Archive for August 13th, 2007

Arsenal 2 – 1 Fulham: Generic headline about “Déjà vu”

707 comments August 13th, 2007

You could be forgiven for thinking that this wasn’t a new season at all. Last year, we fell behind in 13 of 27 games, losing only one. Within one minute of yesterday’s game against Fulham, we were behind – Jens Lehmann’s worst goalkeeping error to date allowing David Healy to tap in from close range.

I don’t think anyone could summarise yesterday’s game any game at the Emirates better than Martin Samuel has in The Times:

Time of first goal scored, inexplicably, by the visiting side at the Emirates Stadium: 57 seconds. Time of first accusation of diving by opposition manager: ten minutes. Time of first moment of breathtaking invention by the home side, somehow not rewarded with a goal: 12 minutes. Time of first supporter sighted banging his head against metal object, in impotent rage at perceived unnecessary intricacy in front of goal: 18 minutes. Time of heroic fightback: 83-90 minutes.

And some fightback it was. A storming run from Kolo Toure resulted ended in a penalty being awarded which Robin van Persie blasted into the top corner. Then, in the ninetieth minute, a chipped pass from Cesc Fabregas found Aleksandr Hleb, who took the ball down, ignored options to his left and right, before swivelling and firing the ball beyond Tony Warner. My stream on the game was a bit fuzzy, and I had no sound, so I couldn’t tell who had scored. My first thought was Van Persie. Then Bendtner. Then Flamini. Hleb would probably have been at the bottom of my list of candidates for such an accomplished finish, but somehow he managed it. Judging by this picture, Cesc was surprised as me:

Keep it up, Alex. The Belarussian had started in the second striker role due to injuries to Adebayor and Eduardo that could also keep them out of Wednesday’s Champions League Qualifier. Bacary Sagna made his debut at right-back, and linked extremely well with Emmanuel Eboue.

At the risk of boring you all to death with the same old story, we just missed too many chances. Granted, we had strikers out with injuries, but the likes of Tomas Rosicky need to do better in front of goal. It’s all very well getting in the positions, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player hit the ball straight at the keeper more often than Rosicky. Maybe if we tell him to aim for the goalie he’ll score by mistake. Or something.

But we won. And that’s what important. Jens’ mistake was terrible and Arsene needs to keep an eye on the creaking keeper, our defence looked a little ragged at times, and we desperately lack match-winning goalscorers, but maybe Arsene is right and this result can change our season. Let’s not forget: we won. Which is more than can be said for Manchester United and Spurs this weekend.

Not a bad start to the season, all in all.


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