{"id":8732,"date":"2023-11-09T01:12:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8732"},"modified":"2023-11-10T16:44:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:44:27","slug":"arsenal-in-cruise-control-as-they-ease-past-sevilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8732","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal in cruise control as they ease past Sevilla"},"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\/1782721820\" 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:68.013466% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1782721820?et=MzwQIN--TmF7Kxd1XhpvBQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=fGZfuH3fol8RI9gB6W6cjv89VvYISDWNiEcL3j-RbdU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"404\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>My Spanish is very poor (like my Italian, German, French, and Dutch) but I could swear that drifting over from the Sevilla supporters was the refrain &#8220;Six times champions of Europe, you\u2019ll never say that&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frankly if that was what they were singing it sounded as ridiculous in context as the West Ham chants from last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonight we eased them aside in the most comfortable of Champions League victories. It has been marvellous to hear the evocative Champions League anthem return and in the two games we have played this season at home we have put the opposition to the sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite leaks from the Daily Mail, the paper that provides the blueprint for my life, the team did not feature Ramsdale but Trossard featured upfront, Tomayisu started at left back, and Jorginho was in midfield. Havertz played quite far forward, alternating with Trossard in the 9 and 10 roles. His evening did not begin auspiciously with a miss with a free header from a left wing corner, but his all round game improved and he was unlucky not to score in the 55th minute with a curling left foot effort that went just wide. There is clearly a player there but equally we could have spent \u00a365 million much more effectively in the Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonight\u2019s stars were our two wingers who survived, after a fashion, some brutal treatment from the Sevilla fullbacks who were completely unable to stop them legally. Artetaball is primarily about creating overloads on the wing and clever switches to Martinelli, who had chalk on his boots,&nbsp;were always a source of great danger for the Spaniards. Martinelli tore Jeanlu a new one but at the same time the quality of his final ball left something to be desired. Bade was moved across in the second half to try to contain him (with limited success) but the speed and strength of Martinelli, who had scored so sumptuously in Andalucia a fortnight ago, was too much for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seville earned their first corner a couple of minutes from the end and tested Raya with their only shot in the last minute of injury time. It was such a relaxed evening I did not allow myself to get stressed by a referee who seemed incapable of awarding corners, throw-ins, or free-kicks to the correct side, and let players stand five yards away when free kicks were being taken, yet sought to book Saka for&nbsp;not going off injured at the right place. If he\u2019d given Saka appropriate protection early on, his journey may&nbsp; not have been necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game was settled by two well-worked goals. In the 25th minute Jorginho played a perceptive and beautifully weighted ball through the inside right channel to Saka who looked up and knocked in a low cross to Trossard who turned the ball in from close range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1 Sevilla 0 &#8211; Trossard<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a good example of patient probing garnished by a change-up to a much faster tempo and it tore Sevilla asunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite overwhelming superiority we didn\u2019t work the keeper enough but our control of the game was almost total. The one moment of danger in the first half came from a swift break down their inside left channel which was extinguished by a brilliant piece of defending from the majestic Saliba, who raced back to time his tackle to perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Otherwise the half progressed smoothly with Arsenal firmly in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Half-time&nbsp; Arsenal 1 Sevilla 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second half saw much of the same. Saka was progressively kicked to pieces as he nearly always is and was a constant threat. Martinelli rampaged down the left, and Havertz almost opened his Arsenal goals-from-open-play account. It is becoming a little hackneyed to say it but Rice was imperious in midfield and worked well in tandem with the steady Jorginho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game was made safe, although in truth it was never in peril from an Arsenal point of view, in the 65th minute when Martinelli came off the left wing following a quick throw in from Zinchenko (who had replaced Tomayisu at half time). Gabigol found Saka, who duped his defender and slotted the ball into the far corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2 Sevilla 0 &#8211; Saka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result, which had never been in doubt, really wasn\u2019t in doubt at all now; but the evening became a little more concerning when Saka limped off near the end to be replaced by Vieira. Nelson had come on for Martinelli a few minutes before. Saka hobbled around the perimeter of the pitch presumably so he could wave to C100 in the North Bank Lower. I\u2019m no Trev (in fact who&nbsp;is but Trev?) but I didn\u2019t think his injury looked serious and I hope Tomi was replaced for tactical reasons. Zinchenko had one fine volley saved but Arsenal were content to retain possession, although a slight error from Saliba (which may have been triggered by eccentric positioning from Raya) caused slight concern. In the end this was the most comfortable of victories even though the nine points we have amassed has not yet made us certain of qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sevilla are not even certain of getting another crack at the Europa League and a titanic final clash with the champions of Europe Wet Spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An enjoyable evening and the rain abated for my journey home for once!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Full Time -Arsenal 2 Sevilla 0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images My Spanish is very poor (like my Italian, German, French, and Dutch) but I could swear that drifting over from the Sevilla supporters was the refrain &#8220;Six times champions of Europe, you\u2019ll never say that&#8221;. Frankly if that was what they were singing it sounded as ridiculous in context as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8743,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732\/revisions\/8743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}