Middlesbrough were extras in a Thierry Henry masterclass last Saturday.
He scored a hat-trick in a 7-0 humiliation of a young Boro side.
Arsenal were brilliant, while Boro were a disgrace to their profession, if you can call it a profession.
“All I wanted to do was to go out and show to my team-mates and my fans that I was committed,” said Henry, who now has 150 league goals, equalling Cliff Bastin’s 60-year-old club record.
Reyes had five assists.
FIVE ASSISTS IN ONE GAME !
Reyes was not involved in the goal for 1-0 or the goal for 4-0.
The game began and Reyes was fouled and Henry took a free-kick which beat the post by inches.
1-0 Henry volleyed in Ljungberg’s deflected cross.
2-0 REYES took an inswinging corner from the right and Senderos headed in.
3-0 REYES collected the ball from Pires and played Henry in with a perfect through pass. Henry slotted low past keeper Brad Jones, who came out of his penalty area.
4-0 Pires got the ball from Henry and curled it over Jones.
5-0 REYES was fouled by Doriva and Henry curled over a free-kick for Gilberto to head in.
6-0 REYES hit an instant pass from inside his own half to give Henry his hat-trick.
7-0 REYES blocked and Hleb tapped in.
Only the fearless Reyes, when his team is 6-0 up in the 88th minute, would throw himself in for a 40-60 ball in the box. That was kamikaze, but Arsenal need more of that.
Reyes was hurt, but not injured
The ball rebounded to give Hleb his first goal for Arsenal.
Hleb never shoots, even in training, so that tap-in put a grin on the faces of all the players.
FUNNY MOMENT when Freddie was tumbling over the chunky Yakubu, who could have let the little Swede fall and crack his collarbone.
Instead, he grabbed Freddie when he was upside down and lowered him gently to the deck.
Centreback Djourou played his third consecutive game in three different competitions.
Exciting for him, interesting for Arsene to see the boy perform in the first team. One game is worth a hundred training sessions.
THIERRY was in Cairo with Pepsi on Sunday.
He flew out on Saturday night after the Middlesbrough game and came back on Sunday evening.
We assume Pepsi hire a private jet.
MARTIN KEOWN came down the tunnel for the Boro “game” and sat on the bench.
What is he doing there? Is he being groomed? Arsene’s new No.2?
STEVE MCCLAREN’S comments after losing 7-0 were bizarre.
We have no chance of winning the World Cup with him as our No.2 and Sven-Goran Eriksson as coach.
Having said that, the tabloids should now leave Sven alone.
Sunday’s sting, where an investigative reporter dressed up as a sheikh to lure Sven to Dubai, was despicable entrapment.
We all realise, I think, that Sven is in it for the money. We have seen that again and again and again in everything he has done. He has a genius for sucking up to millionaires and pampered superstars, who love him as long as he keeps picking them.
Clearly, England will not conquer the world with those two clowns in charge.
But we might get a run for our money if the tabloids leave Sven alone for the next six months.
Newspaper editors should ignore the Swede’s bonking and his secret meetings with billionaires.
We know it all now, we know who he is and what he is.
It was boring us all through 2005, and it’s no longer 2005.
Please, lads, can we move on?
REAL MADRID play Arsenal on February 21st.
That is 32 days from now and I wish I could spend those 32 days in Barbados and Martinique and come back for the Champions League.
January-February already feels like a slog.
It’s a long season.Can I raise my game for Everton v Arsenal on Saturday ?
MADRID are livelier without Ronaldo and Raul, who are injured.
Guti, Beckham and Gravesen are grafting and Zidane made one and scored three in a 4-2 win over Seville.
I’m still hearing that Ashley Cole to Madrid is a done deal.But he might extend his contract.
League leaders Barcelona have won 17 games in a row in all competitions. They beat Atletico Bilbao 2-1.
DID YOU SEE Friends & Crocodiles on BBC1 on Sunday night?
A Stephen Poliakoff film that was ambitious, wise, flamboyant, different.
A story about a young man and a young woman who are perfect business colleagues but cannot work together. We see them as their careers evolve over three decades.
Poliakoff is a writer-director who writes about London and the way we live and always it’s nice to see a social-political-cultural drama with a historical perspective. He loves to tell his tell stories in big pictures, which are costly to film.
I’d not thought about Poliakoff for years.
He came to talk to us once in 1983. Every Saturday morning I used to go to the London Screenwriters Workshop, and then to Spurs or Arsenal in the afternoon.
Poliakoff told us that the BBC never screened his plays a second time because they could not afford the repeat fees for the actors.