Fulham 0-4 Arsenal: When Henry Plays Well...
Sunday, March 05, 2006
WHEN THIERRY HENRY PLAYS WELL, ARSENAL PLAY WELL!
That was the sentence that came to mind when I saw Arsenal destroy a Fulham that looked like they were playing a 4-0-6 formation because their midfield was invincible(and not in a good way).
Arsene couldnt pick a better time to finally look comprehensive away, just a few days before the Real Madrid match and with 2 of our rivals for 4th spot Blackburn and Sp*rs facing-off, it was an important 3 points. I would have accepted a scrappy 1-0 or 2-1 but 4-0 is good enough for me.
We Arsenal fans should remain aware that Fulham did not play like Blackburn and Bolton played against us....they fielded an attacking midfield, Chris Coleman buried his grave by doing that. Both Blackburn and Bolton were very tight against us, and Fulman left a gaping hole in front of their defence and Arsenal took advantage. It was really 50% of Arsenal playing well and 50% of bad a formation pick by Fulham. Im not saying that we didnt deserve the win, just that we should get over our heads with this result.
Both Spanish international were on the bench to rest them after their midweek international match. Both would eventually come on, Reyes for Henry(84th min)....yes Henry was subbed (probably to save him for the Real match) and Fabregas for Hleb(79th min).
Arsenal came into the match with the odds stacked against them, Arsenal's horrible away recond coupled with Fulham's awesome home recond was pointing to only one possible result. But Arsenal came to Craven Cottage wanting to win...and attacked, attacked and attacked....different compared to their 'sit back and relax' routines that we usually see in our away games. The attacking paid off in the 31st minute when a pass from Diaby found Henry one-on-one with Volz on the left side of the penalty area, Henry's sudden boost of speed caught Volz off-guard and after passing the defender, Henry blasted his sot pass helpless Tony Warner(GK).
Just 4 minutes later, Arsenal were two nil up when a though pass from Mr. Calvin Klein himself Freddie Ljungberg found Adebayor who stroked the ball past Tony Warner. Adebayor has now scored 2 goals in 5 appearances for Arsenal.
An increasingly frustrated Fulham, decided to entertain their fans with a boxing fight that Lee Bowyer and Keiran Dyer made famous for Newcastle, when Zat Knight and Moritz Volz got into an arguement and start hitting each other like little girls while shouting at each other....one things for sure they were spraying it instead of saying it, there was saliva spraying all over the pitch...lol! On stepped Henry to stop the fight before it got exciting, by the way, this all happened while the players were leaving the field at half-time!
Well, in the beginning of the second half, Fulham found renewed hope as they looked impressive, American soccer player, Brian McBride forced Lehmann to stretch to make one of the 3?...i think 3 saves throughout the whole match.
Adebayor missed a sitter, Hleb and Ljungberg forced saves out of Tony Warner, but the Fulham goalkeeper could not do anything about Henry's goal 13 minutes from time. Again, Mr. Calvin Klein was the supplier!
When Henry was taken off in the 84th minute, he was given a standing ovation by both Arsenal and Fulham fans. Fabregas came on for Hleb and earlier Bergkamp came on for Adebayor.
All in all...a good win!
posted by highbury1913 @ 10:18 am | |
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