Goonerholics Forever

Nottingham Forest away is one of my favourite away days. It isn’t usually for the football. We’ve suffered through some godawful games in the last few years, with the last two being 0-0. But there is something about this old fashioned little ground, built in 1898,  in West Bridgeford (capacity 30,000 or so) just over the bridge by the Trent river, just down from Trent Bridge cricket ground (increasingly a haunt of mine), surrounded by terraced housing and with a storied past. The clubs have very long links as well. We always get a big chunk of the lower tier, which used to be the Bridgeford stand but was renamed the John Robertson stand in May of this year. All the away fans are lower tier, as at the Emirates, and very different to other places I could mention. It all helps the atmosphere.

Another reason is how easy it is to get to for us. It was a day of glorious autumn sunshine as we left St Ives. 90 minutes later we were parking up on the drive of one of the terraced houses just the other side of Ratcliffe road. Into the ground, and a very pleasant sit in the sunshine from our seats by the corner flag as we stared at our phones and digested the early game results. The team news was in:

Raya
White, Gabriel, Konsa, Calafiori
Rice, Guimaraes, Odegaard
Saka, Havertz, Eze

Bench: Meslier, Timber, Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Zubimendi, Merino, Madueke, Dowman, Gyokeres.

The teams came out and we were off. That pleasant sun was right in our faces and made it very difficult to see. That was actually a blessing, as the football, from both sides, was awful. Forest dropped back into a very low 5-4-1 block, which was very narrow, with Delap up top their sole attacker fielding long balls from the keeper and defenders, by passing midfield completely. It reminded me a bit of John Beck’s Cambridge United team of the early 90s. We were just stodgy and couldn’t find a way through them. Eze doesn’t seem to be enjoying the left wing and only had one run of note (he was promptly hacked down). Kai was bang off it, no energy or imagination. Saka was double teamed and usually ended up passing back inside to Odegaard or White. 

The crowd started off in a lively fashion. We reminded them that we knew what we are, and that was the Champions of England. They replied that Champions of Europe, we’d never sing that. As one, we instantly replied, in time honoured fashion, Champions of Europe, you weren’t even born. As a traditionalist, I like it when these historical exchanges are reprised. Everyone knows their place. But as the half wore on, both sets of fans grew quieter as the grimness of the fare put before that became apparent. 

We will draw a line under the rest of the first half. At half time, Arteta replaced Eze with Noni to give the team more width. He immediately made a difference, receiving the ball wide and  putting in excellent left foot crosses. On 66 minutes, Arteta made a triple change. Merino for Bruno, Timber for White and Gyokeres for Havertz. 

We immediately looked better. Quicker, more direct. Gabriel headed over from a corner (I’m getting worried about Nicolas Jover. How is Mrs Jover going to feed the children without all those set piece bonuses?). Odegaard laid in Timber on the right, who cut back a lovely ball to Rice who from a great and unmarked position, blazed it over. 

Then, on 80 minutes, it happened. A ball was scooped into the box and headed away. Rice alertly won the second ball and fed Noni on the left wing, right in front of us. He cut inside, into the area, clearly with one thing on his mind and unleashed a powerful right footed shot which took a deflection and went into the top corner (it may have been beating the keeper anyway, it was hit so hard). 

The Arsenal faithful (who were much louder in the second half) went mad. Uber limbs all over. Noni’s song rent the West Bridgeford air. We decided to tell the Forest fans that it was one nil to the Champions, in case they couldn’t see the scoreboard. Now all we had to do was see the game out. 

It wasn’t that easy. My muttering became louder and more intense as we repeatedly pushed forward leaving only a couple of defenders at the back. In the last ten minutes we were caught on the break three (count them) times. Murillo went on a mazy run and we were lucky as he placed his bending shot just wide of the post with Raya beaten. Chris Wood dithered inside the area and Rice made a good block. Finally Delap (who was very good throughout, much better than I had seen him with either Ipswich or Chelsea) was laid in by Hudson Odoi and we were only saved by a thundering block by Ezri Konsa. A corner ensued right at the end of injury time. Their keeper came up. But Michael Oliver blew up for a foul, and from our free kick, blew time. More pandemonium as the team came over and celebrated in front of us. Declan pushed Noni forward to take his bow. 

Noni was a deserved man of the match. He was superb. Vik had his best game bar a goal for us. He won every one of the balls knocked up to them ran with energy and determination, controlled that ball well and laid it off. Konsa and Gabriel were given a tricky game by Delap but defended manfully. We won after really not playing well at all. But we found a way. Despite their lowly position, Forest are not a bad team, as our recent results show. But we found a way. That’s what champions do. Isn’t it?

A fifteen minute walk away from the away end is Trent Bridge cricket ground. Part of Trent Bridge is the fabled Trent Bridge Inn. On the other side of the street lies the Bombay Bridgeford, our favourite restaurant on the Premier League circuit. There a delicious chilled pint of Cobra, some excellent food and warm hospitality awaited us. As we enjoyed our meal, in the packed out curry house, we were able to overhear people in red and white scarves and replica shirts bemoaning those last three wasted chances and, generally, crying into their beer. Shame.

Our car was a gentle stroll away. After another 90 minute run we were home by 9.30. Another excellent away day. COYG. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Southampton on April 3, 1864. His sojourn of twenty-five days drew out the magnificent contradictions that characterize, I am tempted to say, English society but if I were to be clear-eyed and steely minded I must admit all cultures in degrees large and small. 

He landed at Southampton and then moved to London receiving a hero’s welcome from both the working class and the aristocrats, the political establishments as well as the radicals. He was hosted by the Duke of Sutherland, met with various leaders of the parliaments, visited factories and fishmongers’ halls, and generated reams of celebratory prose in the media. On the other hand, the public enthusiasm drew the ire of luminaries representing both ends of the societal spectrum – Karl Marx, a guest himself, derided the Garibaldi-mania as a miserable spectacle of imbecility while Queen Victoria naturally disapproved the public chaos caused by the celebrations. And the British government, naturally wary of the consequences of such a radicalizing figure mingling freely with hoi-polloi, severely restricted his movements and likely encouraged him to leave for Italy sooner than he might have had in mind.    

While the precise political motives for his visit remain a bit of a historical puzzle, the cultural impact of the visit left its own memorabilia. Specifically, biscuits and football jerseys. 

But even before the great Italian patriot arrived in England in person, he was already an inspirational figure in popular imagination. A Garibaldi music band appeared in Nottingham in 1860, and when a unit of Rifle Volunteers (called Robin Hood Rifles, naturally) were formed in Nottingham, they adopted as their uniform the red Garibaldi shirt. And at the time of his visit, Nottingham factory workers gathered in a local council house to decide on the text of an address which, later, their representative presented to the Italian in London. The address contained praises like “undoing the chains of oppressed nationalities, and helping to sweep away the wrong, and establish freedom”. Words that the mutineering soldiers and farmers fighting against the East India Company on the other side of the globe just a few years earlier would have found deeply encouraging had these Nottingham workers had a chance to meet them. 

In 1865 when the Nottingham Forest football club was formed by a group of amateur players, they adopted the popular Garibaldi red worn by the Robin Hood Rifles and a few other local outfits. Our own red-and-white might have been partially inspired by the red kit of the Nottingham club, as are apparently that of Sparta Prague and Ajax kits. AC Milan co-founder Herbert Kilpin was a Nottingham native and in his early youth had formed a local amateur club called the Nottingham Garibaldi. 

One of the oldest, and likely with the most novelistic of historical ups-and-downs among England’s premier clubs, Forest had experienced dizzying success in domestic and European football in those famous Brian Clough and Peter Taylor years in the mid 70s to early 80s. Since then, barring the occasional runs in the cup competitions they have been mostly a mid-to-lower table first division/premier league team or equally often a playing in the second tier fighting for promotion back to the top. Since their last promotion in 2022, they have ended the PL seasons in positions 16, 17, 7 and 16; they currently sit at 13th – winning one, drawing two and losing three of their six matches. The much respected Austrian Olivier Glasner – after a very successful stint at Crystal Palace, bringing them an FA Cup and a Conference League – has taken over the managerial role from the Portuguese Vitor Pereira at the beginning of the season, and evidently is still finding his way through a squad that has not been built with the greatest of football acumen. They do have a few high quality players like Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangaré, and the highly talented Swiss forward Dan Ndoye who enjoyed a successful world-cup with goals and eye-catching performances. At their own historical home ground, and naturally inspired to be at their best by the visiting league champions, I would expect them to be as difficult an opposition as any. 

Well, so much for the Nottingham reds. How about the greatest red-and-whites (who will likely play in their away blue kits)? 

Arsenal comes into the match with a near flawless record in this young season, looking to defend their Premier League title and more than hoping to win the elusive Champions League trophy, going one step better than our penalty shoot-out loss in last year’s final. This season we have won both our Champions League group phase matches, scoring four and conceding none, and five of our six Premier League matches, scoring 10 and conceding a somewhat uncharacteristic five. 

Three of those five conceded goals came in the away match against a spirited Brighton side who had outplayed us comprehensively on that day. While their performance on that day was exemplary in its intensity and quality, ours demonstrated that rarity of a collective collapse which is something this current Arsenal squad have learnt to stay clear of. Defense that day had cried out for the recovering William Saliba, but then – if you forgive the tautology – we always miss those who are not playing.  

While Wilo slowly recovers from his back issues, first Mosquera and then Ezri Konsa have both filled the gap manfully. If anything, his absence has seemed to impact Gabriel most: he doesn’t quite seem to have found that right balance of aggressive front-footed pressing and calm under pressure. The Gabriel-Saliba partnership is the foundation on which the team is built as not only do they complement each other perfectly giving us an extraordinary defensive solidity, but they are also the platform on which our positionally sophisticated and control-based football is built. 

On a positive note about injuries, both Timber and White are now available, which has rarely been the case over the last couple of seasons, thus offering Mikel the freedom to rotate them and avoid further injury issues stemming from overplaying. Timber’s overall performance and especially the sumptuous flick-and-finish against Lille in the mid-week reminded us all what a wonderful footballer he is, and how much we had missed not only his defensive qualities but his ability on the ball. 

The last (prolonged, and as meaningless as ever) international break has naturally claimed its injury victims. Christos Tzolis – our new Greek winger signed from Club Brugge – has started his Arsenal career with a series of effective performances demonstrating the quality of his decision making and his sharpness on the ball that evidently had impressed Arsenal’s recruiting department, and justified Mikel’s faith in him. He is the kind of “always at least 6.5/10 all throughout the match” type of footballer that Arteta has a natural preference for. While Eze is capable of unforgettable moments and match-winning performances, in comparison he suffers a bit for consistency. I think it is good – actually, essential – to have both of these types of players. Playing as a winger in Arteta’s system requires not just speed and craft, but a lot of nous and footballing intelligence. That’s why Bukayo Saka – even when he may be suffering from relative lull in the creative department – remains indispensable, and maybe sometimes under-appreciated outside the Arsenal faithful, in terms of the balance and structure he offers to the team. His goals this season – all results of clever positioning and striker-like intuition, more than the replay-reel finishes that used to be his hallmark – are a clear sign of his evolution as a player who has accepted the reality of physical injuries and being double-marked by defenders, and finding solutions to impact matches in different ways. 

Along with Konsa and Tzolis, our other newcomer – a favorite villain morphing rapidly into a cult hero – Bruno Guimarães has been the most successful of signings this season, bringing in precisely the qualities that we needed: more verticality from the midfield, ball-winning tenacity combining with ball-playing imagination, and the willingness and ability to finish movements. Rice seems to play with greater freedom alongside him, and Ødegaard seems to feel less burdened by the demands of taking on the role of the main creator. 

If interlull injuries are the tonic motif of our injury woes, pre/post-match routine has lately taken on the dominant note. I don’t think there are any great mysteries behind it – it is simply the consequence of a squad that is highly motivated and maniacally competitive in everything they do. We wanted back the intensity and fierce pride in wearing the Arsenal shirt, we finally have it. It seems Zubimendi – whacked by his good friend and fellow Basque, Merino – should be back soon whereas the Ecuadorian Hincapié is sidelined for a longer period of time. 

With the mid-week trip to Bavaria in mind, my guess (and preference, these two do not always agree with each other) for the starting line up would be:

Raya

White – Konsa – Gabriel – Calafiori

Ødegaard – Rice – Guimarães 

Saka – Havertz – Eze 

Kompany’s Bayern will play front-footed football at Munich, and as such Madueke will be a greater threat behind the defense on the left side. Glasner is not an ultra-defensive coach, and even though they have not started the season particularly well, I suspect Forest will want not simply to stay in their defensive shell, but they would still be much more defensively minded. Against such opposition, I think Eze’s ability to create moments and his improving defensive discipline to facilitate Ricky’s maverick movements will work better than Madueke’s traditional wing-play. 

With MLS, Merino, Madueke, Gyökeres, Timber, Mosquera and Max available from the bench we should have enough quality to either change the course of the match or see out a lead, as needed.  

We will probably start circumspectly, focusing on exerting control and dominating space, and then dialing up the tempo of passing and movements. I love a clean sheet, and this Arsenal team takes a lot of pride in its defensive records. A 2-0 away win will be perfect. 

Come on Arsenal!

Les Dogues in this case are Lille, or LOSC as they appear in the Ligue 1 table, short for the Lille Olympique Sporting Club as they are fully declared in a curious mixture of French and English. Les Dogues is French for The Mastiffs, which nickname originally belonged to Olympique Lillois, one of the two clubs that merged to form LOSC.

The moniker first appeared in the regional and national press (such as L’Auto, the precursor to L’Équipe) around 1920 when a Parisian journalist used “dog” or “mastiff” to describe how fiercely and tenaciously the Lille players fought through a tough match. While initially intended as a somewhat unflattering description of their aggressive style of play, the club, its players and supporters embraced it as a badge of honor representing toughness and determination. The mastiff officially made its debut on the club’s crest in 1981 and remains a central symbol of LOSC’s identity today, complete with a large mastiff statue at their training facilities. I can feel Win the Labrador back at Shenley quaking in her boots. 

Aggression is clearly de rigueur for the French as the phrase they use for a simple “don’t push your luck” is “il ne faut pas pousser Mamie dans les orties” – which translates as “you must not push Grandma in the nettles!” Charming!

The Opposition 

Lille were founded as a result of a merger in 1944 between Olympique Lillois and SC Fives, named after their home suburb in the east of Lille. Both clubs were founding members of the French Division 1 and Olympique Lillois were the league’s inaugural champions. The club’s most successful period was in the post war decade from 1946 to 1955, when the first-team won seven major trophies, including a league and cup double in 1946, and was known as La Machine de Guerre (“The War Machine”) – yet more aggression! They won another double in 2011, their fourth league title in 2021 and their first Trophée des Champions in the same year, making them the fourth best French club in the 21st century – so far.

In European football, Lille have participated in the Champions League ten times, reaching the knockout phase three times; competed in the UEFA Europa League on nine occasions; and got to the UEFA Conference League quarter-finals once. They also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2004 after finishing as runners-up in 2002. Lille are also one of the few clubs, still in the first division, to have at least 15 final top-three appearances in the history of the French championship.

They currently sit in fourth place in Ligue 1 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat earning them 10 points from their first 5 games. They are a team on the up and their home support is growing steadily from an average in the 2023/24 season of 39,000 to an average so far this season of 45,400, the third highest in the league. As an aside, if results had gone other ways in Ligue 1, it would be possible to look down the table and find consecutive teams named Nice, Lille, Brest. Ah, bless the French!

Arsenal and LOSC Lille have never played against each other in any official competitive match or friendly, making this their very first meeting. 
There will be a recognisable name or two amongst the Lille entourage. Thirty-nine year old Olivier Giroud is still plying his trade there and will most likely appear off the bench. Their main striker is Ayase Ueda, a Japanese international with three goals this season. Tiago Santos, a twenty four year old Portuguese is another of their leading players but is unlikely to feature as he suffered a knee injury against Le Havre on Saturday. Nabil Bentaleb is also listed, apparently among their best players, having made his escape from the hapless mob at the other end of Seven Sisters – so the less said about him the better.

Let’s hope for our players’ sakes that their on field tactics are less confusing than the string of names by which they are known. At any rate, they weren’t good enough on Champions League Matchday 1, losing 2-3 at home to Hector Bellerin’s Real Betis.

Davide Ancelotti, Carlo Ancelotti’s son, is the Lille head coach. He was nearly the subject of the Any Other Business section but I couldn’t resist the piece on Arsene Wenger and Man City’s* cheating, just in case anyone hadn’t seen it. Basically, Ancelotti was talking about the time he served under his father at Real Madrid, and his opinions on Vinicius Jr, who may, or may not, have been close to becoming an Arsenal player in the summer. I will keep this very short. He thought Vini Jr was an amazing player, very quick, always very direct and attacked ALL the time. That was not for changing and the success of a team with Vini Jr in it depended on the structure behind him because there was no chance he would be persuaded to defend. It certainly doesn’t augur well for a comfortable marriage with Mikel Arteta, any more than it did with Xabi Alonso who he accused of substituting him too much. That spat eventually resulted in Alonso’s time in Madrid coming to a premature end. Add to that his rather ridiculous dismissal at the weekend for pulling an opponents hair and he sounds very much like a bullet well dodged. 

The Arsenal

With a Premier League game away to Nottingham Forest on Sunday, this game should give Mikel Arteta a chance to use the squad and manage some playing loads. Kai Havertz seemed to struggle a bit at the weekend after picking up an injury in the international break. Bukayo Saka looked off his best too. We have two Spanish World Cup winners in Zubimendi and Merino who could come in, and after scoring four times in as many games for Sweden, Viktor Gyökeres may enjoy some success against a less physical and capable defence than he usually encounters in the Premier League. I would have gone for Hincapié but he suffered some sort of ankle injury in the post match warm down on Saturday. He also had to leave his Ecuador duties early in the international break due to injury. Similarly, I would have included Christhian Mosquera at centre back but he suffered a hamstring injury at Aston Villa in August and has not featured since. Tzolis and Saliba remain unavailable.

And just as I was about to submit this piece for publication, I heard that we lost not one (Hincapié) but two players to injury in the post match warm down on Saturday – Zubimendi also picked up some kind of injury and is also ruled out. Seriously, we have a whole new team of doctors, physios and strength and conditioning people since the summer. How do TWO players get injured in a warm down? They now both await scans and assessment!

I’m guessing my selection will meet with a lot of disagreement but I would go with:

Raya

Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori

Guimarães, Rice/MLS, Merino

Madueke, Gyökeres, Eze

(P.S. – less disagreement now as there’s hardly anyone left!)

Any Other Business 

“IT RAISES THE REAL QUESTION ABOUT THE CREDIBILITY OF FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY. THAT IS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT. THEY GIVE US THE MESSAGE THAT THEY CAN GET AROUND IT BY DOING WHAT THEY WANT.”

Over 15 years ago, all the way back in the summer of 2011, Arsène Wenger said the above about Manchester City’s* then record breaking £400M sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways.

The Arsenal manager was extremely critical of the suspicious deal because Etihad Airways was owned by the Abu Dhabi government, tying it to Manchester City* owner Sheikh Mansour. Wenger believed that the deal was inflated above market value in order to help City* bypass UEFA’s new FFP rules, allowing them to operate on a different financial level to other clubs.

He was ridiculed by various branches of the media for claiming top four finishes were a prize while he had to watch City* buy so many of his best players year after year as Arsenal fought to pay off The Emirates Stadium debt honestly by qualifying for the Champions League with many second and third-string players.

So now the game is well and truly up. City* might have temporarily bought success, which will hopefully soon be expunged from the record books.

They cannot buy class. As usual, Arsene knew.

PS. – City’s*, let’s say, over-exuberant celebrations after their match with Liverpool on Sunday appeared to be a huge two fingers to the authorities. All of them. That’s cultural. “We’ll do what we want and no-one is laying down rules for us. If we need to lie and cheat we’re just fine with that too. We just don’t care!”

Well, everyone else does care and sanctions need to be decided and implemented asap. Manchester City* is currently reducing English football to a farce. They, like us, are now involved in another European campaign where UEFA has failed to restrict their corruption. At the end of this particular road we may well find lying in wait either them or PSG. Surely they couldn’t be too, could they ..…?.

Try to enjoy the game, Holics. These are very strange times.