Arsenal MATCH and FAN TROUBLE report

By • Oct 19th, 2008 • Category: Match Reports |

Written by Max O Collins and Karl Hinchcliffe

Yesterdays match was the ultimate football cliché – a game of two halves.

With a changed 4-5-1 line-up it was apparent that Everton came to the Emirates Stadium to defend, and boss the midfield, looking for a goal on the counter. Low and behold, in the 8th minute, on the cracking green surface at Ashburton Grove, Steven Pienaar was slotted in down the left by Leon Osman. The terrier like midfielder played a neat one two with Pienaar and buried a shot into the bottom corner past the despairing Manuel Almunia.

What on earth had happened? Had the players swapped their kits? Everton don’t score in the 8th minute away to Arsenal, it seemed somewhat rude! Plain outrageous! But the players took it in their stride, seeing out the first half, and I dare say, creating a few chances as well. The most notable of which was a Joleon Lescott header that beat Almunia, but not Gael Clichy. The Frenchman cleverly read the situation to clear the ball off the line past his beaten keeper.

Arsenal, did threaten in the first half, and showed what they were capable of, but only in patches. Robin Van Persie had a wild shot well saved by Tim Howard, blasting the ball at the American’s body, when a cool head was necessary. Phil Jagielka and Lescott defended bravely. Coming up against Emmanuel Adebayor, both had to read every long ball perfectly, or else the lanky Togolese would have been through on goal. The whistle came after 2 minutes of added time, and the singing came from the minute corner where the Evertonains were stood. Another half like this and the blue boys would be in heaven.


The second period started, and a few minutes in, hearts were broken. Samir Nasri, on the edge of the area kept a shot low and buried it into the same corner in which Osman had opened the scoring. 1-1 and the game was slowly swinging Arsenal’s way.

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The Gunners then went ahead 15 minutes later. A scramble in the box resulted in a parry from Howard which flew onto Robin Van Persie’s head and past the stranded American. Not even the valiant attempt of Leighton Baines on the line could keep the ball out. 2-1, and it wasn’t looking pretty. Arsenal, played with confidence, and their game flowed. A few tempers flared. Tony Hibbert got booked for a hard tackle on Nasri, this led to a typical over reaction from Arsenals Prima Madonna’s and Clichy also saw his name taken in the referees black book.

Everton failed to really test Almunia in the second half, and the game was put beyond them in the last minute of time by Theo Walcott who slotted home his team’s third. He had played his part in the comeback, having been brought on at half time. We can take heart from our first half performance but it’s now time for us to deliver for the full 90 before we find ourselves in real trouble at the foot of the table.

Player Ratings:

It was a better display which the toffees can build on. Fellaini looked good as a target man, although he needs to sort out his passing. Rodwell fitted snugly into the Carsley role. He managed to keep Fabregas and Nasri quiet for the whole of the first half. Pienaar and Osman were their usual tenacious selves. Jagielka can’t get much better; he single handily keeps the team together with his passion and heart on sleeve attitude. Baines is looking better game by game, and Hibbert’s match sharpness is keeping Neville restricted to bench action… thankfully. Yakubu was reasonably sloppy, but showed glimpses of class. His work rate and endeavour however needs to improve. Who was our captain today? Arteta needs to impose himself on the game more, he just isn’t his former self. Next up, United at home, it doesn’t really get much easier does it?!

HOWARD – 7
HIBBERT – 7
JAGIELKA – 7
LESCOTT – 6
BAINES – 6
RODWELL – 8
ARTETA – 6
FELLAINI – 6
OSMAN – 7
PIENAAR – 7
YAKUBU – 6

Arsenal Ratings (starting 11)

ALMUNIA – 7
SONG BILLONG – 5
TOURE – 7
SILVESTRE – 7
CLICHY – 6
EBOUE – 6
FABREGAS – 6
DENILSON – 6
NASRI – 7
DIABY – 6
VAN PERSIE – 8

Karls comments on the fan trouble, from his seat.

As a side note I’d just like to comment on the disgraceful behaviour from a segment of Arsenal ‘fans’ who spat on our supporters from the middle tier, this was also followed by them throwing coins/lighters and pretty much anything else they could get their hands on. This caused ugly scenes when the stewards and police showed extreme levels of disinterest to this happening.

If you are going to have one set of supporters sat above another it needs to be stewarded properly. This wasn’t the case yesterday. The police reacted not by looking for the culprits but to indiscriminately draw batons and both women and children were hit. Police and stewards at times seem to have a real issue with our fans and I think minds are made up about who will cause trouble before we have even arrived.

Ugly scenes continued outside as Arsenal fans were allowed to throw objects at our supporters walking down a gangway to the awaiting coaches. The police again chose to ignore this but were quick to draw batons on any Blue reacting to being struck with coins etc, whilst calling us ‘Scouse *****. All in a day’s work though I suppose from our none prejudiced public servants. Before you go, please register on our forums and come discuss the game with us.

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17 Responses »

  1. Good first half showing yesterday, thrown away in the second. Why do we never alter our tactics during a game when they are being undone.

    Agree about the trouble, their fans, stewards and police were all appalling. I wonder if the policeman hitting the kids told his wife about it. Im sure he wouldnt be the big man out of uniform. The discrimination shown against us at some of these southern grounds is appalling.

  2. He is tactically inept, thus meaning he cant make changes to compensate foe the opposition.

    We dont have enough muscle in the middle of the park and we are totally devoid of pace. We are well and truely in the shit. Our record since the Fiorentina game makes me shudder. Its relegtion form.

    The trouble by the way was disgusting. Brave men throwing things down at kids and women. The police need to have a word with themselves. Waving batons around Punch & Judy style. They were like a rent=a=mob.

  3. Gooner, in peace. I wasn’t at the game yesterday and I’m horrified to hear about the disturbance. Hope they find whoever was responsible and deal with them – we don’t want people like this at our club.

    Good luck for the rest of the season – you’ve got a good squad and a good manager, so it will come together.

  4. i saw what happended from where i was sitting. I have to say this was the first time id seen anything like this happen at the emirates, this a side though it was disgraceful and inexcusible. The fans above the everton fans were sitting in the club level seats, most of them arent actually fans anyway. I agree that they should have been punished as they were a disgrace to club they claim to support.

  5. u scouse pricks deserve everythin u get thats what happens when u come to arsenal go help u lot when u come back next season

  6. ignore that dickhead with the 7.06pm post, i’m an arsenal fan and would normally expect that behaviour at anfield when they’re above us. nowhere else.

  7. I was sitting at the other end of the stadium and could see Everton fans being detained and the police running in etc but I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

    The people above the away fans are club level so I don’t have a clue how pr*cks got into there! None of that crap should be tolerated anywhere.

    On a completely different note; your arsenal player ratings are a bit harsh to say the least! lol

  8. Hi, I’ve heard a lot about the bother at arsenal, I’m told that a group of Everton fans started to try and climb over into the adjacent Arsenal area to have a go at some Arsenal fans, this is what provoked some idiots above to start throwing stuff, and what led the police to leap in. Two Old Bill were isolated and seemed to start lashing out with truncheons out of panic. The throwing of objects from above came _after_ the outbreak of violence it wasn’t the cause. That said, we don’t want this behaviour at Arsenal, it’s always the innocent who suffer, and there has been little history of friction between Arsenal and Everton fans, sfaia. The matter is not over, Arsenal are investigating as are the arsenal supporters organizations. Anyone caught on video throwing stuff will get a life ban. All genuine Arsenal fans would like to apologise to any genuine Everton fans that were caused any distress, and especially those with young children. If anyone has any photos or video please send it c/o the stadium manager, Emirates Stadium.

  9. Thanks for all your comments, apart from poster number 5.

    Mick, I believe somebody will have a video from the game, try our forums.

    Franny, thanks for your comment, I think we try to be as un-biast as possible with our ratings.

  10. I’d like to echo Mick the Gooner’s comment. I was there, I saw what happened and it’s true what he says. That said, there is no call for things to be thrown at away supporters under any circumstances and it made me do a litle bit of sick in my mouth when I read about the extent of the disturbance. Apologies Toffees on behalf of a few ignorant d**kweasels

  11. I was at the game yesterday and saw all the trouble flare up because things were being thrown from the tier above the Everton fans. I believe the situation was made worse by the reaction of the baton wielding police who just lashed out at anybody who dared to complain. Evertonians who regularly go to Arsenal away could not believe what happened on Saturday as these games are usually relatively incident free.

  12. Thanks to the Arsenal fans who have come on to condemm the behaviour witnessed yesterday, Ive been to the Emirates/Highbury on many occasions and it has been trouble free.

    I would add though that the throwing and spitting started well before the incident and was a pre cursor for the main trouble.

    Coins and other objects were thrown after our goal in the first half and this continued right up to the trouble with the police and stewards.

  13. there is a video of it on nsno.co.uk

  14. The people in the relevant club level seats shouldnt be hard for the authorities to find.

    But I also notice, and this is across a number of Everton sites that you have failed to acknowledge the fact that an Eveton fan punched a steward which is wear it all kicked off (ie the police getting involved) and then numerous missiles were hurled, possibly at stewards and the police but it was Arsenal fans that took the brunt of it. I was hit by a coin, luckily hit my scarf, the guy sat next to me was hit by a lighter and one guy came running down the aisle with a cut on his face, he was sat about 30 seats away from all the trouble and had his children with him. So yes, there were a certain section of ‘Arsenal fans’ in the wrong – but not everybody in the Everton end was an angel.

  15. I always like to read the reviews of a game from the oppositions stand point as it provides a good counter balance to the pro-gooner opinions on the Arsenal websites (even though fans can often be more critical of their own team than any other).
    I think this is a good account of the match a paints a fair reflection on how it went, however I have to echo the comments of the earlier contributor regarding the scores given to the players. You actually give the Everton players a higher average score the Arsenal team. Not sure how you come to that conclusion given the final score!

  16. To comments above regarding ratings,

    6 is the average, I think we’ve been generous with some of your score lines, because certainly Fabregas and Denison amongst others were not average (6) against us, they were rather poor. It wasn’t an average performance.

    So remember, 6 is an average performance – Lescott (6), means we think his performance was average.

  17. to gooner, wot the fuck r on u prick?!, ur arsenal not millwall. ha ha ha u make me laugh tho. arsenal was a walk in the park as always. it was u lot tyhat got done you fucking gobshite.