{"id":9385,"date":"2024-04-04T05:56:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T04:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9385"},"modified":"2024-04-05T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T07:01:00","slug":"handbrake-on-arsenal-cruise-back-to-the-top-of-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9385","title":{"rendered":"Handbrake-on Arsenal cruise back to the top of the league"},"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\/2128597910\" 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\/2128597910?et=OuEI9m_TTRxVsnzv8mIXHg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=zn2svVsMZHlWi9bALHLP-RmvFyP2tRbOULPS5OqZ0YU=&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>Arsenal eased back to the top of the Premier League with a largely untroubled 2-0 home win over Luton Town tonight. It was an excellent outcome on a night when Mikel Arteta made five changes from the titanic show of defensive resilience at the Emptihad on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He brought in Zinchenko at left back for Kiwior, started Reiss Nelson in place of Bukayo Saka (who was not on the bench), replaced Declan Rice with Thomas Partey, Jorginho with Smith-Rowe, and saw Kai Havertz play centrally with Jes\u00fas on the bench as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luton had numerous injuries and were fresh from a late and dispiriting defeat at the Toilet Bowl where they had led for much of the game. They found it difficult to penetrate Arsenal all night in the way they had the inferior Tottenham, and the first half was an entertaining but relatively low-key affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than give you a detailed&nbsp;blow by blow account I will look at some of the new personnel for Arsenal and some of the issues this performance raised. Suffice it to say that Arsenal began tentatively, which was understandable with such a rotated side, but soon grew into the game. Trossard and Zinchenko had shots blocked before Kaminski saved well from a cross-shot by Smith Rowe. Arsenal\u2019s intensity increased and in the 24th minute ESR robbed Mpanzu in midfield and fed \u00d8degaard. \u00d8degaard exchanged passes with Havertz and drove the ball past Kaminski\u2019s left hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 1 Luton 0 &#8211; \u00d8degaard 24<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luton tried to up the tempo after the goal, and a Townsend cross bounced awkwardly in front of Raya who dealt with it well. Havertz had a couple of close range shots well blocked by the keeper and was making his presence felt in an effective way. Arsenal increased their lead in the 43rd minute when ESR got in behind the right flank of the Luton defence and cut the ball across to Nelson. Luton\u2019s Hashioka beat him to the ball but could only turn it into his own net. In the spirit of Trev one might say he made a bit of a hashioka of his clearance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal 2 Luton 0 &#8211; Hashioka og 43<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The half ended with Barkley testing Raya for the first time with a free kick but the Spaniard made a comfortable save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Half-time Arsenal 2 Luton 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My comments on the second half action will be necessarily brief because there wasn\u2019t much! Arsenal made a raft of substitutions. Rice, Nketiah, Martinelli, Tomayisu, and Jorginho replaced Partey, Havertz (just after he was booked for simulation), Nelson, Zinchenko, and ESR. Tomayisu drove just wide and Nketiah forced a good save at his near post from Kaminski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luton, to their credit, did not cave in but Arsenal played with a degree of handbrake on and were largely (and rightly) content to control the game and prevent Luton from threatening the Arsenal goal. The game finished with Arsenal well in control with the job done professionally and competently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Full time &#8211; Arsenal 2 Luton 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a lot of speculation in the blog about how many changes Arteta would make, and it would be fair to say five was more than most people expected. How did they do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most effective performance came from Smith-Rowe, who was enterprising, energetic, and skilful, and had a hand in both goals. I understand TNT gave him Man of the Match which would be a great lift for him. He produces&nbsp;pace and thrust and always looks to provide a goal threat, and hopefully will have a big part to play as the season nears its climax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Partey played largely a deeper, holding role in midfield and picked his passes well. He oozes quality and again could have a big part to play for the rest of the season.&nbsp; Nelson worked hard&nbsp;but didn\u2019t have the impact he would have hoped for. I\u2019m not as big a fan of his as some on the blog but it is expecting a lot of him to create a huge performance tonight in his first league start for four years. But I don\u2019t think he will be with us next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zinchenko is a bit of an enigma. Arteta knows much more about the&nbsp;game than I will ever know but he is playing a midfield player at left full back and I think he is too sloppy in defence and seems to lack concentration in some of his passing: he gave a number of balls away tonight and was not tight enough to Townsend or the winger who replaced him. He also made a brilliant interception when Luton looked threatening and produced some clever, creative passes. But in a tight game against a side with pace out wide I think he can be a liability. If he wants to know how to take care of a winger he need only look at the brilliant Ben White who is in outstanding form. Gabriel and Saliba were excellent as always and \u00d8degaard shook off a knock midway through the half to play his usual high-intensity match at the heart of our midfield, linking attack and defence with creativity and precision. Tonight I also felt Havertz unsettled their back line and although he lacks pace he creates mayhem between the lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The season is boiling up into an incredible climax and we are very much involved. This term we are more mature, better organised and our game management is of a completely different order to last term. Luton were never likely to affect our momentum but we handled the challenge of a game a few days after the intensity of the Etihad very sensibly. Arteta is seriously impressing as a great motivator, planner and general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Arsenal eased back to the top of the Premier League with a largely untroubled 2-0 home win over Luton Town tonight. It was an excellent outcome on a night when Mikel Arteta made five changes from the titanic show of defensive resilience at the Emptihad on Sunday. He brought in Zinchenko [&hellip;]<\/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\/9385"}],"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=9385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9404,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9385\/revisions\/9404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}