EPL: Day 10, Part 2

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Football
October 27th, 2003 • 12:08 am

Pretty boring encounter between Charlton and Arsenal at The Valley, ending in a predictable 1-1 draw. Subpar performances by many Arsenal players (Ljunberg, Lauren, Pires, Bergkamp, etc.), solid performances by the defense, which was only broken by a rather debatable penalty decision, cheekily transformed by Paolo Di Canio before he had to be substituted due to injury just before half-time.

Interestingly, the only really good period in the game was right after Arsenal went one goal down. During about 15 minutes, the team played really well, and they deserved to get level, even though it took yet another wonderful free-kick by Thierry Henry to break the Charlton defense (after he’d already hit the post with another great strike).

While I was hoping that Arsenal would come back stronger in the second half, dominate, and win, for many extended periods of the half, they looked content with a draw. They definitely had what it took to win the game, however, and the opposition was not that challenging.

It’s a decent result, but Arsenal supporters were probably hoping for all three points and must have been disappointed.

I didn’t really watch the Tottenham – Middlesborough game carefully enough, knowing that it was highly unlikely that it would be a thrilling encounter with lots of goals. (It ended 0-0.) These are definitely two very middle-of-road teams these days, and Spurs were sorely missing the class of a player like KanoutÈ, who’s out injured for a couple of months due to a nasty challenge by Leicester’s Izzet last week.

Next up for Arsenal is Leeds at Elland Road. Leeds are definitely not getting any decent results lately, and I suspect that if Arsenal beat them, Peter Reid will be shown the door.


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