Record Breaker

Last updated : 29 December 2005 By Jim Bonner
Last night we suffered our record Premiership defeat in the space of 45 minutes at the hands of Arsenal.

To be honest I don't think we played that badly and we started bright. The problem is that if a team with as bad defence as ours (Brian Priske really shouldn't play centre back) any time we went forward and made a slight mistake Arsenal came at us at lightning pace on the break and their finishing was so good that if my memory serves me correctly they scored with every shot they had in the first half. Even if their penalty was debateable.

Nevertheless I think we never gave up and come out stronger in the second half and had a decent spell of possession even if we only created one clear chance that hit the crossbar but in truth Lehmann had little to do and Arsenal probably took their foot off the gas. It was obvious that Harry wasn't too concerned about this game as Stefanovic and O'Neil were both left out completely to save them for the game against Fulham which we really must win considering results failed to go our way last night as Birmingham drew and West Brom won.

Credit to the travelling fans last night, even though it was bitterly freezing (I was in the front row, right in the corner of the stand and couldn't feel my feet) we really did create an atmosphere in one corner of the ground to completely show up the poor Arsenal support who's best song was a poor rendition of "Are you Tottenham in disguise?" I just wish the bloody "Easeh" chants would stop every time we got a throw in or a corner though. Our minds now must be focused on the Fulham game coming up. Fulham are certainly not Arsenal and it is a game we really should win.

In other news Lua Lua faces an FA Charge which could see him banned for basically voicing his opinion. What a ridiculous charge! Also it looks like Emanuel Olisadebe will be joining us on a pay as you play deal. Will he be worth it or will he be another Ricardo Fuller?

Only time will tell...