september 12th
I suppose when you have an unbeaten run like Arsenal’s you need some luck along the way. Yesterday we got lucky a couple of times against Fulham.
First when referee Mark Halsey awarded a penalty to Fulham then changed his mind after consulting the linesman. Replays showed he made the right decision, it was never a penalty, but how often do you see a ref change his mind?
You see players arguing with the ref and you think there’s not much point, but this time Halsey paid some heed to the players and was prepared to take a second opinion. I know the Fulham fans and players were cheesed off but it is nice to see a referee prepared to hold his hands up and admit a mistake during the match, not afterwards when it’s too late.
Then Fulham’s Collins John had a goal disallowed for a supposed push on Kolo Toure. That looked pretty generous to me and had an Arsenal goal been ruled out in the same circumstances I wouldn’t have been at all happy. We could also have had penalty late in the first half when former Gunner Moritz Volz got Thierry Henry’s ankle rather than the ball, but to be fair to Halsey that only became apparent after watching the replays from a couple of angles.
After 60 minutes Jose Antonio Reyes came on for Robert Pires and 5 minutes after than we were 1-0 up when Freddie Ljungberg stayed onside and swept the ball past van der Sar. A couple of minutes later it was two when Freddie made a trademarked run into the box and in the confusion Zat Knight put through his own net from close range. Then Dennis put Reyes through and his pace took him clear of the Fulham defence and his neat finish continued his amazing scoring run. That’s 6 in 6 now for the Spaniard.
It wasn’t all Arsenal though. Jens Lehmann made some excellent saves during the match, Fulham created chances but in general I thought we looked pretty solid at the back.
I watched the game in an English pub with Spanish Canal+ on the telly and the commentators love our Spanish players. When Cesc came on they were talking non-stop about how good he was, how he was so young to be playing in central midfield for a team like Arsenal and how bright his future is. Between him and JA9 we’re making lots of new fans in Spain.
So on we go. 15 points from 15 and the first game of the Champions League on Tuesday. That’s about it really although there is a fine piece on Arsene Wenger in the Observer. Till tomorrow.
