Coventry: Ogrizovic, Borrows, Pickering, Rennie, Williams, Darby, Marsh, Cook, Jenkinson, Wegerle, Dublin Subs: Flynn, Jones (Cook? 80ish), Gould
Result : Coventry (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 1 Scorers : Hartson 78 Bookings:
Att : 14468 Referee : J Worrall (Warrrington)
Well, perhaps still not a completely convincing performance, but a win nonetheless, and a deserved one even if it was against a team similarly afflicted with poor form. Winterburn suspended and Adams not risked, but Bouldy fit again so a reshuffled defence saw Linighan and Bould in the middle, Keown switching to left back and Dixon as captain. In midfield Schwarz was back in place of Jensen, Parlour dropped to the bench, so Campbell and Morrow played wide right and left respectively.
Driving to Coventry through torrential rain and gale force winds it seemed more than likely that the game would be called off. However it brightened up about an hour before kick-off, and the pitch looked in reasonable condition considering. It was very wet though with a lot of water just below the surface, evidenced by the way Campbell slid in for a tackle early on and then carried on sliding for a further 10 or 20 yards.
Early in the game Arsenal still looked rather nervous and unconfident, and Coventry made most of the early running. The first scare was when Dublin rose above Linighan to get his head to a cross, and the ball bounced off the top of Seaman's crossbar. Then Wegerle ran at and through the Arsenal defence before eventually being stopped by a superb recovering tackle by Linighan.
The strong and blustery wind was not helping the match as a spectacle, and perhaps was also to blame when Linighan misjudged a high ball into the area and it dropped over his head to the feet of either Jenkinson or Wegerle. The rasping shot from a fairly acute angle produced a great save from Seaman.
Gradually though, as the match wore on Arsenal got more of a grip and the latter part of the 1st half was dominated by the Gunners. Dixon combined well with Campbell down the right to send in Souper-Kev for a cross which he did well to pull back in the direction of both Wright and Hartson in the middle. Perhaps getting slightly in each other's way, in the end Wrighty left it for his junior partner who scooped his shot high and wide.
Soon afterwards Hartson did better when, receiving a ball into his feet in the area, he turned the defender well to leave himself in space about 12 yards out. His slightly scuffed shot was deflected by a defender and required a superb reaction save from Ogrizovic. A corner then caused a bit of panic in the City defence and in the scramble that followed a couple of shots needed desperate blocks to avert a serious threat to the Coventry goal.
Towards the end of the half Wright played a good return ball to Morrow down the left. His cross was just missed by Campbell at the near post and eluded everyone else in the area, but chasing after it Schwarz delightfully backheeled it into the path of Hillier. Running in on the edge of the area his shot was deflected wide of Oggie's goal. Just before the whistle there was another scramble in the Coventry area. The ball squirted out to the left of goal and Wright retrieved it but with the keeper in close attendance his attempt to quickly turn and shoot was blocked by Ogrizovic.
The second half was mostly dominated by Arsenal, though Coventry also came close to a goal on a couple of occasions. The first was after Schwarz had carelessly given the ball away on the edge of Coventry's area, but then chased the break all the way to the edge of Arsenal's area and in fact got in a good tackle. However, the ball unluckily ricocheted to the feet of Dublin unmarked in the area and with only Seaman to beat. He seemed unable to believe his luck and when he attempted to dribble round the keeper, Spunky brilliantly snaked out an arm to pluck the ball off his toes.
Late in the game as Coventry pressed for the equaliser, they again came close when the ball was deflected through into the path of the substitute Cobi Jones. Fortunately Bould got back with a superb tackle and the ball went out for a corner off a combination of him, Jones and Seaman.
In between though, Arsenal had most of the play and more chances. Morrow had a good attempt saved by Ogrizovic, and later a chip over the Coventry defence by Hartson I think, fell to his feet to leave him with only the keeper to beat. Morrow's first touch was poor though and took him wide, but then Campbell almost got on the end of his far post cross.
The goal came 12 minutes from time. I think it was Marsh who tried to cut out a cross field ball with his head but succeeded only in diverting it into Hartson's path. He turned and set off on a run towards goal. With Wright peeling off in space to his right his best option looked to be a pass to his co-striker, but instead he chose to shoot from a few yards outside the area. The shot took a deflection to wrong foot Ogrizovic and to the mass delight of the Gooner hordes ended up nestling in the back of the net.
Parlour replaced the injured Hillier which meant Morrow moved into the middle and Campbell switched to the left wing. Parlour could and probably should have scored when Hartson made a similar run to the one when he scored. This time he played the pass to Parlour on his right, whose shot from just inside the area was well struck but straight at Ogrizovic.
Wright had had one of those games where nothing was quite running for him and was replaced by Kiwomya for the last 5 minutes or so. At times Wrighty seemed to be trying to do everything himself, and he had a reasonable go at getting himself booked again. Fortunately Joe Worrall was in a good mood or had left his cards at home.
So a reasonably happy trip home for a change. There is still a certain lack of confidence but hopefully the win will boost the improvement showed on Saturday for the game on Tuesday against Southampton. Hartson again showed promise particularly in the 2nd half, and the other notable performance I thought was from Keown who, for a man with no left foot did remarkably well at left back, even going forward. Campbell again looked rather diffident, but also did pretty well on a couple of occasions.
Report by Derek Brownjohn