Are Wenger's third generation ready?

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
17 Sep	4:00 PM	P	Manchester United (A)	1	0	Win

With one subtle flick of his right boot, at the same end of Old Trafford at which Marc Overmars and Sylvain Wiltord had written themselves into the Arsenal folklore, Emmanuel Adebayor scored to mark a big step forward for Arsène Wenger's new-look team, showing that they can challenge the other big sides for the title this season.

It was a rich Sunday of Premiership football, with last season's top four sides meeting each other for the first time this season. Even at this early stage of the campaign, Sky did their best to make the most out of the situation by suggesting that with wins for favourites Chelsea and Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool would be out of the title race. Good way to overhype it and attract views, fair enough.

I hope that not too many people were stupid enough to fall for that, although people DO like drama, so I fear they may have. With Chelsea winning 1-0 against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, Rafael Benitez now finds himself in 15th place with only four points from four games. Not the start he would've wanted, but his side have a game in hand and are definitely still in it, despite their deceiving league position.

Fact is, the table means NOTHING until around December; Portsmouth are top for crying out loud! Arsenal, with their win over United, just moved from 17th to 10th, that just shows how innaccurate it is at the moment.

Even if Arsenal had lost to United, they would still have a game in hand, making them potentially only 10 points behind their rivals, which isn't really as much as it seems, especially in September.

Anyway, it's obviously very helpful that we did win, not just for the points today, but for our challenge for the rest of the season. This young Arsenal side have finally shown that they can be up there with the great Gunners sides of old.

This may sound a strange way to talk about a team that shocked Europe by reaching the Champions League final last season, but the generation of Touré, Eboue, Fabregas, Hleb, Adebayor and others still had to prove they could be a force in the Premiership like the generation of Campbell, Vieira, Píres, Edu and Wiltord, who stamped their authority on the English game so resoundingly by taking the title away from Manchester United at the Theatre of Dreams itself in 2002, and the generation of Adams, Petit, Parlour and Overmars before them, also winners at Old Trafford in their 1998 year of glory.

The jury was still very much out on what is essentially Wenger's third team, who recorded the lowest ever Premiership finish under Wenger last season, and had made Arsenal's worst start ever to this one, with only two points taken from, what seemed on paper, very winnable opening three games.

Man Utd, in stark contrast, were in terrific form going into this game, with maximum points from four league games and a win in Europe to boot, but Fergie's men seemed to run out of steam today as very much unfancied Arsenal took control of the game with gritty defending and sensible possesion play.

A record Premiership crowd at Old Trafford witnessed something that rather surprised me, a United team willing to let Arsenal play their football, playing on the break. Even as a passionate hater of the mancs, I didn't predict such cautiousness and negativity from them, especially as they were at home in front of a sell-out crowd, who were treated largely to an Arsenal masterclass more than anything else.

Just eleven minutes in, Tomasz Kuszczak, making his debut for the home side in goal, made the worst possible start by bringing down Emmanuel Adebayor in the box. To my amazement, a penalty was ACTUALLY given to the Gunners. Are you sure, ref? We're the visiting team at Old Trafford! I couldn't believe my eyes as a decision finally went our way in this nightmare fixture.

Sadly, the nightmare continued as stand-in captain Gilberto Silva slipped in his run-up and kicked a tame effort pretty much straight at the debutant goalkeeper. Before I had time to even think about crying my eyes out over it, we had about three shots at their goal; one saved, one against the post, and one cleared off the line. Emotionally, I was in pieces, and nearly gave up there and then, with only quarter of an hour played.

However, I was encouraged as Arsenal didn't fall apart like they often might, and actually played some good football - and by that I don't just mean fancy flicks that led nowhere - there was variation as well; Adebayor, although a somewhat dodgy player for us so far in his Gunners career, gave us many options upfront on his own, using his height to good effect as he headed down a long ball from Kolo Touré to Tomas Rosicky on the edge of the box, who fired in a superbly-struck first-time volley, which was well-saved at his near post by Kuszczak.

Still, like many recent games against this bogey team of ours, we had started well, but failed to capitalise on that period of domination, leaving us vunerable as half time approached, with United picking up their game and Cristiano Ronaldo providing the main threat.

And it was Ronaldo who looked certain to score as his neat first touch beat Emmanuel Eboue, putting him one-on-one with Jens Lehmann, who heroically took Ronaldo's fierce volley smack in the face for the team. Absolutely fantastic stuff from the German, keeping us level at half time.

The second half continued in largely the same manner. United's best chance came from a Louis Saha header that was merely inches away from creeping into the corner.

Adebayor looked lively, but had little to show for it, as he pounced well on a defensive error, only to shoot tamely straight at Kuszczak. Neat feet on the edge of the area saw him beat his man, but fire narrowly over just a few minutes later. With the difficult task of playing upfront on his own, Adebayor was doing quite well to make chances for himself, but one was obviously thinking that we were missing first choice striking duo Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie.

Touré had a great effort from distance sail just wide. I thought he was mad when I saw the distance he was preparing to shoot from, but the guy has quite a shot on him and was a little unlucky this time, one day one of those Kolo cannonballs will find its way in.

Julio Baptista, who came on for Hleb, ran confidently from inside his own half at United's defence and curled a decent shot just wide. As we headed into the final ten minutes, I just sensed that maybe we were getting close here, not that I got my hopes up because I've been doing that for years against United only to be left bitterly disappointed by my team's inability to keep going until the end.

Indeed, what did I have to be optimistic about? Our last league win against them was on that glorious day in 2002 when we won the Premiership by beating them 1-0 at Old Trafford. Four painful years of red cards, penalties, bad luck, stupid goals, unbeaten runs ending. Those of you who read my article the other day will know I've waited a long, long time for this, but at last I had my way.

Yet another Arsenal move had broken down, and Ronaldo brought the ball out for United, opting foolishly to try and take on the magneficent Cesc Fabregas, who effortlessly took the ball off the tricky Portugese winger, before going on a little dribble forward, getting a slightly lucky riquochet as his attempted pass bounced off a United defender and back to him, but showing great alertness and speed of thought to pick a different option to the one he had originally planned - the perfectly-timed run of Adebayor in behind United's defence. This time, the gangly Togolese striker who had frustrated the hell out of me for 85 minutes didn't miss.

I suppose it's the law of averages really. He's not a great striker, but a decent one; give him enough chances and he's bound to score eventually. Today United gave him one chance too many and he cooly poked Fabregas' through-ball past the onrushing Kuszczak and into the back of the net with just four minutes remaining, stunning a record crowd of those Northern glory supporters into silence.

Yeah, I went pretty f*cking mental when that went in. For once, things seemed to be going right, but with four minutes plus stoppage time reamining, I was well aware that I had to do my best to keep calm.

The last few minutes were hell. I was trembling, tingling, my heart was beating dangerously fast and I had virtually no feeling in my arms and legs as I watched on, praying that United wouldn't equalise. I felt like kissing Jens Lehmann as he pulled off a simply stunning fingertip save to keep out Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's volley, which seemed destined to fly into the bottom, far corner to ruin my day, and season.

Then the final whistle went and I screamed so much my throat hurt for a few hours afterwards. It was wonderful, and it was deserved.

Cesc Fabregas had said before the game that the midfield battle could be the key and how right he was - as he took on full responsibility and successfuly outplayed John O'Shea and Paul Scholes in United's midfield, through hard work, skill and intellegence. At only 19, the boy has shown that he can dominate the world's best midfielders to get results for us.

At only 17, he outplayed the formidable Makelele and Lampard against Chelsea at Highbury. At 18 last season he was the best midfielder on display against Real Madrid who boasted the midfield talents such as Thomas Gravesen, David Beckham and the great Zinedine Zidane. He also outplayed world-class pairing Emerson and his former captain Vieira against Juventus at Highbury in the following round. His talent is nothing new to us, and he just seems to get better and better. He outshone everyone's favourite wonderkid Wayne Rooney today, who was anonimous. If Cesc were English, the media would never shut up about him. Fact. He is one of the most under-rated young stars in the world, establishing himself as one of the most important players at such a star-studded team since the tender age of 17.

Credit also to our other midfielders today, who combined brilliantly. I worried before the game about playing a midfield of Gilberto, Cesc, Hleb, Ljungberg and Rosicky, as it is basically a five-man central midfield, too similar to work together. How wrong was I? Gilberto, Rosicky and Hleb all dominated the midfield completely, not giving Scholes or O'Shea a sniff. They all seemed to be on the same wavelength for the first time this season as they slowy get used to each other. The five-man midfield also meant that Rosicky could play more centrally, where he is more effective. I think we should employ this tactic more often as it seems to work for us, without making us defensive. This attractive, free-flowing 4-5-1 that Arsenal play could work wonders, as it indeed did in Europe last season.

It's also worth noting, and refreshing to say, that there were no problems after the game; no brawls in the tunnel, no pizzas thrown, not even any stinging attacks from Fergie, who admitted we were the better team today. Oh the joy.

I am hoping our season can pick up from here. We have made our intentions clear with this victory, and we have shown we can still beat the big teams. Having drawn four and lost four against Man Utd in the last four years, and drawing two and losing two against Chelsea in the last two years, a win like this was much-needed and will hopefully give us the confidence to challenge for the title. We just have to work out a way of combatting the smaller teams who do nothing but defend against us. It'll be tough, but the way we've been playing this season, with a lot of bad luck, we were due a win. We finally got it today, but it will prove to mean little if we can't be consistent. I've kind of believed we could be a force this season for a while, but now my belief is higher than ever.

Phase 3 of the Wenger era could be underway...

User Comments

Gooner_liaogz

Posted on 20 Sep, 2006 at 03:25 AM - Reply

I feel that this squad although can take us far in champions league, it will not help us last in the EPL, cos I feel the squad still lack steel

amin

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 02:54 PM - Reply

what a game for us,our young players really did well and wenger get the best of his tactics eventhough we could of beat them more than one...i think it,s better to rest henery for the next 2 weeks espically that we don,t have big games and he relly needs to be rest

Big G

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 11:48 AM - Reply

It is magnificent win over Mancs. We could shut them up at their home in front of 70 thousands of them... Gunners all the way...

ArsenalAllTheWay

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 11:31 AM - Reply

great article...really went nuts after that goal went in...

btw...that ref graham poll should be sacked he said some crap about being RIGHT ON THE LINE OF SIGHT when he was miles away when lehman picked up that ball...wtf man!!! its like so CLEARLY ON THE LINE..bloody rooney tried to trick the ref...and that fuck of a ref even tried to lie and say that he SAW it -.- ...that could have led to a goal if someone like scholes or giggs took it not that playboy ronaldo...(btw i think it was Poll who gave 3 yellow cards before sending someone off in the WC LOL no wonder)

gooner_atheart

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 04:59 AM - Reply

f*cking fantastic article. Reflected my own mood during the match. it was absolutely great to see the team come through. I feel ashamed Buffon's name was even mentioned... when we have Jens. And Arsenal is absolutely Fab.

steve ong

Posted on 19 Sep, 2006 at 03:12 AM - Reply

I am very proud of our achievement this time around. However, we shouldn't be too complacent suddenly after this win over the devils as it doesn't mean we are champion yet.

I firmly believe this win can only do us good in the long run as it bring back the confidence we lost some time ago. It doesn't mean we are title contender yet until we can bring in consistent result that back our ambitions - which is to win titles.

Granted, we do have exciting young guns with loads of talents. With the excellent guidance from Arsene and his veteran players, these young guns will become our deadly arsenals that's packed with loads of power to deliver the results we desired, crazed about. I can only say that things are about to becomes even more exciting. Ooh... the mad passions that all of us have right now is overflowing ... Go Arsenal!!!!

Marce07

Posted on 18 Sep, 2006 at 04:26 PM - Reply

I trust Adebayor more than many… I think he was short of confidence in his game… he was requiring ONE big game to prove himself he can be an Arsenal player. He is just 21, not everybody is Cesc… he has to share attention with HENRY… it’s hard.
I deeply trust in this THIRD GENERATION, Rosicky was amazing fighting the whole game, every single ball; Hleb too, 100% concentrated in every play. Djourou made no mistake and take on “Crying Boy” Ronaldo and Rooney many times. We have a wonderful team, and they prove every one around the World, that Arsenal can win a big game without Henry, pretty important point.
And we have JENS LEHMANN, not matter which generation belongs to, I love that guy!!

Serena Arsenal-Gunner

Posted on 18 Sep, 2006 at 03:07 PM - Reply

Love it..what a nice match... Magnificent passing, good pace, great control, and above all.. A beautiful match!! All da best Arsenal!!

michael ojo

Posted on 18 Sep, 2006 at 02:39 PM - Reply

please fellow gunners gunners, i want us to help solve this puzzle. what will happen to djourou if and when clichy returns from his long injury sojourn and galls is mived to the center of the defence along with toure,which will undoubtedly make our defence stronger, considering djourou's super form right now in the center of that defence.

Dan

Posted on 18 Sep, 2006 at 12:40 PM - Reply

Fantastic Article! You perfectly summed up the game's highlights as well as describing every emotion I was feeling.

oneteaminlondon

Posted on 18 Sep, 2006 at 12:20 PM - Reply

A perceptive article.

I have been grinning for the last 20 hours since we won yesterday - absolutely brilliant result, and a performance from our five-man midfield that bodes well for those tricky Northern fixtures, as the season wears on.

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