Arsenal Reyes their away game:Charlton 0 Arsenal 1

Celebrate
By Boris Mellor
December 26 2005

Charlton started this game at a frenetic pace pushing the Arsenal defence on to its back feet. Although Charlton made several chances none of them looked like going into the net, and Lehmann had no substantial saves to make. As the half progressed Arsenal got more and more into the game.

 However Gilberto was at times playing embarrassingly. Quite a few midfield passes went astray.

After 22 minutes a smooth passing move between Hleb and Henry released Reyes down the left. He crossed for Ljungberg in acres of space in the centre. But Freddy hesitated and eventually shot straight at Thomas Myhre. Although not as confident with his shooting Freddy was looking far more on the pace.

Fortunately for Arsenal the left wing, an unlikely combination of Cygan and Reyes, were beginning to give the Charlton defence problems. Arsenal's defence was becoming increasingly authoritative with Kolo and Campbell dominating; at the same time Arsenal were increasingly a threat from breakaways. At half time it was nil-nil, but the Gunners had the more clear cut chances.

After the break Arsenal stepped up a gear or three, and began a domination of the game that would continue until the final whistle. But for all the domination the ball was not finding the net. However on 58 minutes Henry had a shot parried by Myhre and Reyes was on hand to strike the ball into the goal.

A few minutes later Murphy received a second yellow for dissent. It now seemed unlikely that Charlton could get back into the game, nonetheless they put up a good fight. Arsenal had several more chances, but with seconds to go conceded a free kick, which bobbled around the area before finally being cleared. The whistle when it came was met with a certain relief. That shouldn't have been necessary, although Charlton played well Arsenal should have wrapped the game up far earlier.

After the match Wenger believed that Arsenal had been a little nervy and this was the reason for their less than sharp shooting. The positives were that for the most part the defence was solid, that the team created a lot of chances. It is also the case that in the second-half Reyes in particular shone with some fine attacking play. He also gave some excellent passes to his teammates, who in quite a few instances should have made far more of his assists. Sky gave Henry the man of the match award, personally I would have given it to Reyes. He found it hard to get going at the beginning of the match but he was persistent and kept at his job; in the second-half he began to demonstrate pace and insightful passing. When Henry was blocked yet again by the fine goalkeeping of Myhre it was Reyes who was on hand to tap it into the net. So my feeling is he had the greater impact on the game.

In fairness to Henry he was a constant threat to the Charlton backline, and he marshalled the whole team very effectively in the last frantic 15 minutes to ensure that one nil was sufficient for victory. Hopefully this result will see the confidence return and the end of December misery. Happy St Stephen's Day indeed.