Wolves (1) 1 - 3 (1) Arsenal
Molyneux, Saturday February 7th 2004
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Lehmann
Lauren Toure Campbell Cole
Pires Vieira Gilberto Edu
Henry Bergkamp (Reyes 55)
Arsenal took the lead after 9 minites with a Bergkamp goal that
from anyone else might have looked like a mis-hit. Wolves had looked lively from the start and it was Arsenal's first attack of note. Edu found Cole up the left wing and his pass to Bergkamp bounced up as it reached the Dutchman on the edge of the box. Bergkamp hit it first time, slicing across the ball to send it
inside the far post.
Soon after Henry forced a save from Jones with a shot from the left, and Gilberto mis-cued the rebound.
Dennis Irwin looked to have beaten Lehmann with a free-kick on 23 minutes but it curled wide, but a few minutes later Ganea did equalise when we left him unmarked in the box at a corner. Craddock jumped to nod the ball down to him and he hit a nice first-time volley inside Lehmann's right hand post.
Bergkamp forced another good save from Jones and then Lehmann did well to deny Carl Cort, although perhaps the fact that we stayed level was more due to the striker's wastefulness.
Wolves were looking more and more dangerous and only a stupendous block from Campbell denied Ganea a second when he appeared to have been left in acres of space a few yards out.
After the break Irwin missed narrowly from another free-kick, onto the roof of the net this time, and 10 minutes into the second half Reyes came on for Bergkamp.
3 minutes later Henry beat the offside trap to put us ahead, hovering in an offside position before a curving run that took him onside as Pires hit the pass. Henry collected it on the edge of the box and fired over the advancing Jones. Their manager seemed to be bleating about the rules after the game but it seems to me that he and others are just looking for excuses to criticise the "new interpretation" of offside. This didn't look to me like anything new: it's never been an offence simply to be in an offside position, and Henry was not offside when the pass was played. Simple as that. You were beaten by skill speed and a clever tactic Dave. It's not as if it's not a facet of Henry's game that's been featured on the telly several times this season.
Toure made it 3 just five minutes later, when Pires' cross was headed back from the goal-line by Vieira, leaving Kolo with a simple nod-in from 2 yards out.
Wolves were broken and from this point on never looked like getting back into it. Arsenal had 2 more excellent chances, first when Henry and Reyes broke but the Spaniard's final ball allowed Jones to come out and beat Henry to it (note to Jose: you're allowed to be greedy at 3-1 up); and then when Cole's storming run was found by an exquisite Henry pass inside the last defender but Ashley placed his low drive just wide of the far post.
This extends the unbeaten run since the start of the season to 24, a new all-time club record and a new Premiership record (see record-breakers page). It was Chelsea who beat us last time (1990/91), and they're coming up soon.
Arsenal stay top by 2 points still, after Man Utd scraped a 4-3 win in the last minute at Everton despite having been 3-0 up at half time. Shades of Tottenham? They got another late 4-3 too but this time they were the team with 4. Can't help wondering how a new striker ended up top of their list of priorites...
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