{"id":9283,"date":"2024-03-09T23:24:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T23:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9283"},"modified":"2024-03-12T06:38:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T06:38:53","slug":"we-are-top-of-the-league-say-we-are-top-of-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9283","title":{"rendered":"We are top of the league… say, we are top of the league!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A dramatic night at the Home of Football saw us (eventually) restored to our rightful place at the top of the Premier League with a late header by Kai Havertz. It decided a bad-tempered and tense affair pockmarked by Brentford\u2019s play-acting and simulation of head injuries. The ball was in play for less than fifty minutes in a game that lasted nearly a hundred! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comedian once told me that there are only seven types of joke and I suspect there are only a limited number of types of football match. This game fell into the bracket of a very one-sided game turned on its head by a catastrophic error by an Arsenal keeper playing only because his replacement in the first team line up was ineligible to play against the team from which he is on loan. Given this scenario, football dramas dictate that the replacement keeper saves a penalty or compounds his errors. Ramsdale did neither but made two fine saves in the second half in what may be his valedictory performance as an Arsenal keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game degenerated as a spectacle as Brentford employed every underhand trick in the book to waste time, dupe the referee and wind up their opponents. There are many Arsenal fans tonight who will, as a result, be hoping Brentford\u2019s plunge towards relegation goes into free-fall.  Their demeanour was ghastly and their shithousery raised the temperature of an already febrile Emirates to boiling point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet it had looked relatively routine throughout a very one-sided first half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal began with Trossard replacing Martinelli in the only change from Monday\u2019s cakewalk in  Sheffield. Toney was called on to clear a Rice corner off the line in the second minute. Our tempo was electric, our interchanging bewildering but Brentford\u2019s low block held firm until the 18th minute when Benny Bianco curled in a right wing cross which Declan Rice glanced wide of Flekken in the Brentford goal . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Brentford 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We switched the ball constantly between wings and Havertz had a shot blocked by the keeper before screwing wide after a beautiful Jorginho pass. Trossard was put through by a brilliant piece of distribution from Ramsdale but lacked the pace to finish and Saka drilled just over. All seemed set fair until just before half time Gabriel nudged the ball back to Ramsdale who dallied on the ball allowing Wissa to deflect the ball into the net. Before too many sages reflect that Raya would never commit such a mistake may I refer you to his error early on in the crucial game against Manchester City when he almost let in Alvarez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Brentford 1 – Half-time <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The half-time interval felt similar to the one against Liverpool where they scored a freak goal on the stroke of half-time. As the enormity of Ramsdale\u2019s error dawned, he was comforted and encouraged by several team-mates. I reflected how fortunate it was that the odious William Gallas had retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal tried to up the pace from the start of the second half but Brentford dropped into a narrow and deep block. We forced many corners which saw farcical pushing and shoving matches and the ineffectual referee Rob Jones exercise a degree of tolerance that I thought was far too generous to a cynical Brentford side. We had two decent shouts for penalties for fouls on Trossard and Gabriel but Brentford felt Havertz who had already been booked was guilty of simulation in going down too easily about fifteen minutes from the end.  Our two best chances saw a Gabriel header blocked on the line and Declan Rice fire a fine effort following a corner onto the angle of post and bar. But Brentford were dangerous too. Toney tried to take advantage of Ramsdale\u2019s advanced position with a dangerous effort that Ramsdale tipped wide at full stretch. With twenty minutes left Collins, a perpetual nag to the referee popped up in the Arsenal box to fire in a header which Aaron tipped athletically over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were just trying to estimate the amount of injury time that the referee would  add (predicting that it would be woefully inadequate) when Benny Bianco produced another excellent cross this time to the near post and Havertz arrived to head firmly home off the bar. Cue pandemonium and wholesale disapproval at the inordinate amount of injury time (seven minutes) that  the referee had allowed! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Brentford 1 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We managed to survive the seven minutes with few alarms and thankfully the labyrinthitis which had spread through the Brentford team throughout the second half, miraculously disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time – Arsenal 2 Brentford 1 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the sort of messy, highly charged game that occurs in our situation at this stage of the season. It is about a year since Reiss Nelson\u2019s last-second \u2018worldie\u2019 against Bournemouth. We had nothing like as late a goal today but it was tight and tense and ultimately triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramsdale, while not completely redeemed, did not cost us any points and made two terrific saves. I was taken by the intelligence of Jorginho whose passing is a delight, the runs between the lines of Havertz who is really developing as a 2024 version of Martin Peters for those of older vintage, the consistency and effectiveness of Ben White who is now such an effective attacking weapon and the industry and quality of Rice and \u00d8degaard who are players of the highest class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A narrow squeak, but one of those games I felt we were always going to win. Now for Anfield and hopefully an eagerly contested draw! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dramatic night at the Home of Football saw us (eventually) restored to our rightful place at the top of the Premier League with a late header by Kai Havertz. It decided a bad-tempered and tense affair pockmarked by Brentford\u2019s play-acting and simulation of head injuries. The ball was in play for less than fifty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"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\/9283"}],"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=9283"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9290,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9283\/revisions\/9290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}