In 2008 Arsenal played Fulham away, before coming onto their second leg (at home) of the Qualifying Round games for the Champions league on August 27. An interesting coincidence of dates, and one that is reflected in these commentaries written by Gf60 at the time.
Fulham vs Arsenal 1-0; 23 August 2008
Seriously offensive swear words regarding our performance at this game have been replaced with ‘xxxx’.
xxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx fuck.
When the day arrives that one wishes that Murphy, Bullard and Davies were playing for us, then it is time to start worrying.
It’s all very well players talking about ‘winning ugly’ but losing ugly?
When did that introduce itself? Hopefully it will quickly be lost and, like a bad dream, disappear from the consciousness.
CL Qualifier…Arsenal vs FC Twente 4-0; 27 August 2008
After Saturday’s disaster, surely anything we did right last night must be better.
And so it proved. A Spanish commentary and interminable first half breaks for ‘buffering’ and staring at the blank screen… (and even this an improvement on the Fulham game) … failed to hide the fact that this was Arsenal back believing in themselves.
Yes, Twente were weak. Yes, Cesc was back. Yes we were given a lot more space than may be expected in a league game. But the running off the ball and the sharpness was so different that one might be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t the same club.
In fairness we should have been four up by half time; young Theo should learn that staying on his feet is an admirable objective and shows just how honest he is, but, when clattered in the area, go down young man. Robin’s radar is way off course at the moment and even Spanish cackling at one horrible miss sounds very similar to its English counterpart.
All in all promising but judgement needs reserving until Newcastle on Saturday, not to mention the visits coming up to the cloggies oop North.
We are still quite a way from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wopQvTaBdOs&eurl=http://www.goal.com/en-india/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=837192
(Well worth a 7 minute tea break viewing) but at times last night we were getting closer. It certainly washed some of the Fulham taste from the mouth!
Postscript (by Tony)
In another link with that season Arsenal played Fenerbahçe in the Champions League – this time in the group stages. On 21 October Arsenal won away 2-5, but the return match on 5 November was a disappointing 0-0 draw. Arsenal came second, one point behind Porto.
Arsenal Anniversaries: 27 August
- 27 August 1913 Arsenal play a practice match at The Den as Highbury not ready.
- 27 August 1919: Joseph Toner joined from Belfast United for £200
- 27 August 1928: The Monday newspapers deem the numbered shirts experiment “a success” and predict wider use.
- 27 August 1938: Bryn Jones scores on his debut against Portsmouth
- 27 August 1997: The definitive Bergkamp hat trick at Leicester
- 27 August 1988: Steve Bould league debut for Arsenal
- 27 August 2002: Arsenal beat WBA 5-2, continuing the “5+ goals every 20 games”
Read the preview of the 2013 Champions’ League qualifier here
Historical team
we always believe in arsenal home and away, we will be in group stage for champion league
DE ja Vu