Back to the future: Arsenal 1 Villa 1

Walcott
By Boris Mellor
August 23 2006

It felt strange walking down Iseldon Road to the first game of the season. A companion pointed out that the road lacked atmosphere. The road is a broad one way thoroughfare, with little character, and a complete absence of fanzine sellers and stalls.

No tantalising smell of burgers and horse dung mingled in the air. It was also quite a bit of a schlep. I don't mind walking but it meant we had not left ourselves adequate time to loiter at the one or two stalls that finally appeared at Hornsey Road. We even debated whether we had time to buy a program or not, but my nephew insisted we join the queue.

 The queue for turnstiles C took ages especially as one fan had inserted the wrong card into the barrier, the stewards had ignored this for ages. It was only the shouts of the crowd that finally put the situation right. I got to my seat just in time to see the teams come out.

 I was bemused to see that before the game some pundits were predicting a basketful of goals for the Arsenal, of course I was hoping for the same, however in my pre-match review I wrote:

"Villa players are claiming they are much inspired by the arrival of O'Neill, alternatively they may play hard because they want to keep their place in the team. O'Neill is a good manager and is quite capable of frustrating a team that plays football; indeed his Leicester team often bored the pants off us on a Saturday afternoon".

It was back to the future

 O'Neill is no mug he knows how to organise defences, especially when it is an 11-man defence. That's not a criticism, it's a fact, and he did it very well, his team pressed Arsenal from the minute they tried to leave their first third. It also meant that as Arsenal pushed up they would be at risk from the over the top ball.

Nonetheless Arsenal had a good number of shots before halftime, indeed on luckier days they may have been two nil up in the first five minutes. It was not just a matter of wayward shooting but also a matter of inspired last minute defending by the Villa team. When Arsenal finally put the ball in the net Toure was clearly offside.

At halftime two fans next to me were bemoaning the price of the three pounds 50p bagel. However when I explained to them that it was made from fine stoneground flour brought from Mount Sinai on the backs of Nubians, baked in ovens in the catacombs of Rome, with melted cheese made from free range yaks milk, they were astounded at how the cost had been kept down.

 Arsenal resumed the second half with enthusiasm but in no time a goalkeeping error and poor defending saw Freddie's favourite Swede put the ball in the back of the net. What a glorious honour that it should be a Swede that scored the first goal at Ashburton Grove especially a man as likeable as Olof Mellberg. I am sure Freddie treated him to champagne and a life’s supply of Calvin Klein Y Fronts.

Arsenal responded with a flurry of attacks, indeed they had 17 shots to Villa's four. If they had converted one in four then it would have been a comfortable four one victory, but unfortunately shots were being mishit, or blocked all over the place.

Cometh the hour cometh the man, or rather a teenager, Theo came on to the kind of roar usually saved for a Bergkamp or Henry substitution. Now the crowd roared on the team, willing it to equalise so that the new stadium would not start its career with a defeat.

 He did not disappoint, with fantastic pace and directness he was soon terrorising the Villa defence. Indeed he was tying them up in knots, and it was not surprising when finally one of his crosses found Gilberto who smashed the ball into the top of the net. Arsenal now pushed on for the winner, but they had left it too late and Villa got their draw.

Arsenal were a little jaded, not surprising as many of the players had played internationals during the midweek, and it was Henry's first competitive game for the club. Nonetheless there were a lot of pluses in this performance, in particular Djourou and Theo. Toure was magnificent as ever, Eboue’s overlapping was excellent, and once he improves his shooting he will be a wonder weapon. Plus lots of chances were made, and on other days they will go in

The atmosphere was a big improvement on the Bergkamp testimonial, partly because someone had slapped an ASBO on the disc jockey who had played the sounds system full up at volume number 11 everytime the crowd got a chant going. Lets hope the cretin is kept on community service for the rest of the season, condemned to watch the flickering service that is Arsenal plus.

Then it was off to the Bank to hear that Liverpool drew, and the squitters went on to lose 2-0. It doesn’t get much better than that.