{"id":9223,"date":"2024-02-22T05:52:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T05:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9223"},"modified":"2024-02-24T00:23:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T00:23:23","slug":"dragons-fire-as-arteta-fumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9223","title":{"rendered":"Dragons Fire As Arteta Fumes"},"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\/2028562247\" 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\/2028562247?et=6kMJ3Ua8TyhNT-Sfm3eQkg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=P_IXSN4a9y7wUyRDbXeY4ynUpuTyaKc05c4c_uSZ3Po=&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>Mikel Arteta unsurprisingly went with an unchanged side from the one which won 5-0 at Burnley on Saturday and 6-0 at West Ham the weekend before &#8211;<br>Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli; Subs: included Ramsdale, Smith-Rose, Viera, Nwaneri, Sweet and Heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Porto, manager Concei\u00e7\u00e3o had promised they would be physical and he duly included the 41 year old Pepe in the centre of their defence to play his 113th Champions League game. By contrast, ten of Arsenal\u2019s starting eleven are in their debut season in the competition. It\u2019s worth mentioning again that our \u201cinexperienced\u201d captain is the 22 year old Martin Odegaard, who played 11 games in 6 years at Real Madrid but now gets a chance on the stage his huge talent and leadership deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The match officials were a team from Holland and the referee with a very Turkish looking name was Mr Serdar G\u00f6z\u00fcb\u00fcy\u00fck. The VAR, should he be required &#8211; which he strangely wasn\u2019t, as far as we know, given the unarmed combat taking place at every set piece &#8211; was the more easily pronounceable Dennis Higler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stats looked encouraging as no player had been involved in more Champions League goals this season than Bukayo Saka, with 3 goals and 4 assists, averaging a goal involvement every 48 minutes. Arsenal had scored more first half goals than any other team in the Champions League this season, with 12 of our 16 strikes coming before half time. Porto had only won 1 of their last 10 Champions League games against English opponents &#8211; against Chelsea in April 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pre-match ritual, rather than our own North London Forever, included what sounded like the Porto fans singing along to a Portuguese cabaret singer leading them in a ballad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the match was underway Porto quickly looked to seek out and unsettle Declan Rice, which I guess they did given that he got himself a yellow card after just one minute for an unnecessary challenge on the Porto winger. That could have proven very difficult for Rice but such is the quality and intelligence of the player, he seemed to complete the match unimpeded by his punishment and precarious position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal were quickly into control mode with 85% possession in the early stages. Unfortunately it was that kind of possession that involves mostly very slow, sideways and backwards passing and despite some lovely, intricate football billiards from Odegaard and Saka we really failed to threaten the Porto goal. It was shades of bad old Arsenal on 21 minutes when, with their first genuine attack, Porto skewed a shot across the face of goal which cannoned off the far post, ricocheted across the six yard box and was somehow steered wide of the near post with most of the stadium celebrating what looked like a certain goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remainder of the first half turned into one of those affairs that so often happen against southern European teams &#8211; fouling, holding, tripping, anything to break up the rhythm and flow of the game, and a referee who allows them to get away with it. Porto were clearly worried about our ability to score from set pieces and the grappling and holding that went on at each one reached ridiculous levels. The antics in the six yard box resembled one of those 1970s tag team wrestling bouts that had got out of hand and had all four protagonists in the ring at the same time. The referee seemed to have simply given up all hope of either stopping it, or identifying the instigators and let them get on with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the half ended goalless, Porto were well organised, hard to play against and made it difficult to go through centrally or get the ball out to our wingers before they were double marked. They were quick to challenge, quick to fall over and quite dangerous when they did attack with some pacy forwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With no changes at half time, the second period continued in the same vein as the first. According to the commentary, there seemed to be Pepes and Concei\u00e7\u00e3os everywhere. The manager\u2019s son was booked for trying to borrow Martinelli\u2019s shirt without even the courtesy of asking first. Kiwior received his yellow card for getting one back on Concei\u00e7\u00e3o. Havertz was cautioned when a Porto player of which he was totally unaware, nutted him in the elbow from behind, and Gonzales went into the book for holding Havertz as he tried to break forwards. Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Jr will hopefully have been sent to bed with no tea by his dad, the manager, for a pathetic dive and audition for Casualty. The referee was sufficiently fooled to allow the medics on, who soothed Concei\u00e7\u00e3o\u2019s blushes with a cool magic sponge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arteta sent Jorginho on for the ineffective Trossard on 73 minutes and 14 minutes later Porto\u2019s pre-match singer, Toni Martinez was subbed on for Evanilson. Thankfully he restricted his efforts to kicking the ball and Arsenal players, and we were not subjected to any more warbling.<br>Arsenal had honestly achieved nothing with their 9 corners and one final free kick was headed over by Gabriel after two of the added four minutes. After 3 1\/2 added minutes Martinelli hoofed the ball clear from a Porto attack, when he should have controlled it and kept possession. The clearance was intercepted near the half way line and played forward to Galeno who curled a brilliant looping shot past Raya from 25 yards. A naive mistake by Martinelli, reminiscent of some rash late actions by Arsenal players in Europe in the later Wenger years. Let\u2019s hope the error will not prove costly in the home leg on Tuesday 12th March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was a strange and disappointing performance. We had 68% of possession but really did little with it. We started the game slowly and got into that rut of safety first, defensive passing that is very hard to break out of. We did control the game but seemed content to do it a good 15 yards further back than has been the way this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Porto did make it very difficult by keeping compact and occupying the space we normally look to play in between the lines. However, they are a niggly, highly irritating side and I can\u2019t remember seeing so many players falling over and rolling around on the floor &#8211; especially after so little, or no, physical contact. Hopefully, the return leg will be managed by a less gullible referee who will leave them lying on the floor until they tire of their own play acting and get up and get on with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Afterwards Mikel Arteta said &#8211;<br>\u201cWe have to manage much better in deep areas \u2026.. we need more threat, more aggression \u2026. there were 35 &#8211; 37 fouls and allowing that is not good enough \u2026. we couldn\u2019t touch anybody, everything was a free kick \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He wasn\u2019t wrong. Hopefully the players will take note and learn for the home leg. We should be plenty good enough to win through although nobody is pretending it will be easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Mikel Arteta unsurprisingly went with an unchanged side from the one which won 5-0 at Burnley on Saturday and 6-0 at West Ham the weekend before &#8211;Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli; Subs: included Ramsdale, Smith-Rose, Viera, Nwaneri, Sweet and Heaven. For Porto, manager Concei\u00e7\u00e3o had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9223"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9235,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9223\/revisions\/9235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}