{"id":9038,"date":"2023-12-30T20:43:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T20:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9038"},"modified":"2024-01-01T12:15:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:15:17","slug":"f-this-just-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9038","title":{"rendered":"F#$! this.  Just win."},"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\/1890543459\" 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\/1890543459?et=VHeb5alSSrpHKLQmxeyvnw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=17EZ8nD9y-PeECJ33Kqdrd94NmkP9z5x0jEHDpiklyY=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Fourth-place Arsenal head to Craven Cottage for a Sunday afternoon kickoff to end what can largely be considered an incredibly successful calendar year.  Looking at those results we stand in third place, behind Manchester&#8217;s &#8220;115-charge&#8221; Blues and, surprisingly, Aston &#8220;Good Ebening&#8221; Villa.  After nearly taking the league ending in May, we&#8217;ve continued our fine play and, should results go our way, we could finish the year as we did Christmas, at the top of the league.  If we get a win at the Cottage, we will end 2023 in no worse than second on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fulham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fulham have not fared particularly badly over the same timeframe, sitting towards the bottom of the middle of that table in 13th after finishing 10th last season.  They kept manager Marco Silva for the whole period, and have stayed up in the League after winning promotion from the Championship in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their recent games the&#8217;ve been a mixed bag, and while their early December 5-0 thumping of West Ham could have presaged a better result for us this week, Fulham&#8217;s results include points dropped from (mostly) bottom half teams.  Do they raise their game against better squads?  Not really, given they&#8217;ve only got 4 points from 6 games against the current top six, including the win against the Hammers and our 2-2 draw back in August.  However, after losing to Liverpool earlier this month they thumped Forest 5-0 before lashing the same past West Ham the following game.  So they have goals in them; their goal differential being in the negative implies they also ship lots.  At least we&#8217;re in with a chance, eh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silva usually starts his squad in a 4-2-3-1, with Palhinha and Cairney ahead of a defense shorn of captain Ream.  Traore will miss out due to a long-term hamstring strain, but Jiminez will return to the squad after a red card suspension.  Ex-Arsenal players Willian (an injury doubt due to a tight thigh) and Iwobi usually feature in the front four, supporting their single striker with Pereira pulling the strings in the middle.  And of course yet another ex-Arsenal goalie in the league, Leno, will marshall his area in hopes of keeping his ex-mates from bulging the old onion bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given our result at THOF on Thursday against West Ham, a win is in no way guaranteed; our form over our last five games is 1 win, 2 draws, and 2 losses, both in the league.  Not stellar.  We are having a tough time scoring goals (in case you haven&#8217;t noticed), and shocking to some as it may be missing Havertz due to his accumulated yellow cards is only going to make it harder to score.  From where will our goals and interplay come?  If Martinelli can shake off his relative lethargy, if Saka can shake off two or three Fulhamites, if the rotational assaults against our squad are actually dealt with by the officials, if our captain M\u00f8 can drive us forward against their makeshift backline, if Jesus can have a dominating game *and score*&#8230;our 11 should be able to beat their 11.  Right?  Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trossard in the inside 8 position wasn&#8217;t exactly a revelation on Thursday; perhaps ESR really is due a start to see if he can get our engine ticking over.  Kiwior could come in for Zinchenko, staying closer to home rather than roaming in the midfield.  Otherwise we&#8217;ll probably see the same starting 11 as against the Hammers.  We suffer from the injury absences of Tomi, Timber, and Vieira, and it seems now Ghana will also feel the sting of Partey&#8217;s loss due to&#8230;injury?  Thus will our bench be light, and probably stocked in part with tyros like Nwaneri, Cozier-Duberry, and\/or Walters.  Certainly we&#8217;ll see Ramsdale, one of Tross\/ESR, and Cedric on the bench!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White &#8212; Saliba &#8212; Gabriel &#8212; Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">M\u00f8 &#8212; Rice &#8212; ESR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8212; Jesus &#8212; Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holics Punt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there you have it, in a game we should win we must win.  Sounds even more repetitive after failing to do so against West Ham.  In the &#8220;any win will do&#8221; column, Arsenal 3-2 Fulham will get you 23\/1; compare with Arsenal 1-0 Fulham at 6s or 7s, and I know where I&#8217;d put my money.  Add another Arsenal goal to that 3-2 line and you&#8217;re at 49\/1 odds, so perhaps another chunk on Arsenal 4-2 Fulham just for fun?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s on Peacock at sparrowfart (6am) Pacific here in California, at 2 pm GMT on Sky in and around England&#8230;and in Japan (hi, Matt!) it&#8217;s a &#8220;sparrow sleeping&#8221; kickoff at 11 pm!  Whoever goes to the game have a spectacular time in West London, hopefully a celebratory ruby and a pig&#8217;s ear is in your future to fortify the way home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COYG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Fourth-place Arsenal head to Craven Cottage for a Sunday afternoon kickoff to end what can largely be considered an incredibly successful calendar year. Looking at those results we stand in third place, behind Manchester&#8217;s &#8220;115-charge&#8221; Blues and, surprisingly, Aston &#8220;Good Ebening&#8221; Villa. After nearly taking the league ending in May, we&#8217;ve [&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\/9038"}],"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=9038"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9051,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions\/9051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}