Fulham (0) 0 - 4 (2) Arsenal
Craven Cottage, Saturday 4th March 2006
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Lehmann
Eboue Senderos Toure Flamini
Hleb (Cesc 79) Gilberto Diaby Ljungberg
Henry (Reyes 83) Adebayor (Bergkamp 72)
Fulham's terrific home record was put in its place by
a terrific first half from Arsenal. The real Arsenal
were playing away from home in the Premiership at last.
It took a while for things to get going.
Tony Warner, who did really well in the game at Highbury
earlier in the season, was deputising for Antni Niemi as
predicted. And after 7 minutes he was nearly beaten by a
header from former Gunner Luis Boa Morte.
But Arsenal gradually started to assert themselves and
by the time the goals started coming we were well on top,
with Lehmann having next to nothing to do before the break.
Thierry Henry scored the first on 31 minutes, a great finish
firing into the top corner from a narrow angle with his
left foot, after
being set up by a terrific pass from Abou Diaby.
Three minutes later and Adebayor made it 2. Fed by Freddie Ljungberg
at the end of a neat move, he clipped the ball past Warner
with his first touch. Freddie doing for the new boy what
Dennis Bergkamp has done so many times for him, and
Adebayor finishing with the kind of aplomb we associate
with Freddie (until this year, perhaps!).
At the end of the half Thierry Henry had to step between
2 opponents when Zat Knight had a bit of a row with former
Arsenal player Moritz Volz. Both goals had come from a position on our left, which Volz probably should have been covering.
Early in the second half Henry was in on the left again
and slipped the ball for Adebayor, but he got a bobble.
Again Henry fed Adebayor who knocked the ball across goal
for Freddie, but Warner somehow saved it with his feet.
Diaby got himself into a great position to open his
Arsenal account after a good overlapping run from Emmanuel Eboue,
but Warner made a terrific block.
Warner had made six or seven decent saves by the time
Henry made it 3 on the break, slotting the ball low into the
right hand corner after being set up by Freddie. I have to say
that Freddie's been getting more stick than he deserves this season.
Although he's not been scoring himself his effort and involvement
has been pretty much what we expect from him especially in recent weeks,
and never more so than today.
With 15 minutes to go Lehmann had to save a rocket
from Malbranque but there was little else for him to do
all afternoon.
Near the end Cesc made it 4 after coming off the bench.
Flamini made the overlap down the left, cut the ball
back, and Jose Reyes stepped over it to let it through to
his compatriot for the finish.
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