Arsenal 4 – 0 Charlton: “Pardew for Tottenham”
57 comments January 3rd, 2007
So sang the Arsenal faithful, and if he is able to produce teams as hapless and unspirited as this one, you can’t blame them. When a side attempts to time-waste inside the first ten minutes, with the score still at 0-0, you have to wonder where Charlton will be come May. And then you realise: relegated.
The match game itself was slightly pointless. In years to come it will be remembered for two things: 1) The return of a revitalised Thierry Henry, and 2) the first Premiership goal by an Englishman for Arsenal since September 2005.
Henry, of course, opened the scoring with a dubiously awarded penalty. Apparently Van Persie was offside when shoved by Osei Sankofa, who was subsequently sent-off. Frankly, I don’t care, as it ultimately would never changed the result: Charlton showed no ambition and Sankofa was probably just glad to get off the pitch.
Thierry celebrated his goal with a high-five for Arsene and a dance with Emmanuel Adebayor described by Richard “Moves” Keys as “groovy”.
The second goal was the best of the bunch – a Thierry through-ball finding a bursting run from Justin Hoyte, who finished well. Hoyte went on to have one of his better games for Arsenal, but it’s a bit like Peter Beardsley scoring five for England in a friendly against a non-league side: it doesn’t really count.
After Henry was brought down in the second half, he handed the ball to Robin van Persie, who had been Arsenal’s outstanding player. The Dutchman did not disappoint, firing high into the corner for 3-0. Van Persie was superb all night, outshining even Henry. With the penalty his 11th goal of the season and the 12th soon to come, his season target of 15 cannot be far away. When Adebayor is fit again we really do have three great strikers from which to choose.
Come stoppage time, and it fell to Van Persie to add the final nail in Charlton’s coffin, with a sumptuous flick over the otherwise excellent Scott Carson. Without him, the score could’ve been anything. Well, anything that involved Charlton getting thrashed.
It’s always nice to win, and it’s even nicer to win 4-0, but it’s hard to feel overjoyed when you play against a side as poor as Charlton were last night. Any half-chances they did have simply arose when our players forgot there was a match actually on. If this review seems arrogant, it’s not supposed to. If it sounds dismissive, good. Charlton were awful, and were lucky not to end the game with 9 men, and their Diawara is one of the worst Premiership players since ours.
Still, a win is a win, and you have to be fairly content with our form over the Christmas period. A couple of wins against Liverpool in the cups wouldn’t go amiss, and would give our season a real sense of purpose.
