Reserves - Arsenal v Portsmouth 19/08/97

Arsenal reserve match

Avon Insurance Combination, 19th August 1997

Arsenal 2 Portsmouth 2

Scorers: Hughes, Black

No big report this time I'm afraid. After a night of excess my memory is severely dulled. However, the result was 2:2, our defence was generally untroubled. The Pompey goals were a result of two individual errors. The first from Lee Dixon, giving away a penalty having been rounded by their winger (which happened several times) and the second when TA seemed to be left standing, perhaps by the same guy, on the right edge of the box, from a situation where he seemed to have any danger covered.

TA was definitely not back to match fitness, although he did end-up on a couple of occasions remonstrating with the forwards when they didn't slip the ball through the last line of defence to pick-up his run into the opposing penalty box!

Other plus points.

Michael Black - very industrious, scored a goal, big hand in the other. I still am not sure he would do to well in the Premiership. He seems to bustle people off the ball rather than beat them for speed. With his size (sadly he reminds me too much of Marco Gabbiadini) he is unlikely to have too much success with this style against top defenders. However, he never stopped going, has a good shot, and once he chooses to beat the last defender, rather than always crossing from the corner post, he could be very productive.

Stephen Hughes - the most attacking game I have seen him play for a long time. He was nearly invisible in the 1st half, but seemed to be everywhere in the second, including getting good headers in under pressure in the six yard box. Another couple of powerful shots from the edge of the area as well. Very comfortable on the ball, riding several hard challenges which would have seen Jensen, Hillier, McGoldrick lose possession, before splaying a 30 yd pass across the field to change the point of attack.

Nicholas Anelka - once again the best player on the park. He has it all. He is literally impossible to knock off the ball, his balance is supreme. He reads the game and has the vision of the Merse, with a pass to match. He made both goals with weighted balls through the defence, curling around their backs into the path of Black on both occasions. These were not passes made on the break, behind retreating players either; they were both from cluttered central midfield with several players within yards of him. The best of the match was one such to Black, after Anelka had beaten two challenges after a wicked acceleration from standing. Black was left with only the keeper to beat, and put the ball wide. Anelka is definitely a Bergkamp not a Wright. He strolls around looking vaguely interested, then all of a sudden, bam, a puff of dust and he's gone; to intercept, tackle, collect a pass, chase down a lost cause - and he does it all too! I can see some people moaning that he's lazy - because of the way he strolls - but believe me he is committed (oh yeah, and has a pretty dang good shot on him as well). My worry is, that if he can't manage to get to games on time he is not going to get his first team break. Wreh may not be used to London traffic yet, but Anelka has been here long enough. And in the immortal words of Perdy, "why the f**ck doesn't he use the tube!"

Strikers in the six yard box - Ever since the arrival of WWW this has been one of our biggest failings. Before that, if ever there was a loose ball, we had Merse, Smudger, Rocky, Thomas, Marwood, even Groves, steaming-in to collect rebounds etc. After WWW arrived everyone seemed to think this was his job alone. I think was one of the biggest factors in making us such a lopsided strike-force, and one of the reasons I was so happy to see Platt arrive at Highbury - I thought he would provide that extra person following-up in the six yard box. I am very happy to say that although he did little else, Wreh's instincts are definitely those of a striker. Several times he launched himself bravely at crosses and rebounds, and he was always making the run through when he saw someone was going to shoot. Hughes and Black also popped-up in this area a number of times - Hughes to score from Black's parried shot. Most encouraging.

report by Miguel Ferros

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