august 28th
07.33 – Arsenal 2-0 Aston Villa (Campbell, Henry)
Well, I got radio last night – unlike many of the people who paid money for arsenal.com, who found the site unavailble to them. For future reference, Capital Gold did last night’s match. Whether they have them all in the future I don’t know, but it’s another option.
We started well, had a few chances, went in at half-time 0-0 you were wondering if it was going to be that kind of game. But in the second half up stepped the much maligned Sol, who sounded like he was struggling with his passing all night, and he put us 1-0 up.
Then it was a bit to and fro for the rest of the half, until with what was more or less the last kick of game, Henry’s pass got him through and he made it 2-0 to the Gunners. 3 games in, 3 wins. I like it.
Kolo sounded good again at centre-half, and Villa’s best efforts at spoiling the game by playing 9-0-1 didn’t work in the end. Arsene Wenger was happy with the defence, saying “Once again I have seen some good things from my team tonight. We defended well and didn’t concede a goal. At the moment we are scoring and not conceding, so I am happy.”
Thierry Henry has now scored in all 4 of Arsenal’s games this season, while Sol ‘Lion’ Campbell will have been glad to get off the mark before he serves a one game ban for his sending off against Everton. There was a bit of a flare up between Olaf Mellberg (who’s not known for that sort of thing, just ask Freddie Ljungberg) and Robert Pires at the end of the first half. Moaning Mellberg said “Robert Pires and Thierry Henry were trying to wind me up with their talk throughout the game. There was an incident just before the interval but I didn’t get drawn into it at half-time”, while Le Bob said “It was a dangerous challenge and, let’s put it this way, I didn’t shake his hand afterwards, but it’s forgotten.”
AW has admitted he’s taking a risk with Sylvain Wiltord, knowing he could leave on a Bosman next summer. He says “The situation is quite clear. There is an offer on the table and, at the moment, he hasn’t taken it. Sylvain was the first one that I approached to extend his contract and maybe the last one I will finish. It hasn’t worked out as I imagined it would.”
Don’t be under any illusions about Wiltord. He may have mates in the team, but he’s obviously a very head strong character (see his going on strike to get his move to Arsenal). If he wants to leave or he feels the contract doesn’t suit him, he’ll be off.
Of course, today sees the draw for the Champions League group stage. Chelski and Man Utd will join the Gunners as English representatives, while penalty heartache for the Geordies means they miss out. I bet we get one of the Scottish clubs. I’m not sure exactly what time the draw is at, but you can keep up to date on the ‘arses’ or the forum.
