{"id":8216,"date":"2023-08-20T15:13:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2023-08-22T00:29:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T23:29:22","slug":"banana-skins-and-marathons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8216","title":{"rendered":"Banana Skins and Marathons"},"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:514px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/154685840\" 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:64.980545% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/154685840?et=nXv_UHZ3TKhEbS5wjRuyrA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=K7vBsPZibQ8cigaYAtQgRzyQTYh7a9jNINiHXz0pPjg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"514\" height=\"334\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal travel south of the river to take on Crystal Palace on Monday evening as they continue the early stages of the thirty-eight game marathon that is a Premier League season. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side got off to a successful, if slightly bumpy in patches, start last Saturday against a spirited Nottingham Forest. The Eagles will offer a different sort of test where Arsenal will be under more pressure although you\u2019d expect the Gunners to enjoy most of the possession.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Selhurst Park is the epitome of the famed \u201cBanana Skin\u201d fixture, meaning it is widely considered to be one of the toughest places outside the traditional Big Six clubs to go and get a result. It is a notoriously raucous ground &#8211; it is believed that our own Ashburton Army took some inspiration from Crysyal Palace\u2019s Holmesdale Fanatics. Flag and tifo displays as well as pyrotechnics are regularly on show at Selhurst, giving it a European feel that you seldom find at English football stadia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some Arsenal fans have attributed Palace a bit of a bogey ground for the Gunners which is not entirely true. Since the Eagle\u2019s promotion in 2013, Arsenal\u2019s record there stands as played ten, won six, drawn two, lost two. The most recent of those half a dozen victories did of course come on the opening night of last season. After losing at Brentford on the opening night the season before, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were there with the sky cameras ready to dance with the crowd like little girls after the eagerly anticipated Arsenal loss. Mikel Arteta\u2019s men then proceeded to play some of the best football we\u2019ve seen from an Arsenal side since the \u2018Invincibles\u2019. Neville and Carragher were bitterly disappointed. Arsenal will be very pleased if the night results in a repeat of that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not usually someone who pays much attention to omens or a result against the same team on the same ground in 1952 but I will point out that the two defeats Arsenal have suffered in this corner of South London in the last decade both came on a Monday night. Both were 3-0 defeats. Their recent record on Monday nights makes for pretty grim reading, having lost their last four premier league fixtures on a Monday night with the 3-0 reverse at Selhurst Park in April last year being part of that unpleasant sequence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well now that\u2019s out of the way, which Crystal Palace will Arsenal be facing on Monday Evening? Palace are now Wilfred Zaha-less following the departure of their record Premier League goalscorer to Galatasaray on a free transfer. They looked set to lose tricky winger, Michael Olise, to Chelsea before he made an unexpected U-turn and signed a four-year extension to stay in South London. In terms of incomings they have brought in Matheus Franca from Flamengo to bolster their attack as well as Jefferson Lerma from Bournemouth to increase the numbers in the middle of the park. A shrewd signing, one feels. They did, of course, have our own Sambi Lokonga on loan for the second half of last season but the Belgian failed to make the sort of impression that could\u2019ve led to a permanent move to Selhurst Park. Roy Hodgson is remarkably still managing at the ripe old age of seventy-six. You\u2019re only as young as you feel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the Visitors, it looks like Arsenal will be without Jurrien Timber for some months following an unfortunate ACL tear last weekend. Zinchenko and Jesus are reportedly close to being available for selection although you wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they were eased back in to avoid further injury. In terms of team selection, well that\u2019s very difficult to predict for Arsenal these days which is probably a good thing. Although not for FPL managers for whom I\u2019m sure it will be the source of a great deal of selection headache this year. However, the real selection headache is being suffered by Mikel Arteta. Although you suspect the Spaniard is enjoying the plethora of options he now has at his disposal. It will be interesting to see if he does persist with the 3-2-4-1 box midfield system. It becomes that bit more complicated without Timber and probably Zinchenko also. Of course, since we last kicked a ball we have made an additional signing in Goalkeeper David Raya on loan from Brentford. While you wouldn\u2019t expect him to start over Ramsdale, that will be another question for Arteta in the weeks and months ahead. Questions he would like to have of course. Given the options I am predicting this starting eleven:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ramsdale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White, Saliba, Gabriel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka, Odegaard, Havertz, Martinelli&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Nketiah<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feel free to disagree because I am almost certainly incorrect. To what extent we will find out tomorrow. It will certainly be a tough encounter for Arsenal but one they are well equipped to deal with. We may not see the fast and fluid football we saw at the beginning of last season on this ground, but I am still predicting an away win here. 2-0 to The Arsenal. Some hairy moments are more than likely at some point, but just remember &#8211; it\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal travel south of the river to take on Crystal Palace on Monday evening as they continue the early stages of the thirty-eight game marathon that is a Premier League season. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side got off to a successful, if slightly bumpy in patches, start last Saturday against a spirited Nottingham [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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\/8216"}],"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=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8226,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions\/8226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}