{"id":8644,"date":"2023-11-01T05:46:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T05:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8644"},"modified":"2023-11-01T23:07:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T23:07:30","slug":"any-arsenal-team-should-smell-as-sweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8644","title":{"rendered":"Any Arsenal Team Should Smell as Sweet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Villa defeating Rotherham United in the 1961 final, second leg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It started as a little cup the year a little team from Middlesex won the old First Division title. For most of the quarter-century I’ve been an Arsenal supporter it has been an also-ran cup, a seeming afterthought in which the Arsenal played mostly the kids, blooding them for more important silverware. It was only as we advanced that more senior players would join in the cause; when we lost in 2011 to Birmingham it was our first choice center back and arguably first choice goalkeeper (Kozzer and Chezza) who mixed each other up for the damnable Martins to poke home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last few years it has been the Al-Citeh SubCup, the shine of silver muted by the sheen of an oily coating, with the Blue Oilers of Manchester winning 5 of the last 8 finals. In the post-Wenger years we’ve had a hard time getting past both Liverpool and the 4th round, and losing last time out at the first hurdle to a Brighton squad soon to qualify for Europe. Needless to say, Mikel Arteta hasn’t necessarily made it a priority among other cups and gongs; perhaps now that our squad depth has improved we can alloy that with a crop of Hale End tyros to yield a successful run to the finals, or perhaps even lift the little trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our opponents have been even less successful than our 2 EFL trophies, having made the final twice (the last in 1981 just before it was christened the “Milk Cup” for the 1982 competition) but never winning the whole thing. Since 2018 they’ve not gotten past the 4th round, and as often as not exit in the 3d round. This time around they got out of the 3d round defeating Lincoln City 1-0, the same scoreline Arsenal advanced with against Brentford. As a result, the Hammers host Arsenal on Wednesday for an evening clash to see who gets to move on towards the 2024 EFL cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Ham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hammers are a mid-table stalwart, riding in 9th place of the PL table, above Chelsea and just behind Manchester United. Moyes’ boys lost a disappointing game to a struggling Everton team in front of their home fans this past weekend, making it 0 wins from their last 4 games in all competitions (including the Europa league, where they lost for the first time in 19 games to our old foe Olympiakos).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moyes favors a 4-2-3-1, with Zouma and Aguerd in the middle of defense flanked by Cresswell and Coufal. Ward-Prowse and Alvarez sit between them an an advanced 3 of Paqueta, Kudus, and Bowen, all of whom can feed Antonio running alone up front. However, this doesn’t seem to have led to a flow of goals for them; they’ve not gotten as many as 3 goals since mid-September against European foes TSC Backa Topola. And their defense has shipped 2 goals per game in the last 5, a stretch also back into September. They have no injuries to speak of, or at least none that Moyes would speak of; some rumours have it that Antonio is nursing a niggle, and might have to sit on the bench or miss out altogether. The 5-yellow-card-suspensions for Paqueta and Alvarez don’t come in to play for the EFL Cup, though they will miss the Hammers’ game against Brentford this coming weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

We are holding steady in second place of the PL table, just behind the Middlesexan woad-daubers, having won three and drawn one since losing at Lens in the Champions League. Goalscoring hasn’t been a difficulty against most teams, though we seem to score only one or two if we’re not scoring 4 or 5! Yes, complaints about our “control” of the game versus the amazeball we saw last season are liable to erupt if we come out and play stodgy, controlled football against West Ham. But do remember we did this against Sheffield United, and while a different kettle of mushy peas from the Hammers we did end up putting 5 past them, in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our injury list is looking better, though it sounds like we’ll not be seeing Partey or Jes\u00fas any time soon, and captain M\u00f8 might be coming to the stadium for a seat on the bench. Mo’neny returned and got an assist against the Blades, helping Tomi with his first goal in his 50th game with the Gunners. Congratulations, Tomi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do hope we bring in some young blood to mix with the old. Even though they played against Brighton on Sunday, we could see Ruell Walters, Jimi Gower, Jack Henry-Francis, Amario Cozier-Duberry, and Charles Sagoe, Jr. on the bench or on the pitch to start. We might even see Ethan Nwaneri come up from the U-19 squad. One can hope, eh? If we do blood some of the youth we could see a squad like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White — Saliba — Kiwior — Tomi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rice — ESR — Gower<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACD — Eddie — Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, we’d have a strong bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise I could see something a little more usual:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale (I really don’t see how Raya can start either way)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White — Saliba — Gabriel — Tomi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jorghino — ESR — Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka — Eddie — Gabigol<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if this were the team we could have some of the young guns mentioned on the bench. In any case, I’d like to see a fast start, a couple of first-half goals, then two more in the second half with a clean sheet leading us into the quarterfinals. And that really would smell sweet…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The bookies might have you believe at 6\/1 that a draw is somehow going to be the result, but 1-0 to the Arsenal isn’t much better at 15\/2. There is value for money in any mix of Arsenal scoring 3, even better is Arsenal scoring 4, where my predicted scoreline will get you 50\/1. If he starts, Sagoe Jr. is a good bet at 10\/1 to be first goal scorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all who go tomorrow enjoy the cool, cloudy London weather; set your olfactory bulbs for petrichor, and bring a mac for the rain that should greet you as you sing Arsenal’s victory on the way home. For those who need to watch the game on the TV, have a look at ESPN+ in the USA, or Sky in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COYG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started as a little cup the year a little team from Middlesex won the old First Division title. For most of the quarter-century I’ve been an Arsenal supporter it has been an also-ran cup, a seeming afterthought in which the Arsenal played mostly the kids, blooding them for more important silverware. It was only […]<\/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\/8644"}],"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=8644"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8652,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644\/revisions\/8652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}