october 26th
17.31 – Charlton 1-1 Arsenal (Henry)
Henry to the rescue again. I don’t know what we’d do without him, but I know we wouldn’t be top of the league.
His 39th minute free kick gave Arsenal a share of the points after Charlton had taken the lead with what the radio said was a pretty dodgy penalty. Jens Lehmann hasn’t been around long enough to know that Di Canio was going to chip it down the middle and that was that.
Not a whole lot in the way of chances really, Lehmann made a couple of saves, but Chalrton worked hard and deserved their point from the game. Which brings us back to Henry again. We don’t have anyone to take the pressure off him and I’m worried he’ll burn out. He always looks angry after he scores now. That can’t be right. Why is Ashley Cole walking away without so much as looking back in this picture?
Thierry is carrying the team and he can’t do it forever. We need the others to step it up and shoulder some of the responsibility. I read a column by Terry Venables in the NOTW today, and he menmtioned some pretty interesting stats. It was October 2002 when an Arsenal player apart from Henry scored in Europe. Wiltord has scored one goal in twenty Champions League appearances. It’s plainly obvious we need somebody else who can score goals consistently. Wiltord has proved he can’t. Dennis doesn’t score anymore. Kanu is Kanu. We need somebody new in my opinion, and if there’s any chance of signing Kluivert, the club should do everything they can to bring him in (if they haven’t already).
Still, we’re top of the league, so everything in the garden is rosy. Right?
09.57 – Hey, I got up at 10.30 only to discover that it wasn’t really 10.30 at all. Have you put your clocks back?
Exciting news this morning in that Arsenal have been targetted by a Russian JR. According to the Independent on Sunday (via Yahoo), Vladimir Potanin, an oil and mining magnate is considering investing up to £120m in Arsenal in reeturn for a share in the club. Obviously that would be seriously handy money to have around the place, but there’s just something a bit suspicious about this rush of Russkies to invest in football. We’ll see what happens.
Wenger on drugs…er…Wenger chews the smack with Patrick Barclay….er…AW talks about stuff. Amy Lawrence on Kluivert. Not literally. Not much else going on this morning. Chalrton away later on. Freddie fit, Paddy and MK5 not.
More later.
