Gunners Double Joy
Apr 29th, 2007 by 'holic
Let’s get it straight from the start, Arsenal thoroughly deserved their 3-1 triumph over Fulham, but what hard work they made of it yet again.
It looked like being a comfortable afternoon when Baptista climbed to head home Adebayor’s inch perfect cross in the fourth minute, and then found himself with two other opportunities in the opening phase.
In fact the only mystery was how Arsenal came in for their half-time orange with only that solitary goal to show for a dominant performance. Clichy, in particular, was a threat Fulham simply couldn’t handle down the left hand side.
Yet the second-half became a tedious affair, and we were wondering just how and when the visitors would be gifted the equaliser. It duly arrived with just eleven minutes remaining when Lehmann contrived to flap at a cross on the edge of his area and Simon Davies lobbed it back into an empty net.
For some reason the ruthlessness that had failed to show itself all afternoon returned with a vengeance. Adebayor, given time and space, curled a delightful right footer past Niemi to regain the lead, and the hapless Volz then brought down Hleb to concede the penalty which Gilberto duly smashed home.
That last ten minute burst hid a multitude of sins and made the lacklustre showing of the previous thirty five minutes barely fathomable. On the bright side Adebayor once again proved his value to the side, and Champions League football has been secured before the final two tricky fixtures.
Congratulations a plenty are due to the Arsenal Ladies team who became the first British team to lift the UEFA Womens Cup with a 0-0 draw in the second leg of the Final following their 1-0 win in the away leg against Umea.
I am indebted to regular ‘holic Dave for the photograph which shows a packed Boreham Wood crowd watching the game. In his words “It was a good experience, they play some great football and have some great players. The goalkeeper had a Seamanesque type performance”.
Indeed the keeper, Emma Byrne, was singled out for praise in all of the match reports I have seen.
Well played girls. I think I’ll have a little drink to celebrate!
One Response to “Gunners Double Joy”
The ladies team did really well – they were clearly nervous being on the verge of something so monumental, but they were strong and play some good ‘arsenal-style’ football.
I hope the men are a bit more up for it next week – we owe Chelski for the CC final – that game effectively ended our season.