Keown continued at right back in place of the injured Dixon, Schwartz and Selley continued in midfield, Cambell and Dickov up front with Parlour and McGoldrick wide. Arsenal started off on top in what was a largely scrappy opening played out in torrential rain. Dickov looked the liveliest player on the park and nearly created an opening when he charged down keeper Gerrards clearance from a back pass. Keown done a magnificent job in keeping most of the atrocious passes aimed at him in play. He even managed a delightful through ball that Parlour just failed to take in his stride. The lead came from a McGoldrick corner. An Oldham defender decided to head the ball back into the box instead of away, Campbell's overhead kick helped the ball on. Dickov turned and rammed the ball home on the half volley from about 5 yards. Keown had a fine drive fly just over the bar and Dickov had another fine effort well saved. Oldham had there best chance shortly after the goal. A left wing cross was brilliantly knocked away from the on coming forward when it seemed he must score. Oldham never had a sniff after that as Arsenal dominated. Just before half time the second goal came. Winterburn knocked a low cross in Dickov swung at it on the edge of the box but completely missed it. However Dickov reacted quickly and pushed the ball to his right before hammering the ball low into the bottom left hand corner. The second half was never anything much. Oldham never looked like getting back into the game, bar the odd long shot. McGoldrick managed a couple of mazy runs, even getting around the defender every now and again. Campbell appears to have been told to play in the Smith role and hold the ball up. As a result when played through he held the ball up rather than going through on goal. Campbell did manage a number of fine flick-ons, but Dickov was unable to get on the end of them. Selley, who had been horrifically upended in the first half, was replaced by Jensen. Dickov nearly completed his hat trick with a near post flick on from Schwartz low driven corner, but the effort was narrowly wide. The game was rather hampered by lots of unnessassary fouls with most of the Oldham side ending up in the book. All in all a comfortable night. Dickov was not surprisingly man of the match, but Keown had another fine game and appears to have discovered that long lost consistancy. Unfortunately this means we have to play Sheff Weds again on November 30th.
Report by Trev Collins
That's not to say that it was unentertaining. In the first half particularly, Arsenal played some nice stuff at times, inspired by the enthusiasm of Paul Dickov. Early in the game he charged down a clearance by Gerrard, the rebound was chested down by Campbell and played back in for Dickov to run onto again. Forced wide his shot from an angle was blocked by a defender for a corner.
Arsenal went ahead on the quarter hour. A McGoldrick corner from the left was headed back into the middle by a defender under pressure from Adams. Campbell flicked the ball on over his shoulder to Dickov standing with his back to goal on the 6-yard line. He turned superbly to fire home on the half volley via the right hand post.
Oldham barely crossed the half way line during the first half hour, and in the next 15 minutes or so Arsenal could have had another goal or two. Keown had a creditable drive from 25 yards which only cleared the bar by a couple of feet,McGoldrick cut in from the left for a tamish effort from 20 yards, Dickov was denied another by a flying save from Gerrard. He'd carried the ball from near the half way line, and when the Oldham defence opened up for him as he seemed to dither over passing it a couple of time, he struck a beautiful shot from the edge of the box which the keeper did well to turn aside. Campbell picked up the loose ball wide on the left, played it back to Dickov on the edge of the box, his shot was blocked, McGoldrick's shot from the rebound was also blocked, and Eddie then put the rebound from that wide.
After about half an hour, the Latics at last came into it a bit. A break down the right could have caused problems, but some good defending by Adams and Keown meant that Seaman didn't actually have a shot to save. Any faint glimmer of hope they may have had was squashed five minutes before the break. Winterburn crossed in along the edge of the box from the left. Dickov swung at it and completely missed, but reacted quickly to knock the ball away from the defender and then strike a good shot along the ground just inside the far post.
There were fewer goal chances in the 2nd half as Arsenal seemed content to dominate possession and prevent Oldham from getting back into it. Early on Dickov came close to completing his hattrick. A tricky dribble along the edge of the box was aided by a Campbell run taking defenders away, and his shot from 20 yards just cleared the bar. There were a couple of other occasions when he could have got the 3rd goal, but was denied by blocks, and was just wide with a clever flick at the near post after Schwarz had driven in a corner.
Schwarz also missed a good chance about 15 minutes into the half. Campbell played a nice ball through for him to run onto down the left. The ball broke kindly through a defender's tackle for him, but his volley from an angle went into the side netting. I can't recall much else in the way of real chances. Some good crosses by both Parlour and McGoldrick didn't quite land on the right head. Jensen came on for Selley, and near the end had space for his customary effort from 20 yards. And as is customary, it went a few feet wide.
Oldham had a bit more possession towards the end of the game, but the only save I can remember Seaman having to make was when Banger had a well-struck shot from 20 yards which went straight into Spunky's midriff.
So a surprisingly comfortable evening for the Gunners. The card-happy ref deserves a mention for managing not to book any of the Oldham players more than once. Given Oldham's general ineptness, I wouldn't claim it was an outstanding performance, but the undoubted highlight was Dickov. Having said that the combination of he and Campbell didn't look like the answer, I thought they combined quite well yesterday. Probably because on this occasion the high balls were aimed in Kev's direction, and he was doing quite well with flick-ons. Dickov didn't always get on the end of them, but when he did it was causing Oldham problems. Campbell did reasonably well otherwise, but still looks far too diffident when facing goal.
Keown had another good game. If he keeps up this sort of consistency Dixon might struggle to get his place back. The defence weren't really troubled, Schwarz and Selley were comfortably solid in the middle, Parlour had another reasonable game, though perhaps without reaching the heights of recent matches. Even Eddie managed a cross or two. It will be interesting to see whether the improvement continues in the next match, against Southampton. I don't suppose we can hope that Grobbelaar deliberately lets us have a goal or two.
report by Derek Brownjohn
What a waste of time and money. I sat in the North Bank Lower to watch the most one-sided, but still very poor game. Arsenal were in total control, but only because Oldham couldn't be bothered to venture over our halfway line.
Good points:- Dickov and Keown.
Dickov scored two fantastic goals, he could be the alternative to Ferdinand, who it looks like we are going to sign very soon. Keown played at right back and had an excellent game. He still isn't worth stlg2 million though.
The first goal was from a corner, Campbell got to the ball and Dickov hit it on the turn from about 5 yards and it went in off the post. This led to some strange Ian Wright Wright Wright chanting from the back of the North Bank. They obviously couldn't think of a song for Dickov yet.
The second goal also came before halftime, and it also came from a corner. Dickov miskicked before running on past the static Oldham defence to shoot across Gerrard.
The second half passed without too much incident at either end except for the perm coming on and shooting about 3 yards wide of the North Bank goal near the end.
In the end we won and all I had to show for it was stlg20 less and a stone cold portion of Chicken nuggets and chips from the food bar in the stand. Bastards, what a ripoff.
Report by ESSEX BULLDOG.
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