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After the recent performances I can easily understand why
people where preferring to stay at home and wash their hair rather than
going out in the rain and wind to watch the Toon getting stuffed by what
is arguably the best team in the Premiership.
The fans had hardly had a chance to warm their seats when
Eboue pounced on a mistake by Zogs, he flicked in a good cross into the
box and Adebayor, with a fantastic bit of ball control, took the ball
down off his chest then smashed it into the back of Givens net. Maybe
staying at home and doing me hair would have been a better option.
Thankfully the next 87 minutes was the most nail biting, knicker
gripping game of football I’ve seen in a long time.
We got back at them straight from the re-start but, for
the next 20 mins, Arsenal seemed to have the better of everything we
threw at them. Our right wing was playing far too narrow, with both
Geremi and Beye drifting into the centre too often, giving the
opposition’s players far to much space. Geremi also became really good
at standing round like a milk bottle, letting the Arsenal players
saunter past him, and his ball control and passing went to pot. The left
side was suffering from the usual Big Sam failing of people playing in
the wrong position. Zog’s, while brilliant at going forward, is no left
back.
About half way through the half, one of the Arsenal
players went down like he’d been shot. While the paramedics rushed on
to the pitch with the drips, splints and a priest (to give the player
his last rights) Nicky Butt was standing next to the dug out taking some
instructions. The match re-started, the player having made a miraculous
recovery, and Martins started playing more as a right winger. Packing
the midfield started to hamper Arsenals play and then Super Alan Smith
started the scare the shit out of their defenders. Ok, he wasn’t getting
a lot of balls to his team mates but he was winning every header and,
cause of the pace of Martins and Milner, the Arsenal where having to
deal with everything rather than just leaving it to run out. Arsenal’s
midfield found themselves being pushed back and, despite having a lot of
possession, they weren’t making any great inroads and most of their
shots where long range efforts that where easily dealt with.
Taylor’s goal, on 60 mins, was a long time in coming but
y’ knew it was due. The second half started the same way as the first
one had finished, with the Mr Smith getting every ball and the
oppositions players dropping like sacks of spuds every time someone
looked at them. We started to get corners, usually 3 or 4 at a time, and
they where all goal mouth scramble jobs which Arsenal just managed to
clear. Thankfully one of these scrambles had the ball drop to Taylor’s
feet, who slotted it past their diving keeper. St James’ jumped about
10 feet in the air. The noise and relief of the fans (and Big Sam) was
near deafening.
Arsenal, by now, just couldn’t get a look in. They still
where knocking it round the pitch a mile better than we where but they
just seemed to be scared of our pace. While they were taking 10 or 15
passes to get to a particular point on the pitch, our high ball game,
for once, was paying real dividends with Milner or Zogs getting down the
line and whipping crosses in. It was good to see an opposition keeper
being made to work for his pay for once.
With 15 mins left to go Geremi was subbed off for Viduka.
Smith was pushed back into midfield and promptly vanished from the game.
Viduka wanted all his balls (oo-er) handed to him on a plate, as he made
very little effort to get to anything. This encouraged Arsenals defence
to push out a bit which, in turn, allowed their midfield to move
forward. All this led to a nail biting last 15 mins, but thankfully
Arsenal weren’t able to capitalise.
It finished ones a piece, and it was well worth the hour
I had to sit in the car park trying to get yem.
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