Pompey, Tougher Opponents Than The Neighbours
Dec 29th, 2009 by 'holic
Unpacked, washed, packed again, and ready to head south instead of north on the M5 this time. I’m off to spend an evening with ‘holicdad who may well have been in attendance the last time Portsmouth beat the Arsenal. Given that I was just fourteen months old I will have to hope that he remembers the details of that 5-4 game at Fratton Park in March 1958.
In the ensuing years the hosts have spent a great deal of time in the lower leagues, so that record isn’t quite as damning as it looks in cold, hard, black and white. Twenty meetings have occurred in that time, and we have triumphed in twelve of them.
That run includes seventeen league games, but is not our best. There is another club that Pompey’s former twitchy manager now oversees, another shower who haven’t beaten us in twenty league outings. So Pompey have a chance to avoid that particular embarrassment.
Extending that record will depend on getting a functioning midfield out at Fratton Park. Cesc Fabregas and Denilson are likely to be absent following the injuries they picked up against Villa, and Emmanuel Eboue has packed his bucket and spade and headed off to the African Cup of Nations.
Thankfully Alex Song doesn’t have to board the plane until next week, so will almost certainly sit behind Abou Diaby and Aaron Ramsey in the middle of the park. A hopefully unchanged defence will include Armand Traore, so impressive against Villa, and who spent last season on loan at Pompey. Injuries have given him an unexpected opportunity, and he appears to be improving with every game. Commendable indeed for one who was thought to be close to leaving last summer.
Up front we can perm any two from Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott, Eduardo, Carlos Vela, and maybe Tomas Rosicky (I know!) to partner Andrey Arshavin. It would be a major disappointment if that side could not secure a result in Hampshire, even though the hosts will be looking to claim another major scalp having humbled Burnley and Liverpool, yes Liverpool, in their last two home games.
I have to be bullish with the ‘holic pound, and the twelves on offer from Sportingbet, among others, for a 3-1 away win is mighty tempting. Too tempting for me. I’m on it already.
I hope the weather improves for those that are heading south to watch the game, and hope decent streams are available for the rest of you. When the first whistle blows I will be tucking into the best carvery in Devon. It’s a hard life!
What are the chances I can avoid the result until I get home and can watch the game on ATvO on Thursday? Slim I know. The mobile will be off and anybody texting me updates will be dealt with when I turn it on again on Thursday night. You have been warned…
Have a good one, ‘holics.
46 Responses to “Pompey, Tougher Opponents Than The Neighbours”
have a great trip holic and lets hope for a good win with plenty of goals to help our goal diffrence as it may well be important with the way this season is panning out. happy new year mate
Good luck with not hearing/seeing the score b4 u watch the game on Thu. Hopefully, any news u hear will be good news. Enjoy your holiday-the carvery sounds particulalry appetizing!
Know of any decent streams for tonights game??
I really enjoy watching matches on ATVO. The resolution isn’t great – they should improve that (pirate streams have better resolution), but the commentary is an Arsenal commentary, and I really enjoy it.
ATVO is also a very inexpensive way to see all of the Arsenal matches.
We have to watch matches on delay all the time, and there’s very little chance of anyone mentioning the results in my neck of the woods, so if I can avoid going online, and if I remember to go straight to tv.arsenal.com, it works out quite well.
Nice one holic, enjoy the trip and hope all is well with the holic dad.
May take the 3-1 myself.
Isn’t the match on Sky Sports anyway?
Aston Villa v. Liverpool is on Skysports
great post !
“I’m off to spend an evening with ‘holicdad who may well have been in attendance the last time Portsmouth beat the Arsenal. Given that I was just fourteen months old I will have to hope that he remembers the details of that 5-4 game at Fratton Park in March 1958.”
best place to watch Arsenal Live & free is http://indonewyork.net/user_home.php
I shall not be texting you then, but I’m up for a real ‘drink’ at last!
3-1? We’re due an away clean sheet now!
Safe travels south!
@DrunkenHobo.. that site requires registration and then asks me for a “invitation code”.. what the heck is that?
DrunkenHobo, apologies, but not sure about that link.
I see a safer link to http://indonewyork.com/
Perhaps you could advise Singh what to do from there.
Pompey v Arsenal, tomorrow, Sky Sports 1, 7.30. Kick off 7.45.
Thanks Justin, don’t forget a large number of readers here are overseas so will still need the stream links.
…although, if you are prepared to pay a man a ridiculous fee to climb onto your roof, fit a satellite, connect it to a sky box and just happen to point said dish in the right direction……
But one certainly could never condone such chicanery.
Have they got Old Thumper down there? Headaches from my formative years…
Old Thumper and Fortyniner, Catalan. You have good taste…
“Thanks Justin, don’t forget a large number of readers here are overseas so will still need the stream links.”
—————————-
You can often get to see more games live on tv when overseas, rather than less though! Certainly that is my experience from several years outside the UK …
If we could get one forward and one central midfielder which ones would you choose? Looking at non cup-tied this is my wish list.
Forward:
Kenwyne Jones, Sunderland
Carlton Cole, West Ham
Rodallega, Wigan
Midfielder:
Scott Parker, West Ham (depending on the current injury)
Michael Johnson, Man City (how’s his injury?)
Paul Scharner, Wigan
This is only looking at the Premier League.
Surely you could give some more names. And comment on my list
Johnson is crocked and out for the rest of the season, I think. Good player, but I think we need more of a defensive player, especially if Denilson is out for a while again
It’s really hard to find a good enough defensive midfielder that is not cup-tied. Flamini would be the best choice, but he’s cup-tied…
the news of bendtner absolutely seals it, we must buy a big striker capable of winning an aerial battle and holding the ball up, as wel las the odd headed goal. without that the second half of the season will become a slog – a slog we wont cope with. Wenger must move quickly.
Darren Bent up front?
Can we buy old T’ham players?
I agree with Wacko… In South Africa i get to watch EVERY arsenal game LIVE!!! Every game, even the pre season friendlies!! big ups to Supersport (our version of sky sports!!)
arsenal win 2-0 arshavin and eduardo on the sheet
New here. Great read! We get all live games here in the US too. Setanta (yes, it really is), & FSC (Fox Soccer Channel) on Stellite TV. Commentators on TV during games are becoming very boring though.
Up who’s front, Snail?
Enjoy the old man, ‘Holic.
Tommy Vermaleen to score a goal tomorrow, Edurado the other. 2-0 Arsenal.
After all these posts about ‘Holicdad, I have a question for him: what does someone who’s seen more than half a century of Arsenal (how many years really?) think of Arsene Wenger? Just curious…
@gazzap: didn’t you write the same thing last summer, except it wasn’t a striker but a DM that we had to buy otherwise we’d be out of the title race by October?
More than anyone, we need Eduardo, Walcott and Vela to keep improving. New striker or not, we need those 3 to score regularly if we’re to win anything.
I’m out of bourbon, a poor man’s whisky will do. To 1-3 then.
We get MOST of the Arsenal games live on Sky Sports here in New Zealand. For everything else, theres ATVO.
@ Johan
I would go with Jones and Sharner. If not them then some one who currently plays in EPL, so they take the least time to adjust. My be Emmanuel-Thomas can be given a shot. He looks like a solid midfielder.
Great question, Matt. I tried a while back to get him to compare Wenger and Chapman, since he was around for both. He has never got around to it. I’ll mention it again though.
Have a good trip ‘holic.
For fellow gooners still looking for streams for our games, check out the previous blog ( Sublime Arsenal Are From Another Planet) post 36 for some useful links.
Enjoy the game tonight wherever you may be.
Cheers.
I know dis is out of line wit d topic but this is d last game of d decade when i became an arsenal fan & i’d love 2 expres a few emotions. I really lov this club & mr. Wenger. Wen i look @ our team sheet & d players that hav passed thru wenger, i cant imagine how blessed de really r even if de dont kno (ade). I feel as fans we shld help make wenger’s job easier by singin a players name wen he’s havin a bad run of games. Some players r born wit TV5’s calm & determination odas build it along d way. both can loose it & would require people like wenger & us fans 2 help dem get it bac. Make no mistake even we d fans can hav an affect on how much a footbal team achieves. A concept which ‘only money can win u trophies’ teams like chelsea & mancity r slowly 4gettin. I love this club only, i lov my team 4eva (eddy, eboue, walcot, diaby & all).
Translation please Harrypotters Arsenal? (sorry, I was born before 1995) 😀
Ahem…acksherlaay…..kidding only, I think I know what you might be getting at.
0-2 goes Arsenal’s way! Eddie and Diaby on the scoresheet.
Sorry for your pound `Holic… but another great game from our players. And again we have the best goal difference with a game in hand still.
The pace at which Ramsey is progressing is simply astonishing. He could well be a starter before the end of the season!
Anyone knows why Walcott wasn’t even on the bench today?
Fantastic result. Great team performance.
Ramsey is progressing at a rate of knots. The building blocks are in place for the future @ Arsenal football club like no other team in the PL.
Got some big games to come but results like today’s go a long way to inspiring confidence throughout the side. The Premiership challenge goes on!
Song Sings Sionara as Gunners Quartet Sounds South Side Symphony
On tune from the tin section’s first whistle, Arsenal patiently pulled apart a plucky Portsmouth patchwork, ‘pealing to Pompy’s populace as they plundered the points.
Abou Diaby, he of the telescopic legs, was at the helm and lead the team to Victory in a way that no-onelson could have. Although those sitting exsectant, for a goal from the big Frenchman, were disappointed when an early volley cannoned off their keeper’s main brace and was waived away in the wind.
There was a splash of good fortune associated with Arsenal’s first. Eduardo of Crozilia fired a cannonball amid-ship, only to see it ricochet off the Portsmouth harbour wall right into the back of the goal with their keeper looking like a lobster lost in the net.
But there was nothing but brilliance at the heart of the second that left Avram looking quite armada. He had good reason, I grant you. Any one of three Arsenal players could have smashed his spinnaker before Nasri fired the hole in his hull. He looked to be struggling to compass himself for a tough HT team talk. He knew his ship was sinking.
Soon after half time, Ramsey the Welsh Wizard ran through a leek in the Pompey defense wider than the Rhonda for a goal of the season contender, 3-0 and “Help me”, shouted Avram.
A temporary failure of communication saw our arsenal breached and had Arsene resorting to semaphore signals to soothe his scorn. (It’s not easy to signal For F***s Sake from the touchline). Fever pitch on the Gunners bench! It was Up for Grabs Now for the holic pound! Only ‘Holic and dad were blissfully unaware with heartburn still to come.
The bookmakers threw their hats aloft as Song soared like a seagull to sink a superb Samir in swinger. Gazillions of ‘Holic readers had just seen their last dubloon turned from gold to lead by ‘Holic, King Midas in reverse. Never mind, it was nearly a different tail of nine cats (and ‘Holic had put some treasure in the chest on several previous voyages).
And with a quick wave, Arsene was up off the beach. Alex was on Song and off to ACN. Cesc and Denilson were tucked up with horlics and hopefully healing healthily. Holic and HolicDad were chewing the fat and sinking some dark ones and Brian The Snail slid back into his shell and wished everyone goodnight, zzzzzzzebadee.
Keep spinning around on the Arsenal Magic Roundabout, ‘Holics. Happy New Year to you all.
Funny but I did not actually think we playted that well tonight. Lots of misplaced passes and at times I did not think we were as fluent as we can be either. That for me makes the score line even better. I agree re Ramsey. Just 19. God knows what he will be like in 2 years time. Diaby was not at his best but you can see what a different player he is now that he has a bit of confidence. That can only bode well.
A couple of astute signings in the window, just to add some depth and we will be well away.
Keep the faith…….
Matt, apparently Theo was out with a rib injury. BtM, you should cover ‘holic’s vacant post with puntastic prose like that.
Thanks Snail. Poor Theo, let’s hope he’ll be back soon enough. I second the suggestion about BtM and his inspired comments.
SteveT: It was good enough, we lacked some focus but at the same time we did not need to. It’s going to be a long second half of the season, no need to play 100% when we don’t have to. We’ll need that energy for the later stages.
To respond to Matt, as my monicker implies I have been an Arsenal fan since 1955 when my father took me to see a floodlight match against Cardiff City. In my view AW is the best thing to have happened to Arsenal in all this time. It is not just the domestic success but the manner in which it has been achieved that he will be remembered for. I have never seen a relevant survey but I wouldn’t mind betting that we are the UK non-Arsenal fans’ favourite 2nd club. Wenger has lead us to a point where we are just a small step away from being a true European “super-club”. Some will argue we are there already but IMHO we need some more silverware including the Champions League – we can achieve this if AW is able marry flexibility/ruthlessness with his loyalty to players that have been or are being developed at the club. Therein lies the only “but” that I have about Wenger – he is stubborn and has blind spots when it comes to certain players or issues.
The biggest challenge facing the club now is how to approach Wenger’s succession. The best way may be to appoint a strong no2 capable of exerting serious influence and who would eventually take over. This is easy to propose but extremely difficult to achieve.
Morning to all Holix on this the last day of 2009.
BTM, fine effort sir, a very nautical but nice account of yesterdays game.
since55….
May I say………fantastic comments!?! I completely agree. It would be an injustice to attempt to add anything further.
🙂