november 22nd
18.16 – Birmingham 0-3 Arsenal (Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Pires)
So the return of the Cygan coincided with the end of Arsenal’s unbeaten ru…..erm…..wait a second….sorry, got carried away with myself.
Cygan came in and Kolo moved to right back, which was the one thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen. However, it seems that the boss decided to put his faith a French youngster, Gael Clichy, at left midfield ahead of English youngster Justin Hoyte at right back.
His decisions with the kids can be a bit baffling sometimes, but we have to trust that he knows them and their abilities far better than we do. Clichy had a pretty good Premiership debut before being replaced by Kanu in the second half. And you can’t argue with the result.
An early goal from Freddie (above) put us ahead, and when you’re playing a team of scrappers and spoilers, it’s never going to be a game of flowing football. They put us under pressure quite a bit as you’d expect, but we defended well, they didn’t really have too many clear chances and then we sucker-punched them.
They got a corner, the ball broke to Dennis Bergkamp who went clean through and finished in pure Bergkamp style for his first goal since 1987. Shortly afterwards Pires made it 3-0, Aliadiere and Hoyte came on briefly, and the makeshift Arsenal team had taken 3 points and put 3 past one of the meanest defences in the league.
People say the squad may lack the strength in depth of last season but it looks like the kids we’ve got are more than capable of doing a job when they’re needed. Enjoy your Saturday evening.
We’re still top of the league and our 13 games unbeaten from the start of the season is a new Premiership record.
11.15 – Oooh, woke up a bit late today.
Still no news on what’s going to happen with the team later on, although it looks promising for Justin Hoyte. AW says “I am very inclined to play him but my worry is to get a balance right so we have the chance to make a result.”
However, le Boss has been talking up Pascal Cygan, so we could see the return of the Jonah. I really hope not. It’s also his 400th game in charge of Arsenal.
Steve Bruce is looking forward to seeing Thierry Henry again, some Russian bloke claims he had an offer from Arsenal, and PSG taunt Arsenal by saying they don’t want Sylvain Wiltord. Oh please, you can have him for free and all.
A fair cop? – a new column by Safety. More later.
