By Walter Broeckx
Well it was bound to happen of course. If you can win the CL with parking the bus, then you can get yourself a point if you are lucky.
Apart from one chance early on in the game Sunderland produced nothing going forward. Szczesny could have stayed in the changing room at half time as he had nothing to do in the second half.
Let us start with answering this question: would we have won this game with RVP on the field? The answer lies in this question: did we win each game he played last season? The answer to that is : no. As he was chasing what appears to be a young child dream we will never know.
The bad thing today was that to have a real good game of football you need two teams to play football. Sunderland came to park the bus and unless you can get an early goal it always ends up in a frustrating game for the other team. What we learned from Sunderland is that they can park the bus. That is something they can do. Not really my favourite kind of football but each manager his own choice. Guess that is why O’Neill never will be manager at a really big club. But let us move on to the team that did try to play football.
Let us start with the defending part of our team. Apart from a few opening minutes uncertainties they played a great game. Only one real goal opportunity for Sunderland and nothing in the second half is telling the story. And Szczesny our bored goalkeeper had an excellent stop early in the game. So nothing but good news on that front.
From an attacking point of view I found that our left flank worked better than the right hand side. Good old Sagna is still something else compared to Jenkinson and this is certainly going forward. Defensive wise he did all right but attacking and overlapping like Sagna can and does is not yet up to the level of the Frenchman. Well not many can do it like Sagna of course.
In the more attacking part we could see that the Asia tour and the Olympics are taking their toll. As a result our new players and some of the Euro2012 players didn’t travel along and you could see that they were still searching each other on the pitch. At some moments you could see that the players did not know how the new team mate would run and this resulted in some wasted opportunities to break the Sunderland impersonation of the Berlin wall.
But that is something that will improve with time and with more playing together. Because we mustn’t forget that in fact we played with only 3 of the 6 what I will call attacking players from last season. Gervinho, Walcott and Arteta. The other 3 were new to each other and the team. Diaby is in fact a new person as he only a very long time ago played with Walcott in the same team. Last season he didn’t make it to 90 minutes in total so he is a new player in this team one could say. He never really played with Gervinho, Podolski, Carzorla, Arteta together.
So that are 4 players who must learn to play together. And such things need time. And because of the Asia tour and the fact we had no Emirates cup this season (and the cancelled game in Nigeria) we didn’t have enough time in match conditions. I really hope that the board keeps this in mind when they plan preseason next season and makes sure that the players can have a more normal preseason and learn to play together from the start.
The most impressive league debut came from Cazorla. He was the man with the most ideas and could have scored early on with a great strike. He also made a few nice chances for other players and was involved in the build up of our most dangerous attacks. Once he gets more familiar with the rest of the team he could be a really great player.
Podolski had a few good moments but he also had some moments where the lack of playing together became clear. But those are things that will come in the next weeks. Giroud had probably the best chance of the game after a lovely run from Cazorla and a great ball that ended up in front of his weaker foot and he shot wide. That was good running, a good pass, but a poor finish. But even world class strikers miss chances you know.
If one thing is clear from this game it is that we need some more time. Now of course if one of the early chances would have gone in and we would have forced Sunderland to play some real football all this could have been different. Now we have this feeling of not being completely satisfied because of the result.
Well we played against a big bus, we did got enough chances to win the game but we didn’t take them. I feel a bit down because of the score line. But I have seen enough good things from several players to see that once this team gets going they can be very strong. Cazorla will create chances, Giroud will start scoring and Podolski will become better. Gervinho will open up defences, Walcott will be more effective when we play a team that doesn’t have such a big bus.
With all the ones that played a major part in last season and who were a bit disrupting our preparation now gone we are looking forward to the last incoming players that are on their way. The ones who think they are too big to play for our club now gone, we can move on with the ones that are really happy to be here.
And about the final score I remember sitting in the stadium two seasons ago when we played them. It was as frustrating as today. They parked the buss and we couldn’t break it down. And that season we had players like RVP, Nasri, Cesc, Song,… even Arshavin was playing on that day. So it can happen you know. This is football. Parking the bus can help you to win or draw a game. It’s frustrating but as long as team can earn points by doing it, there will be teams who do it. It’s up to us to take our chances when they come. Today we didn’t but well that is also part of football….
I saw the match on tv. Sunderland could have got away with three points. The only consolation is the defence,based on this match,has shown marginal improvement.
I still believe Wenger wont be able to win the epl. He is too deeply entrenched in his possession soccer and pass,pass and look around.
That is why he has no answer to anti soccer. O Neill is noted for flooding the md and hit on the counter.I think as long as Wenger is in charge,Arsenal will be unable to win the epl during his tenure.
Cheer up Wolfgang. Its the first game of the season, it would have been a miracle if the team had hit the ground running with the wonderful flowing football that Arsenal supporters love. New players in, old players out – the first few weeks will always be difficult.
Santi is an absolute gem, and if Giroud and co are not slamming in screamers off his deliveries in the near future I will fly half way around the world and eat humble pie.
As they say down this neck of the woods – “chill out bro”.
Great to see another fellow goober from NZ and I couldn’t agree more with what you say! It’s just the first game and there r really a lot of positives that we can take away. The defense seems to be much better and that’s not even our first choice combination. Cazorla looks good and I too am sure that poldi and ground will be banging in the goals once the team plays more together.
Anyway cheer up everyone. Now let’s wait for the arrival of Sahin n perhaps even M’villa or Biglia!!
Great article too by the way!
Great summary! Nice to read at least one gooner didn’t see this as the end of the earth.
how i wish some of our unhappy fan will leave us just as our unhappy players are leaving. A family divided against itself will never stand. To be a true fan is to appreciate the good in your team and through our encouragement, help our club to be better. There is no team in the world without problems and weakness. We do not have a perfect team but a team trying to be one. I saw a team out there this afternoon playing with their hearts. The goals did not come today but we still have tomorrow to get them. I do not know if we can win a throphy this season but am sure of one thing: our team will perform better than last season. Keep up the faith.
Walter,
I went nuts as usual when I saw the press conference announcing the Asia Tour. Arsene looked like he was a captive, whilst the bean counter from AFC and Emirates (flanked by two stewardesses) were talking of this great collaboration in exposing the brand. The club has a cute little clips from the tour and of our injured 3 in Nigeria to show what a great time was had by all. But all I could think about from that first press conference on was this: AW would have given anything not to be there and everything to have been back in Austria for the proper focus and development of chemistry amongst so many new elements. When the bean counters rule and the brand is king, the loss of absolutely necessary time is beyond obvious, and its negative impact on the pitch completely predictable. All the pretty travel in the world will not do half for their/our bottom lines than the results of fielding a strong side that can score when we want and finally triumph. Totally predictable. Yet, except for your honesty here, no one else has mentioned this. Then again, there’s a lot of hurt right now among our hopes.
Loh,
I didn’t see the match, but I ask: if they parked the bus so much, did our defense really get tested enough for you to say that it seems to be so much better? Doesn’t Steve Bould need the time to really do the business?
The management should be experienced enough to arrange proper preseason. Things will improve, but we’ll have a tough time against better teams. With Loserpool & Tots eating humble pie on the opening day, it’ll be interesting to see how big spenders ManC, ManU & Chelsea will do.
Sunderbus is a cool moniker, by the way.Yes, Sunderland’s tactics were highly defensive. But we had the type of player who could break the parking meter: Gervinho. We saw him dribble through the defenders. He gave us hope that we can find a crack on sunderbus defense. But he failed to deliver on the final third. It was totally unlike the gervinho we had seen during the pre-season.
Since it is the first game of the season and not consequential in the long run, the performance can be forgiven. Hoping gervinho really steps up his execution.
Bob, Sunderland was playing on the counter and I felt the defense was sharp to cut out the passes well. I was really worried for the 2 wingbacks n felt they did pretty well.
Kia Ora Loh
I thought it was a good first game against a team that is effective at sitting back and waiting for their chances.
All we need is Pele, Georgie Best, Messi and Stanley Matthews ,then they can park as many buses as they like.
Have a feeling Cazola will become our Lionel Messi and in tandem with Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere we could be in for a treat.
@Wolfgang: Then you should really, really find another team to support because he will be there for another long, long time. In doing so you will do me a great favour, so thank you in advance.
@All: That was the first game of the season, against a giant bus so only mentally retarded people would say anything negative about our season at this moment. We absolutely can win something this season. Now I am excitedly waiting for the Song replacement. And I hope those AAA tawts will cheer his leaving or at least shut their barking holes up because they always claimed that he is not worth to wear our shirt.
Oh yes, Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla, what a midfield ! It’s going to take time but let’s not have a start like last season. As the old addage goes you can’t win the league in the first couple of months but you can lose it.
I watched it and thought Gervinho was great and Cazorla was great. We had some defensive scares in the beggining when they had 2 decent shots on goal that WS had no trouble stopping. After that they pretty much stayed in there own half and in their own third almost.
But it is the first game of the new season and after the pre-season we had with big players leaving/left this team cant be expected to hit running I think. In my experience when we hit the ground running early we end up falling later on, during last 2 months.
I am happy for us to slowly get going, the more teams we play the more experience we get. I am also happy to see that Giroud was asking for the ball and telling his teams mates when he was available. We had some good chances, like when Theo skipped and dribbled to the byline and crossed for Podolski, it went just wide but more of the same please and we will score them.
Now onto to Sunderbus (love it) normally Martin O’neils sides are well oiled, well organised, well drilled so to see them park the bus to bad was a suprise from his team, maybe they are not ready either and didnt want to drop points. Or maybe they were a bit scared of us and though the only way is to park it, anyway who cares thats them out the way onto Stoke! I feel it is much, much better to play Stoke away now rather than in January/February.
Ok that is my analysis of the game from my red and dreary eyes. The ref didnt seem to bad, but then they are just warmining up no doubt.
(That is how SAF will keep RvP fit, he will tell all the clubs and refs on his books to go easy on him and dont injure him or else!!!)
The game finished about 2am-ish (Sydney time) and I watched the 1st half of Spuds v Newcastle then went to bed at 3:30! I forgot it was my turn to feed the baby when she wakes at 7am!
I got some serious barganining to do with the Mrs to avoid having to do morning feeds after games. Maybe Mr Wenger can come and use his skills on her, although he might not be good enough.
Wait I forgot – how about Liverpool?
All and sundry who are going to have a whinge on our first game surely must look to the scousers and feel better.
I realy, really, really hope Everton see this as a way to get the jump on the neighbours by beating UTD and makign persie look out of places.
Also maybe he can miss some sitters too, you know to ruin his confidence!
Incidently, I watched an ‘EPL Pre-Season’ 30 min show before the kick off of and they told of how the EPL came into existence with Arsenal, Spurs, UTD, Liverpool & Everton the ‘5 big clubs’ to make a break away leageue etc.
Anyway, later on they showed how it has changed with foreign managers now at 45% of all the managers in EPL.
Anyway, they talked about Arsene Wenger and basically gave him a really good wrap and say his teams play the best football and changed the way clubs play blah blah we all know that, but they actually showed this show to their massive billions of people audience.
I wonder if it was shown in the Uk?
One last thing. Rangers beat East Sterling 5-1 in front of 49k fans, a record for 3rd division, so them being relegated is really, really good for the teams down there.
they finally did a good turn, first time in their history?
‘The bad thing today was that to have a real good game of football you need two teams to play football.’
You really cannot blame Sunderland for parking the bus. We should be breaking in anyway. The team wasn’t good enough and dropped points.
great article mate.. just give the new lads some time and we will be fine.. we have a great team this year.. and players that who want to play for the shirt.. its always difficult when the opponents play with 11 defenders but with 1-2 signings we are going to seriously challenge for the title!!!
come on gunners!!!
Walter nice review.
Love the Sunderbus but to be honest if Sunderland did come to play we would have outplayed them.
Same result as the opening game of last season and yes the new players will need time to settle. Cazorla looks class. I have a little sympathy for Jenkinson. He isn’t Sagna and he’s still young. It’s a hard act to follow.
I know we missed chances today but last year I seem to remember RVP played at the season opener against Newcastle in that 0-0 game?
@Wolfgang
‘Arsenal will be unable to win the epl during his tenure’.
I’m not sure how long you’ve been “supporting” Arsenal or if indeed you know any of the History but Arsenal has indeed already won the EPL with Arsene at the Helm.
In fact:
FA Premier League (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
FA Cup (4): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05
FA Community Shield (4): 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004
Maybe Arsenal and Arsene are not as bad as you seem to think?
Gooner for life.
A great positive for me – in spite of the team’s obvious rustiness and the Sunderbus parked in the final third the whole match, we still managed to carve them apart quite brilliantly for at least a couple of great chances. Carzola was the player we lacked last season!
I think once we get match fitness, practice and understanding, this team would be a whole lot more incisive compared to last season’s.
Gervinho…..I thought our wingers were ineffective today. Always driving in. It was sooooooooo predictable. Some early crosses into the box would have helped.
Early days….things can change with more game time. I see us ending our trophy drought this season (may be m too optimistic).
Nice Walter ,with the Sunderbus but I felt it was more like Slumberland ( also the name of a local brand of mattress),they almost put me to sleep !
Someone mentioned that we seemed to be undercooked ,but to me it seemed to be that they were frying out there !The heat did take did take its toll .
We didn’t do too badly and while there were nice touches outside the box ,the final pass was often poor .A win would have been great but hope they gel well and play swell in the next games .
Up the Gunners !
This team can win things.. I also think that Mertesacker should be retained in our back-four. I am most impressed with him.
Lets look at Liverpool lets look at Spurs.NO this season we are supposed to be looking to finish higher than 3rd/4th.This season we look at City Utd and Chelsea If we are going to spent the whole season saying look at Spurs and Liverpool that shows we are not going forward.They are not our rivals.On yesterdays game Cazorla is a class apart.But our wide men are just too inconsistent.We have to drop either Gervinho or Walcott and play Giroud and Podolski together.Now lets get Sahin in and spend the Song money on Dempsey
Hehe..Sunderbus 🙂
By the way, Sunder (pronounced a little differently) means beautiful in Hindi. Their land must be breathtakingly beautiful if it is to compensate for their football.
That said, I have no complaints with opposition parking the bus. It’s their prerogative and as long as they don;t play dirty and cheat, I’m ok with it. They did waste time, but that is up to the referee to stop and he didn’t. (esp when Cuellar went down, refused treatment so as to not have to go off, but remained on the floor to be treated by their goalkeeper)
I was, to my surprise, not left feeling irritated by the result yesterday. It was a decent performance, with a new team, under a HOT sun, 2 days after international breaks (where Podolski and Per didn’t play though), and we probably didn’t do enough to be able to force a win. I still think either Chamakh needs to have a stormer of a comeback, or we need a young, more mobile striker to complement our attack. Of course get a midfielder in too.
As for the tour. Yes I put yesterday down to the Asian tour as well. (I thought of you bob, and how you were right) but I still think those tours are essential. We can’t crib about the club’s lack of spending power and then bemoan them trying to increase it. Those tours show potential sponsors how much of a captive audience they have. With new deals coming up in less than 2 years, the negotiations must be starting around now. Hence, those tours, while not immediately desirable in the short term, are essential to improve our football team too.
Once again we start a season with two of our best players gone..new players in of unproven premier league quality and several games yet before we establish proper team cohesion.
Our best players leave because they now know they can win things elsewhere and earn a great deal more. It has been said many times why leave Arsenal as they play the best football and are a great club. True..however the players are talking by walking. You can see the frustration with Wenger who is one of the best coaches in the world and deserves better. He developed RVP, Song and Cesc etc into world class players who leave at the time they could be giving their best to the club. Massive profits on all of them. This says it all. The financial fair play regulations will NOT bring the Chelsea’s Man U and Man City’s in line with the rest of us. The holy grail does not exist. I watched yesterdays game on a stream that buffered every 20 secs. It seemed to me every segment was the exactly the same..predictable and nothing changed even with different players on the pitch. Girouds little run and Cazorlas through ball was excellent and just what was required. The stream buffered just as Giroud met the ball 1-0…………..wtf
Mainly for Walter, http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/referees-chief-keen-to-build-on-successful-season.html
How I laughed.
Quoting from the link
“”We wanted to get a collective game view rather than just a referee view as to where to draw the line,” said Riley.
“The consensus was that there will always be tackles that are borderline but it’s important to return to the message that the players have consistently had over the last three years.
“That message is that if you commit to a tackle that’s at speed and with intensity, typically with both feet off the ground, then you put yourself at risk of being sent off.
“The Law specifies the distinction between careless, reckless and excessive force. Ultimately, it’s about determining the difference between yellow card and red card offences.
“We know that 70% of tackles are clean and 25% are fouls which are careless and require no further action. That’s great credit to the skill of the players and the responsibility they take towards their opponents.””
Thanks Mike for more of your bullshit figures
Watching Sunday Supplement and they’ve just laid into Arsenal. Oh dear! After the first game of the season?. Last season we drew our first game against Newcastle. I remember RVP played in that game. Well let the doom says continue to predict we would fail just like they did last season and I will always ask if anyone predicted Arsenal finishing 3rd last season. Then they remind we finished 19 points behind the leaders. Wenger’s greatest mistake was probably to finish the season unbeaten. One correct defensive midfielder to protect the back 4 and we win the title.
A bad beginning makes a good end so goes the saying in our local local language.(Gwomanyi effumita ogwa bugazi)Any way spunks and losepool lost but according to the whore-lists its not a big deal. But with The Arsenal as always its because of loosing Va$per$ie i will never believe those twats they hate us with a vengeance.
I’m seeing a bright future and as always we will be there. Keep it up Gunners.
It was’nt an embarassing disheveled mess of a performance by a group of players being outclassed by Sunderland. We kept all our players on the pitch (which was a struggle in those opening games last season), kept a clean sheet and the players have shown that there is much more to come from them all.
At least some ‘supporters’ admitted on Friday that they had given up already. It was a frustrating match yesterday because of our chances created but not put away. But football is like sometimes and there are games where no matter what players are on the pitch, we have failed to put chances away and worse still, the opposition have had one or two shots on target, which have both been goals.
‘At least some ‘supporters’ admitted on Friday that they had given up already’.
What I mean is that they aren’t trying to say that their anger/sadness/hopelessness is just relating to the game yesterday.
Well written @ Goona Gal.
@Richard
I agree about Sunday Supplement – there was even a snide remark about Cazorla – who looks a great player.
Because we didn’t score the press are having a field day about the loss of van Pursey – but I am confident the guys will gel & will start knocking in the goals. Our preparation for this match was limited, we should be, and need to be better prepared for next week.
With all due respect to supporters who can’t get to matches, drawing huge conclusions from the 10-minute snippet on MOTD or the ramblings of the pundit couch potatoes on TV (who probably have only watched the same snippet) is very unwise.
Having been at the game it was clear that 1) Sunderland never wanted to win the game and didn’t give themselves a chance of doing so 2) With a bit more sharpness around the goal and better finishing we could and should have won it. 3) Our players weren’t entirely on the same wavelength offensively which is hardly surprising given the fact that we were debuting 3 new signings, and had a central midfield boasting only one regular from last season.
@ Kampala gun – thanks, it took two attempts but I got it out in the end. I’m glad the effort was’nt in vain.
@ Stroller, 12:04pm – I agree completely. Whilst none played really badly, the stand out players for me yesterday were Jenks, Gerv & Santi.
I agree with Stroller
having also been at the game I have to say well done Sunderland, you got what you came for. They owe us nothing, have no obligation to come out and play, and as my Sunderland friend said before the game “our season starts next week, anything today is a bonus”.
I was impressed with Corzola, and the back four (long time since I have said that) I thought Foy also had a good game and look forward to the review.
Re up front, the most disappointing thing was we created so little. Theo had no space to run into, and when that is the case Theo lacks impact. Gervinho was our best route to goal but, he seems to need a bit too much time to think, and that aint going to happen in the EPL.
All in all i have seen worse performances and worse games, we have to take the positives, and move on to the next game.
PS who is this RVP guy every talks about, MOVE ON!!!!
Agree with the fact that it’s up to Sunderland to use whichever tactic they like aslong as they dont play nasty (which was idd the case yesterday) but i dont think the ref helped us (once again).
Didnt realy watch the whole game, but there was one incident which told me the ref would do whatever necessary to not gift us any easy chances, which was when Gervinho or Walcott came from outside and started drifting inwards, passed a couple and then passed right before he was taken down, ball arrives at podolski who was in a good position to create something and then the ref whistled for the foul whereas he shouldve given advantage. It’s almost like they actually have a manuel book on how to annoy arsenal’s fluit football. Cause I bet that if idd Podolski had received the ball but wouldve been well covered the ref would then have given advantage and if the ball from TW/Ger had been passed to a wigan player he wouldnt have called the foul.
It’s not even funny anymore but we’ll just have to wait till our fluency comes back, do good for a while till opponents figure it out and then we’ll start to have the injuries again because of targetting.. it really is a vicious circle.
@laundryender
While I agree with you that Sunderland got what they came for, I can’t go as far as congratulating them for it.
The sort of tactics they deployed aren’t limited to start of season games, but will be replicated again at future away fixtures which O’Neill deems them unlikely to win. Had this been an end-of-season relegation crunch match for them maybe some recognition would be due.
Yes they owe us nothing etc. but isn’t there supposed be some entertainment element in our spectator sport? Is it the case that ONLY the home team is obliged to provide this while the away team is to frustrate this at every opportunity?
They started the game in the same division as us on the same number of points yet adopted the approach of a relegation threatened minnow. Should not O’Neill have sensed a vulnerability in us right now after what has been going on and at least tested it? With a bit more attacking intention who is to know what might have happened? Swansea anybody?
i think tours are obviously essential and that it has resulted in that performance(which was ok for the most part) but it goes beyond that to squad continuity which goes back to the ungrateful.
anyway 4 points isnt much to make up but i would think a win at the orcs lair is a must for morale and not pondering being 5-7 points behind after 3 games.
Imagine being Martin O’Neill for a second.
You see the Arsenal team sheet and it has some new names on it. You’re a good manager who does his homework but basically you are guessing at what sort of system Arsenal will play. Last season you could guess that the danger men would be Walcott and Song feeding RvP.
I think I’d go with parking the bus, because if I set out my team to counter how I think Arsenal will play and I get it wrong, it’ll be a slaughter.
To Stroller, Elieno and others, here’s a Sunderland point of view, which has been well discussed by SAFC and Arsenal fans alike at
Firstly, Sunderbus is brilliant so Chapeau to Walter.
But what are we meant to do after a dismal pre-season without trace – so far, and I know what is being rumoured – of marquee signings? We went to Stamford Bridge two seasons ago and waltzed to a 3-0 win, to the Etihad last season and should have won instead of just taking the only point they conceded at home, scoring three goals and missing a glorious chance to make it four in the process.
Now? Three strikers who, last season, managed four goals between them. No Bendtner even. A one-year end-of-career chance foe a Saha, almost as old as me.
You play with what resources you have (even when the club itself is to blame for any gaps).
And I am sorry but it was a great defensive display of the sort the Londoncentric media applauded when it was Chelsea winning the CL. No team can fairly be criticised for failing to play open, gung-ho football if they reasonably calculate that they’ll just lose 4-0.
That said, if it happened week in, week out I’d lose the will to live.
If you want to see how we covered it and how lots of Gooners have responded, and if the link above doesn’t work, copy and paste …
http://salutsunderland.com/2012/08/anti-football-the-point-made-at-arsenal-has-chelsea-precedent/
Clearly O’Neill had his reasons for adopting park-the-bus tactics. Maybe because of we might do, but more likely because of limitations in his own side. Whatever, he got what he wanted out of the game.
My earlier response was more about saying well done Sunderland on this ‘achievement’ because while it is a more satifying result for them than for us, I don’t think stifling this particular game was worthy of congratulation.
Like the result my feeling towards them is just neutral.
We didn’t lose the game so nothing to really complain about to be honest. Remember that season when we didn’t lose a game? Well we drew many games then too!!
With the nature of the EPL now and the money involved the mid level table teams will park the bus away from home against the top teams. Getting 1 point can be vital.
They will play football home and away against the same level teams and try to snatch a win at home against top teams.
The mid level teams know they can’t win the league so they try to stay up and maybe do well in a cup. Looking at the teams that park the bus a goalmouth scramble or a header may be the best way to get a goal against them.
@none i could help it but laugh at that.. Who does Riley think we are? Idiots?
Apologies for making a dog’s dinner of the link to my site a few messages earlier.
As an act of repentance, which should not be taken as contrition for failing to play brightly and be slaughtered, I have littered Salut! Sunderbus, sorry Salut! Sunderland, and the new FC Network feature at ESPN’s site with links to Untold Arsenal. Not that you need them, looking at the top of the Soccerlinks hitlist.
11 May 2003 SAFC 0 Arsenal 4
25 Oct 2005 SAFC 0 Arsenal 3 (league cup)
5 Nov 2005 Arsenal 3 SAFC 1
1st May 2006. SAFC 0 Arsenal 3
I could go on.
Either you’ve lost the knack of going 3 up and then hanging on for the remaining 80 minutes or we’re getting better at keepng you out. Maybe it’s both.
With our record and no forwards to speak of at the moment you can’t blame us for Saturday’s strategy. I’m happy it worked but I don’t expect to see it in every game.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=373634636043471&set=a.194777137262556.47302.167163790023891&type=1&theater