Stand up if you’re five nil up.

Arsenal-v-Derby County 22/09/2007 (KO: 3pm)

I have writer’s block. At the present time all I want to write is:

“Wheeeeee!”

That’s probably not good enough though, so how about this instead?

A beautiful day in north London. The sun is shining and 60,000 fans have broken out their short sleeves and sunglasses for today’s match against the Rams. They’re relegation favourites – so deep down there’s a wee worry that our fine run might be brought to a screeching halt by these unlikely opponents. This is a normal footballing concern – sod’s law says that if you’ve beaten every other bugger so far, you’ll end up losing to a bottom of the league club.

Thankfully that turned out not to be the case. Far from it in fact.

Derby never really got a hold on the game. From start to finish Arsenal dominated the pitch, playing a fast, flowing, precise game which saw the team playing at its deadly best. An early goal from Diaby (an absolutely corking one at that) after ten minutes heralded the start of what turned out to be a barrage of goals.

The superb Adebayor (who has been on fine form) scored at 25 and 50, and Cesc Fabregas managed to squeeze a goal in at 70 mins before being substituted, before Adebayor completed his hat trick ten minutes from the final whistle.

Final score: Arsenal 5-0 Derby County

Gooners make orange squash of Sevilla.

Arsenal-v-Sevilla 19/09/2007 (KO: 7.45pm)

Autumn’s finally drawing in, and the cooler evening weather meant that fans were once more kitted out in warm coats, and even a few scarves!

The first half opened well, with plenty of skilled passing from both sides – although Sevilla seemed to have a touch of the Arsenal about them, with excellent passing culminating in nothing in the box. A goal (which I’d love to put down to skill, but we can thank the famous Arsenal luck for it instead!) just short of the half hour put Arsenal ahead and the crowd went wild. There were more shots on both goals before the break, but none hit their mark.

The second half started in the same vein as the first, with much movement but few attempts on goal. The game started to heat up though, and towards the end Sevilla made a determined attempt to play catch up – but were no match for our boys. Van Persie netted out second goal, and Eduardo bagged our third during injury time.

Final score: Arsenal 3-0 Sevilla

We are top the league, say we are top the league!

No pomp and circumstance.

Arsenal-v-Portsmouth 02/09/2007 (KO: 1.30pm)

A beautiful late summer’s day in north London, and Arsenal play 40 minutes with ten men and still end the game 3-1. A lovely result which means our boys have won four out of four so far at home this season.

A penalty after 8 minutes was tucked away by Adebayor, who easily sent calamity James diving the wrong way. We continued to play down the flanks, steering around the mass of Pompey players in the middle of the pitch, and for once weren’t afraid to shoot. Shots weren’t always accurate although this didn’t bother us very much:

*shot flies wide past goal*
*the crowd en masse let out a disappointed ‘ooooh’
Bloke beside me, laughing: “It was miles off mind you”
Bloke in front of me, also laughing: “Ah but it was close though”
*raucous laughter*
Bloke beside me: “People watching the highlights later will think “What the bloody hell are the crowd making that noise for, it was nowhere near the bloody goal”
Bloke in front of me: “Yeah, but we’re easily pleased aren’t we?”

Easily pleased? Yup, but it’s nice to see players having a hopeful punt in the rough direction of the goal, rather than playing beautiful flowing football to get it up there and then fannying around uncertainly just outside the box until they lose possession again. Did I mention that one of the suggested names for this blog was “forfuckssakejustshoot”?...

Fabregas scored our second goal, taking us into half time with smiles and a comfortable lead.

The second half didn’t start well, with Senderos being given a red card just four minutes after the break (dodgy in my eyes, but there you go…). Despite this, Pompey striker Utaka’s free kick was saved by Almunia, and the rebound went skying over the bar. Our 2-0 scoreline remained intact for the time being…

…and was increased to 3-0 just ten minutes later when Rosicky powered a shot through Glen Johnson’s legs and into James’ goal.
Sadly Portsmouth went straight up the other end a minute later and Kanu scored a rather freakish goal to bring the score up to 3-1.

In the end though we played well, and dominated possession towards the end of the match. A well earned victory for the Gunners.

Final score: Arsenal 3-1 Portsmouth