EPL: Day 13, Part 1 (Birmingham 0 – Arsenal 3)

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Football
November 22nd, 2003 • 7:26 am

It’s tighter than ever at the top of the Premier League. Arsenal have had their (the?) best-ever start of the season, and they are still unbeaten. But both Chelsea and Manchester United are right behind and showing no sign of losing pace.

Today’s games maintained the status quo, but widened the gap between the top three and the rest (Charlton is fourth nine points behind Manchester’s third spot). None of the top three were outstanding, but Arsenal were particularly impressive in the calm attitude with which they played at Birmingham, even though they were a rather depleted side due to the many suspensions and injuries. We had to wait until the 80th minute to see Bergkamp double the lead and effectively kill the match. The technique displayed in all three Arsenal goal was outstanding, and once again Thierry Henry was heavily involved, even though he didn’t score himself. The game itself was not particularly entertaining, but the blame goes to a rather weak Birmingham side.

The same thing happened with Chelsea’s win at Southampton, without the nice goals and technique. If Chelsea continue to win without impressing, they are going to end up challenging for the title without impressing, and winning the title without impressing. It won’t be very impressive.

We didn’t get to see the Manchester game, but it looks as if it was business as usual.

The crucial test for Arsenal is the mid-week game in Italy, though. I hope we’ll get to see this one here. (You never know with those unreliable TV channels.)


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