Gerrard Gifts Henry’s Arsenal Vital Victory
883 comments March 13th, 2006
It was the last minute of the Euro 2004 France-England tie when Steven Gerrard sent a loose backpass towards David James, only for Thierry Henry to intercept and punish him with a cruel 2-1 winner.
Yesterday, history repeated itself.
In this instance, however, France… sorry, Arsenal, were the deserved winners. We had taken the lead through a Thierry Henry curler after the most sublime of passes from Cesc Fabregas, only for yet another Luis Garcia rebound to equalise with only 15 minutes to go.
But a sending off for Chavvy Alonso was followed by Gerrard’s hilarious error, and we were back in front.
It was a superb result, and a deserved one. A new Arsenal side is beginning to take shape. Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Hleb have struck up an excellent relationship on the right-hand side, Emmanuel Adebayor’s clumsiness can be excused by his huge physical presence, and Cesc Fabregas is starting to dominate games in a manner reminiscent of Barcelona’s Deco in his Porto days.
His clash with Patrick Vieira against Juventus will be one to savour.
In the past three games we’ve played excellent against Fulham, Madrid, and now Liverpool. What’s absolutely vital is that we take this form on for the rest of the season. Putting the Champions League aside, fourth spot is within our grasp if we’re prepared to fight for it. Top players are still coming back, and it can only get better from here.
ps. Full Madrid write-up to follow in the next few days.
