By Tony Attwood
I got this hopelessly wrong the other day through getting my notes inside out… but hopefully we are right this time – Arsenal’s final season at Highbury played in the redcurrent shirts.
For this game the words “‘Highbury 1913-2006” were marked on the grass.
Jermaine Jenas got a red for attempting to decapitate Gilberto Silva on 32 minutes. Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie scored late on. Henry got a penalty on 81 minutes with Freddie Ljungberg chopped down by Charles N’Zogbia. Then Ljunberg crossed six minutes later and Van Persie scored.
Arsene Wenger spoke after the game and said of the opposition, “They are a good side. It is never easy to play 10 men but I like the fact that we knew how to win because we kept patient… We knew before our penalty we could score – we could smell the goal coming.”
Such elegance of speech and credit to the opposition was lost on Graeme Souness, a manager of whom most things have been said, and few of them complimentary. He told everyone in his team not to speak to the press, proclaiming himself that, “If you speak your mind you end up in trouble… They (the Newcastle team) are quite rightfully upset at things that went on out there. I am protecting them from saying something that might land them in trouble.”
The Arsenal team:
Lehmann,
Lauren, Toure, Senderos, Cole,
Ljungberg, Silva, Fabregas (Hleb 72),
Pires (Flamini 84), Bergkamp (Van Persie 72), Henry.
Subs Not Used: Cygan, Almunia.
Recent Posts
- The Arsenal man who changed the transfer system
- The first and last seasons at Highbury, and the last at the Manor
- Alexandre Song: not fit to wear the shirt.
- Arsenal play Tottenham in the charity shield, 10 August 1990
- Joe Mercer: so harshly treated elsewhere, but with style at Arsenal
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
