Lacklustre start to 2005

Rising somewhat hungover after some New Years Eve celebrations in Times Square, I saw the Arsenal team selection and had the same optimism that I had back on the same date in 2001 when we ended up 1-0 victors thanks to Deano's penalty save from Vivas. The reason? From memory, the Arsenal side on that day was weakened by injury and they had that lumbering blonde haired defender in the side, whose name escapes me. Fast forward four years, and there's a similar sense of vulnerability about the Arsenal team.....Hoyte? Clichy? Fabregas? Almunia? And to be fair, for the first thirty minutes or so, we looked fairly comfortable and capable of springing another surprise. However, the first goal was soft to say the least, a ball given away lazily in midfield, and Ljungberg allowed to turn and shoot despite having three defenders standing directly behind him. Unfortunately, it was the first of three soft goals and despite the new Valley hero's bullet free-kick, we surrendered three points which at half time we should have felt fairly confident of securing.

Any momentum that TEK's goal gave us was quickly broken by Ljungberg's second goal which was well-worked but he was given too much time to shoot and Kiely failed to close down the angle satisfactorily. Curbs' comments at half-time about the 'passive' offside rule sounded hollow - good luck to Arsenal for taking advantage of the rule as it stands. It may be 'impossible' to defend against, but it sounded like Curbs was looking for excuses. The third goal was dreadful and effectively ended the game - Jonathan Fortune's header went straight into the path of Van Persie who finished clinically.

A somewhat anti-climatic start to the season, and not the uplifting hangover cure many fans were seeking. However, in less than 48 hours there's a chance to repair the damage at an improving Blackburn where we secured a great win last season. It'll be interesting to see if Curbs makes his first team changes for several weeks in light of five games in a fortnight and the tired second half performance against the Gunners.