Ally
Active Member
Middlesbrough 0
Arsenal 4
Henry 5, Gilberto 13, Wiltord 22, 60
When I did the report for the game at Leeds last year, I held back on OTT praise. If I recall correctly, I just emphasised how good a team performance it was and used the word 'awesome' somewhere at the end. I gave Cygan man of the match too. Oh, how things change, and how they stay the same.
Middlesbrough is an edgy game, one perhaps requiring of a break, a bit of luck, an error. Or even a bit of genius, as in last year. The previous two years had involved penalties, and even the 4-0 win there to open up 01/02 was dodgy at best for around 85 minutes, Dennis, of course, supplying a startlingly unlikely route from two goals to four. This year we were confident pre-kick-off because Arsenal should be beating teams such as Boro, with competent enough personnel (And one or two sparkling standouts – Juninho gave us the runaround at times in the second half which will not be remembered because his frontmen were quite simply gash) – but if betting on a performance that surpassed Leeds, you'd have probably been seen as a bit of a nutter. Did it surpass that very game, then? In terms of sublime possession football, clinical finishing and an air of 'I am considerably better than yow' (See Harry Enfield if unsure), then yes, it did.
Saying that, it was Boro (sans Mendieta, who's clearance hadn't come through in time) who came awfully close after 20 seconds when Nemeth bundled his way in, fortunately lent back as he was trying to catch his hooked shot from the angle of the edge of the six yard box, got under it a little and it went zipping over Jens' fingers and narrowly over the bar. And that was about it from Boro. You know those games in the playground when the teams are deviously yet skilfully fixed, and you got one side made up of all the players who were on the school football team running at a bunch of terrified sprogs, passing it about and showing off some stepovers and perhaps a reverse overhead flick now and again? Boro were not in the game, couldn't get the ball, couldn't keep the ball and couldn't pass the ball. Which was nothing to do with their footballing ability either. I don't recall such a gulf, nay, gaping Grand Canyon-esque ravine, between two sides belonging to the same league. We had more trouble beating Carlisle in the FA Cup third round in 2000/01 than this.
Perhaps an understatement going on here – Arsène, ever the diplomat, said that “it was a great first half, we played really well as a team.”. He obviously isn't going overboard, even on a performance as flawless, as perfect as this. Leaving it to the fanboys, obviously.
You're talking here about a move which ripped open the Boro defence after 4 minutes. Breaking out for the first time, Vieira played an outside-of-the-boot pass which dissected the backline, leaving Freddie Ljungberg to dart onto it, cut inside slightly and skim a daisy-cutter right across Schwarzer which the Aussie couldn't hope to hold – he got to it, got a full hand to it, and on the watered surface the ball skimmed off his palm and sort of stopped on the 6 yard line. Henry followed up and the conclusion was fairly inevitable. It was the ease with which we opened up the Boro defence which was worthy of praise – not only was the skimming through ball perfectly weighted and placed, Freddie got his angles exactly right and placed his shot where the keeper had no hope of saving properly. Schwarzer had done as well as he could have; it was just your average, hair-raisingly good bit of Arsenal offensive maneuvering.
And then before you knew it, the ball had been retained in midfield a couple of times, Boro had been opened up without a final shot in the offing, and down the left, Pires shimmied, waited for his option in the middle, and side-footed a chip straight into the path of Gilberto, thundering in, who dispatched a screaming first-time volley under Schwarzer. Given that he scored within 25 minutes of his debut, and that he's an invisible, ball-winning blocker in the depths of the midfield, I find it rather inexplicable when you hear people banging on about how he doesn't score goals. Today he got his first in the Premiership, his partnership with Vieira was reassembling a concrete wall, and everything is rosy. How fickle football is, considering he took a bashing after the Everton game. Le Boss' interview brought a smile to the face of yours truly when he came out with, “Gilberto's goal was fantastic, he isn't a great finisher but I'm happy for him.” This is after a truly special goal struck with copious amounts of venom and anger, the ball flying into the net with great force. True, he isn't a great finisher, because he's profligate and wildly variable when presented with a chance (See in particular, his miss against Liverpool at Highbury, and his turn and shot against Fulham which hit the post with three-quarters of the goal open), but he certainly knows where the goal is and we could stand to utilise his runs into the penalty area, best showcased by the power goal he got in Auxerre. This is, of course, in addition to his standard duties in his position. Which he happens to be masterful at. I don't think we'll see anything vastly different to last year - he becomes a flair player in the Champions League and prefers anonymity in domestic football. He's a top, top player, end of.
Other talking points? Well, I mean, I'm just going to be describing the goals really otherwise, aren't I, so let's go for Mad Jens. Kicking? Needs work. But if you saw the Celtic game you'd have known that from the start anyway. Top drawer shot stopper. Both reactionary (See the save from Chadwick last weekend) and agility (Juninho today). His concentration is first class as is his reading of the game – I still stand by what I said that one of these days he's going to pay dearly for some mistake when coming out of his area, but this ain't no Barthez. He isn't rash, he isn't wild and is instead a cool, intelligent keeper with his feet firmly on the ground who seems to have established a real understanding with his centre backs.
Straight after the goal, Campbell forced his way through a ruck of defenders to rise and meet a Pires corner, with a fair degree of freedom it has to be said – his header was bulleted but wide. There was a man on the post but due to it's power, I'm rather inclined to say anything on target was going to result in a goal.
And then there were three. All the first half goals had elements of counter-attack in them, but the third was flowing through a defence, running them ragged on the break, utilising the cross into the box again and coming up with an outrageously simple finishing touch that oozed of class, cockiness, arrogance even. Released by a raking pass by Pires, Henry drifted into the area, aided it must be said by some Boro defending more defined by what was lacking than what was there, and placed his floating low cross straight onto Wiltord's[/b] instep, who raised his foot, let the ball bounce of his boot and spin into the side netting. That he was being marked shoulder-to-shoulder by two defenders says an awful lot about Henry's cross; it was all so beautiful, so fluent and so adroit against middling at best opposition. The kind of middling team, in fact, that we struggled at times to put away last season. The guy sitting next to me turned and deadpanned - “They're not real”.
It's a cliche, fine, but the title is won by beating the teams from middle to bottom, from average to poor. This was Wengerball again, last seen against Sunderland at Highbury before Rooney stepped up and smacked in a goal that carried as much psychology as placement. Wengerball was of course glimpsed briefly at Anfield and on a few other fleeting occasions, so I hesitate to say 'it's back'. Actually, that's wrong, cos it was back today. Duh. Come Villa on Wednesday we'll have a better idea. Wengerball against the kind of teams that need to be beaten works gloriously. As long as we can fight for our points when need be as well...I don't see too many teams stopping us. When skill meets skill and pace meets pace, we do occasionally lack some je ne sais quoi to kill a game. Not that that was in any way applicable today, of course.
You'd expect a team in Middlesbrough's position to come out blazing in the second period – after all they had nothing at all to lose, we have a reputation for happily sitting on our leads, and the fans besides getting a decent tan, to paraphrase Gordon Strachan, weren't getting an awful lot else for their money. To be fair, the game opened up a little as Boro relaxed, as things weren't really going to get too much worse; they played training session 'pass the ball around the guy in the middle' for a while, and evidentally must have lost interest and awareness, taking up a metaphorical slumped, maybe kinda bored posture as Boateng trotted in behind Mad Jens as he took a cross and wandered straight into Ashley Cole's forehead at great speed. Thankfully the two were alright.
“It's difficult to keep the flow going like in the first half, but we've learned from last year and it became a little bit too easy. Overall there was a desire to keep it going.”
To be honest I didn't really see too much evidence of that desire, with key players not yet fit and there not being too much incentive to really get stuck in and put our heads down, but we did add a fourth when Campbells' speculative pass fizzed straight through the defence and found Ljungberg completely clear – he took it right up to Schwarzer and selflessly gave Wiltord a tap-in.
Wiltord plays the Jeffers role better than Franny ever did. Discuss.
Is Le Boss being very clever here by playing Wiltord in his favoured position, thereby providing an incentive to sign his contract? Is he just satisfied that Henry, being a more creative frontman than Bergkamp is in terms of direct assists, can integrate a Bergkamp-type role into his game anyway, leaving a secondary striker to tap-in chances? Is, therefore, Bergkamp now a bit-part player? Certainly two goals today indicate to me that this partnership, underused before now due to a dreadful sequence of results when it was first used in 00/01, is sound enough. We'll see.
“We try to improve and we can improve in many areas. The desire is there and we are guaranteed to play very strongly and agressively, but we can improve and want to become stronger.”
You only ever need to be stronger than your opposition, but stronger than today? Improvement on today? When players are fully fit, we just might do. Man Utd, are you scared?
Man of the Match
Narrowly beating Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell to this much sought-after accolade, he dragged the defenders all over the place, ran his heart out as usual, selflessly gave up a relatively easy finish for Wiltord...is Freddie Ljungberg, slated by many, not least this hack, back to his best?
Moment of the Match
McLaren on the phone to someone with a highly worried expression on his face. “Hello? Sir Alex? Hi mate. I...er...kinda need some advice here...”
Moan of the Match
Arsenal cannae cross the ball to save their lives. Which is all kind of irrelevant because our strikers can't head it under the same criteria, either. Damn, this was good...
Ally Winford
Arsenal 4
Henry 5, Gilberto 13, Wiltord 22, 60
When I did the report for the game at Leeds last year, I held back on OTT praise. If I recall correctly, I just emphasised how good a team performance it was and used the word 'awesome' somewhere at the end. I gave Cygan man of the match too. Oh, how things change, and how they stay the same.
Middlesbrough is an edgy game, one perhaps requiring of a break, a bit of luck, an error. Or even a bit of genius, as in last year. The previous two years had involved penalties, and even the 4-0 win there to open up 01/02 was dodgy at best for around 85 minutes, Dennis, of course, supplying a startlingly unlikely route from two goals to four. This year we were confident pre-kick-off because Arsenal should be beating teams such as Boro, with competent enough personnel (And one or two sparkling standouts – Juninho gave us the runaround at times in the second half which will not be remembered because his frontmen were quite simply gash) – but if betting on a performance that surpassed Leeds, you'd have probably been seen as a bit of a nutter. Did it surpass that very game, then? In terms of sublime possession football, clinical finishing and an air of 'I am considerably better than yow' (See Harry Enfield if unsure), then yes, it did.
Saying that, it was Boro (sans Mendieta, who's clearance hadn't come through in time) who came awfully close after 20 seconds when Nemeth bundled his way in, fortunately lent back as he was trying to catch his hooked shot from the angle of the edge of the six yard box, got under it a little and it went zipping over Jens' fingers and narrowly over the bar. And that was about it from Boro. You know those games in the playground when the teams are deviously yet skilfully fixed, and you got one side made up of all the players who were on the school football team running at a bunch of terrified sprogs, passing it about and showing off some stepovers and perhaps a reverse overhead flick now and again? Boro were not in the game, couldn't get the ball, couldn't keep the ball and couldn't pass the ball. Which was nothing to do with their footballing ability either. I don't recall such a gulf, nay, gaping Grand Canyon-esque ravine, between two sides belonging to the same league. We had more trouble beating Carlisle in the FA Cup third round in 2000/01 than this.
Perhaps an understatement going on here – Arsène, ever the diplomat, said that “it was a great first half, we played really well as a team.”. He obviously isn't going overboard, even on a performance as flawless, as perfect as this. Leaving it to the fanboys, obviously.
You're talking here about a move which ripped open the Boro defence after 4 minutes. Breaking out for the first time, Vieira played an outside-of-the-boot pass which dissected the backline, leaving Freddie Ljungberg to dart onto it, cut inside slightly and skim a daisy-cutter right across Schwarzer which the Aussie couldn't hope to hold – he got to it, got a full hand to it, and on the watered surface the ball skimmed off his palm and sort of stopped on the 6 yard line. Henry followed up and the conclusion was fairly inevitable. It was the ease with which we opened up the Boro defence which was worthy of praise – not only was the skimming through ball perfectly weighted and placed, Freddie got his angles exactly right and placed his shot where the keeper had no hope of saving properly. Schwarzer had done as well as he could have; it was just your average, hair-raisingly good bit of Arsenal offensive maneuvering.
And then before you knew it, the ball had been retained in midfield a couple of times, Boro had been opened up without a final shot in the offing, and down the left, Pires shimmied, waited for his option in the middle, and side-footed a chip straight into the path of Gilberto, thundering in, who dispatched a screaming first-time volley under Schwarzer. Given that he scored within 25 minutes of his debut, and that he's an invisible, ball-winning blocker in the depths of the midfield, I find it rather inexplicable when you hear people banging on about how he doesn't score goals. Today he got his first in the Premiership, his partnership with Vieira was reassembling a concrete wall, and everything is rosy. How fickle football is, considering he took a bashing after the Everton game. Le Boss' interview brought a smile to the face of yours truly when he came out with, “Gilberto's goal was fantastic, he isn't a great finisher but I'm happy for him.” This is after a truly special goal struck with copious amounts of venom and anger, the ball flying into the net with great force. True, he isn't a great finisher, because he's profligate and wildly variable when presented with a chance (See in particular, his miss against Liverpool at Highbury, and his turn and shot against Fulham which hit the post with three-quarters of the goal open), but he certainly knows where the goal is and we could stand to utilise his runs into the penalty area, best showcased by the power goal he got in Auxerre. This is, of course, in addition to his standard duties in his position. Which he happens to be masterful at. I don't think we'll see anything vastly different to last year - he becomes a flair player in the Champions League and prefers anonymity in domestic football. He's a top, top player, end of.
Other talking points? Well, I mean, I'm just going to be describing the goals really otherwise, aren't I, so let's go for Mad Jens. Kicking? Needs work. But if you saw the Celtic game you'd have known that from the start anyway. Top drawer shot stopper. Both reactionary (See the save from Chadwick last weekend) and agility (Juninho today). His concentration is first class as is his reading of the game – I still stand by what I said that one of these days he's going to pay dearly for some mistake when coming out of his area, but this ain't no Barthez. He isn't rash, he isn't wild and is instead a cool, intelligent keeper with his feet firmly on the ground who seems to have established a real understanding with his centre backs.
Straight after the goal, Campbell forced his way through a ruck of defenders to rise and meet a Pires corner, with a fair degree of freedom it has to be said – his header was bulleted but wide. There was a man on the post but due to it's power, I'm rather inclined to say anything on target was going to result in a goal.
And then there were three. All the first half goals had elements of counter-attack in them, but the third was flowing through a defence, running them ragged on the break, utilising the cross into the box again and coming up with an outrageously simple finishing touch that oozed of class, cockiness, arrogance even. Released by a raking pass by Pires, Henry drifted into the area, aided it must be said by some Boro defending more defined by what was lacking than what was there, and placed his floating low cross straight onto Wiltord's[/b] instep, who raised his foot, let the ball bounce of his boot and spin into the side netting. That he was being marked shoulder-to-shoulder by two defenders says an awful lot about Henry's cross; it was all so beautiful, so fluent and so adroit against middling at best opposition. The kind of middling team, in fact, that we struggled at times to put away last season. The guy sitting next to me turned and deadpanned - “They're not real”.
It's a cliche, fine, but the title is won by beating the teams from middle to bottom, from average to poor. This was Wengerball again, last seen against Sunderland at Highbury before Rooney stepped up and smacked in a goal that carried as much psychology as placement. Wengerball was of course glimpsed briefly at Anfield and on a few other fleeting occasions, so I hesitate to say 'it's back'. Actually, that's wrong, cos it was back today. Duh. Come Villa on Wednesday we'll have a better idea. Wengerball against the kind of teams that need to be beaten works gloriously. As long as we can fight for our points when need be as well...I don't see too many teams stopping us. When skill meets skill and pace meets pace, we do occasionally lack some je ne sais quoi to kill a game. Not that that was in any way applicable today, of course.
You'd expect a team in Middlesbrough's position to come out blazing in the second period – after all they had nothing at all to lose, we have a reputation for happily sitting on our leads, and the fans besides getting a decent tan, to paraphrase Gordon Strachan, weren't getting an awful lot else for their money. To be fair, the game opened up a little as Boro relaxed, as things weren't really going to get too much worse; they played training session 'pass the ball around the guy in the middle' for a while, and evidentally must have lost interest and awareness, taking up a metaphorical slumped, maybe kinda bored posture as Boateng trotted in behind Mad Jens as he took a cross and wandered straight into Ashley Cole's forehead at great speed. Thankfully the two were alright.
“It's difficult to keep the flow going like in the first half, but we've learned from last year and it became a little bit too easy. Overall there was a desire to keep it going.”
To be honest I didn't really see too much evidence of that desire, with key players not yet fit and there not being too much incentive to really get stuck in and put our heads down, but we did add a fourth when Campbells' speculative pass fizzed straight through the defence and found Ljungberg completely clear – he took it right up to Schwarzer and selflessly gave Wiltord a tap-in.
Wiltord plays the Jeffers role better than Franny ever did. Discuss.
Is Le Boss being very clever here by playing Wiltord in his favoured position, thereby providing an incentive to sign his contract? Is he just satisfied that Henry, being a more creative frontman than Bergkamp is in terms of direct assists, can integrate a Bergkamp-type role into his game anyway, leaving a secondary striker to tap-in chances? Is, therefore, Bergkamp now a bit-part player? Certainly two goals today indicate to me that this partnership, underused before now due to a dreadful sequence of results when it was first used in 00/01, is sound enough. We'll see.
“We try to improve and we can improve in many areas. The desire is there and we are guaranteed to play very strongly and agressively, but we can improve and want to become stronger.”
You only ever need to be stronger than your opposition, but stronger than today? Improvement on today? When players are fully fit, we just might do. Man Utd, are you scared?
Man of the Match
Narrowly beating Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell to this much sought-after accolade, he dragged the defenders all over the place, ran his heart out as usual, selflessly gave up a relatively easy finish for Wiltord...is Freddie Ljungberg, slated by many, not least this hack, back to his best?
Moment of the Match
McLaren on the phone to someone with a highly worried expression on his face. “Hello? Sir Alex? Hi mate. I...er...kinda need some advice here...”
Moan of the Match
Arsenal cannae cross the ball to save their lives. Which is all kind of irrelevant because our strikers can't head it under the same criteria, either. Damn, this was good...
Ally Winford
