Here We Go Again
Aug 13th, 2007 by 'holic
A midday kick-off on a Sunday is not ideal. Boarding the train at some ungodly hour yesterday morning were roughly equal numbers of Arsenal and Chelsea fans. The buffet car banter was predictable.
“How will you boys do without Henry?”
“Same as United without Van Nisteldonkey last season!”
On the trip to the first game of a new season all thoughts of last season were banished. Within a minute of the kick-off they had returned with a vengeance as Jens found a new way to gift the lead to plucky, but limited, visitors.
Eighty three minutes of torture followed as Warner produced a string of fine saves and Arsenal, surprise surprise, tried very hard to create the perfect goal. Fulham frustrated with their all too obvious timewasting, and yet are to be commended for a more positive performance than we might have expected from a Lawrie Sanchez side.
The recovery owed everything to the outstanding Toure, stopped in his tracks as he meandered purposefully into the area. Robin Van Persie struck the perfect penalty and sixty thousand sighs of relief filled the air.
As injury-and-time-added-on-for-timewasting ticked away the sight of Hleb opening his tally for the season was as welcome as it was surprising. I’m not too sure how long he will keep up his goal-a-game ratio!
It would be easy to concentrate on the negatives that came out of this performance. I would far sooner comment on the positives. Both full-backs, Sagna and Clichy, were excellent, Flamini came close to matching Toure for hauling us back into the contest with sheer hard work and persistence.
And the biggest boost of all, three points to start the season. The post match Guinness tasted that little bit sweeter. Now for Prague.
3 Responses to “Here We Go Again”
Greetings — I loved your match review and preview. I was wondering if you would be interested in publishing a preview for Arsenal’s next game?
Cheers,
Michelle@sportingo.com
SC Bastia have received a bid for Frédéric Mendy from Arsenal for €1.5m. plus former Bastia midfielder Alexandre Song on a season long loan deal.
http://themightyarsenal.blogspot.com/
I think Bendtner also did very well. He was determined to make something happen. Had Walcoot squared the ball to him instead of shoot, he might have scored.