Reading 0-4 Arsenal, Coppell Read It Wrong
Monday, October 23, 2006
I guess the title is slightly misleading as we will never really know what Reading were sent out to do as they fell behind after just 58 seconds thanks to Fabregas(8 more years of this) and Thierry who finally looks like he is back to his best. I think Reading were looking at the way The Blades and Watford played against us, they both parked the bus in front of the goal, Sheffield held on for an hour or so and Watford just didnt have the defensive qualities to hold out Arsenal. So, [i think] Steve said, you know what...lets play like we did against Chelsea....no, not injuring the keeper...I pity the idiot who picks a fight with Mad Jens. What i meant to say is to close the wings, unfortunately Coppell only watched our last few matches and forgot the way we have played for the last 5 seasons....direct, fast, attacking, ENTERTAINING football, through the middle of the park. Cesc found the hole between the CD and the LB and passed the ball back for Henry who will never miss from about 16 yards out, calming slotting it into the bottom corner.
Anyway, the early goal threw Reading's game plan out the window as there's really no use defending when you're losing. Forced to push up, all it did was make more gaps for Arsenal to exploit. Alex Hleb deserves just as much praise as Cesc in this match, if only 2 players can get the Man of The Match award. He constantly found himself playing 1-2's and behind the Reading defence, he was soon rewarded with a goal when he played a 1-2 with Rosicky before blasting the ball past the helpless Reading goalkeeper.
On to the second half and Reading came out firing, they had a few corners early on. Like most Arsenal fans, everytime the opponents get a corner, you wondere if this can lead to one of them fast-paced counter attacks...this happened lots of times as Reading had quite a few corner but couldnt capitalise on them, usually though the ball ended up with v.Persie who seemed to pick the wrong option everytime. Anyway, about 5 minutes into the second half, another Hleb 1-2, this time with Henry lead to Arsenal's third. This time instead of shooting Hleb squared it for v.Persie to score Arsenal's best goal of the match. Like I said earlier, I wasnt too impressed by v.Persie's preformance but then again, he won the match due to our pace and v.Persie has a lot more pace compared to Ade.
The final goal came from the penalty spot when a through ball from Rosicky was met by Fab(8 more years) but was caught by the Reading goalkeeper. I was watching it on TV, and felt insulted when they looked at the replay to make sure it was a penalty, Cesc would NEVER dive!!! Anyway, Henry slotted in the penalty via the post getting his second and Arsenal's fourth. A minute later, Rosicky found himself one-on-one with the Reading keeper, he managed to trick the keeper, went passed him and shot the ball, only for the keeper to recover and make a fantastic save.
Arsenal then went down a couple of gears and Reading took advantage and started attacking, unfortunately their closest chance was made by Gallas when he nearly put Seol's cross into his own net.
In the end, a well deserved 3 points that keeps us in touch with the leaders...Man Utd, Chelsea and.....BOLTON! But we have a game in hand....
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posted by highbury1913 @ 12:52 pm | |
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