A highly entertaining 3-1 win over Portsmouth put Arsenal second behind Liverpool.
What more do you want ?
Chelsea losing?
Aston Villa beat them 2-0.
Your next opponent struggling?
Spurs drew 3-3 at Fulham after leading 3-1 and Berbatov’s body language was terrible. Really terrible.
First goal a penalty, second from a corner, third from a free-kick.
First in 8 minutes, van Persie wins the penalty, Adebayor scores it, second in 35 from a Rosicky corner, Gilberto header, Fabregas knocks in the rebound from three yards, third in 59, Clichy wins free-kick, sharp Fabregas passes short to Rosicky, he shoots low across James from close range while dopey defenders stand around looking at each other !
On the penalty, Clichy won the ball on the 40-yard line with a beautifully-timed intervention and van Persie got the ball first as David James dived at his feet. I never like those incidents where the striker plays for it and knows he’s going away from the goal and he’s never gonna score but he gets there first and goes over the arms of the keeper. I hate that. But by the letter of the law it’s a penalty.
Surprising that Gilberto didn’t take it. Adebayor waited and slotted sweetly, sending James the wrong way.
Arsenal’s three best players were Gilberto, Clichy and Gilberto.The Brazilian was exemplary in midfield and at centreback.
Hleb was marvellous too.
And Fabregas has an aura now.
The team plays Fabregas football and the determined Spaniard makes sure that Fabregas football works and wins matches.There are Fabregas shirts in every street as you walk to the ground. And Fab4 scored the second goal and set up the third with a quick-thinking free-kick to Rosicky. Another assist, another goal coming from midfield players passing to each other. Fabregas is now scoring little goals like Gerd Muller. He has skill and steel and gets more like Deco every week.He’s scored four goals already.
Senderos played his best game since 2005-2006. His heading was solid, his passing was good, and he looked like the defender he was when he first came into the team two years ago. Then he made one mistake by getting on the wrong side of Kanu and panicked and impeded Kanu and got a straight red card from ref Mark Halsey. So he misses three games. Toure was covering and even if Kanu had beaten him he had plenty to do to score from where he was.
It was Kanu who made it 3-1 with what I thought was a deliberate instep flick, wrong-footing Almunia by sending the ball just inside the post from ten yards. But seen on TV later, Kanu was trying to turn with the ball and it hit his other leg and deflected in for a very jammy goal.
On Sunday I was with my pal Stewart’s gang, including his son Dan, down the front in Rows 4 and 5.
While Lauren and Portsmouth warmed up in front of us and we were talking about the shares and the directors. Some of the gang have long memories.
“The future’s uncertain now.”
“Will Kroenke back the board?”
“No, he’ll sell to the highest bidder.”
” I hear Fiszman’s contacted Kroenke already.”
“Yeah, he didn’t want a meeting with Kroenke until a Russian bought Dein’s stake !”
“Fiszman only came into the club cos Dein lost all his dosh in that Indian bank.”
“Does Usmanov want a dividend?”
After 15 minutes of such chit-chat, Stewart said, “The game’s started !”
This was a jokey reminder that we were here to see a football match.
The match had actually kicked off but Stewart carried on talking about Usmanov, Dein and Fiszman, as well as saying what each Arsenal player should have done with each pass, and where each player should have run to support the play.
It was a warm day, a good atmosphere, no real worries after the early goal, and I never doubted that Arsenal would win with ten men.The crowd sang, “We’ve only got ten men,” a one-line song they know well. So it was a fun afternoon. It always is when you win and there’s plenty of action and some good saves by Almunia and a great save by David James from a header by Senderos.
At football I usually have a good time or a bad time or an average time. But yesterday, beating Portsmouth 3-1, enjoying the action on a balmy September afternoon, I had a great time. Afterwards I walked up to Highbury & Islington tube with Stewart and his girlfriend Mary, who loves good football.
“Stewart used to drive me home after Van Morrison gigs,” I said.
Mary smiled.
“Now he drives me home after Van Morrison gigs !”
The match clarified my views on certain players which I’ll write about on ANR during this two-week international break.
Yes, I promised to preview the season on September 1 when the transfer window closed. I’ll have time this week to make good that promise by writing something about how this season will work out for the Big Four and other teams.