Reserves - Arsenal vs West Ham 07/09/99

FA Premier Reserve League (South)

Tues 7 September 1999

Arsenal 4 (4) West Ham 0 (0)

Arsenal: Lukic; McLeod, Winterburn (Cole), Grimandi (Canoville), Weston; Malz, Vernazza, Gray, Overmars (Norbert); Riza, Wreh

Scorers: Wreh (2), Overmars (2)

Overmars was good but sporadic (much like he is in the senior team) - he scorched past his man on a number of occasions and ended up with 2 goals himself (1 a curling free kick into the top right hand corner from just outside the box and just left of centre and the 2nd was a great chest control into the box from a GG long ball). He looked sharp at times but perhaps a little lost when he was moved to a central striker role. The look of fear on the winger each time he ran at him was comical (to be fair the WHU player did look quite young an MO must have been a daunting prospect). Overall - a good warm up for Saturday.

Nigel was strong and solid and seemed to enjoy the ability to get forward/be creative due to the time and space the opposition gave him. He set up Porky's 2nd goal with a strong run down the left and a decent cross onto his head at the far post. Overall - he's back.

Gilles was strong throughout and had a couple of good shots. His reading of the game was (IMO) very good. WHU barely had a sniff with him and Rhys Weston (who looks a very good prospect) as the centre pairing. Overall - I am increasingly confident (and I think Gilles is as well) that he can step in and do the job whenever required.

In Australia quite a few years ago there was an uproar in cricket circles when the off spinner Peter Taylor (from New South Wales) was selected for the Test team when Mark Taylor (also from NSW) was scoring an absolute bucket of runs and we needed another opening batsmen. The bar-room consensus was that the selectors had picked the wrong Taylor. It took Mark another couple of seasons to get into the team - and we all know what happened then don't we English gooners :-)

Anyway, the point of this ramble is that I hope that there is a Dieter Malz playing for 1860 Munich and they shipped the wrong one over by mistake because Stefan was poor (especially first touch and decision making). Hopefully this was just rustiness after a long lay off, but with the quality of the opposition, I expected something a little more impressive. Overall - Only heard one side of the argument, unfair to judge at this stage.

Finally, honourable mention to Alan Mcleod at right back who was up and down the wing all night and totally covered his man, reading the play very well and to Blind John who puled off a cracker of a save in the second half diving high to his left to tip a shot from outside the box over his bar.

Once again, a most enjoyable evening at THOF.

Rhys Penning

It was quite hard to judge just how well we played since WHAM were the most shockingly awful team I've seen in years. They really couldn't string 2 passes together and, having gone in 4-0 down at half time, spent most of the second half trying to avoid letting in any more goals, rather than trying to score some themselves.

Here's my player profiles:

1. Blind John - spectator for most of the game, but did make one blinding tip over late in the game which would have been just like the golden days, if he'd ever made saves like that in the golden days.

2. Allan McLeod - reminds me a bit of a right sided NW3 - small and tenacious - did well.

3. Nutty - reminds me a bit of a left sided NW3 - had a bit of a run around, didn't take it too seriously, fell over a couple of times and just lay there having a rest, came off after about an hour.

4. Paolo Vernazza - much better game than against Derby. Lots of good prompting and a couple of storming shots. Didn't get sent off, which was nice.

5. Gilles Grimandi - as ferociously committed as always. Stomped all over Abou (metaphorically, not physically). Came off after about an hour.

6. Rhys Weston - probably the player who appears to have improved the most over the summer. A bit like another Matty Upson, although on the couple of occasions that he turned up on the left wing he lacked the Matty shuffle.

7. Stefan Malz - he's a bit of a shambling presence but he retains possession pretty well. My main concern is that he doesn't look up quickly enough. There were a few occasions where MO11 or Omer Riza made great runs through the defence and if he'd looked up he could have slipped a pass through easily, but he was still starring down at the ball.

8. Julian Gray - I thought he had a very good game, although he does run around like Chris Waddle. He was very good at receiving the ball in a difficult position and making space to pass it on.

9. Chris 'The Enigma' Wreh - I reckon if we could clone Wreh and Riza together we would have one good striker. CW is obviously fat and with limited control but he does always seem to score goals (and in truth both of his goals were well taken) whilst Riza works hard, has pace but doesn't really seem to know what he's doing. Having said that, Wreh's second half performance was pretty much as dire as it gets, culminating in a little move he performed on the edge of their box where he managed to bring himself down for what looked an obvious penalty, but the ref didn't give it.

10. Omer Riza - looked better than against Derby. Battled hard and made some good runs. Still looks too lightweight though.

11. MO11 - All very easy. Did work hard, particularly in the 1st half, and scored two good goals. I reckon he could have got 5 or 6 with Manu or Dennis in the team cos he made a number of good darting runs that weren't spotted. Substituted after about an hour.

Subs - Lee Canoville, Guillaume Norbert and Ashley Cole - all came on at the stage of the game when we were playing keep ball so didn't really have the opportunity to shine.

Quite a good crowd again - lots of kids and street youf. Oh well, if it keeps them from robbing grannies then it must be a good thing.

Gareth Williams

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