{"id":7762,"date":"2023-04-17T19:59:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T18:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7762"},"modified":"2023-04-19T18:53:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:53:30","slug":"irons-cast-hammer-blow-to-young-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7762","title":{"rendered":"Irons Cast Hammer Blow to Young Guns"},"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\/1482617848\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1482617848?et=5z7q0aKnTK5RcYg8vxzF8Q&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=yuTNqeeFD1CUroimVwTn98StDCwuEeqYVTbRBW5PX2w=&amp;caption=false&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 threw away two vital points in their pursuit of the Premier League Title on Sunday afternoon. It remains to be seen whether the wound is fatal or not but with the title deciding clashat East Manchester Oil Incorporated only ten days away, this blow could hardly have come at a worse time for Arsenal. Concerningly, it is the second game running where we have let a two goal lead slip. Arsenal have shown very few chinks in their armour this season but are the cracks finally starting to show?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of team selection, Arteta was forced into a tweak at left back with the injured Zinchenko replaced by the buccaneering Scotsman, Tierney. And the game could not have started better for the Gunners. Following some intricate play on the right, Odegaard played in Ben White who flashed a delicious ball across the face of the goal for Gabriel Jesus to tap home his fourth goal in three starts. At least someone has found form at the business end of the campaign. And three minutes later it got even better for the Arsenal. Martinelli sent in a sumptuous cross for Martin Odegaard and the skipper calmly volleyed home a controlled finish. We were in complete control of the game. And then we hit the self-destruct button. Partey needlessly conceded possession in the midfield to future Gooner, Declan Rice, who played in Paqueta. There shouldn\u2019t have been any danger, but Gabriel slipped at the worst possible moment, and despite his desperate attempts to pull out, his Brazilian compatriot clipped his knee and tumbled over for a penalty. Said Benrahma stepped up to send Ramsdale the wrong way. Talk about d\u00e9j\u00e0-vu!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We then seemed to just stop playing. We were able to make it through to half time, but it was after the break where things really began to unravel. West Ham continued to dominate us, and we struggled to find an answer. We were given a golden opportunity to silence the home crowd and restore our two goal cushion when Antonio handled following a corner. Saka stepped up to take. Here we go. This to all but end the game and pick up a vital three points on the road. But excruciatingly, Saka blazed it wide. It was a poor penalty and there is no getting way from that. It was his first miss for us and his first since the Euros. As soon as he missed it there was a nagging feeling that it would come back to bite us as I voiced to CER at the time. And I was unfortunately proved right just a few minutes later. We initially cleared well following yet more West Ham pressure but our line was far too slow to break out and Jarrod Bowen crashed the ball home at the near post. 2-2. And, in all honesty, it was the least the Hammers deserved. But more to the point it was the least Arsenal deserved too. We had needlessly let them back into a game which we had complete control over. But at least there was still well over half an hour to respond. Would Arsenal not at last up the tempo? (Narrator\u2019s voice): \u201cThe Arsenal did, indeed, not up the tempo\u201d. Instead we seemingly decided playing ninety percent of our passes backwards and sideways, mostly in our own half, was the answer. It was indeed the answer. Just not to the question \u201c how can we have any chance of winning this game?\u201d. We failed to fashion a single clear cut chance for the rest of the game. It was in fact The Hammers who came closest to finding a winner with Antonio seeing a header crash off the bar. Just like last week we were lucky to come away with a point when we had initially put ourselves in a great position to take all three. Infuriating. So now the post mortem will begin while we prepare for a must win clash against a hapless Southampton side on Friday night. A Friday night fixture against the division\u2019s basement side in front of our own fans and the Sky cameras with the whole world watching? What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal threw away two vital points in their pursuit of the Premier League Title on Sunday afternoon. It remains to be seen whether the wound is fatal or not but with the title deciding clashat East Manchester Oil Incorporated only ten days away, this blow could hardly have come at a worse time for Arsenal. [&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\/7762"}],"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=7762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7770,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions\/7770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}