Job Done – And Dein Admonished.
Oct 3rd, 2007 by 'holic
Conventional football wisdom says the mark of a good side is one that can win when not playing well. In that case Arsenal are a very good side indeed after the single goal triumph in Bucharest.
The positives to be taken from the performance once again centred on the supposed ‘lesser lights’ of the side. Defensively Philippe Senderos was outstanding, in the middle of the park Mathieu Flamini once again put in overtime to retrieve lost causes, and up front Emmanuel Adebayor never gave the hosts back four a moments peace.
It was fitting that Adebayor should have created the opportunity for Robin Van Persie to crash home the winner with a little under quarter of an hour remaining.
So two consecutive away games that might well have got away from us in the last couple of seasons have resulted in that most traditional scoreline, ‘one-nil to the Arsenal’.
If someone had suggested pre-season that the first twelve fixtures would have resulted in eleven wins and a draw you would probably have allowed yourself a little chuckle. Now I just sport a permagrin!
Usmanov Update
Yesterday I suggested that our rotund Uzbek suitor could do worse than sever links with David Dein. It was interesting to find him widely quoted in the press this morning quite clearly firing a warning shot across Dein’s bow.
“what we heard about David Dein and the board at the outset of our Arsenal adventure and what we see now is two different pictures. We’re now thinking how not to end up between a rock and a hard place.”
To lose one potential buyer would be careless, David. To lose two would put serious question marks against your judgement and your famed ‘wheeler-dealer’ skills!
4 Responses to “Job Done – And Dein Admonished.”
This Arsenal side are piling up the points. When they do have a slip up, let’s hope they can get right back to it. That would-have-been 50th consecutive game without defeat was terribly destabilizing, so that’s hopefully one we won’t see again. Nice problem to have though, pondering how the lads can carry on dominating on all fronts.
433 – Wenger was asked about that but as he said losing after 49 games is special circumstances. It probably didn’t help that we were effectively kicked and cheated out of that 50th game.
Hmm I’m undecided, in some ways I would prefer Dein to be involved- at least we know that Wenger then has a true fan of his in the wing. It is a difficult situation, one which is going to come to a head within the next year.
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The start to the season is truly pleasing, but the attitude of this team will be tested when the team will suffer a (inevitable) loss. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts, and could well decide if we end up with silverware this season. But its good that the self-belief of the side has been cemented with the wins so far, and its not optimistic to think that this team will handle the losses well.
As for Dein, its bitter irony for him. Cannot feel sorry for him though, after what his actions have resulted in. He also has 75M in the bank to comfort him.