march 23rd
15.32 – Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle. Good and bad, mostly good, but the bad is pretty damn bad.
First the good. A fantastic team performance, all over the pitch. A great response the the disappointment of Wednesday. A goal in a minute from Bob after a great Bergkamp pass, then Bob returned to favour a few minutes later and 2-0. Dennis played brilliantly, he hit the bar twice with typical curling efforts, and stuck in a great free kick for Sol to score the third.
Tony Adams and Ashley Cole were back from injury, a despite a couple of early moments got into the game very well. Brother Oleg had one of his best games at right back, Edu looks better and better each game and made some excellent passes, Richard Wright looked solid and made one great save, Freddie was all over the park and Gilles played really well when he came on (apart from the moment when he was clean through on goal and couldn’t decide what to do with the ball) . Which leads us to…..
….the bad. Robert Pires landed awkwardly on his knee after about 25 minutes and was taken off. At half-time the news seemed to be quite positive, but after the game Arsene Wenger said we would be without Pires ‘for a while’ and that ‘it doesn’t look good’. Without Pires we’re still a good team, just not as good as when he plays, and if he missed the end of the season, it’s going to make life that bit more difficult for us.
I can’t remember a season where we’ve suffered so many injuries to so many players. Off the top of my head this is what we’ve had to put up with.
Player
Injury
Time out
Mathew Upson
Broken Leg
Rest of season
Martin Keown
Broken leg
Since January – still out
David Seaman
Shoulder
5 months
Richard Wright
Knee
6 weeks
Lee Dixon
Knee ligaments
7 months
Tony Adams
foot, back
4-5 months – two spells
Freddie Ljungberg
Ankle, knee, ribs
2 months – Jan – March
Ashley Cole
Knee
6 weeks
Francis Jeffers
Ankle, knee, back, side, top, bottom, hair, ears etc etc
Most of the season
Ray Parlour
Ankle
3-4 weeks
Giovanni Van Bronckhurst
Cruciate Ligaments
rest of season – till Sept/Dec 2002
Robert Pires
Cruciate Ligaments
rest of season
I’m sure I’ve probably forgotten some or got some of the time spans wrong, so feel free to email me to let me know.
Still, I’m not trying to harp on and make excuses because of our injury list, that would be just too David O’Leary for me. It simply shows what strength in depth there is in the squad, and those people who consistently have a pop at Grimandi, or Luzhny or Stepanovs or Wiltord, ask yourself where we’d be without them now.
Get well soon Bob, you floppy haired genius.
