Ally
Active Member
Arsenal 1 (Henry 20) Man Utd 1 (Silvestre 16) – Man Utd win 4-3 on penalties
Well, I enjoyed that. I really did. A live wire game to kick the season off – good for determining the bragging rights (And yes, I would still have said that if we'd won) and good for fitness. Or at least, that's the theory. When you have two rivals of the stature of these two going at each other, you don't have a friendly in any cliched sense of the word, but each team prancing around showing off each others tricks like they were back carefree in the playground. Whilst simultaneously trying to take pieces out of various legs belonging to the opposition, of course.
Taking place, essentially, in the middle of a heatwave (A hundred degrees-plus inside the stadium), Man Utd had evidentially been briefed to play the short passing game, conservative but usually rather effective. When I found out Kolo Toure was man marking Nistelrooy I must say I nearly had a fit – all he needs is a turn round a naive centre back to be in, and, it has to be said, that inevitably results in a goal. I was wrong. Toure, with one sad and costly exception, was magnificent and very probably our best player on the day – a day where I must say that everyone showed more enthusiasm towards the idea of steady progress towards Man Utd's goal with no real conviction – certainly there were few standout contributions. Bergkamp and Freddie simply didn't do very much, although I suppose the conditions serve as a more legitimate excuse than most others.
The game took precisely 28 seconds to spark up, when Phil Neville went straight through Paddy and took him out of play when the ball was long gone. Prat. Probably the fastest booking I've ever seen, too. Still, Ashley Cole generously agreed to even things up a minute later when he carved Solskjaer in half out on the touchline, and should have walked later on for a petulant kick which the referee saw perfectly well but chose to ignore. A recurring issue in this game that left us all thanking the inconstancy of the reffing, without which we would have certainly ended up with 8 men on the park and major problems looking at our opening games in the Prem. Steve Bennett's failure to follow his own precedent mercifully saw Sol let off for flicking out at Eric Djemba, although I can sympathise seeing as the Cameroons' studs were flying towards a particularly sensitive and crucial area. Retaliation of the most justifiable kind.
An hour earlier, ManYoo had taken the lead with a weak, weak goal to lose. The corner routine was well-worked, fine, but a flick on at near post from Roy Keane (And sorry, but did I see Thierry Henry trying to defend the near post? For god's sake...), and Mikael Silvestre ran from deep, completely without challenge, to plant his downwards header just out of the reach of the rather pissed-off looking Lauren on the post. Jens Lehmann's positioning was bizarre (A basic goalkeeping rule is that on a set piece you keep on your line) and Toure hesitated for a split second, leaving a whacking great gap behind him. The goal looked very simple, but we made it that way. What was even more worrrying was that Ruud was totally free at the far post, even if Silvestre hadn't connected. Parlour was static.
The lead was brief, and with our only serious effort of the half, we evened things up – genius being an operative term which I'll use here. What a free-kick. “Are you watching David Beckham?” From 35.2 yards out, Thierry Henry (Genius player, by the way) took an awesome curler, dipping into the net as Howard sprawled frantically to his right and got fingertips to it, in vain. I don't care that the wall was pretty shabbily set up and that Howard's angles were all wrong. Thierry's season started here, breaking his Millennium Stadium curse/duck/whatever . Nay, shattering it. Utter, utter, genius. Did I say he's a genius? And he's not close to being fully fit.
There was some light relief when Giggs' header came back off the inside of the post and bobbled up awkwardly in front of Ruud who didn't catch his header properly which, in turn, clipped the top of the bar a la Pires at St James' Park last season. We went down the other end and Freddie decided to take a solo run up to the penalty area, resulting in a chip which arced high over the bar via. a deflection.
Half time subs Pires and Wiltord took the places of Ray Parlour and Dennis Bergkamp (Two players who had games that were forgettable at best and lazy at worse), and added some fancy shuffling and promising but ultimately unsuccessful passing to our attack. As the game raged from one end to the other, Bobby got a lucky bounce off a Ferdinand tackle and found himself clear. Unfortunately he had neither the legs nor the confidence to score from distance, trying a chip of sorts over Howard which rolled harmlessly wide. To be fair, Keane had caught him up very well, but you got that feeling, all-too familiar, that if Thierry had been involved, we'd have had the lead no problem.
I suppose we'd better deal with Franny Jeffers. On the pitch for about 15 minutes, Neville came through him with a challenge that was borderline-fair, and a minor little scuffle took place on the floor which ended up with Jeffers booting the player who was down on the floor, all while the referee was looming behind him with a Grandstand view of everything that was going on. He had no option and made exactly the right call. Jeffers had to walk.
Now, as you may know, I rate FJ9 very highly. Favourite player, in fact. So, you might be expecting some defence for what he did. f*ck that. The kid was completely out of order, acting like an abject little tw*t for a moment that may or may not cost him very dearly. A three match ban for kicking out at Phil Neville in a friendly. It's unacceptable, and for the first time in a long while we didn't even get an 'I didn't see the incident'. Arsène just shrugged and gave a slightly icy account of how Jeffers was sorry and how he knows that he deserved the red card. A little late for all of that.
This didn't cost us the Community Shield. This will have little if any adverse effect on us as we start the Premiership next week. As Bergkamp is fit, Jeffers is peripheral. The only impact this will have is on the lad himself. In a quite conceivable, though still hypothetical, chain of events, he could be overtaken in the pecking order by Kanu or Aliadiere, or even both. This would almost certainly end his Arsenal career. One kick. One stupid, petulant and pathetic kick. I just hope that it doesn't.
The two teams, even with Arsenal for the second consecutive fixture down to ten, were insperable. There's just nothing between them. They beat us 2-0? We'll beat them 2-0 back. And while they lifted the Shield, this was of course a drawn game of football.
The shootout will be remembered for Howards' two saves (The second which clinched the game was made off a very weak Pires penalty) or, depending on your alliegances, a sensational save from Mad Jens from Ruud van Nistelrooy. Yup. The player who 'doesn't miss' penalties. A fingertip, full length deflection away from a rising shot heading into the corner. Very promising. Jens had a decent game – although for christs sake, and I'm repeating myself, if he continues to charge off his line, something very costly is going to happen, eventually. It might even be sooner rather than later.
This was a friendly, lads and ladesses. It also happens to be a friendly which could end the Arsenal career of Francis Jeffers. And that's the most significant thing that will come out of it. We all know that it's no pointer as to where the league is going. We leave without a shiny plate, and Manchester United leave with a shiny plate. It really is as simple as that. Let's not over-react. It was a terrific, buzzing game of football marred by the red card, for which a certain player should be taken out and booted up the arse. He'll learn his lesson. Hopefully as a team, we will too.
Man of the Match
Toure, again.
Moment of the Match
Mad Jens' save from Ruud. Not only hair-rasingly good, but totally unexpected. Did you say something amounting to “If he goes first, they're automatically in front straight away” too? Gave a faint ray of hope. And he oh-so-nearly saved from Ole. What could have been...
Moan of the Match
That I had to tear a player a new arse in a way that I don't like to do, and can't recall doing in one of these reports before. It's just very, very disappointing.
The Players
Jens Lehmann – Solid. Reasembles Big Dave in how he claims crosses, and his distribution was fine, too. However, he was partly at fault for the goal and there are still some communication problems to sort out. Give him time to settle and I think he could be more than good.
Lauren – Very impressive. That's it.
Kolo Toure – Looking more and more like Sol, actually. Helped in taking Nistelroy out of the game. Can't defend crosses though. I feel so much more comfortable with him in the team than Cygan. I think Arsène does too.
Sol Campbell – Could easily have walked. Otherwise, combines smooth confidence with appropriately desperate, goal-saving lunges. Great game.
Ashley Cole – Frequently caught out by a range of diagonal passes that split the defence and left Solskjaer free. A more competant winger would have surely resulted in a grisly day out.
Ray Parlour – Sorry, did he actually play?
Patrick Vieira – Surprised he played the full game, actually. Fought with Keane all game long in a batle which neither won. Deserved yellow card for cutting across Silvestre on the burst.
Gilberto – Slightly more noticeable than usual, using the occasion to [whisper it] showboat a little. Solid as ever.
Freddie Ljungberg – Anonymous, again.
Dennis Bergkamp – Sorry, did he play? I seem to have forgotten.
Thierry Henry - Classic goal. Our liveliest player in the opposition half by a long chalk. Drifted out to the right rather than the left but was virtually playing by himself. The counter attack game wasn't on against the mindset of the opposition in the first half.
Ally Winford
Well, I enjoyed that. I really did. A live wire game to kick the season off – good for determining the bragging rights (And yes, I would still have said that if we'd won) and good for fitness. Or at least, that's the theory. When you have two rivals of the stature of these two going at each other, you don't have a friendly in any cliched sense of the word, but each team prancing around showing off each others tricks like they were back carefree in the playground. Whilst simultaneously trying to take pieces out of various legs belonging to the opposition, of course.
Taking place, essentially, in the middle of a heatwave (A hundred degrees-plus inside the stadium), Man Utd had evidentially been briefed to play the short passing game, conservative but usually rather effective. When I found out Kolo Toure was man marking Nistelrooy I must say I nearly had a fit – all he needs is a turn round a naive centre back to be in, and, it has to be said, that inevitably results in a goal. I was wrong. Toure, with one sad and costly exception, was magnificent and very probably our best player on the day – a day where I must say that everyone showed more enthusiasm towards the idea of steady progress towards Man Utd's goal with no real conviction – certainly there were few standout contributions. Bergkamp and Freddie simply didn't do very much, although I suppose the conditions serve as a more legitimate excuse than most others.
The game took precisely 28 seconds to spark up, when Phil Neville went straight through Paddy and took him out of play when the ball was long gone. Prat. Probably the fastest booking I've ever seen, too. Still, Ashley Cole generously agreed to even things up a minute later when he carved Solskjaer in half out on the touchline, and should have walked later on for a petulant kick which the referee saw perfectly well but chose to ignore. A recurring issue in this game that left us all thanking the inconstancy of the reffing, without which we would have certainly ended up with 8 men on the park and major problems looking at our opening games in the Prem. Steve Bennett's failure to follow his own precedent mercifully saw Sol let off for flicking out at Eric Djemba, although I can sympathise seeing as the Cameroons' studs were flying towards a particularly sensitive and crucial area. Retaliation of the most justifiable kind.
An hour earlier, ManYoo had taken the lead with a weak, weak goal to lose. The corner routine was well-worked, fine, but a flick on at near post from Roy Keane (And sorry, but did I see Thierry Henry trying to defend the near post? For god's sake...), and Mikael Silvestre ran from deep, completely without challenge, to plant his downwards header just out of the reach of the rather pissed-off looking Lauren on the post. Jens Lehmann's positioning was bizarre (A basic goalkeeping rule is that on a set piece you keep on your line) and Toure hesitated for a split second, leaving a whacking great gap behind him. The goal looked very simple, but we made it that way. What was even more worrrying was that Ruud was totally free at the far post, even if Silvestre hadn't connected. Parlour was static.
The lead was brief, and with our only serious effort of the half, we evened things up – genius being an operative term which I'll use here. What a free-kick. “Are you watching David Beckham?” From 35.2 yards out, Thierry Henry (Genius player, by the way) took an awesome curler, dipping into the net as Howard sprawled frantically to his right and got fingertips to it, in vain. I don't care that the wall was pretty shabbily set up and that Howard's angles were all wrong. Thierry's season started here, breaking his Millennium Stadium curse/duck/whatever . Nay, shattering it. Utter, utter, genius. Did I say he's a genius? And he's not close to being fully fit.
There was some light relief when Giggs' header came back off the inside of the post and bobbled up awkwardly in front of Ruud who didn't catch his header properly which, in turn, clipped the top of the bar a la Pires at St James' Park last season. We went down the other end and Freddie decided to take a solo run up to the penalty area, resulting in a chip which arced high over the bar via. a deflection.
Half time subs Pires and Wiltord took the places of Ray Parlour and Dennis Bergkamp (Two players who had games that were forgettable at best and lazy at worse), and added some fancy shuffling and promising but ultimately unsuccessful passing to our attack. As the game raged from one end to the other, Bobby got a lucky bounce off a Ferdinand tackle and found himself clear. Unfortunately he had neither the legs nor the confidence to score from distance, trying a chip of sorts over Howard which rolled harmlessly wide. To be fair, Keane had caught him up very well, but you got that feeling, all-too familiar, that if Thierry had been involved, we'd have had the lead no problem.
I suppose we'd better deal with Franny Jeffers. On the pitch for about 15 minutes, Neville came through him with a challenge that was borderline-fair, and a minor little scuffle took place on the floor which ended up with Jeffers booting the player who was down on the floor, all while the referee was looming behind him with a Grandstand view of everything that was going on. He had no option and made exactly the right call. Jeffers had to walk.
Now, as you may know, I rate FJ9 very highly. Favourite player, in fact. So, you might be expecting some defence for what he did. f*ck that. The kid was completely out of order, acting like an abject little tw*t for a moment that may or may not cost him very dearly. A three match ban for kicking out at Phil Neville in a friendly. It's unacceptable, and for the first time in a long while we didn't even get an 'I didn't see the incident'. Arsène just shrugged and gave a slightly icy account of how Jeffers was sorry and how he knows that he deserved the red card. A little late for all of that.
This didn't cost us the Community Shield. This will have little if any adverse effect on us as we start the Premiership next week. As Bergkamp is fit, Jeffers is peripheral. The only impact this will have is on the lad himself. In a quite conceivable, though still hypothetical, chain of events, he could be overtaken in the pecking order by Kanu or Aliadiere, or even both. This would almost certainly end his Arsenal career. One kick. One stupid, petulant and pathetic kick. I just hope that it doesn't.
The two teams, even with Arsenal for the second consecutive fixture down to ten, were insperable. There's just nothing between them. They beat us 2-0? We'll beat them 2-0 back. And while they lifted the Shield, this was of course a drawn game of football.
The shootout will be remembered for Howards' two saves (The second which clinched the game was made off a very weak Pires penalty) or, depending on your alliegances, a sensational save from Mad Jens from Ruud van Nistelrooy. Yup. The player who 'doesn't miss' penalties. A fingertip, full length deflection away from a rising shot heading into the corner. Very promising. Jens had a decent game – although for christs sake, and I'm repeating myself, if he continues to charge off his line, something very costly is going to happen, eventually. It might even be sooner rather than later.
This was a friendly, lads and ladesses. It also happens to be a friendly which could end the Arsenal career of Francis Jeffers. And that's the most significant thing that will come out of it. We all know that it's no pointer as to where the league is going. We leave without a shiny plate, and Manchester United leave with a shiny plate. It really is as simple as that. Let's not over-react. It was a terrific, buzzing game of football marred by the red card, for which a certain player should be taken out and booted up the arse. He'll learn his lesson. Hopefully as a team, we will too.
Man of the Match
Toure, again.
Moment of the Match
Mad Jens' save from Ruud. Not only hair-rasingly good, but totally unexpected. Did you say something amounting to “If he goes first, they're automatically in front straight away” too? Gave a faint ray of hope. And he oh-so-nearly saved from Ole. What could have been...
Moan of the Match
That I had to tear a player a new arse in a way that I don't like to do, and can't recall doing in one of these reports before. It's just very, very disappointing.
The Players
Jens Lehmann – Solid. Reasembles Big Dave in how he claims crosses, and his distribution was fine, too. However, he was partly at fault for the goal and there are still some communication problems to sort out. Give him time to settle and I think he could be more than good.
Lauren – Very impressive. That's it.
Kolo Toure – Looking more and more like Sol, actually. Helped in taking Nistelroy out of the game. Can't defend crosses though. I feel so much more comfortable with him in the team than Cygan. I think Arsène does too.
Sol Campbell – Could easily have walked. Otherwise, combines smooth confidence with appropriately desperate, goal-saving lunges. Great game.
Ashley Cole – Frequently caught out by a range of diagonal passes that split the defence and left Solskjaer free. A more competant winger would have surely resulted in a grisly day out.
Ray Parlour – Sorry, did he actually play?
Patrick Vieira – Surprised he played the full game, actually. Fought with Keane all game long in a batle which neither won. Deserved yellow card for cutting across Silvestre on the burst.
Gilberto – Slightly more noticeable than usual, using the occasion to [whisper it] showboat a little. Solid as ever.
Freddie Ljungberg – Anonymous, again.
Dennis Bergkamp – Sorry, did he play? I seem to have forgotten.
Thierry Henry - Classic goal. Our liveliest player in the opposition half by a long chalk. Drifted out to the right rather than the left but was virtually playing by himself. The counter attack game wasn't on against the mindset of the opposition in the first half.
Ally Winford
