september 1st
09.31 – Welcome to a brand new month here on Arseblog. September already, and Arsenal sit top of the Premiership with 4 wins from our first 4 games. This is the first time this has happened since the last time this happened.
Trailing at half-time to a quite ridiculous own goal from Lauren, Arsene Wenger asked a question of his men during the interval.
“Do you want to go and win the title this year?” Wenger asked. “Because if you do, this is where it starts.”
They responded well, equalising through Sylvain Wiltord and exerting more and more pressure on a dogged Manchester City. Then Henry flicked a ball to Pires, it bobbled into the area, Seaman didn’t look at all convincing and the rebound broke to Freddie Ljungberg for him to score his first of the season. It was the sort of error from Seaman that he’d have been crucified in the press for if he’d been wearing an Arsenal shirt, and on the basis of Jens Lehmann’s performance yesterday, and the saves he made, I think the boss has made the right decision in terms of our goalkeeping situation.
It was far from the flowing football we saw against Boro, but then City were never going to let us do what we did to them last season. They were well organised, didn’t give us space to play and pretty much negated Henry and Vieira for the whole game. We still dug in to scrap a win though, and if we can do that when not playing well, it bodes well for the rest of the season.
Once again I thought Kolo Toure did really well at the back. He wasn’t as convincing in the air as against Boro, but he looks more comfortable with each game. I did have a good laugh when he launched himself at one ball at 95mph knocking the ball and a Man City player halfway up the pitch. Nice to see Martin Keown back as well, Kolo can learn a lot from him. I know it’s very early in the season, but it’s always nice to pickup 3 points on a day when Manchester United lost. Say what you want about Chelsea, but United will be our main rivals, as always.
Everton want to sign Francis Jeffers, on loan I think. I thought the transfer deadline was August 31st though. Maybe it’s until the end of today. Update: 5pm today. AW says “There’s nothing concrete, but I will have a chat with Franny. At the moment he’s frustrated because he hasn’t had the games he’s wanted.” If Jeffers is frustrated he’s got nobody to blame but himself after his Charity Community Shield antics.
David Beckham talking about how he met Thierry Henry in the tunnel at Highbury when Ferguson had dropped him for the Arsenal match. “He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. He said ‘What’s the matter? Why weren’t you playing?’ Then he laughed. ‘You can come and play for us if you like’.”
Right, so now we’ve got a 2 week gap for this so-called ‘International football’. Fingers crossed all our players come back safe and sound. September is big month, and not just because it’s my birthday. Sorry again there’s no YACCS/’arses’. I do realise the impact this is having on some people’s lives. Having to talk to their families and other terrible stuff like that. Hopefully it’ll be up and running again soon.
