Slavia Prague 0 Arsenal 0
The records will show that on Matchday 4 in 2007, Chelsea went to Gelsenkirchen and played Schalke and drew 0-0 and almost qualified, and then Arsenal went to Prague and played Slavia and drew 0-0 and qualified.
The records won’t say that Arsenal played more solidly than Chelsea did.
The details will be lost in the sands of time. In the Arsenal story this wet, tedious contest will not be a page or a paragraph, just a line to mark Monsieur Wenger’s 100th Champions League game.
Arsene made eight changes, retaining Almunia, Gallas and Clichy, and after 10 minutes, looking at the side he had fielded, and the conditions, I knew there would not be a goal. It was obvious. There was an icy wind, the rain poured down, Slavia were up for it because they had been hammered 7-0 at the Emirates, and Arsenal can’t play without Fabregas. And they certainly can’t play in a monsoon without Fabregas and Hleb, even though the rain would have affected those two players severely. I felt sorry for the reporters and wondered what they could find to write about.
As the night went on I reckoned it was a developmental expedition to Central Europe and a game where the Arsenal manager was developing both teams, giving experience to his Carling Cup side but also restoring confidence to the Czech league leaders who, during the anthem, looked young enough to be a university team, apart from the goalkeeper.
Fortunately, with Sky Interactive Goal Alert, I could flick over and see some of the goals in the other games. There were 26 goals in the seven other games.
Even so, it felt like detention. It felt like being kept in after school. We had prefect’s detentions and master’s detentions and I was kept in a few times. It’s such a long time ago that I can’t remember my misdemeanours, or what happened in detention, except that, at times, we had a few laughs. In other words, detention at Alleyne’s Grammar School, Stevenage, was more fun than watching Slavia 0 Arsenal 0.
My brother Neil phoned from Colorado and I chatted to him for a while, so I wasn’t concentrating when Diarra clipped Senkerik and the right back survived a penalty shout. The same striker outpaced the defence to reach a long aerial pass by Kalivoda but Almunia judged his advance well and made a good save to preserve Arsenal’s 26-match unbeaten run.
Sevilla will be very interesting on November 27.
I was surprised when Arsenal beat them 3-0 at the Emirates and I still can’t get my head round that 3-0 victory. I’m still wondering about that winning margin and still rate Sevilla highly. Sevilla could win Group H but only if they beat Arsenal in that game.
SLAVIA PRAGUE (4-4-2): Vorel ; Drizdal, Suchy, Brabec, Hubacek; Krajcik, Svec, Tavares, Pudil (Jablonsky, 88); Smicer (Kalivoda, 64), Senkerikm (Ivana, 77). Subs not used: Vaniak (gk), Gaucho, Sourek, Belaid.
ARSENAL (4-5-1): Almunia; Diarra, Gallas, Song, Clichy; Walcott, Denilson, Gilberto, Diaby, Eduardo (Eboue, 81); Bendtner (Adebayor, 77). Subs not used: Lehmann (gk), Sagna, Flamini, Traore, Hoyte.
Referee: Bertrand Layec (France).