We know that Arsenal are always rubbish after an international week.
So we expect that.
And we now expect every Arsenal home match to be a drama. They concede the first goal, fight back, dominate, equalise, then score again. It’s a risky approach – and no team can do it every time.
The controversial incidents of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Wigan have already been analysed everywhere at inordinate length.
So I’m not even gonna go there. It’s ancient history now.
When the teams were announced I was amazed that Adebayor was not playing.
And stunned that Baptista and Walcott were starting. I didn’t think he had picked the right team. Was he saving Adebayor and Flamini for the Reebok ?
So I was dubious and with Henry, Walcott and Baptista being so pitiful in the first 35 it wasn’t really a surprise when Danny Landzaat rifled in a shot from 25 yards.
The only good save so far had been by Lehmann from Lanzaat in 11 minutes.
Agahahowa is not match fit but still has more class than Heskey, Roberts, Camara and other Wigan strikers we’ve seen. Heskey is a bison who cannot stay on his feet.
Later on, when Arsenal scored in 80 and 84 minutes to win the game, I thought (1) they’ve used up all their luck today and will lose at Bolton (2) Flamini is a lucky, lucky boy. He got away with putting an arm on Heskey’s shoulder when he was last man, and then created an offside goal. He was just offside when the pass came to him in the wide right position that Arsenal had been working ever since the kick-off and (3) I’m sick of watching referees and their assistants favouring the Big Four clubs, who have more players, more money and more fans, and don’t need the help of refs.
I said it last season and I’ll say it again now : cowardly, incompetent officials are killing the league. If the refs invariably favour Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool, the season is boring because we know the top two before we start, and we know the next two as well.
Having said that, Phil Dowd booked Toure in 30 minutes and it was in the Wigan half for a contact on Heskey, who was already falling over.One of the most ridiculous yellow cards you will ever see.
In better days at Highbury, Arsenal took charge of a game. They penetrated and had 20-minute purple patches and scored two goals, or three. Some matches were dramas but quite a few games were short and over in half an hour.
Why does it now take them 80 minutes to score? Because Thierry doesn’t play in the first half.
And in this game he didn’t play in the second half either.The diva was hopeless. Best player in the world ?
Other Premiership teams score in the first half. Jenas scored in 2 minutes for Spurs in Sheffield, Bellamy scored in 6 at Newcastle, Andy Johnson scored in 10 for Everton against Blackburn, Ji-Sung Park headed in after 24 against Charlton, Steve Sidwell scored in 16 for Reading against Aston Villa, and even the sometimes stodgy Chelsea scored as early as 45 with a Drogba free-kick against Middlesbrough.
But Arsenal, at home, needed 80 minutes to score against Wigan.
What else?
Well, Clichy was superb and Rosicky was good. Lehmann got a finger to Heskey’s shot for 2-0, which was going in. If Lehmann leaves he will be badly missed. A magnificent keeper who gets too little credit for world class saves like that. He is 37 but I’d give him a two-year deal.
Baptista’s cross for Rosicky’s winner was his second good pass of the game. He stunk the place out. He doesn’t read Henry and he’s not an Arsenal player.
WIGAN wasted time after their goal, even in the first half, which is very annoying for the crowd, and the Arsenal players.
But Henry’s taunting of Chris Kirkland after the equaliser, holding the ball in the face of a keeper who was on his knees in the box after Fitz Hall’s own-goal had gone past him, was utterly despicable. You don’t do that, even in the heat of the moment.
Brian Clough would fine Henry for such nasty, unsporting behaviour.
THIS MORNING I was talking to Gooner John, my gambling greengrocer.
“He wants to lose the Bolton game,” he said. “He don’t care about that.”
“I don’t think he’ll play Henry, ” I said.
John’s tip for the day : more than 2.5 goals in Crewe v Doncaster.
ARSENAL: Lehmann; Hoyte (Flamini, 67), Touré, Djourou (Adebayor, 50), Clichy; Walcott (Aliadière, 67), Silva, Fabregas, Rosicky; Henry, Baptista.
Subs not used: Denilson, Almunia (gk).
WIGAN : Kirkland; Hall (Haestad, 90), Boyce, Jackson, Baines; Taylor (Valencia, 86), Landzaat, Skoko, McCulloch; Aghahowa (Kilbane, 86) Heskey.
Subs not used: Filan (gk), Unsworth.
Phil Dowd’s 9 yellow cards : Touré, Lehmann, Henry, Rosicky, Fabregas, Clichy, Baines, McCulloch, Hall.