Arsenal (1) 2 - 1 (0) Bolton Wanderers
Highbury, Saturday 21st September 2002
FA Barclaycard Premiership
This Arsenal team just does not give up. Bolton put on a brave display,
with some significant absentees, and almost took a point away. The
spirited nature of their best spells wer such that last year we might
even have lost (remember the points dropped against Charlton, Blackburn,
and of course the Trotters themselves?)
But when it mattered, Wenger threw on more strikers. And the team
picked themselves up to exert pressure which eventually, but only just,
made the difference.
The team started with Parlour in the centre of midfield alongside Gilberto,
as expected, and Lauren back at right-back. Intriguingly, given the faith
previously shown in Luzhny, it was Kolo Toure who came on to take over
from Lauren when the Cameroonian started to fade at the end.
Up front Kanu started in place of Bergkamp, prompting speculation that
Dennis would be on his way to Holland in the morning. Kanu had a particularly
listless day. When his ball control fails him there's usually little else
to say in his favour. And when Dennis and Jeffers came on at 1-1 with 20
minutes to go it was something of a surprise to see Freddie and Wiltord
go off. But I guess Wednesday's match was a factor in that decision too,
and in the end it was Kanu who popped up with the last minute winner.
Ivan Campo pinned his colours to the mast early on. About 5 minutes in
he threw himself to the
ground in a blatant dive just outside our box. The ref waved play on and
Arsenal took the ball upfield. Campo went ballistic at the ref, running
alongside yelling in his ear. By the time the ref pulled play back to
book the fool we'd got the ball up to the edge of the Bolton box. The
Arsenal fans were baying at the ref who perhaps should have played on.
But the ref had a pretty good game overall, and in this instance Campo was
interfering with his keeping up with play, so he didn't have much choice.
What will be interesting to see is the official reason for the booking,
It seemed to me that he'd committed 2 bookable offences (the dive and the
ref-abuse).
15 minutes in and Freddie was pulled back as he received the ball bursting into
the box. Henry tried to place the spot kick just inside the left hand post,
but it hit the inside of the post and shot across the goal-line just missing
the other post on its way out for a goal kick.
A little later Henry had another good chance when he hassled the keeper
with a long ball coming down into the box. Jaaskelainen got in a bit of a muddle
and Henry managed to poke the ball past him. The ball went wide right and
with a defender closing down on him Henry tried to cut the ball back
kind-of behind him into the goal, but got too much contact on it and the ball
went past the far post. It was a bloody hard chance though, a blind off-balance
shot with the pressure of the defender on his heels.
25 minutes in and Henry got onto Freddie's through ball, a similar move to the
one which led to Freddie winning the pen earlier. He wen tround the keeper and
from a similar position to just before, but this time in full control of the
situation, Henry rolled it into the centre of the goal.
The rest of the first half was mostly Arsenal's and we never looked in a lot
of danger till a minute into the second half when Seaman was victim of yet
another freak goal. Gareth Farrelly crossed from the left wing, and it
crept just under the far end of the cross-bar. I'd have to see it again to see
if H was culpable. It didn't seem clear-cut from behind the goal.
From then on, it was thrilling and nervy end-to-end stuff. A minute after
the equaliser Djorkaeff found himself in space with the ball and blasted
just over the bar from inside the box. Ricketts was playing as their
lone escape valve up front. Keown and Sol had to be at their best
to contain him, but contain him they did.
The double substitution made a big difference, and from that point Arsenal
took control again. Even with Freddie and Wiltord going off, we had
Henry Kanu Bergkamp and Jeffers all on the pitch and it was all-out attack.
Dennis put Henry through with a classic spin-and-pass just moments after
coming on. Thierry took the ball well and fired home, only to see the
offside flag raised. I wish I'd seen it earlier, I was convinced
we'd got a winner for a good minute or so.
The idiot Camp got himself sent off at last with 10 minutes to go. He'd
been asking for it for some time with his constant moaning, and it could
have been kicking the ball away at an Arsenal free-kick which eventually
earned the inevitable.
It all added up to a good few minutes of injury time, and on 93 minutes Kanu
popped up to poke home a Henry nod-on from a hopeful punt upfield. Fair
play to him, but he needs to improve his workrate and alertness somewhat
if he's to compete with Henry Dennis Wiltord Freddie and Jeffers.
See Last Gasp Arsenal goals for more nostalgic evidence of the Gunners fighting spirit.
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