Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Keown, Winterburn, Selley, Schwarz,
Parlour, Campbell, Smith, Wright
Subs: McGoldrick (Wright h-t), Linighan, Bartram
Coventry: Ogrizovic, Pickering, Pressely, Busst, Morgan, Flynn,
Rennie, Darby, Jones, Wegerle, Dublin
Subs: Ndlovu (Jones 54), Borrows (Morgan 72), Gould
Result : Arsenal (2) 2 Coventry (0) 1
Scorers : Wright 13, 32 Wegerle 81 (pen)
Bookings: Wright Morgan, Pressley
Att : 31725
Referee : A Wilkie (Chester-le-Street)
Another win, another Wright goal, another Wright booking, another day
at Highbury. A reasonable performance by the team as a whole, though a
failure to convert superiority into goals in the second half meant an
anxious last 10 minutes as some Coventry pressure caused one or two
moments of panic in the Arsenal defence. So, a fifth win in a row, and
the 8th in the last 9 games mean things are trundling along quite
nicely at the moment. Mind you I wouldn't yet claim to be completely
happy, because there is still too much reliance on Ian Wright.
Yesterday's match was dominated by Wright, despite only being on the pitch for half the game. A groin injury sustained just before half time means he is likely to miss the next couple of weeks, and his sixth booking of the season incurs a 3 match suspension starting on November 3rd. Arsenal are thus likely to be without their primary source of goals for the next month. However, it is nicer to dwell on the happier side of Wright's game yesterday. His 14th and 15th goals of the season meant this was the 10th successive match in which he'd scored, which was confirmed to have broken David Jack's 63 year old record. The man is nothing short of phenomenal, and barring injury, seems certain to go down as one of, if not the greatest goalscorer in Arsenal's history. Anyway, to the game itself. The first half was, for the most part, dominated by the Gunners. A bright start saw a couple of nice moves from Arsenal, before a lovely bit of play ended in Busst heading against his own crossbar. Campbell turned well on the half way line, and the ball then went via Schwarz to Dixon, who played a good ball into space down the right for Parlour to run onto. His early whipped cross looked to be falling perfectly onto the unmarked Wright's head before Busst desperately flung himself at the ball and managed to divert it off the top of the crossbar for a corner. Soon afterwards came the goal. Rennie dallied on the edge of his own area and his clearance was blocked by Schwarz. The ball broke kindly and he took it on into the area before squaring to Wright, clear in the middle. Ten yards out he could hardly miss, and though Ogrizovic got a hand to the ball, it duly finished up nestling in the corner of the net.
Not long after that Parlour made another good run down the right, wriggled his way past Morgan before firing in a shot from a very acute angle which went across the face of goal and out for a throw in near the corner flag. A brave interception by Dixon then opened up the Coventry defence for Selley to run into space in the area, but he dragged his shot from 15 yards wide of the far post.
Wright's booking came when, after being frustrated in an attempt to outpace Pressley, he made a couple of fairly wild attempts to win the ball back. I think the second lunge was a genuine attempt at the ball, but he wasn't going to get away with two trips in a row, and Pressley was also booked for taking overly vigourous exception to the challenges.
Coventry then came back into it for a short period. Dublin mishit a reasonable chance before heading another cross just past the angle of post and crossbar. However any hopes of a comeback were squashed just after the half-hour. Perhaps expecting to be jumped at by Wright, Pressley made a rather comical mess of an attempt to head a long ball forward clear, and in fact ended up knocking the ball with the back of his arm perfectly into Wright's path. The crowd's handball appeal was strangled as Wright took the ball on and rounded the keeper before slotting easily home.
The rest of the half was dominated by Arsenal. Campbell did well to go round a defender and fire in a shot from an acute angle on the right which Oggie did well to block. Another Parlour run down the right ended with him playing a diagonal ball along the ground across the area which Smith was inches away from diverting into the net. A Schwarz drive from 20 yards was, perhaps unwittingly, diverted just the wrong side of the near post by Campbell.
McGoldrick replaced Wright at half time, and moved into Campbell's position on the left wing, with the latter moving to partner Smith up front. With no Wright, Arsenal went slightly off the boil in the second half. They still created some good chances though. Campbell read a through ball better than the Coventry defence and it came off his head into his path to give him a clear run at the keeper. He hit the shot reasonably well but Ogrizovic was able to plunge to his left and push it round the post. Parlour was still causing problems down the right, but a couple of good breaks ended with balls across the box just too far in front of the forwards.
Down the left McGoldrick turned back onto his right foot to deliver a good cross, but Campbell mistimed his header. Then Campbell played a lovely one-two with Parlour to get himself in for a shot from an angle on the right, but though well struck Ogrizovic again pulled off a great save.
Meanwhile, with Ndlovu replacing Cobi Jones, Coventry were looking a bit more threatening. Selley tripped Wegerle on the edge of the area and from the resultant free kick Morgan fired in a vicious shot which Seaman did well to push away. Soon afterwards Arsenal had a good break down the middle. Campbell played the ball back to Smith whose first time pass found Selley running into space in the left side of the area. Unfortunately he hurried his left foot shot and put the ball wide of the near post.
The Coventry goal came after a bit of panic in the Arsenal defence. The ball was headed into the air and Winterburn clumsily mistimed his jump and succeeded only in landing on top of Dublin. Wegerle sent Seaman the wrong way with the penalty. The goal caused an unnecessarily worrying final ten minutes with Coventry suddenly realising they might get something out of the match. The most worrying moment was when Keown and Ndlovu contested a ball bouncing between them just inside the area, and Keown appeared to knock it away with his arm. Fortunately the ref had already blown for a push by the Coventry player.
Arsenal were comfortably in control for 80% of this match, and should have had a 3 or 4 goal lead before Coventry pulled one back. The defence weren't really tested until the last 10 minutes when there were one or two moments of panic. I thought Keown, in for Adams (an ankle injury) did reasonably well defensively. In midfield Parlour continued his recent good form, finding a lot of space down the right with some good runs, and producing some decent crosses. Schwarz also had another good game, particularly in the first half, and Selley did well enough as a replacement for Jensen, though he had 3 reasonable chances with which he took his emulation of JJ a bit too far. Campbell also had 3 or 4 decent chances, though only one of them was a glaring miss. I fear though if Wright does miss the next 3 games through injury and then the following 3 through suspension, that goal scoring could become a problem again unless Campbell and Smith buck up a bit.
Report by Derek Brownjohn.
Arsenal 2 Coventry 1 att: 31,700ish (Why?)Adams had a knock and so Keown came in. Selley replaced Jensen in midfield, with Parlour and Schwartz. Smith, Campbell and Wright remained up front in Merse's absence. Coventry were bloody hopeless from the opening kick off. Defensively they were all over the place. Parlour was getting acres of space down the right wing. Parlour nearly opened the scoring with a typical Parlour run to the edge of the six yard box. He unfortuntely dragged his shot wid of the left hand post. A Coventry defender hit the bar from a Dixon cross, an effort which Dixon himself would have been proud. The dissarray was finally punished when a Coventry defender was disposessed on the edge of the box by the ever improving Stefan Schwarz. He crossed to Wright who had the easiest of chances to put us 1-0 up. The second soon followed after a Koewn punt down the middle was hopelessly mis-judged by the defender. He then fell over the ball and punched the ball through to Wright who rounded Ogrizovic for the second. All rather comfortable really. Every corner looked dangerous and Wright was having a field day. He did of course have to get booked, stupidly kicking a defender after getting in a needless scuffle. He then went and got himself injured just before half time. McGoldrick replaced him in the second half. Coventry did manage to tighten things up a bit but we still looked the more likely scorers. Campbell played through the middle had his shot well pushed away. Then after a neat exchange with Smith Ogrizovic neatly got down at the near post. Ndlovu came on for Jones for Coventry which prevented Dixon getting as far forward as he had. Parlour still continued to make fine inroads down the right flank but failed to produce any really telling crosses. This was not helped by Campbell's inability to lose his marker (though he may have been marking the central defender) and Smith being completely anonymous. Eddie once again proved himself to be the most consistent footballer in the country. With ten minutes to go Coventry got a penalty after Bould and Seaman had got into each others way and in the ensuing scramble Dublin was pushed to the ground. Wegerle tucked away the kick was gave us ten minutes to hang on in a game that should have been all over. Coventry forced some pretty desperate defending in this time but never actually forced Seaman to say. The final whistle was greeted with some relief.
Wright could be out for up to four weeks, but he will now receive a three match ban. Wright now leads the Premiership scoring chart with Sutton and Cole on 9 goals.
Report by Trevor Collins