Arsenal 3 – 0 Newcastle: Do I have to write a whole new piece?
1 comment January 30th, 2008
Seems a bit silly. Same teams, same stadium, same scoreline. Yawn. Oh well, here we go…
In truth, I’d never complain about writing up a 3-0 win that takes us top of the table. As on Saturday, we didn’t play particularly well, but were that much better than Newcastle that we didn’t really have to.
A good number of the crowd didn’t stroll in until about ten minutes into the game. The team themselves didn’t turn up until much later, only starting to look recognisable as the slick footballing unit we know after about half-an hour.
The first-half was ruined for me by the man sitting next to me, who was, frankly, an idiot. I hope he is reading and I hope he recognises himself and subsequently the error of his oh-so-erroneous ways. Every time a pass went astray, this fella would pronounce, rather loudly: “Shit ball”.
“Well, blow me,” says I, “I had thought that punt into the crowd from Senderos was a work of genius until you pointed that out to me. You are truly some kind of God of punditry”.
He was like the worst kind of backseat driver. Only if it had been in a car, I would’ve swerved off the road, smashing into a petrol station and taking us both out in a fiery explosion of retribution. My life would have been a minimal sacrifice to rid the Emirates of this mouthpiece of idiocy.
I’m glad that’s out of my system.
Anyway, as I was saying, we were pretty poor for the first half hour, but managed to get a goal before half-time when Aleksandr Hleb and Cesc Fabregas combined to set the outstanding Flamini in down the right. He skipped beyond a tackle and fired a wonderful cross into the area for the red hot Adebayor to nod home. Surely Ade has finally earned the title of greatest Togolese player to ever play in the Premiership…
As on Saturday, you had the sense that the first goal had figuratively killed Newcastle. Had anyone got in the way of the second goal, it would have literally killed them: an absolute screamer from Flamini. The sooner he signs a new contract the better.
Substitute Bendtner provided a third for Cesc Fabregas late on, and that could prove important – the Catalan hadn’t found the net since early November. If we are serious about winning things this year, he needs to start providing end product again.
The way this team has evolved this season has been fascinating to watch. At the start of the season we were scoring goals from all over the place, with Fabregas and Hleb starring, and then as they have waned Emmanuel Adebayor has waxed, taking on the goalscoring responsibility with gusto. If he can keep his form up, and the midfield can find their shooting boots once more, we could be in business.
In other news: Diaby has signed a new deal until 2012, and grumpy Bendtner was the only player not to join the team huddle at the end. I imagine Bendtner to be a bit like Kevin from Harry Enfield, only much better at football.
This write-up has been a bit mental. My head is all over the place. But we won. And we’re top.
Which is good.
