Arsenal (0) 2 - 0 (0) Newcastle United
Highbury, Sunday 14th August
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Lehmann
Lauren Toure Senderos Cole
Ljungberg Cesc (Hleb 72) Gilberto Pires (Flamini 82)
Henry Bergkamp (van Persie 72)
A satisfactory, if not quite barnstorming, start to the
league. The first half had hardly been inspiring, shots
from Shearer and Henry being just about the only moments
of excitement, when Jenas hacked down Gilberto in the
32nd minute and was shown a straight red card.
Steve Bennett has since apologised to Newcastle and asked the
card to be downgraded to a yellow, and he has to be applauded
for the fact that he was prepared to stand up and admit that he
thought he'd got it wrong (although perhaps not for thinking
that he got it wrong - he may have got the ball but that's not
supposed to be the point any more is it?).
It could be claimed that it won't have made a huge
difference, since Newcastle have rarely come to Highbury
with much in the way of an attack in recent years and all the more
so yesterday with Souness (forced to be) reliant solely on Shearer
up front. But there's
no doubt that Jenas is one of their better players (as evidenced
by Arsenal's interest in him) and no doubt that Graeme Souness was
incensed (as evidenced by his silence on the issue afterwards,
knowing that he'd be up for an FA charge if he allowed himself
to comment).
Soon after, a high free kick into the box from Ljungberg was
half cleared by Carr, hit Senderos, and fell to Toure who turned
and hit a shot which Given did well to parry away for a corner.
Shearer put the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.
Then Henry headed over from a Lauren cross.
Newcastle played for the draw in the second half. Given made a
couple more good saves, from Toure again, and then from Ljungberg,
before Wenger made the double substitution that probably just
about made enough of a difference.
Van Persie came on for Bergkamp and Hleb for Cesc. The Belarussian
went to Pires' position on the left with Bobby joining Gilberto in
the middle.
It wasn't till the 80th minute that we broke through. Freddie
burst into the box and was clipped from behind by N-Zogbia as he
was about to shoot. Henry dispatched the penalty, moving him 3 goals
from Wright's record.
Freddie made the second too, ending a great move by squaring the ball
to the near post from deep on the right, where van Persie met it with a
sweet left foot to divert it under the keeper.
On the basis of this game we can expect more of the same this season:
teams playing to foil our midfield with a 5 man one of their own, us
not always succeeding in breaking them down. What we learned nothing
about is perhaps what matters most: how are we going to fare defensively?
Well, we're going to learn about that soon enough. Stamford Bridge on Sunday... | 
