{"id":9237,"date":"2024-02-25T11:26:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T11:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9237"},"modified":"2024-03-04T07:12:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T07:12:59","slug":"thieving-magpies-righteously-put-to-the-scimitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9237","title":{"rendered":"Thieving Magpies Righteously Put to the Scimitar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Arsenal goal map vs Newcastle (and image from Quora)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Preamble<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday saw us welcome the Riyadh Democrats<\/s> Repressors to The Arsenal for a rare evening kick-off. Nice Guy Eddie and his merry little band of ne\u2019er do wells were on a run of four unbeaten in the Premier League and were expected by some to provide a stern test of The Arsenal\u2019s mental mettle after the unfortunate travails of our midweek trip to Oporto. They had certainly frustrated The Arsenal on their previous visit as they anti-footballed their way to a 0-0 draw, and then once again at their own ground this season when, with an assist from the PGMoL, they stole three points in the manner of a particularly rapacious house of kleptocrats. The latter game proved a step too far for Mikel Arteta, who rightly lambasted the officiating as an absolute disgrace and followed up prior to this game by happily showing no regret whatsoever for telling the truth \u2013 well said that man. However, having talked the talk, it was time to put our game faces on and walk the walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Teams <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only change for The Arsenal was Jorginho in for Leo. After the game, Mikel said of Jorginho \u201che\u2019s a top player, especially when the opponents have certain behaviours or a certain set-up. The way I can imagine the game, he\u2019s going to have a big impact\u2026.\u201d Make of that what you will and no doubt there is a strategic aspect to it but I also feel MA values Jorginho\u2019s character in potentially tricky situations. Whatever the actual reason, the fact was that Jorginho had an excellent game, though I should add I thought Leo a tad unlucky to be the one to make way as none of our attacking players were sharp in midweek. We also welcomed Gabriel Jes\u00fas back to a bench that is slowly gaining in strength. The Tiny Toons had made 3 changes, one of them in goal where Dubravka had shrewdly rustled up a sick note and left Karius to face the on-fire squad in his first PL appearance since 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/strong>st<\/sup><\/strong> half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The double whammy of motivation for The Arsenal, to bounce straight back whilst serving a dish cold, meant the faithful, including some of our fellow Holics who had, if I have understood correctly, recently arrived from Ecuador, were in full voice right from the off. North London Forever had barely faded before Martinelli won our first corner about 10 seconds into the game. It was swiftly followed by a second that was adroitly nodded on at the near post by Benjamin but fell unfortunately to a Toon player and was cleared. The pattern however was set – we pressed ferociously and attacked in waves, they clung on for dear life. Chances and half-chances came and went over the next fifteen minutes before the opening goal came, to absolutely no one\u2019s surprise these days, from a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal 1 Newcastle 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka\u2019s 18th<\/sup> minute corner from the right was well-met by a dominant Gabriel but then well parried by Karius. Fortunately, this time as the ball dropped down it was expertly keystoned into their own net by a combination of Livramento and Botman. In real time I was unsure if it had gone over the line before Karius had pushed it out but in these days of miracle and wonder goal line technology had it all sorted out in a jiffy and a 1-0 lead was ours. It didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal 2 Newcastle 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to our opening goal Newcastle did nothing as we continued to completely control the game for about 5 minutes until the ball arrived at Jorginho\u2019s feet and he dropped a perfect ball to Martinelli as he smartly made his way from the left to ring wing. Demonstrating some top-class control Gabi made his way to the byline and then cut back into the path of Kai \u201c65 million down the drain\u201d Havertz, who finished readily. A richly deserved 2-0 lead that could easily have been four or five by the break as we once again made a team that is in the top 8 look like 2nd<\/sup> rate mugs managed by an overrated halfwit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To cap an outstanding first-half, when Newcastle finally got in our area in the final minutes of the half we defended well and stopped them from getting a single shot on goal. Considering Newcastle were, prior to kick-off, the highest scoring team outside the Top 3 that is top quality game management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/strong>nd<\/sup><\/strong> half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 2nd<\/sup> half kicked off the Japanese TV commentator wondered how many we would get and his co-commentator opined \u201cas many as they want\u201d to my amusement. In fact, it could have been 3-0 very early on. There was some vintage passing around the cones<\/s>, Newcastle players, then back to Raya who fired a great long ball to the right wing, more smart passing and suddenly Kai was one-on-one with the keeper. Tragically he poked it wide and what would have been a truly great goal was lost. The game then entered an odd twilight zone and I was confused for a time until it dawned on me that Newcastle had the ball and were attacking. They had their first attempt on goal, a mediocre effort from Gordon that was charitably considered on target (it wasn\u2019t). Isak then cut inside Benjamin (with quite worrying ease in truth, though Isak isn\u2019t a bad player to be fairer than I prefer) and over-clubbed a shot into the crowd. Leo replaced Gabi M after about an hour and normal service was resumed shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal 3, oh no I mean 4 Newcastle 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smart interception by Kai, (or a poor pass from Botman I suppose) who then combined with \u00d8de to leave Bukayo alone with Livramento. A few tortured-filled seconds later the referee stopped Livramento\u2019s punishment and pointed back to the centre circle. 3-0. It was a cracking finish across the keeper and into the far corner from Saka, scoring in his 5th<\/sup> PL game in a row (first to do that since Giroud apparently). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd had barely had time to finish celebrating the third, when the fourth arrived. Our friends from Riyadh displayed a delightful inability to learn and a corner from Rice was nodded home at the near post by Kiwior. It was I believe our millionth goal from a set-piece this season or something like that. Initially, the goal was given as an own goal as it took a deflection off Smiley (Isn\u2019t he dead by George? Ed.) but the PL espied that it was in fact on target and it happily became Kiwior\u2019s first of the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game drifted to a contented close (unless obviously you were a Toon supporter but then you get what you deserve for lacking a moral compass).  Raya amusingly nailed the ref from 30 yards and pretended it was an accident; there were a whole raft of Hale Enders subbed on; Joe W scored for The Arsenal<\/s> Newcastle, and Dan Burn cleared off the line to deny ESR a goal that we all wanted to see but alas it was not to be and 4-1 it remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could happily write many more words as it was a truly enjoyable game with much that was good and encouraging but I may have tested your patience enough and so I will finish by saying it was a great end to a testing week and we can go to Sheffield for the next game in fine fettle. Just keep winning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preamble This Saturday saw us welcome the Riyadh Democrats Repressors to The Arsenal for a rare evening kick-off. Nice Guy Eddie and his merry little band of ne\u2019er do wells were on a run of four unbeaten in the Premier League and were expected by some to provide a stern test of The Arsenal\u2019s mental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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\/9237"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9240,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237\/revisions\/9240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}