Arsenal 1 – 0 WBA: Pre-season pays off with carbon copy goal
790 comments August 17th, 2008
Arsenal 1 – 0 West Bromich Albion (Nasri 4)
The margin of victory could have been greater, but much like in last season’s tricky opener against Fulham, the important thing is that we won. It is results than generate momentum, and with two victories under our belt already this season, we have little to complain about.
Our goal came inside the first five minutes of our Premier League campaign. It seems our pre-season preparations paid off – compare this goal with this goal, the first from the friendly with Ajax, the second from yesterday’s game.
Almost identical, right down to the Denilson assist. The principal difference being that this time it was Samir Nasri sticking the ball in the net for a debut goal. Nasri was my man of the match yesterday, showing not only a fantastic touch and consistent inventiveness, but also working hard for the full ninety minutes. A very good start.
At that stage it looked like we could go on to score more, but it never really materialised. In the second half, frustration boiled over as Emmanuel Adebayor, who had missed a good chance just previously, was booed after failing to play in Nasri for a possible second. Now, granted the boos were more to do with Adebayor’s summer conduct than anything else, but I still found them utterly distasteful. If he’s here for the season now (which he is), he has to be given our support. Booing him is not going to help anybody. Fortunately, some pockets of fans agreed, and Adebayor’s song made a short-lived return.
At the back, Johan Djourou had to make one excellent goal-line clearance, but only in the last ten minutes did the result look anything less than certain.
Arsene is unconcerned about our less-than-prolific start to the league campaign:
“I’m not really worried about the lack of goals because I don’t feel we were sharp enough to finish off what we created. I believe when everyone is fit we can create clear cut chances. At times today the final ball was not good enough, too heavy, not timed well enough, and I feel we will improve a lot on that.”
Emmanuel Eboue started the game in central midfield, and I have to say I thought he did rather well. Until we sign a more experienced player, I’d rather see Eboue start than young Aaron Ramsey.  The Welshman could well go on to be a top player, but regular Premier League and European football at 17 seems a very big ask.
One former promising youngster who left the club yesterday is Justin Hoyte. Hoyte was a massive Arsenal fan and always gave his best, but sadly his best was never going to be good enough for him to become a regular in the side – not with Bacary Sagna around anyway. He’s right to go to Boro in search of first-team football, whilst we get another £3m to put into our ‘central midfielder’ pot.
The players go away on International duty now, which should give Arsene some time in which to tie up a signing or two. Get on with it, boss…
