pushing with Brigton against that little team from Middlesex for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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\/7390"}],"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=7390"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7404,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions\/7404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}