Keeping Up Appearances, Barnet Stylee!
Jul 19th, 2009 by 'holic
Just gone twelve, we pull into Barnet and head for the Red Lion. ‘Any chance of having the cricket on the telly?’
‘What channel is it on?’
‘Sky.’
‘Er, we’ve got the news on next door.’
I should have realised this is a portent of things to come! Anyway, as the afternoon warms up I recognise a number of Facebook friends a they come in for a pre-match pint. Especially Gary. Great body art mate! It’s good to see so many Gooners making the effort to watch a pre-season friendly in July.
The starting line-up is pretty much as expected, although I hadn’t predicted a start for Sanchez Watt up front. If we can glean anything from the formation it is that Wenger is preparing to accommodate the wealth of creative midfield talent with a 4-4-1-1 formation in which Arshavin has a free role to link midfield and attack. It is therefore no surprise when the little Russian scores the opener, gratefully applying the finishing touch to a fine ball from Watt.
It is great to see Thomas Rosicky back in action for forty-five minutes. His performance is controlled. He will take a fair few games to get back up to speed, but his first silky passes, and one crunching challenge, are behind him.
The vast majority of the five thousand in the ground are diehard Gooners, but in the South Stand I have the misfortune to be sitting directly in front of Barnet’s answer to Hyacinth Bucket and her neighbour. For the entire first half I am subjected to an appraisal of secondary schools in the area.
‘Of course Sheridan would be accepted in the one nearest to us if we made that our first preference, but it is our third. We so want him to go to one of the two grammar schools.’ I’m sure the Arsenal back four hear the hapless bint and are distracted after Mark Randall concedes a needless free-kick. Yakubu climbs highest to equalise in the last minute of the half.
Half-time is spent in the endless queue to the portakabin that passes for a gents. Unfortunately I have to stay with it. Five pints of Guinness will obey the laws of gravity before the game is over.
The only survivor in the second-half is new boy Thomas Vermaelen (pictured above). He has largely impressed, although he has won no more than half of his aerial duels with the geriatric Furlong. The big man is still needed, Arsene.
Arsenal regain the advantage with a fabulous goal from Nacer Barazite. The young Dutchman combines well with Emmanuel-Thomas, but the creation and finish are all the product of his own rich imagination. Sadly he becomes relatively anonymous thereafter.
Little Sheridan is getting restless behind me. ‘Is Adebayor playing Mum?’.
‘Of course he is dear. Look, there (gesturing at Emmanuel-Thomas!), number twenty-six. Even I know that!’ It is clear that Sheridan has little chance of going anywhere other than his local school.
Barnet, from nowhere, produce a second leveller through Charles, and for the final eight minutes or so the young visitors discover a sense of urgency hitherto well disguised, but to no avail.
Hyacinth is in her element. ‘Oh Arsenal wouldn’t be very happy if they lost this now’. I should have a word, but she has robbed me of the will to live. I return to the five-deep queue to top up my Guinness tank in the Red Lion, and the post-mortem with my driver.
We will be back again next year, but please, if there is a God, keep that bloody woman and her halfwit offspring away from me!
23 Responses to “Keeping Up Appearances, Barnet Stylee!”
She sounds like one of our new breed of Prawn sandwich munching season ticket holders…
Morning ‘holic.
Vermaelen and Rosicky aside I’m not sure there was much to take from yesterdays game and result. Vermealen looks competent enough but I wonder if he has the pace, although his positional awareness seems pretty good. Hangeland anyone??
Like you, I was pleased to see Rosicky come through unscatched so that will hopefully bode wel for next seasons league challenge.
Feeling more happy now that that tall gangly fella has moved on- can’t remember his name. Wenger should imo (a) sell Silvestre and replace with Hangeland and (b) focus his efforts on getting a 1st class defensive midfield partner for Cesc. Or maybe move Toure into midfield?
Nice right up ‘holic. Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself listening to that grammar school chat. Who calls their kid Sheridan anyway?
Holic an American fan here of your site, love it fully bro’ really I do. I think this club definity needs an injection of veteran leadership especially in the mold of a hard hitting, hard tackling, butt kicking, name taking DM, and a taller CB, agree fully on the aeiral abilities of new boy Tomas V. Holic I’m a bit worried about losing Ade, not because I liked him I didn’t, but with the injuries occuring to RVP and Dudu alot can we rely upon Bendtner to lead the line, or youngster Vela??? What do you think about this Holic, I would love to hear your opinion on this matter?? Anywho keep up the excellent Blog, I love it…BTW I have followed the Arse since 1979 since my father was the USAF liason officer in England and I lived there, he loved the Arsenal and took me to the 1979 F.A. Cup final, what memories of Alan Sunderland and the gang 🙂
Haha. Great piece, ‘holic.
I actually think moving Toure into midfield could be a stroke of genious, he is fast, got a fantastic shot, arial ability and good leadership.
The greatest move is to place Toure in the midfield and play the role as his brother Yaya(to protect the back 4). He also has the tendancy of moving upfront,we can exploit him. Move Song as one of the back 4 to partner Vermaelen if Gallas goes.
Sounds like Pyles Smarmer dressed up in drag and put in an appearance behind you, ‘Holic. You are to be commended on your self control….
What Le Bob said.
And a coffee, please.
Adebayor is number 26. Even I know that
🙂
Gallas looked like he had been on an eating binge.We still need that defender and a hardman with some skill in midfield or else forget about it.
Hey gorgeous!
I didn’t post about the Barnet game cos it was not shown here! =( I depend on you to get the happenings off-season 😉
Please let August come sooner…
Nice thing with fans like Hyacinth is that they don’t boo our players. And since they don’t drink, they don’t queue for portakabins either.
We need a bigger proportion of Hyacinths at the Grove, I’d say.
Yellow card, Matt 😉
Again, who names their kids “Sheridan”.
‘olic, sounds like you had some fun despite said child and fussy parent. Always good to have Arsenal back after the lonely weekends without them, eh?
Steve-o, good to see you back. Will you be ‘gunning from the east’ again soon?
Its in the works ‘olic, hopefully it’ll be in time for the new season. :/
Excellent report of the day ‘Holic
Disappointed to only be referred to as “the driver!”
LOL!
Hi ‘olic,
No words of love for that boy Jack? I thought he had a pretty splendid first 15 minutes and was good value for the following 30. I’m happy to watch such Gooner talent prosper.
Thank you for the lift, Parker, er, I mean Fats 😉
Managed to find a 15 minutes resume, I thought the Ws (Wilshere and Watts) were pretty impressive, combining well to display great vision and technique.
The other youngster that will definitvely make it is Coquelin.
Also Jay Emmanuel Thomas is a big guy and even if he’s not the finished article yet, he could become a very impressive midfielder for us.
And I concur it’s very nice to see Rosicki on the field again, he seems very fit. It probably will take a few more months to get all his skills and vision back but he will definitively be able to help us in the second half and more importantly the final sprint for the title.
There is an eye-opening interview from Ferguson today, here’s the interesting part:
Q: Anyway…Will it be the same top four again in the Premier League or has it become a top three with Arsenal losing Emmanuel Adebayor to City?
SAF: Arsenal have got the biggest test to be where they want to be, I think. I know that Arsene Wenger doesn’t have any money, I know that. I think that selling Adebayor — well, whether he can use that money is another question.
There seems to be evidence that he can’t use the money, I don’t know. I think they’re struggling cash-wise. It’s a big test for Arsenal.
Q: Why does Wenger stay?
SAF: I think Arsenal is his club. He has built it in his image and it’s hard to leave it. He will never have the time to rebuild another club like Arsenal if he went off elsewhere.
He realises that at his age. He could have gone to Real Madrid, but is Real Madrid his kind of club? I don’t think so.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1200994/Manchester-United-boss-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-speaks-Tevez-Ronaldo-Owen-rivals-City.html#ixzz0LrdPqRXQ