Arsenal & Footballing Legend…
After the poor results of the last week, normal service was resumed yesterday with a 3-1 win over Premiership strugglers West Brom. But it was anything less that straight-forward.
In the first half, Arsenal were going through the motions and Henry missed the best chance of the half. Only the vision of Hleb broke the deadlock just before half-time, smashing in a shot at the near post after playing a smart one-two with Henry.
As usual at home, Arsenal had most of the possession and Henry came off with half an hour to go for Adebayor, and then Pires and Bergkamp replaced Hleb and Van Persie in quick succession. Then seconds later Nigel Quashie easy-dispossessed Eboue on the edge of the area to smash in a left-footed shot past Lehmann.
Henry seemed off form, but maybe he had his mind on Wednesday’s game against Villareal.
But minutes later Adebayor fed Pires who shot from the edge of the area only for Kuszczak to parry. The Iceman cooley took the loose ball and fed Pires again, who improvised well to put Arsenal 2-1 ahead.
But then at 2-1, Arsenal-linked Curtis Davies had a decent shout for a penalty and was clearly livid at not getting a spot kick. When I first saw it he did look to have gone down easily, but replays later that night on TV showed that Eboue lashed out a lazy kick and seemed to catch the West Brom captain. You win some you lose some!
Then with a minute remaining, Bergkamp showed his true class and picked the ball up just on the edge of the D, and everyone knew what Dennis was going to do.
He killed the ball with his first touch, moved the ball into space with his second and beautifully curled the ball into the top corner with his third.
A classic Bergkamp goal.
The Bergkamp goal really did send tingles down my spine – what a player he has been for us over the last 10 years he’s been with us!
What he has done for the game is truly awesome and for me has has been certainly been one of the Premierships greatest players of recent times.
Dennis Bergkamp, we salute you!
