Co-authored by ClockEndRider & 21stCenturyGooner

3 A.M. Saturday. North London. The alarm clock emits a sound which somehow penetrates deeper than usual, causing every nerve and sinew to scream piteously – “Leave me alone”.  But no. The call must be heeded. And the massed ranks of the Arsenal supporters rise and look forward to the furthest away trip in the domestic calendar. 

South Mimms 4 A.M. Dark, cold and just a touch on the damp side. Surely this wouldn’t be an omen for the performance we would witness later? The coach turns up on time and we all get on, find our seats, and try to get some sleep. Many on the coach endured the trip to Preston on Wednesday and are more than a little nervous at the prospect of spending even more hours sitting in a tin can. Fortunately, the journey is completed in around 5 and a half hours, including a 30-minute breakfast stop at motorway services near Sheffield. The breakfast of Champions for us both, thanks for asking, getting us into Newcastle at around 10 am. We ventured into the city centre for a look round and found the kind of beautiful Victorian architecture you might expect all around. It was really quite nice to find a city centre not entirely despoiled by the usual 50’s/60’s ugly utilitarian buildings which scar so many inner-city landscapes. And the welcome from the locals was no less warm, despite the fact that, while I (CER) still bear the scars of away days in the 80’s and hence show no colours, 21CG proudly had his scarf in display. Not a single example of baiting or potential trouble from the hordes of locals making their way to St James from the station, as we battled against the tide.

Having sadly failed to find a decent pub to settle into for a pre match singsong, we instead made our way into the ground. After clambering up the infamous St James’ Park steps (14 flights – and a steward asked CER if he would like to take the lift, much to my amusement and his considerable chagrin), we arrived on the concourse and had a gander at our view, on what was our first ever visit to Newcastle. It is well documented that the away fans at Newcastle are situated in the upper tier, unlike all other Premier League grounds where at least a portion of away fans are housed in the lower tier. Despite this, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of our view of the pitch. I (21CG) particularly liked how from our seats we had a view of some of the city which I thought was fantastically unique. I’ve now visited around 20 EFL grounds and I would now put St James’ Park at the top of that list. A proper old school ground with great atmosphere, and a large capacity. We’ve seen many big clubs up-sticks to bigger venues in recent years in search of additional revenue in sacrifice of the atmosphere but I don’t think Newcastle will ever have that problem. SJP holds around 50 thousand and from what I could see, they would have room to expand should they ever wish to. The welcome around the ground from stewards and police was warm and helpful and inside the ground there were plenty of outlets to quench the thirst, staffed by people who knew what they were doing. Just like Preston the other night, Arsenal could really learn a lesson or two and perhaps sufficiently incentivise the bar staff it hires or stop trawling from the bottom of the barrel or a combination of both.

The team was announced, and we saw that it was pretty much as expected, apart from Partey at right back, although Ben White was on the bench. Newcastle put out their selection of the usual physical freaks and failed WWF wrestlers including Guimaraes, Joelinton and Burn. Arsenal started well, dominating possession and probing the Newcastle defence without really creating anything of note. A sad indication of what was to come for the rest of the game. Then in the 14^th minute, an excellent cross from Gordon on the right was met by Isak who found space between Saliba and Gabriel and put an excellent header out of Raya’s reach. It was against the run of play, and we would now see an exemplary display of defensive resilience, complemented by the usual strong-arm tactics from the above-mentioned offenders. Joelinton spent the next 80-odd minutes running round clobbering anything in sight but obviously, none of these fouls merited a yellow. I suppose at a ground where assault by a forearm smash is considered by officials and VAR to be perfectly acceptable, we should be in no way surprised. 

Arsenal huffed and puffed for the rest of the half, to little effect with the boisterous away support becoming a little frustrated by the apparent reversion to the Horseshoe Football so unbeloved of the latter days of Wenger’s reign and the early days of Arteta’s.  Saka, superbly marshalled all game by 2 and even 3 defenders. Did excellently late in the half to beat his left back and pull a great cross back from the bye-line. however, there was only a single Arsenal player in the box and the ball was easily dealt with. We were curiously off the pace and seemingly without ideas. Newcastle perhaps got a little bit lucky when, following a decent corner delivery from Rice – and, in truth, his delivery all day ranged from very poor to barely adequate – the ball dropped for Merino to lash a shot in from 6 yards which cannoned off the back of Hall, who had turned away. On another day it might have deflected in.

Th referee called for half time and a weary and frustrated looking Arsenal made their way to the dressing room. 

Arteta sent Arsenal out early, having presumably read the Riot Act. It made not a jot of difference unfortunately. On 60 minutes he made some well-deserved subs, taking off Martinelli and Merino – who had been no less energetic nor more ineffective than any other Arsenal players – for Nwaneri and Zinchenko. The away support was delighted to see both, the former being greeted with “He’s one of our own”, the latter allowing Timber to move to right back and Partey to move into centre midfield. Surely this was the kind of positive change which would lift the fug. Rice, moved to ‘left eight‘ as a result, then had a good effort squeak narrowly wide after a mazy run had taken 3 defenders out. 

On 70 minutes, Trossard, universally acclaimed as being disappointing in this game, although hardly alone in this, and Timber were subbed for Jesus and Ben White respectively. Then, on 85 minutes Arsenals best chance of the game came with Saka again putting in an excellent cross but Rice’s header from 4 yards being, frankly, limp.  It summed up our day.

The whistle blew and barely any Arsenal players came over to the away fans who, for the second time in a week had made a bloody great effort to visit far flung places, setting off /getting back at ridiculous times. Not impressed.

We wended our weary way back to the coach and headed south, arriving home at around 9 pm. A long day but some high spots along the way.

Final thoughts – I (CER) have seen and heard some frankly petulant, childish and downright disgraceful social media comments regarding Arteta and his performance as manager. I cannot express strongly enough my disapprobation of these sentiments. Occasionally, we lose a game and don’t play well. It was ever thus. We have had the toughest start to a season I can remember in a while with away trips to C115y, Sp*rs, Villa and Newcastle as well as being at home to Liverpool. We have suffered ridiculous red cards and suspensions as well as considerable injuries. And there are a mere 84 points to play for. Get a grip!

Arsenal had the most comfortable of nights as they move smoothly into the quarter finals, but sadly I didn’t!

I’ve had tough nights in reporting for GHF but tonight takes the biscuit! My first report was primarily a whinge about the fact that I was unable to follow the second because my Sky stream disappeared in the second half. Fortunately the game was won by then and I was confined to snatches of the action on the Sky tracking reports. So my report will be lacking in the detail and volume I would normally provide mainly because having written most of it my battery ran out and I had to compose the report all over again. Well, at least we won!

In reality it was a very good night for Mikel Arteta’s lads. He picked a very strong side in the circumstances with only Setford on his debut, and Nwaneri playing in a sort of no. 10 role, coming in from the younger ranks. Saliba returned at centre back and we even saw the lesser-spotted Zinchrnko playing his inverted left back role. Sterling caught the eye in a very one-sided first half looking tricky and incisive on the right wing. Our share of possession in the first half was well over 70% and we showed how to press quite brilliantly although the quality of the opposition was not high despite their 17-16 penalty kick win over Fulham in the last round.

We took the lead in the 24th minute when Jesús broke his goal drought lashing in a near post drive that gave Woodman no chance afted Kiwior had nodded the ball down to him. We added a second in sumptuous style ten minutes later when Ethan Nwaneri curled a superb shot into the top left- hand corner after a pass from Jesús. We continued to dominate in the closing minutes of the second half passing Preston to death, creating overloads on both wings and seeing Nwaneri combine intelligently with Sterling, Jesús and Timber. It was a very comfortable half.

Half- time – Preston 0 Arsenal 2

I then lost regular contact with the match but was delighted to see Kiwior notch his second assist with a fine left-wing cross which Havertz, who took over from Merino at half-time headed into the left corner like a bullet. Woodman made a superb double save midway through the half and Arsenal (as far as I could see) strolled through the second half although a couple of chances fell to Preston players following crosses from the wings.

Ayden Heaven came on to replace Nwaneri for his debut, and to my horror halfway through the second half Saka replaced Martinelli. We closed out the match, Setford has his first clean sheet and we are in the quarter finals where we will face Palace at Ashburton Grove in mid-December. The last time I remember us playing Palace in the League Cup we reached Wembley in 1993 where we took the trophy (the Stephen Morrow final).

Progress past Bolton at home and an outgunned Preston takes us rather easily into the last 8 of a competition that we have only won twice. Arteta must balance the understandable desire to push towards Wembley with the upcoming Christmas rush of fixtures. It is highly tempting to use Nwaneri in this competition, and the boy looks a gem. Two-footed, confident, and elegant, he looks a very special player. Lewis-Skelly has also integrated himself into first-team contention and he is another player of great promise. Hopefully tonight’s goal will boost Jesús. He took it well and worked very hard as he always does but he isn’t a predatory finisher. Merino is coming to terms with English football (Could he do it on a cold night in Lancashire? Very definitely!).

One thing that was very clear tonight was our superb away support. It was deafening, good-natured, and continuous. We hope our travellers return safely home, albeit it at stupid o’clock and hopefully they can fill in a few more details than I was able to note in this sadly abbreviated report. I was encouraged by the quality of our play and sense as players return from injury we will build momentum. And we are only three games from a Wembley Final!

Well, things started well… there was good news when the team was announced, as Trev’s suggestion that we might see both Saka and Timber in the line-up proved on the money. That meant White lined up next to Gabriel in central defence, with the Dutchman at left-back and Partey slotting in at right-back.

The game began with more effort than quality, both teams full of energy but not settling into their rhythm, until the ninth minute when Saka showed just how valuable he is, chasing a well-timed ball from White, bamboozling Robertson with the cut-back before firing his shot high into the net at the near post past a helpless Kelleher.

The Emirates was rocking. What we needed was to put our foot on the ball and keep the lead for a bit. However, we were a bit cagey and it was clear both sets of players knew how big the occasion was.

Timber looked rusty, misplacing a couple of passes, but he was up for the battle with the evergreen Salah.

Merino let a ball slide under his foot, and we were lucky the talismanic Eygptian curled his resulting effort wide. We did not take advantage of the reprieve as three minutes later they were level.

Partey would not have been thrilled when he got the nod to go toe-to-toe with Luiz Diaz for the afternoon, but he put in one hell of a shift against the skilful Columbian. Not a natural right-back, he was always going to have a few hairy moments though.

Unfortunately, after doing well to put the ball behind for a corner, it was the Ghanaian who got on the wrong side of Van Dyke, who nodded home Luiz Diaz’s near post flick. It is the sort of cheap goal that you cannot afford to concede in a big game, and it was entirely our own fault. It is hard not to think that Saliba would have cleared it though.

We were the better side for most of the half, although Liverpool had a couple of spells were they kept the ball, and they have skilful, hardworking players who have seamlessly transitioned from the tutelage of one excellent coach to another.

Both teams had good positions that they failed to convert into clear chances. Saka looked very dangerous, and the opposition resorted to fouling him repeatedly. Anthony Taylor was lenient in letting the game flow, but his decisions favoured the away side who were on the back foot.

Quite how Van Dyke did not get a yellow for not one but two petulant off-the-ball kicks at Havertz is beyond me: he deliberately kicked out at a fellow professional with no intention to play the ball or even gain an advantage, just to hurt him; the ref gestured to show he had seen the incident clearly… and issued no card.

It was a blatant and spiteful action from Van Dyke. We get punished for every minor infraction; how do other teams get away with stuff which is actually bad?

It was therefore not without a sense of justice that I watched a hugely lengthy VAR check (is there any other kind? And, given it was an offside call and presumably just a matter of drawing the lines, what the hell were they discussing for so long?) eventually deem that Van Dyke’s foot had played on Merino when he stooped to head home his first Arsenal goal from one of a series of excellent dead-ball deliveries from Rice, regaining us the advantage just before half-time. It was well deserved.

We did not come out on the front foot for the second half, and this time it was Liverpool who had the better of proceedings, albeit our reticence was influenced by the fact that we were ahead on the scoreboard.

Anthony Taylor seemed to give every 50-50 Liverpool’s way, and persistently failed to give us free kicks for the same things he was giving them to Liverpool. Havertz was kicked and pulled but got nothing from him. I really don’t mind letting things flow in these big games, but it has to be consistent for both sides, and it did not look like that to me.

We were not aided at all when Gabriel had to go off barely five minutes into the half, being replaced by Kiwior. Timber lasted barely twenty minutes more, Lewis-Skelly coming on for him. Perhaps it was always a big ask for him to play the full match (especially up against Salah) but we getting a rough run of luck with injuries at the moment. A back line of Partey, White, Kiwior and Lewis-Skelly is not even close to first choice and in the end it cost us.

With less than ten minutes of the ninety remaining, we broke forwards and the ball came to Martinelli on the left. I love him as a player, but today there were a few times when he received the ball in great positions and failed to make it count. He lost the ball too easily and Pool had it up the other end in seconds, Kiwior sucked towards it but unable to make an interception, leaving Salah alone to run into the space and receive the pass inside before firing past the despairing dive of Raya.

This felt a bit like the kind of goal we used to concede in Europe, one born of leaving too much space as we attacked without caution, but perhaps it was not as tactical as all that and the simple truth is that Liverpool would not have scored that goal against our usual defence because they are just better defenders. Hardly rocket science to suggest that the second-string aren’t as good, and to be fair, they were all decent on the day and worked hard, but we will have to hope that Arteta has a full complement to choose from more often than not.

We took off a tired Saka (much quieter in the second half) and Martinelli for Nwaneri and Jesus, and we found new impetus going forward.

We had a couple more half-chances but nothing worth recounting until we reached injury time, when we had a goal disallowed.

Kiwior made a clumsy challenge, which I can absolutely see could be a foul, except for the fact that it was exactly the sort of challenge that Taylor had been letting Liverpool (especially Nunez) get away with all match. My problem is that he clearly sees the foul, does not blow his whistle, waits until Havertz wins the next challenge to go through one-on-one with Kelleher, and then blows his whistle and points back to the first challenge. Why the delay?

Look, maybe he is just taking a moment to make up his mind. But after the run of decisions we have had lately, I think all Gooners watching this sequence of events, seeing the referee not award a free kick until the moment that the move has developed into a goalscoring opportunity for us (especially after the way he had refereed the match until that point) are going to be wondering quite why we are seeing actions that go against our team refereed differently to ones performed by our team?

I just don’t know what the rules are or how they will be applied game by game. All I know is that however they are applied and regardless of how unjust it appears, the referees will be justified and vindicated in all they do in the media. This is making PL football tough to watch at the moment, especially when the quality of the refs in our Champions League matches this season have provided such stark contrast with their competence and professionalism.

However, despite the lingering sense of injustice, the thing that has most stayed with me is how proud I am of our players. Despite the injuries and suspension, they put in a shift, to a man, against a top side with a referee helping them out, and still didn’t lose the match.

Saka was quality. Trossard played some lovely stuff under pressure. Rice worked his socks off. Merino is improving with every game. Kiwior may not be quite as good as some of his colleagues, but it took a lot of nerve to come into that backline, especially after a mistake last week, and he made clearances and showed character to put his foot on the ball and pass it out. Lewis-Skelly impresses greatly, as does Nwaneri. Raya was good, getting fingertips to one Salah cross that made all the difference. Every player pulled their finger out, and if we keep doing that then we will have a great season.

Right now, it seems like things are going against us, but it will get better, and we will look back on this tough period as the making of this group this year. This may yet be a vital point.

Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Until next time, ‘holics.