{"id":9905,"date":"2024-08-12T21:34:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T20:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9905"},"modified":"2024-08-16T11:10:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:10:58","slug":"another-walk-in-the-park-at-the-emirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9905","title":{"rendered":"Another Walk in the Park at The Emirates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A glorious summer day provided the background to our final pre-season friendly. The Emirates was packed with young families mostly, it seemed to me, taking advantage of the fact that tickets were both easily available and relatively affordable. My tickets were about \u00a330 for sitting more or less at the front of the West Upper bang on half way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team which started was pretty much the strongest available, given the unavailability of Tomiyasu and Timber. And we started at a high pace, pressing very aggressively. It was noticeable that much more came down our right with the reintroduction of Saka who was very lively from the off. Partey was patrolling the midfield with Rice pushed forward as he was against Leverkusen. Lyon struggled to get out as we pushed them back and they looked a bit stunned by the pace. Martinelli looked good as he forced the pace down the left, nicely balancing the threat of Saka on the other side. A succession of corners in the first 5 minutes or so asked questions of the Lyon defence and it looked as though the set piece coach had a busy summer designing new set plays. In the 9th<\/sup> minute all that hard work paid off. A fantastic corner from Rice was hit to the middle of the Lyon goal, Saliba had run around the back of the keeper and got into a position 5 yards from goal to head in pretty much unchallenged. And, as against Leverkusen, we cut through the defence pretty much straight from the kick off and only a better though ball to Martinelli prevented us from having a very good chance for a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zinchenko and \u00d8degaard were both in good form, playing some delightful passes but a mixture of slightly overhitting and Martinelli being a little rusty kept Lyon in it. With a week to go to the big kick off, we were beginning to look good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good corners kept coming with another Rice delivery from the left on 15 minutes curled in to the near post, causing no little chaos in the Lyon defence. Partey was owning the midfield, his press-resistance enabling him to make correct decisions under pressure, destroying the press and freeing up both \u00d8degaard and Zinchenko to make more of those smart forward passes. And it was one of those smart through balls to Martinelli resulting ultimately in a corner which led to our second. Another excellent Rice corner delivery from the left, this time to the back post found Gabriel who nodded in from 3 feet. In fairness, the goalkeeper flapped like a seal at feeding time at the aquarium which definitely helped, but again Jover has to be praised for doing his homework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A minute or so later it was Havertz who provided a fantastic through ball to Martinelli who ran from the half way line but couldn\u2019t quire get away from his defender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was pretty much that for the first half. Except for a piece of magic from \u00d8degaard on the half way line who employed a touch I can only describe as being reminiscent of Bergkamp on Dabizas at Newcastle to take the ball past his midfield marker. Nothing came of it, but it was absolutely inspired. Its at about 32 minutes on the game replay on the dotcom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interests of brevity, I will largely skate over the second half, in which Arsenal noticeably reduced the pace, eventually making a raft of substitutions, including Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri, both of whom continued to impress. The only other thing of note was the introduction of Calafiori. He looked awesome. Big, strong, fast, skilful.  He started playing at left back and then moved to left sided centre half when Gabriel was taken off. He looked as though he could probably play anywhere from keeper to centre forward. I am really looking forward to watching him this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, a very pleasant day spent watching The Arsenal under the sun.  What\u2019s not to like. I only wish I could go to the game next week. What kind of people have christenings during the football season? When I come to power, I will outlaw them. The christenings, not the relatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A word from our Holics Ropey League supremo, Osaka Matt, as time is running out to partake in one of next season’s premier competitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HolicsRopeyLeague – Last Call for Premier League Managers!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


A final call for the HolicsRopeyLeague annual fantasy management challenge! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s completely free  for a whole season’s fun and everyone is welcome as always<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Just two simple rules as below………….
1) At least one Arsenal player in your squad every week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) No Spu*s players allowed at any time<\/strong>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also, a reminder from Ned that your Predictathon<\/strong> entry must be received by Friday evening UK time to enter the other premier competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday today, Tuesday tomorrow, then Wednesday, then Thursday, then GHF Predictathon 2024-25 deadline day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpen your wits and your pencils, fellas and get your form in on time. A donation of at least \u00a325 to Willow is mandatory. As TTG observed in the last Drinks, the folks at Willow are delighted to be supported by GHF, so be as generous as your situation permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entry form here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A glorious summer day provided the background to our final pre-season friendly. The Emirates was packed with young families mostly, it seemed to me, taking advantage of the fact that tickets were both easily available and relatively affordable. My tickets were about \u00a330 for sitting more or less at the front of the West Upper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905"}],"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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9905"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9926,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions\/9926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}