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