This report is brought to you by Ginsters
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Date: Saturday
9th November 2002, 3pmVenue:
Highbury
Conditions: Autumnal
sunshine but the travelling fans suffered from that SAD
syndrome - Seasonal Arsenal Defeat...
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Arsenal |
1
- 0 |
Newcastle
United |
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Teams |
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24 mins Thierry Henry slipped
a ball through to Oleg Luzhny on the right of the area adjacent to the
toon fans. A slow Dabizas
played everyone onside and when Luzhny squared it to Sylvain Wiltord
he just needed to tap in from inside the six yard box. Any suspicion of
offside was dispelled by the TV replays - Luzhny was well onside and
Wiltord was behind the ball before receiving it. 0-1
Half time: Arsenal
1 Newcastle 0
Full time: Arsenal 1 Newcastle 0
Sir Bobby
said:
"We just didn't conjure up enough
chances to deserve a point. I'm disappointed but we came up against a high
quality side with a point to prove because they've lost some games
recently that they didn't expect to lose.
"But at the end today they wanted
the final whistle and we didn't. We fought like tigers and were
magnificent at the back but Arsenal have this power and pace which makes
you feel glad to get out of it without being massacred.
"We certainly weren't and I'm
proud of the players and thought young JJ was outstanding, but Arsenal
always had the edge. I know we won here last season but this was one of
our better performances against them today.
"I would think they are just
about the best in England at the moment. They've certainly had a wonderful
day with Liverpool and Man United losing. That's why they were jumping up
and down at the end."
Wenger said:
"I know we could have
scored more but it was still an outstanding performance. Two weeks ago our
confidence was low and it is difficult to bounce back, but we are doing
it.
"Sometimes when you can't take
your chances, you have to make sure you will 1-0, but I thought we had a
very solid performance.
"There were 11 good performances
out there and we always looked solid."
We were the last side to stop Arsenal
scoring in a league game, when the two sides played out a tepid 0-0
draw on Tyneside in May 2001. Since then they've
scored in 52 consecutive Premiership matches including this one.
This was our 150th game against
the Gunners in all competitions, making them our most frequent opponents
(Man City were next most frequent on 148). We've beaten Arsenal more often
than any other club with 64 successes, apart from Manchester City with 66.
Played: 150 Won: 64 Drawn: 31 Lost: 55 For: 222 Against: 210
Coping with seven games in three different competitions in a three week
period is a test of any side, and with more big matches still to come, our
resources are being stretched to breaking point at present.
Quite simply we were running on empty when we got to Highbury - we put
our foot on the gas but there was nowt in the tank.
The stark facts are: no shots on target, no
corners won. No points, no chance.
We were one behind here last season at half time with the home side
threatening a rout - but we all know what happened thereafter, with the
O'Brien leveller at the Clock end coming from a corner.
This time we didn't even have the corner
to cheer,
never mind the goal.
United never showed the determination or the belief to repeat the feats of
last December and our performance was more reminiscent of the meek
FA Cup replay surrender of March 2002. Or the Cup final a couple of years
before.
Defensively we did our best to restrict the sharpshooters in the home side
from getting a clear sight at goal, and that combined with a lack of
quality from Henry in particular kept the score down, on an afternoon when
Given didn't have that much to do.
In the midfield though we struggled to contain the perpetual motion of
Vieira, bursting back on to the scene after an absence through suspension
and also suffered from the attacking forays of Luzhny, who had little to
do at the back.
Speed and Jenas toiled away, but Solano and Viana never got themselves
involved on a regular basis and Dyer flitted hither and thither without
achieving anything memorable.
Without Bellamy to cajole, prompt and generally make a nuisance of
himself, Shearer looked a forlorn figure at the head of the attack. It's
also fair to say that the unique skill set of Robert would have been
greatly appreciated had he been available. He may have his faults, but
more often than not something happens when he's around.
The belated appearance of Shola at least gave him a semblance of
support in the latter stages, but the inability of the rest of the side to
get anything remotely resembling a cross over made it all a total waste of
an afternoon.
In particular fellow sub Bernard appeared to be on a different planet,
twice failing to deliver from left wing set pieces in the last few
minutes. A half-decent delivery then might just have brought a goalmouth
scramble and the chance of an improbable equaliser, but we couldn't even
get the damn ball into the area.
As he had for most of the game, David Seaman stood idly by and watched his
defence smother our occasional thrusts, and still somehow managed to
strain his groin. Perhaps he was having a fiddle downstairs when Viana's
shot flew past him en route to and from a collision with the crossbar and
wrenched something.
Certainly nothing else we did caused him any bother, unless he hurt
himself laughing at us.
We can only hope that this forgettable misadventure was as a result of
keeping our powder dry for the trip to Rotterdam. If we had any fortune
though, it's that we didn't exit down the Holloway Road with our tails
well and truly between our legs, having been buried by an avalanche of
goals.
For Arsenal, it was a further step on the road to domestic rehabilitation
after recent wobbles, and on that basis we were the perfect guests -
polite, unassuming and never likely to derail proceedings.
Regardless of what happens in Europe in the interim , it's imperative that
we approach our next domestic away game in a more positive frame of mind
than we did this one - a victory at Old Trafford is within our
power, but not playing like this.
Best forgotten. As Captain Sensible once said....Glad it's all over.
Biffa
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