Highbury, Saturday 16th September 2000
FA Carling Premiership
See below for report(s) by Paul, and our
list of links
to reports on other sites.
Preview
- Arsenal team news
Vieira is suspended (3rd of 5). The midfield positions will
depend somewhat on the fitness of Parlour, who missed the
Sparta game on Tuesday.
Bergkamp will hope to be in contention to start, having
been rested midweek.
At the back it looks like Adams will, as expected, be ready to
return from the injury sustained playing for England in France 2 weeks ago.
The skipper has revelade his solution to the fuel crisis: hiring a car.
"When you do that they give you a full tank of petrol", he said.
update Friday. Adams is indeed back, but Lee Dixon has a knee
injury so Luzhny will shuffle to the right.
- Coventry_City team news
Hadji staretd his first game for a month last Saturday and has said
that he wasn't fully fit yet. Hope that's still the case.
Gordon Strachan has just signed 2 young Honduran players, but they're
both involved in the Olympics at the moment.
David Thompson is not available having failed to recover from a
hamstring injury. The big question is who Strachan will pick upfront.
Roussel and new-boy Bellamy haven't been putting many away, whereas
Aloisi and Ysrael Zuniga have been scoring for the reserves.
After about 5 years of not winning an away match, City have stunned everyone
by winning both their away games so far this season. They're not doing so
well at home though.
- See also
Highbury, Saturday 16th September 2000
FA Carling Premiership
It's been an interesting week. A decent draw at Bradford followed by a good,
if tight, win in Prague. The Gunners aren't playing fantastically well yet
but there appears to be a bit more bite and resilience in the side this year
compared to last seasons performances. For me, one player who seems to be
settling in nicely so far is Robert Pires.
There were many who doubted the wisdom of Arsene Wenger when he let MO11 go
to Barcelona, and in turn purchased RP7 from Marseille during the close
season. Most queried whether Pires had enough pace compared to MO11, or
whether he was committed to joining Arsenal, considering that a deal with
Real Madrid has apparently been tied up already. I would hope that at this
early stage of the campaign, that those doubts have already been dispelled.
His performance against Coventry had a little bit of everything. Pace,
vision and most surprisingly of all, industry. I would argue that I have
seen RP7 do more running and hassling in three home games than MO11 did in
the past two seasons ! (Home and Away). Since my girlfriends family are
ardent Olympique Marseille supporters I had been warned that he was a lazy
bast***. Maybe that was just a ploy to put me off liking the idea of signing
him ! His running allows the boy from Brazil a bit of freedom to roam down
the left wing, to great effect as Charlton, Chelsea and Sparta Prague will
testify.
Robert looks a great signing, and let's hope that the crowd gets behind him.
We must remember that MO11 took half a season to become effective in the
Double year, I think it's taken RP five games.
Who would you play up front ? Terry Henry & Kanu, Bergkamp & Henry, Wiltord
and Kanu...ad nauseum..
This is a difficult, but nice problem for AW to have. As long as all these
players stay fit, and avoid suspension, we can have some positive squad
rotation this season, up front anyway. I'm not so sure about rotation in the
midfield, or at the back. We'd better start to find the net regularly this
year, otherwise we could have a problem if some of the regulars drop out.
We seem to be coping reasonably well without Paddy so far, with GG18 doing a
decent job in there but the true test in his absence is the tricky game at
Ipswich, and then at home to MoanU. We still have to develop the killer
instinct to be able to kill teams off. The last ten minutes of this game
verged from the ridiculous to the insane, ending with a large slice of lucky
Arsenal when Halls rocket hit the bar and then Steven Seagal's double on the
way to safety ! If Strachan's mob had got a draw, I would not have been a
happy man. Still, three points is three points and if our luck stays like
this we might win the lot this year (stop getting carried away - Ed...)
To close this week's diatribe, consider the fortunes of our friends down at
Stamford Bridge. Just compare the way in which the 'wannabees' are run,
compared to the way in which Messrs Hill-Wood, Dein and co manage the
Arsenal. For those who sometimes doubt the way in which things are done at
Highbury, such as the stadium issue, just take a look at the way in which
Bates at Chelsea, and Sugar at Spurs treat their loyal supporters with
complete contempt. Chelsea's solution to their problem is to spend £9m on
another winger, Savio. That makes it £65m in two years I think. What happens
if they don't win the Premiership or make it into the Champions League this
season. Mutiny on the bridge perhaps ?
Good luck on Wednesday lads !
Keep the faith,
Paul
Other reports
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Useful links for armchair fans
Useful links for swivel-chair fans
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on your computer, IRC, Real Audio, etc.
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from the opposition's website (most probably their official site).
Useful links for travelling fans
- ArseWeb's highbury pages, including ticket info, getting to the ground, etc.
- AwayFans.co.uk. Stadium reviews and info. Maps, traffic reports, pub lists, info on disabled/wheelchair provisions, etc. Conference teams as well as Premiership and Nationwide.
- London football Arsenal page from
a site focussing on info for fans from abroad wanting to get to matches (tickets,
travel, accomodation, etc).
- From the Terrace. Each team's section includes a page on their ground, with directions. Premiership, Nationwide, and Scottish.
- AwayGuide.net. Directions, maps, pub guides. All Premiership and Nationwide league teams.
- Football Ground Guide. Lovely site, loads of info, pics, diagrams, etc
- Football Grounds of England. With capacities, record gates, and pictures.
- Football Grounds frenzy. Wonderful photos of football grounds, with a little info too. Everything apart from
glitzy new grounds, and no Premiership ones. Might be handy for Cup games, and
certainly nice to look at!
- FanZone.
Information for travelling sports fans. directions, car parks, eateries,
pubs, blah-de-blah....
- Our own Highbury pages for useful info for Arsenal's home games.
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