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ARSENAL HOME 9-4-05
Final whistle 1655, report online 1658
Schwarzer, Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour, Boateng, Doriva, Downing, Nemeth, Hasselbaink
Cooper, Graham, Kennedy, Ehigou
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The First Half
The action actually started before the kick off today. Skippy got injured in the warm up..! The management team got the McPhone out but there was no answer from Preston.
Nobody was really sure what the rules were concerning injuries in the warm up. With our record, we should have made provision for it.
Brad Jones made his debut at just three minutes notice and the rules were clarified just before kick off. Boro were not allowed a substitute keeper and so we started with just four substitutes.
A one minute silence was held before kick off, presumably to remember the death of Boro's season.
The game itself started briskly and within the first two minutes, Stewey Downing was felled by a vicious two footed tackle by Lauren. He should have seen red, like Franck did at Spurs but referee Phil Dowd was obviously feeling generous today and the dirty Frenchman got away with a yellow.
It was good to see Boro fired up and looking hungry but we didn't settle during the first quarter of the game. The work rate was excellent though and Brad Jones didn't get his first touch until sixteen minutes had been played.
The match had been played out in midfield so far with Ray Parlour looking strong against his old club. On twenty-one minutes, he played a lovely through ball to Doriva who skipped his marker and struck a fierce shot against the bar.
Three consecutive Boro corners seemed to have Arsenal wobbling and as the third was cleared, Doriva picked it up and made a tremendous run. He found JFH who was desperately unlucky not to open the scoring with a superb strike.
Boro continued to ignore the Gunners' threat and created some great moves during the rest of the first half. In fact, we were the better team in the first fourty-five minutes.
Jens Lehmann was looking terrified and continually flapped at crosses and corners. Nemeth fluffed a golden opportunity in the dying seconds and we really should have gone in ahead at the break.
Our rooky keeper looked solid without having much to do and there was now hope that a famous victory could be on the cards, if we could keep this level of performance up in the second half.
Fan Reaction
"I hope that we don't suffer for these misses."
JohnHickton
"We should have punished this lot by now"
The Oort Cloud
"I fancy Danny Graham more against them. He'll give them shit!"
GLS
The Second Half
No changes were made to the Boro team for the second half but The Gunners brought on our old enemy, Dennis Bergkamp.
But strangely enough, Boro emerged with an extra substitute. Phil Dowd had agreed to let Boro have Adam Johnson on the bench for the second half, so we were back to our full compliment again.
Not for long though. Stuart Parnaby caught his studs in the surface and twisted his ankle. He left the field for treatment and we feared the worst....
Luckily, he came back on and rejoined the play. Four off the ball injuries in two weeks would have been blatantly embarrassing.
Another great Boro move saw another chance to take the lead slip away as Parlour broke away and tried to find JFH to his left. A pass to Stewey Downing was the better option but the winger was out of vision and the chance went begging.
Parlour was looking back to his best today and it would have been the perfect match for him to open his Boro goal account...
We continued to push Arsenal all the way and remained the better side as the second half progressed.
And then lucky Arsenal put a move together that gave them the advantage. Admittedly, the build up contained a lot of nice touches as several Arsenal players combined. Pires got the final shot in and it ricocheted off Southgate giving Brad Jones no chance as the ball spun into the net.
Boro didn't give up though and JFH had two great chances presented to him within a minute. The second one should have put us level but he failed to get sufficient power behind the ball and Lehmann saved easily. It was a massive disappointment.
Into The Red Zone
The game seemed to die for a few minutes before Danny Graham replaced Doriva and we changed our formation to include three strikers.
Boro won a succession of throw-ins on the left side with just three minutes to play but once again, we failed to take advantage of our possession.
Arsenal's time wasting tactics in the final few minutes were not taken into consideration by Dowd and only two minutes were added on as the game started to slip away from us.
And rather than burn out, we faded away. Like Ray Parlour, who was replaced by Ugo. Was it a time wasting substitution? It didn't work. We lost.
Fan Reaction
"Very disappointing. We were the better team and could and should have had them"
Martin H
"You can't consider it three points lost as most teams lose to Arsenal. And all the other results seem to have gone in our favour..."
DaveP
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