I have risen from the darkened room to which I have recently retired, in the hope that I can help to resurrect what is turning into a horror show for Arsenal supporters everywhere. You don\u2019t need me to recap the sad events since Project Restart kicked into life. Nor will readers need to be reminded of the importance of Thursday night\u2019s swift return to the south coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Present circumstances are unique, but a close analogy might be the start of a season, say last season when we began by losing away to Man\u00a2iti and lost our next game. That season ended with us being justifiably disappointed to finish in 5th place, which this season would, barring a surprising court decision, see us qualify once more for a seat at football\u2019s top table in the shape of the UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The analogy isn\u2019t, of course, exact. Last season we were managed by a Spaniard in his first managerial season in England and, following our second defeat, we embarked on a long unbeaten run. This season we are managed by\u2026 err\u2026 a Spaniard in\u2026 um\u2026 his first managerial season in England. The major difference is that on 18 August 2018 we had 36 matches left in the season to turn things around, while on 21 June 2020 we have only eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We would naturally like not to have to resurrect a season, and if we had to, would probably prefer to do so somewhere other than at St Mary\u2019s, which has not been a happy hunting ground for us since Southampton\u2019s return to the Premier League for season 2012-13. Six away games have seen us garner only five points with the only win three years ago courtesy of goals from now-departed Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fag end of season 2019-20 has seen the footballing gods continue to be unkind to us, bringing injuries to Granit Xhaka, Pablo Mari and Bernd Leno. This makes it a little easier for a novice previewer to predict the back five, which will surely be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martinez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bellerin – Luiz – Mustafi – Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of them, who knows? Perhaps<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guendouzi – Ceballos – Pepe<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lacazette – Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps not. Perhaps Mikel will play Kolasinac rather than Hector. Maybe he\u2019ll want to rest Saka. Maybe\u2026 drumroll\u2026 he\u2019ll find a place for Ozil. I have, literally, no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u2018holic pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly for followers of the \u2018holic pound, we don\u2019t really do betting at the Palais Pangloss; Oxonne is philosophically agin it, and I think that if the Arsenal lose I\u2019m sufficiently upset that I don\u2019t want to suffer a financial loss as well, on the other hand when we win, I\u2019m so uplifted that I\u2019d hardly notice the buzz of winning some money. As such, I lack familiarity with the betting sites so can\u2019t tell you where, if anywhere, good value is to be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I were a betting man, then obviously I\u2019d have to back a win for the Arse. 1-0 has a nice familiar ring to it, and Lord knows we need comfort now. Realistically, though, if we manage to start firing there\u2019s a reasonable chance that we\u2019ll run riot, and I can\u2019t believe anyone thinks we\u2019re going to keep a clean sheet any time soon, so maybe the punt should be on 3-1 to the Good Guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And finally<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now more than ever is a time to have faith. Believe in the club you support. Believe in the talent within the squad \u2013 they will turn this around. Pray that they do so quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday night in Southampton would be a good time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have risen from the darkened room to which I have recently retired, in the hope that I can help to resurrect what is turning into a horror show for Arsenal supporters everywhere. You don\u2019t need me to recap the sad events since Project Restart kicked into life. Nor will readers need to be reminded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}