West Ham 0 – 0 Arsenal
16 comments September 24th, 2005
This match, in spite of a roaring crowd, was probably as dull as the scoreline suggests. Despite two of the most attacking teams in the Premiership coming together with not a 4-5-1 in site, there was barely a shot on target at either end.
Freddie Ljungberg was passed fit, but Bergkamp and Pires both failed to make it, with Hleb starting out on the left and Jose Reyes partnering Robin van Persie up-front.
We struggled for fluency and didn’t really create a significant chance. Quincy came on to inject some pace, but even his magic feet couldn’t conjure a genuine opportunity. Hleb dallied, van Persie disappeared, and Gilberto was worryingly brought off with an ankle injury.
But hey, it’s an away point (something we hadn’t yet achieved this season). And another clean sheet for Sol Campbell. It’s not all bad.
What we lack is goals. We’ve resorted to scoring from set-pieces. Which is good. But now we need to start tearing teams apart in open play.
Thierry Henry will help out with that when he returns. But perhaps a bigger issue is finding a source of goals from midfield. With Pires fading and Vieira departed, there’s a huge gap to fill.
But Arsene knows that. He tried to add Wright-Phillips and Baptista to address that problem.
And he will do so in January.
By which time, the title race will be far from over.
Have faith – if Man U losing to Blackburn doesn’t raise a smile, what will?
