{"id":9139,"date":"2024-02-04T23:20:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9139"},"modified":"2024-02-10T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:31:40","slug":"a-long-days-journey-into-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9139","title":{"rendered":"A long day&#8217;s journey into the light"},"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\/465268139\" 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:63.131313% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/465268139?et=gc7zBbW-TQJ_xuRKtL4HgA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=bLLjJ4sBgXw7UMuMAdnvCbeitqiJ75jGWJkJgod3LqQ=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"375\" 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 and Liverpool kicked off their late afternoon title tilt (or whatever <em>you<\/em> call a 6-pointer at the top of the table) in front of a capacity crowd at Ashburton Grove.  The teams provided a hell of a game for the fans both at the stadium and those watching on screen, including your humble scribe.  In the end Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners, having suffered somewhat but through the course of the game nearly dominated a strong Liverpool side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In somewhat of a unsurprising surprise Jes\u00fas was a late scratch, being replaced on the pitch by Havertz in the middle, with Rice slotting into the 8 and Jorginho holding.  Mo&#8217;neny returned from his unsuccessful sojourn at the AFCON to anchor our 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 \u2013 Saliba \u2013 Gabriel \u2013 Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">\u00d8degaard \u2013 Jorginho \u2013 Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka \u2013 Jesus \u2013 Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pool remained without Mo&#8217;Salah, and started with Nu\u00f1ez on the bench, Klopp preferring Gakpo with Diaz and Jota up front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liverpool took the kickoff, and within a minute modeled the route that they would favor towards our goal, with a long ball over the top and our center halves just not quite dealing with it.  I was afraid I&#8217;d barely settle into my coffee before we&#8217;d be down a goal.  Then we slowly grew into holding Liverpool into their own half, and our pressing forcing mistakes by their ball carriers, leading to us winning it back in threatening positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were continually interactive down the right, and had a couple of promising moves blocked out for corners or throws.  Martinelli was a constant threat down the left, playing as he was 1v1 against Alexander-Arnold or Gomez.  In our first real forward action Raya caught a ball from a &#8216;Pool shot and bowled it out to Gabi on the left, racing with it past Gomez to cross short of the byline to an onrushing Saka, who put his header wide right with the goal functionally unattended.  It would have been a stellar goal, alas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We nearly suffered after a series of longer passes, over the top, got Gakpo free to fire off a shot that avoided both Gabriel and Raya wide left.  Gakpo was otherwise marshalled well by our central defenders and Zinchenko, earning hardly a sniff at all in the first half aside from that.  Diaz was shut down by White nearly all half;  this, combined with our mastery in the midfield, is why Liverpool were going over the top.  On only one or two occasions our box-and-one in the middle of the field showed its soft center, but Mac Allister couldn&#8217;t take advantage of it before we got reorganized on defense.  Our midfield shut theirs down, with M\u00f8 always forcing the ball away from Mac Allister and forcing his teammates to look for other (unproductive) options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then we broke through.  We played some passes in defense back left, which ended up with Zinny on the ball at midfield.  He passed to M\u00f8 in the center circle, who first-timed a bobbling but perfect throughball into the path of Havertz, who was sprinting between their center backs.  Havertz put a hard shot into Alisson&#8217;s torso, which rebounded to the onrushing Saka; one touch to settle, and Saka put it into the top corner with aplomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool (Saka 13&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the goal the game settled into the pattern it would take for most of its final hour and a quarter, wth Arsenal defending stoutly from the front and Liverpool probing, occasionally trying something over the top.  Arsenal could afford to play this way due to how Jorginho was absolutely bossing the space ahead of our defense, continually directing traffic and showing as an outlet.  It was his best game for us since he came over from those mid-table Blues, I think.  By ceding posession we controlled the game, and by and large Liverpool never really threatened; they did not have a shot on target all half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just before the half-hour mark Gomez pulled back Havertz and got a yellow for his troubles.  Havertz had the ball from defense and was on his way with little ahead of him.  Van Dijk missed a header from a TAA cross, then White was given a yellow for time-wasting at a throw.  He is really poor at throws, takes long deliberation (this was not his first yellow), and often gives the ball right back to the other team.  I wish someone would sort him out, it&#8217;s a continual source of frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We then had a series of attempts that were blocked or missed, as the half wound down.  As we entered stoppage time Gabigol took a shot that was blocked, and it was cycled by Liverpool downfield.  A 1-2 between Gakpo and Diaz led to Diaz losing the ball in the box, shielded for Raya by Saliba.  However, Raya was both slow to react and not brave enough to dive for the ball, and Saliba let Diaz get a foot on to it.  He dinked a pass across the mouth of goal, which Gabriel&#8217;s hand inadvertently knocked into our net.  If Raya had dived rather than wait for the ball to roll to him, and if Saliba had been stronger shielding Diaz off the ball, there would have been no goal.  It was our worst moment of play in the game, and it came at perhaps the worst moment of the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool (Gabriel OG, 45+3&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Halftime:  Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During halftime Mikel decided he&#8217;d opt for defense rather than passing prowess, in hopes of containing the expected flush of Liverpool&#8217;s second-half start, and brought on Kiwior for Zinchenko.  And indeed, Liverpool&#8217;s energy was higher and they moved the ball more quickly, forcing Arsenal to the back foot for the first quarter hour.  They could have scored twice in the first five minutes, but just couldn&#8217;t make their efforts, or their overall advantage of possession, count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were, however, some Rayas of Arsenal sunshine in spite (or because) of Liverpool pressing us back.  Raya gathered, then came out of goal and put a fine ball to Gabi.  After Arsenal did some ball recycling Havertz (who had a really good game himself, making repeated trouble for Konate and Van Dijk winning headers and threatening to break through their lines) fed M\u00f8 at the center top of the box for a hard shot that Konate deflected out for a corner, which came to nothing.  Mac Allister bought a cheap freekick in the middle of our half, and Pool pushed much higher up into our defense in search of a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 55&#8242; Konate drew yellow from referee Taylor, throwing Havertz to the ground when challenging for a long ball from Saka.  The resulting freekick was taken from 40 yards out by M\u00f8, and Gabriel sent a free header wide right.  Two minutes later Gabriel saw yellow for a hand in Gakpo&#8217;s face.  Nonetheless, our defense started to exert more and more pressure on the ball, and Liverpool&#8217;s only option was, seemingly, to substitute players:  Nu\u00f1ez for Gakpo, Robertson for TAA, and Elliott for Gravenberch.  While they were coming on we saw lovely cameos from Theo and Giroud in the stands to watch the game.  Welcome back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rice also had a really strong game.  He was consistently winning the ball in the middle third of the pitch, occasionally driving the ball forward into the offence, other times cycling it within the defense as we sought to understand where to attack Liverpool&#8217;s weakest point.  Rice did just the former on 60&#8242;, intercepting the ball in midfield, then driving forward before passing to Saka out right.  Saka brought it in and fired a shot from the top of the box, deflected past Alisson&#8217;s goal; Havertz nearly turned in corner from Rice, but sent his header over the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allison and Raya trading long balls and possession until Kiwior hit it into touch with a poor touch under light pressure.  It was his only real mistake of the day, otherwise he supported Gabi nicely, and played fine defense down their right. If we can keep getting him big game time he can develop into an even better option for our left back position. His passing range is, however, monotonic compared to the Symphony of Zinchenko; one can only hope as his game develops he can become more effective on the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabi put a sweet ball into Havertz over the top, and Mac Allister took Havertz down in the box.  Penalty?  Not given on the field, and not overturned by VAR&#8230;though to be fair it was certainly a debatable call.  Until that point of the second half Arsenal had played neither with flair nor control.  Balls were being played first time that should have been trapped and sent along, passes were miscued, and with Liverpool upping the intensity of their press it was a bit of the fox among the chickens through 65 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the fox jumped off a box and into the farmer&#8217;s trap!  From a free kick in our defensive half Gabriel sent a long, speculative ball over the top for Gabi to run onto.  He went shoulder-to-shoulder wth Van Dijk, who could easily have cleared the ball.  Van Dijk chose to leave it for the onrushing Alisson, who kicked his defender rather than the ball.  Gabi was watching all of this with big eyes, and when the ball fell to his feet he simply turned and stroked it into the open net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool (Martinelli, 67&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Needless to say the crowd, who had been loud all game, stepped it up a notch from then on.  That brought energy to our defensive effort again.  Kiwior got a yellow for going through Jota (not-so-singularly anonymous all game), and in spite of continuing the nice interplay down the right with Saka M\u00f8 was consistently harrying Mac Allister, giving him no time on the ball or forcing his teammates to pass the ball back to defense and into a Liverpudlian horseshoe of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 74th minute Trossard came on for Gabigol, who had a really beautiful game.  His freedom on the left was constant, and his decision-making showed a refined quality that will only make him better and better as he implements that quality more and more.  M\u00f8 took a while to get up from a foul in their final third, and while he was down Pool got a corner.  Mac Allister hit the result just wide after a fine Arsenal header away.  During that sequence Saka went down, and was subbed after walking gingerly to the sideline.  It seems he wasn&#8217;t hurt badly, but Arteta took no chances and brought Nelson on to finish the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time there were ten minutes left of the 90 Arsenal had regained a full measure of their earlier control, and all Liverpool could muster were a Mac Allister potshot from outside the box and a poorly-taken snaphot by Nu\u00f1ez from within the box.  A long ball to Havertz came to nought, but to a man Arsenal continued to play stellar defense: M\u00f8 was everywhere, Jorginho reminding me of Gilberto Silva, and Kiwior was battling Gomez and other comers again and again.  White kept Diaz in his back pocket.  From a Liverpool corner Gabriel headed it to safety, and we broke slowly, moving the ball out right where M\u00f8 fed in a cross to Kiwior just above the penalty spot; his header was straight at Alisson, though it could have been the third goal had Kiwior headed it nearly anywhere else on frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 85th Thiago returned from hip surgery to replace Gomez, and we allowed Liverpool the run of the ball, pressing lower until they were past the center circle, then jumping on them.  A fine defensive clearance to Havertz left Konate with few options; Havertz slipped the ball neatly by Konate to drive forward, and the Liverpool defender had to put his arm up onto Havertz to stop the break.  Konate&#8217;s second yellow meant he was gone, and suddenly Arsenal were playing against 10 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a foul was not called on Gabriel in the center circle (it was a foul, should have been called, and possibly resulted in a second yellow for Gabriel) Nu\u00f1ez received a yellow for arguing.  I think we were lucky there.  The board was raised announcing 7 minutes of stoppage time, which got the heart going even faster.  Saliba was given a yellow for time wasting over a free kick, which resulted in a useless long ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the second minute of stoppage time we got the ball down the left to Trossard, who was martialled by Elliot and Diaz.  Some neat footwork and a dink and run forward by Trossard and he was free of the Liverpool men, bearing down on Alisson&#8217;s goal.  He snapped either a shot or a cross (I think a shot, but two Arsenal players were haring down to the far side of the box&#8230;) that hit the underside of Van Dijk\u2018s boot and nutmegged Alisson for a laughable, exciting, and relieving third goal.  It was f&amp;#!ing AWESOME.  Van Dijk gave only a half-assed attempt to block it, and that it 5-holed Alisson was glorious.  Arteta&#8217;s reaction (\u00e0 la Usain Bolt) illustrated just how important was this goal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool (Trossard, 90+2&#8242;)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that was it.  In the 94th we saw some yellow Rice for his scything down of Diaz, and in the 95th for Havertz, having knocked the foul flag out of the linesman&#8217;s hand.  Pool scrambled in the remaining minutes, but Arsenal&#8217;s defense remained well-organized.  Kiwior was again called upon to keep Diaz in check, and he did, with the last kick of the game going into their half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Full time:  Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liverpool are a great team, deserving of their first place standing.  And Arsenal are a great team, deserving of both their win and current second-place standing.  This was a game of high intensity, the teams forcing mistakes on their opponent, a game with moments for Arsenal of both team and individual brilliance making up the nature of the final scoreline.  Arsenal rose to the occasion with a grit and determination that we&#8217;ve seen at times this season, and with a fluidity of thought and play that we&#8217;ve seen at times this season.  But this was really the first full game in which those were alloyed with an adverturous spirit and the racous support of our supporters into a steel that could lead us to the title come May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our defensive play, from front to back, effectively neutralized Gackpo, Mac Allister, Jota, Nu\u00f1ez, and Diaz as scoring threats, it was a masterful job of team setup by Arteta and execution by every single Arsenal player to nullify Klopp&#8217;s strategies.  As noted above Liverpool didn&#8217;t get a shot on target in the first half; they had only one all game!  Arsenal&#8217;s team had no passengers today, no one hid:  it was such a pleasure to watch *this* team at *this* time mix the overall game control with moments of fluid brilliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And at the end, who couldn&#8217;t love M\u00f8 taking pics of Stuart MacFarlane with the latter&#8217;s own camera, then grabbing it back when he wasn&#8217;t satisfied with his first effort.  That&#8217;s our captain!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal and Liverpool kicked off their late afternoon title tilt (or whatever you call a 6-pointer at the top of the table) in front of a capacity crowd at Ashburton Grove. The teams provided a hell of a game for the fans both at the stadium and those watching on screen, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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\/9139"}],"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=9139"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9151,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions\/9151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}