Leicester City 1 Arsenal 1: Two points wasted

Gilberto puts us 1-0 up

The attendance was announced at half time as being 32,108 which was a new stadium record, cue ‘You’ve only come to see the Arsenal’. We started with Gilberto and Edu in midfield and with Aliadiere and Bergkamp up front. The rest were pretty well as expected. Dennis was once again captain for the day, or at least until he was subbed.

In the first half Pires was 100% focused, unfortunately his focus was on our European match on Wednesday night and so apart from one late flurry I wondered why he was there at all. Not much happened before the break other than the onset of boredom on a rather cold day. Aliadiere did pretty well all our front running on his own, I’m sure he would have welcomed some support but very little was forthcoming. Gilberto hit a shot over from range, Scowcroft went close with a header from a free kick. A Cole shot won a corner. Jens was scrambling around well out of goal when Ferdinand shot over an empty net from a narrow angle. In a move starting from one of Kolo’s tackles, Jeremie got on the end of a Ljungberg pass, but his shot was saved fairly easily by Walker.

Bent was drawing free kicks from Cygan with ease and dead ball situations looked the likely route for a Leicester goal if they were to get one. Apart from headers at free kicks most Leicester moves of note were just of the hoof it upfield variety. Leicester wasted another chance before Lehmann was called upon to head one away from outside his box. Davidson bent a good half chance past our far post, which was as close as they came first half. Arsenal started to play about ten minutes before halftime, when Pires had his one run of note which ended with him being obstructed. Freddie and one of the Leicester defenders had a mild set to but I presume this was just to prove that anyone on the field of play actually cared. Gilberto, Cole, Campbell and Aliadiere had all tried as had Dennis on occasions but the first half was a total disappointment. I’d even found myself trying to spot Alan Smith on the blue and white mural that runs around the top of the stands, such had been the lack of excitement.

No changes at half time and it wasn’t long before Gilberto hit one that was targeted at the top corner but Walker tipped it around for a corner, good shot, good save. Big penalty claim by Leicester fans when Bent tumbled under a challenge by Sol, Jeremie broke away at the other end though. Lehmann had a set too with Ferdinand for which they were both awarded yellow cards. It was beginning to get tasty but not much football was being played. Dennis was improving as the game went on. Aliadiere had a shot blocked, Gilberto shot from range and McKinlay was replaced by Hignett.

Jens mixes it up with Ferdinand

Pires gave Dennis a poor pass but Dennis won the ball anyway, he wriggled free and put up a cross that begged to be headed and Gilberto was the one steaming in on the end of it. He leapt high, hung in the air, arched his neck and headed down powerfully. 0-1 Arsenal. 59 minutes gone ‘Premiership. you’re having a laugh’. Lehmann was winding up the Leicester fans and did so beautifully at one point by just not kicking the ball. Dennis broke again and we were looking good and also in almost total control.

Dennis, Robert, Jeremie and Freddie combined well and won a corner that was headed clear. Kolo won a free kick wide right and Bergkamp put it in for Gilberto to volley against the post, maybe with a slight deflection en route. Bent fouled Campbell and was shortly replaced by Dickov who immediately put himself about. Aliadiere put Wiltord in, Gilberto had another run and then Dickov was very late in a tackle on Edu. Kolo to Wiltord to Freddie, almost but not quite. Bergkamp was now in imperious mode and Arsenal were in control. A Wiltord shot or cross, I couldn’t decide which, was deflected for a corner which Edu took. Arsenal left Ash and Freddie on the halfway line. Leicester broke, Freddie failed in his tackle, which forced Cole to cover down our right flank but he dived in two-footed, had he been on our left he would only have gone in with his left. I reckon he won the ball but the player made a meal of it and the blue shirted players steamed in en mass. So Mr Styles succumbed to the mass protest and awarded Ashley a red card. Cole was seriously pissed off, but two footed tackles are never the best of ideas with people like Styles around.

We were now down to ten men so Dennis, who was in great form, was replaced by Clichy who did well. Why Pires stayed on the pitch is beyond me, maybe it was because he was still as fresh as a daisy having done so little. More likely though that Arsene was thinking about Wednesday. Freddie who was fouled twice in his run found still Wiltord, who put in Kolo, who blasted over from an angle. Gillespie replaced Les Ferdinand who was warmly applauded off by the Gooners, yea right!

Wiltord and Pires combined on a break but they were just going through the motions. Scowcroft fell over and won a free kick which Hignett hoofed high over our bar from range. ‘Oh Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, Jonny Wilkinson’. Wiltord was too greedy when he had players supporting his run. Kolo was on his own with a run down our right but with no one forward, or central, to pass to he had to turn around and pass back. Lehmann was called upon to take a series of high balls that the Foxes pumped in, which he did comfortably.

Arsene Wenger glares at the players as they trudge off the pitch

Keown came on for Freddie with eighty-seven minutes gone. He went to right back while Kolo went to right-side midfield. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we said at the time that having two players playing out of position on the same flank was not the best of ideas. Three minutes added time. Kolo continued to press forward and might have got a pen but did in fact win a corner. Edu was fouled, we won the free kick and we played out time with short passes. Shortly afterwards we lost possession with Keown, Martin is just not the player to play keep ball, whereas Freddie might have been. Their move came from their left, Hignett came from their right and scored with twenty seconds left on the clock.

A total **** up and a really good waste of points. The first half was disappointing, the last half an hour is best described by a whole load of four letter words.

Addendum 7th December 2003 (the day after): In any of my match reports I tell it the way I saw it the first time I saw the game, based on a few notes taken during the match. At Highbury this means I have the benefit of the big screen replays. Although of course at Highbury they don’t replay any controversial incidents such as marginal offsides, penalty incidents or penalty claims. So with just the one opportunity to view the majority of incidents, no matter how hard I try I often get things wrong.

Since I wrote the above match report I’ve had a chance to view the highlights and now consider Ashley Cole’s tackle to be utterly stupid and deserving of a red card. At best he only got a small part of the ball. I understand he has apologised to Ben Thatcher and so he should have.

I’ve also had time to reflect at length on the player’s attitude during the match and consider that with Pires on the pitch, we played for the most part with ten effective men. With Cole off we were down to nine and so when the inept Wiltord came on we were down to eight. Both Pires and Wiltord are fine players but against Leicester we’d have been better off with a couple of our youngsters giving their all as they did against Wolves. Maybe Mr Wenger should consider one of two options. Either don’t play some of our star turns when they are so obviously only concentrating on the forthcoming European match. Or alternatively fine them a weeks wages for a total lack of effort. I suspect that in part Cole was suffering from frustration as he was of our players who actually wanted to win the game. That’s no excuse though for his tackle.