Auxerre (0) 0 - 1 (0) Arsenal
Auxerre, Wednesday 2nd October 2002
UEFA Champs League, stage 1 match 3
Arsenal lined up as expected, except that Kolo Toure
was in place of Freddie Ljungberg who had fallen ill
since travelling to France.
It might not have been a spectacular as last week's
game in Holland, but this was another fine away win.
Gilberto got the goal just after the break, at the end
of a fine team move. Toure stormed up the left and
Wiltord helped his cross on from within the box to
the far side wheer Gilberto got in front of his man and
clipped it back across the keeper inside the left hand post.
Henry had to go off a little while after that, with a
hamstring problem of some sort. Latest news was that
he came off as a precaution and they don't know yet how
serious it was. Pennant came on for him, and did well on the right
wing with Wiltord moving up front alongside Kanu.
Later on Edu came on for Toure and then Luzhny, strangely,
for Wiltord. Wenger's unusually defensive substitutions
were a tribute to Auxerre's spirit. But they seemd to play
into the French team's hands a little as they started to attack
with somewhat more threat.
Benjani had a thunderbolt of a shot from the corner of the box
come back off the crossbar. Seaman got a finger to it, and
if his touch made the difference then it was one hell of a save.
It wasn't the best Arsenal performance of recent weeks,
but we were pretty solid, and big credit has to go to
David Seaman who controlled his area completely and Pascal
Cygan who on this form is going to make it hard for Keown when he
comes back from injury.
Arsenal join Barca, and Man Utd on 3 wins out of 3.
Pretty good company to be in (well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad).
And it's worth noting that the Real Madrid conceded 3 goals
tonight. Arsenal are yet to concede 1.
Dortmund got a 3-1 win over PSV in the other match, so already
it looks like being between them and us for the top spot
(see table etc)
Other reports:
| 
