Arsenal Away – New Year, New
Ground, New Optimism
January 12th, 2008
saw Blues visit Arsenal’s Emirates stadium for the first time.
‘Emir’ is a word of Islamic origin, meaning ‘an independent
ruler or chieftain’; Emirate is then used to denote ‘the rank or
office of an Emir’. With Arsenal’s undeniable position in the
upper echelons of the Premier League, they could well be
described as an emir – and what an unbelievable office to work
from that stadium is!
Many among Blues
fans will keep a mental record of the football grounds they have
visited and when a club moves premises, a new box appears in the
virtual checklist that needs mentally ticking at some point, if
you are to keep your record as current as possible (thinking
about it, some will have an actual hard copy checklist too).
Most of the time,
you also carry some hope that Blues will get a positive result
at said new ground. Last season, visits to Coventry and Derby
saw Blues fans tick off both The Ricoh Arena and Pride Park,
leaving both stadia satisfied with three points from our debut
League visits. To visit Arsenal is a slightly different matter
however and I imagine the vast majority were looking forward to
seeing what television pictures show is obviously an impressive
stadium, fit for international football, let alone League games.
I was fortunate
enough to be invited to be a guest of F&C Investments for the
match, and we had agreed well in advance it would be an informal
hospitality package, with pre-match lunch and drinks outside the
confines of the ground, so there was no need for me to travel
from Yorkshire in anything resembling a suit and tie, to have to
mind one’s Ps and Qs too rigidly and so on.
I have to say I
had a great day out that Saturday, with almost opposite ends of
the football spectrum illustrated at various stages of it. The
9:00 am train from Leeds to London Kings Cross started off on
time, though “due to the wrong type of printer ink” problem, no
little seat reservation tickets could be produced and all
carefully pre-booked seats were up for grabs by whoever got to
the seat first. Luckily for me, my seat was unoccupied, as the
train’s journey starts in Leeds, and I was amongst the first
passengers to board, but dear me, the British public can be dim.
Despite the onboard tannoy announcement every five minutes
before the journey started; then on approach to each station
stop en route, while people were boarding, then shortly after
departing to continue the journey (Wakefield, Doncaster, Newark,
Grantham, Stevenage) there were constant cries of “You’re in my
seat” throughout the journey, followed by passengers advising
the remonstrators their own seats had been taken by others also.
Still, this
resulted in a similarly-aged chap sitting next to me from Newark
onwards and, as tends to happen, a conversation began between
the two of us. He was a Chesterfield fan on his way to Brentford
(they lost 2-1) for just his fourth game of the season, in part
celebrating his exiled-in-Exeter Chesterfield-supporting
brother’s 50th birthday – the brother has a very soft spot for
Blues, which began when Trevor Francis first played for us and
he’s retained his ‘second team’ throughout his adult life. Nice
to hear that we do get the odd glory hunter, though glory is
relative! It was also very pleasant talking to a fan of a team
that in his words will never amount to much – we think Blues
won’t ever be much in the grand scheme of things, but this
gentleman thinks we are far above the highest pinnacle
Chesterfield will ever scale, demonstrating that success is all
relative.
Arsenal, West Ham
and Chelsea fans boarded the train from Grantham onwards and
gave it large to each other for 15 minutes or so. All they did -
apart from the West Ham dad - was display a lack of real
knowledge of the game that was quite amusing to the two of us,
sat at the top end of the carriage, avidly discussing all manner
of grass roots stories gleaned from our personal experiences
over the years. By the way, the Chelsea fan was only too happy
to tell everyone he watches his games from a corporate box that
ten of them clubbed together to take for the season: each game
costs them roughly £450 each, “but you get a programme and a
meal thrown in” (but not the wine to go with your meal, it
transpired). Even the considerably-superior-than-thou Arsenal
fans had a chuckle at that.
Chesterfield man
told me he had added up their crowds for each home game this
season, and they are up to 44,000 plus a few – just over half
way to a single Man Utd home game, or two-thirds of an Arsenal
crowd. Salutory stuff, I thought, but a real advert for the true
football fans of this green and sceptred isle who are not
interested in glory above all else, like some of the modern day
latecomers to the game, but who share that instinctive sense of
belonging to the local team that gets their blood pumping
faster, the feeling that stays with you for life - regardless of
whether you move to Exeter or Newark, like these Chesterfield
fans, or up to Leeds for me - which means each time your team
runs out at whatever venue you are at, you immediately feel ‘at
home’ for at least 90 minutes, amongst kindred spirits who
rejoice and suffer the same way you do.
On arrival in
London at 11:30am, we wished each other well – he with more hope
of a good result than I, unsurprisingly - and I took the short
Northern Line tube journey to The Angel, Islington, enjoyed the
company of the F&C Investments man at a cracking little
gastro-pub in Islington, with a couple of beers, a couple of
bottles of wine (I’m certain it is the first time I’ve drunk
wine before a match, but when in Rome… or London…) and a really
good meal, ending with a fabulous bread and butter pudding I’m
eternally grateful he talked me into trying. During the meal, Mr
F&C took a deep breath and admitted that the pair of tickets in
amongst the Blues fans he had carefully arranged for us back in
September had been erroneously given to another of his
colleagues while he had been off on holiday over the Christmas
period – though this Arsenal supporting business contact and A N
Other F&C man from the south coast were suddenly going to
realise they had to sit amongst the travelling Blues fans, which
might have been interesting for them. Fortunately, despite the
game being a complete sell out, there were a couple of tickets
available via the League Managers Association that F&C are also
involved with, and he had obtained a couple of those. Right up
in the third tier and directly behind the goal on the right as
you watch TV pictures, so above and to the left of the
vociferous visiting Blues contingent.
So, saddened a
little to not be with the lads, but not wanting to miss the
match of course, we took a stroll to the ground post-lunch, were
inside at just after 2:15pm, had another beer inside - £3.30 a
pint for a plastic glassful of John Smiths: I said I’d happily
not bother at those inflated prices, but my escort insisted, top
man that he is. Seats were taken up at 2:50pm and I sat back
hoping (1) we wouldn’t get absolutely slaughtered and (2) I
could keep my gob shut. I didn’t think it would be too
difficult, as I have to say I had steeled myself to the
probability that we could well be beaten.
As the teams lined
up for kick off, the bloke to my pal-for-the-day’s left asked if
he thought we reckoned we could get anything from the game, so
(2) was off the table already. Inadvertently joining in with
Keep Right On possibly gave me away, but I was singing fairly
quietly to be fair.
I’m not sure about
the rest of you, from the brief comments I’ve read on message
board match threads, but I was impressed with Blues overall
performance, particularly the resolve shown to defend in a very
determined fashion. Our set up from the off swiftly showed me
that they had prepared well and there did seem to be a plan for
each opposition player when they got the ball.
Now, I am adult
enough to admit that Arsenal are a far better team than us and
they came out like a team possessed, presumably to kill the game
off as a contest as quickly as possible, then to take it
relatively easy. Their passing skill is a joy to watch at the
best of times, though when seen from a high vantage point behind
the goal, it is close to poetry in motion. Despite them playing
it against us, I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with the
way they spread the ball around. We had to allow them two-thirds
of the pitch and effectively corral our wagons on the edge of
the penalty area, but for large parts of even the first half, we
kept them outside it fairly comfortably. Where we did let
ourselves down was when we won the ball, they were so much more
tenacious in retrieval than our outlet players were, the ball
often came back at us very swiftly.
Their general
composure on the ball and technical ability is marvellous, but
we shouldn’t forget that it isn’t just when going forward they
are good; when they need to defend, they pick up their positions
remarkably quickly, cut down the angles for passes their
opponents are looking to make and their full backs just appear
to believe they will win the ball if someone tries to go past
them. Sometimes, you have to accept that Blues are not at fault
for being outplayed, but that the standard of the opposition is
such that they would give any team in the world a good run for
their money.
To think their
only breakthrough came as a result of a penalty decision that
actually drew laughter from those near me shows that we did stop
them creating many really clear cut chances. It was not a
penalty, even from the other end it didn’t look it at the time,
and ‘proof’ arrived as the Arsenal instant replay scoreboard
refused to show the incident at all. Admittedly, we only held
them at bay a couple of times because of profligate finishing
from Eduardo and with Adebayor getting the ball tangled in his
legs, but to hold it to 1-0 at half time was an achievement, as
we were plainly second best in football terms, but showing ten
times the spirit of the FA Cup tie performance at Huddersfield.
Arsenal can blame
themselves partly, as once they went 1-0 up, they all started
trying fancy backheels and reverse flicks which drew applause
from the crowd, but never really set anything up – indeed more
often than not, they lost possession as a result. Blues learned
quickly too, which was encouraging. One particular incident saw
Walcott, for the third consecutive time he received the ball,
flick the ball backwards with his heel to fool Queudrue. Franck
was ready for it this time though, stayed a couple of yards off
him and easily took possession. This happened deep into the
Arsenal half and set up a half chance for Blues. Interestingly,
in the second half, there were very few tricks and flicks, Mr
Wenger presumably having banned them, though the fact it was
swiftly 1-1 might have focussed their minds on their match
target of winning, rather than drawing applause from a crowd for
some sleight of foot that looks nice but doesn’t get you any
extra points in the League table.
Walcott is
starting to look a very good young player and is evidence that
Arsene Wenger knows exactly what he is doing with his coaching.
I would imagine a lesson relating to when it is acceptable to
use fancy backheels will be drumming its way through the Walcott
skull very shortly. Fabregas had some clever and productive
touches, and possesses that vision that sets great players apart
from just very good ones, but he was kept subdued for large
parts of the game.
I thought Hleb was
their best player on the day, more committed to the task in a
manner that we would demand of a player in a Blues shirt (maybe
that’s partly why I liked his display). Senderos in the centre
of their defence looks to be a liability, as his close control
and pace is nothing like that they usually have there and Wenger
must be so glad their fixture list during the African Cup of
Nations is as easy as it is.
Kapo knew he had
the beating of his man whenever they were close to each other
and he looked so confident when he had the ball at his feet
facing goal, McLeish must think hard about how to harness that
confidence and use it to our advantage. Jerome’s pace took him
into a great shooting opportunity in the first half that even
Match Of The Day showed and he also had half chances that
petered out a couple of times, though he exposed that central
lack of pace Arsenal are saddled with this month, even Gallas
struggling to keep up with him. Incidentally, that diving save
of Almunia’s from Jerome’s chance drew a chant of “England’s No
1” from a group of Arsenal fans in our tier, which was more
humorous than I ever thought they could be. Strangely, the
resulting corner was not shown on MOTD – Ridgewell won the ball
in the air and his header was handled by a defender, in my
opinion. No penalty award for us and the incident was not even
discussed on MOTD. It was more of a penalty than theirs was, of
that I’ve no doubt, which does not necessarily mean it was a
penalty, but that can be taken as a comment on theirs, which was
a ludicrous decision.
As the game
entered the second half, we got a fairly fortunate goal while
Arsenal were still reeling from their half time tactical tirade,
in that O’Connor’s header (that we would rightly criticise our
defence for had they let an opponent get to that ball – for
example, Eduardo’s first half effort that he should have put
away, but found Maik Taylor’s midriff instead) hit Fabregas’
foot at the same time it contacted the ground and left Almunia
flat-footed and flapping awkwardly as the ball looped past him
into the net. Again, someone in our tier shouted “England’s No
1”, but it didn’t get the laughs it did first time round - it
must have been because it was me who shouted it.
Arsenal tried hard
thereafter and if nothing else, the library atmosphere that they
brought across from Highbury was replaced with more energetic
encouragements and groans of desperation from the home fans, who
were rapidly swopping the earlier desire for entertainment by
backheel and overpassing moves for any ugly goal that might be
available. Despite all their pressure and possession as the game
wore on, we looked more cohesive as a unit than in the first
half and it was only the odd sublime and direct passing move
that got them behind us for a ball flashed across the box that
just needed someone at the far post to win the game for them.
Thankfully, he wasn’t there. Arsenal did overplay a lot, which
helped us more than it did them, but our dogged determination to
keep them at bay was superior to their cutting edge, missing
when it mattered.
The defence was
immense in the effort department, still prone to doing the odd
thing that on another day could conceivably go against us, but
even we deserve a little good fortune occasionally. Muamba was
very, very good for us, as was Phantom of the Opera fan Damien
Johnson, Seb Larsson got through his usual heavy workload with
aplomb and Kapo looked quite dangerous when he got the ball
facing towards goal.
Although the match
statistics will tell you we had little possession and hardly any
shots on goal, Jerome was absolutely shattered when he came off
and contributed to the result in no small way. We’ve seen debate
previously about whether effort really counts for anything, but
to play up front on your own against Arsenal and cause them
enough problems with your pace and strength that they had to
leave two defenders with you all afternoon, was a big factor in
my opinion. He had to choose his moments to run hard and I can
understand the occasional frustration when he seems to not try
quite as hard to close down a defender, but I think that was his
most selfless performance for the team yesterday and I would
have carried him off if he’d asked me to.
Who else – oh yes,
O’Connor scored. Can’t fault him for getting his head in there,
it has to be used to good effect sometime. That’s maybe a little
harsh, maybe I’m looking to re-ignite the effort versus
goalscoring debate, as you can’t knock the fact that without his
one contribution, we would have lost 1-0, but he seemed to be
either out of his depth or overawed by the opposition for most
of the game.
McSheffrey made a
good break in his short time on the pitch, but seemed unsure
whether to release the ball to left or right and simply didn’t
release it at all, losing possession when he could have helped
eat up valuable seconds towards the end of the game. Parnaby did
OK too in his time on the field, with one break along the left
that he almost got admonished for by the bench, for leaving his
own half of the field, but he swiftly retreated back to base
camp and all was forgiven.
Right at the
death, Muamba won the ball in the middle and tried to go to the
right with it, but it came to nought. If he had been able to get
his head up, Forssell was wide left and had the entire left
quadrant of the pitch to run into, with Senderos closest to him
at about 40 yards away, covering Muamba, Gallas covering the
middle and left back position. Forssell was spitting feathers
that the ball didn’t come his way. It was too much to hope for,
but it would have been nice to at least have the chance play out
just to see if we could have completed a major, major upset.
Mind you, I wouldn’t be sitting here typing today had we scored,
I don’t suppose.
Oh yes, to get
back to the original comments about the new ground - WHAT a
stadium! To visit it once was fabulous but to be there every
second week, well, the fans must become blasé about their
surroundings eventually, but everywhere else you go bar nowhere,
is going to be an inferior stadium. If you couldn’t get a ticket
for our debut there yesterday, get along and enjoy a game there
sometime. The concourses were not at all crowded, there were no
long queues for food or drink and the seats were better than any
I’ve seen that were not in a directors or hospitality area. The
view of the pitch from anywhere is rumoured to be excellent, it
certainly was from the top tier and the sweep of the stadium
seating, with its design mirroring the motion of waves, is
majestic.
One final plus
point for us from the day was that Arsenal are at Fulham for
their next game – dropping two points to us means they cannot
afford not to win at Craven Cottage, which is great news for us
in what is our main goal this season, to survive in this top
flight of football and thus continue to pit our wits against
opponents of grand stature.
Leigh Bosworth
