Hennessey Gold

ARSENAL 1 WOLVES 1
by Ricky Butler at The Emirates

Arsenal did not enjoy any Festive cheer as they failed to break down the stubborn resistance of Mick McCarthy's strugglers at The Emirates yesterday.

Despite the luxury of an early goal - a cool finish from Gervinho inside eight minutes - Arsene Wenger's side missed the opportunity to jump above Chelsea into the top four, as they ran into a goalkeeper on the very top of his game.

Wayne Hennessey was the only thing that stood between Arsenal and a comfortable victory as he made a series of outstanding saves, even after his team had been reduced to ten men following the controversial dismissal of Nenad Milijas fifteen minutes from time.

''Yes it is frustrating,'' said Wenger. ''But I am more frustrated with the result and not the performance. You cannot fault our attitude, commitment or desire to win the game.''

His side were given the perfect start. A Wolves attack broke down in the 7th minute and the ball fell to the recalled Tomas Rosicky down the right, who fed Yossi Benayoun. The Chelsea loanee, making his first Premier League start for the club in place of Theo Walcott, threaded a lovely ball through to Gervinho, and the Ivorian coolly rounded Hennessey before slotting into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.


It looked like being a case of how many Arsenal would get after that as Wolves struggled to get out of their own half. Robin van Persie, just two short of Alan Shearer's record of 36 Premier League goals in a calendar year, was denied by Hennessey, while Mikel Arteta saw an effort blocked by Christophe Berra.

But McCarthy's men shocked the Emirates with an equaliser seven minutes before the break. A corner from the left by Milijas was cleared only as far as Stephen Hunt, who's deflected effort fell kindly for Steven Fletcher to nod beyond the stranded Wojciech Szczesny from eight yards.

The second half became attack against defence as Wenger's team threw everything forward in search of the win they so desperately needed. On another day they may have scored four or five, but with Hennessey in this sort of form they ended up with only frustration.

His best save was from a Per Mertesaker header midway through the second period - following a superb left wing cross from Rosicky with the outside of his right foot - while he performed further heroics to deny van Persie, twice, and Gervinho.

The hosts claimed they should have had a penalty when a cross from Laurent Koscienly clearly struck Roger Johnson's arm, but referee Stuart Atwell waved away their appeals and booked Thomas Vermaelen for his protests instead.

Whether that was on his mind when Milijas dived in on Arteta soon after is unclear, but despite the challenge being neither two-footed or malicious, Atwell produced a red card and the game now appeared to be Arsenal's for the taking. However, despite a flurry of late chances, they could find no way past Hennessey, who denied Vermaelen with another outstanding save at the death.

''We could play that game 20 times and we would win 19,'' said Wenger. ''The keeper had the game of his life. Yes, we have missed an opportunity, but we need to keep going and take the positives from the performance,'' he added.

With London derbies to come against QPR and Fulham over the next six days, things are not about to get any easier for them either.

ARSENAL - Szczesny 6, Djourou 6 (Chamakh 82), Mertesaker 7, Koscielny 7, Vermaelen 7, Song 6 (Ramsey 72, 6), Atreta 7, Rosicky 7, Gervinho 7, Benayoun 7 (Arshavin 64, 6), van Persie 7.

WOLVES - Hennessey 9, Zubar 7 (Stearman 51, 6), Johnson 7, Berra 7, Ward 7, Forde 6 (Guediorra 72, 6), Henry 6, Milijas 6, Jarvis 7, Hunt 6 (Doyle 86), Fletcher 7

REFEREE; S. Atwell 5 - Got the big calls wrong and seemed to lose control.

ATTENDANCE; 59, 686

Racism in football, an alternative view

So, the racism in football row will not go away. Luis Suarez received an eight match ban and a £40,000 fine after being found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, while John Terry is due to face criminal charges for his own alleged racist offence against Anton Ferdinand.
Despite the best efforts of campaigns like 'Kick It Out' and 'Show Racism The Red Card' it appears racism is still alive and well in our sport, and indeed our society. In fact I would go as far as to say it has never really gone away. The fact that fans no longer throw bananas and direct monkey chants at black players, in this country at least, does not mean the problem has disappeared, and it would naive to think it has.
I would go as far as to say that racism is actually a more serious issue now than it was in the 1980's. Our country has become much more multi-cultural and this has led to more racial tension in society. I also believe the 'Kick It Out' campaign has in fact made things worse. How? By constantly throwing out the same names with the same cliches whenever racism is mentioned. You know the ones, Viv Anderson, John Barnes, Ian Wright, Stan Collymore etc. all saying how progress has been made but there is still more work to do. Indeed. But what do they all have in common?? Yes, they are all black. The message, therefore, is that victims of racism are only black. The irony, of course, is that in itself is racist.
I have witnessed many incidents of white players receiving racist insults from black and Asian players in local grass roots football. But what generally happens is that it is laughed off, even by the officials. Yet as soon as a white player says anything remotely racist to a black or Asian player they face a lifetime ban. It is incidents like this that simply breed more racism.
Now I am all for equality, but things are not equal. Yes, I understand that black players had a difficult time in the dark days (excuse the pun) of the 1970's and 80's, but we do not need to over-compensate for that now. We need to treat all cases of prejudice equally, be they against blacks, whites, women or men. But that does not seem to be happening.
Of course the current high-profile cases have been offences committed by white players against black players, which again proves the point. I look forward to seeing the reaction to the first major racism case against a black player. I wonder what the 'Kick It Out' mob will make of that? I wonder who they will interview??
Racism is a two-way street and effects everyone, whatever your colour or creed, and we must never forget that. So, while Suarez and Terry are rightly being brought to task, many other incidents continue to go unpunished. While this continues to happen we will never see an end to a problem that has existed long before football. And that is a real shame.

Manchester City away...

Two  or three months ago I was dreading this fixture. City were beating everyone out of sight while we were losing 8-2 at Old Trafford and getting beaten by Blackburn.
But recent events meant my 8 year-old son Emerson and I travelled to Manchester in good spirits. City had just seen their unbeaten league record brought to an end at Chelsea, while we were on a eight match unbeaten run that had seen us close in on the top four. In fact victory here would put us just six points behind City with more than half the season still to play.
Despite the cold weather, and road works on every stretch of the M62, we arrived in Manchester 90 minutes before kick off. The first problem was finding somewhere to park. We had been warned about residence only parking on match days, but we found a little estate about two miles from the ground that seemed safe. There were no signs up and there were no yellow lines on the road.
We decided it would be okay and walked across the road to a little shop to ask directions to the ground. On the way we passed a secure car park where men in yellow jackets were charging £5 for the privilege of parking on a piece of land they did not even own. As a guy came out of the car park I asked him if it was safe to park on the estate opposite. He said he was not sure and asked if my car was worth a fiver.
''It's safe in here, and you get away quickly at the end,'' he said, pointing to the secure car park.
After a little discussion, Emerson and I decided it would be better if we moved the car, so I paid the fiver, a small price to pay for piece of mind.
The next problem was making it to the ground without slipping over on the icy paths. An old fella in front of us went down and took two or three others with him, but Emerson did not seem to mind and spent the 10 minute walk pretending to be an ice-skater.
As we approached the stadium we passed a guy selling City scarves and badges.
''How much are your Champions League scarves?'' I asked.
I don't think he saw the funny side...


Etihad Stadium

We walked across the sky blue bridge (Joe Mercer Way) and were greeted by the teams being announced on the big screens outside the Sky Blue Cafe. I was surprised to see Samir Nasri named in the starting XI for City, but Emerson was excited.
''I will be able to boo him now,'' he said.
On entering the ground we had to show our tickets not once but twice, and were then thoroughly searched. I even had to take off my woolly hat.
''You won't find anything in there,'' I said as the security fella looked at my bald, and now freezing cold, head.
Once inside the atmosphere was building up nicely. Emerson always likes to play a score prediction game and he was feeling confident.
''2-1 to us,'' he said.
I had to admit I was not that sure so I went for a safer 1-1.
Our seats were in the upper tier and the view was superb. The teams came out to a rendition of Blue Moon and, after the pleasantries were out the way, it was on with the action.

 
View from our seats.

We spent the first ten minutes either booing Nasri or singing 'Thursday nights, Channel 5' to the City fans on our right, but City started well and could have been two up before we had really got going. Aguero fired over from 8 yards, before Szczesny made great saves to deny Balotelli and the 'S**t Carlos Tevez!'.
But slowly we began to settle. Gervinho tested Hart in the City goal and, from the resulting corner, Ramsey brought another fine save from England's number one.
By now I had got bored of booing every touch from Nasri, although Emerson hadn't. Rather thoughtfully our former player had decided to wear bright yellow and orange boots to make him stand out, which made it easier for Emerson to spot him. It was only a little later that he realised several other City players had the same boots on...
Half time was goalless but we were reasonably satisfied. We had played well and I was sure that once Robin and Theo got going in the second half we would win. However, I was a little annoyed by some of the mindless abuse being aimed at Walcott but our so-called fans. During the first half it seemed everything was his fault.
''Move your ass Walcott,'' was the general theme, and Emerson, in particular, was very upset.
''Why are they picking on Theo?'' he asked. ''He is one of our best players.''
Now he may only be eight, but Emerson knows his stuff.
''He always sets up Robin for the goals, so we need him.''
I asked one of the idiots abusing him what he thought he was doing, and his reply was pretty much as I expected.
''He is f**king useless.''
Really??
In fairness he had not had the best first half but, as Emerson rightly pointed out, he had not received the ball so it was hard for him to impress.
As the teams came out for the second half Kolo Toure, who was playing well at the back for City, came over to the travelling Arsenal fans to applaud us, and he got a great reception back. You see Mr. Nasri, if you respect our club we will respect you.
The second half got off to the worst possible start when City scored within eight minutes. Djourou, who is someone that is nowhere near good enough, limped off with an injury meaning young Miguel was brought on at left back, with Koscienly moving to the right and Thomas Vermaelen the centre. The re-shuffle at the back seemed to cause the problems as Balotelli cut in from the left before firing in a shot that Szczesny could only push away. Aguero should have scored but the ball fell to Silva who couldn't miss from two yards.
Whenever Arsenal go behind, Emerson always grabs my hand. I'm not sure if he wants reassurance or if he is giving some to me, but this time it didn't last long as he caught sight of the City fans doing the 'Poznan' to our right. It was a great sight and was almost worth them scoring to witness it. Almost. But Emerson loved it.


Emerson enjoying himself in the ground.

''When we score, can we do that?'' he asked.
He almost did not have to wait long to find out. Theo was only denied by Hart (that would have shut the doubters up) before Robin chipped the ball home only for the linesman's flag to cut short our celebrations.
The City fans started up their own 'Poznan' again to mock our aborted celebrations, which I am sure I would have found funny had the decision not been so tight. In fact TV replays on MOTD 2 that night suggested he was level and we had in fact been robbed. Oh well...
The game really opened up after that and there could have been more goals at either end. We were fortunate not to concede again when Aguero fired just wide, while Zabaleta hit the post after Koscienly, who had been magnificent until then, gave the ball away.
We should have had a penalty when Richards clearly handled a cross from Koscielny right in front of the useless, fat referee Phil Dowd (he has never liked us) before Walcott was taken off. It was no real surprise as he had not really got into the match, but it was Arshavin who replaced him and suddenly we really had someone on the pitch who was not worthy of the shirt. I'm not really sure what has gone wrong with the little Russian, but he a shadow of the player we bought nearly three years ago and he clearly does not want to play for us anymore. He gave the ball away with his first two touches and then shot tamely into the side netting from a good position soon after. I turned to the guy who had earlier been abusing Walcott.
''Theo is a million times the player he (Arshavin) is.''
But I don't think he agreed.
''They are both f**king useless,'' was his well thought out response.
With time running out we really went for it as Chamakh replaced Mertesaker, but it was Vermaelen who came closest to rescuing us the point we deserved. Hart did well to tip over his stinging drive four minutes from time, before he then curled a great effort just wide in injury time. Yes, we need a new striker in January but in the mean time we could do worse than playing TV5 up there. Well at least we could if had any other fit defenders...
Amazingly the PA announced the man of the match was Nasri, no doubt just to rub our noses in it as he had been almost as anonymous as Walcott. The two best players on the pitch had been the goalkeepers, and the fact that Hart had been the busier of the two suggested we had been unlucky to lose.
Emerson certainly thought so as he spent the entire walk back to the car saying how well he thought we had played. He could not understand the abuse Theo had been given, but he said it was okay as he was still his second favourite player (after Robin of course).
We decided to go to McDonalds to let the traffic die down, and while we were in the queue a few young lads in City shirts came in and were talking about being top of the league. Emerson turned to them, slowly unzipped his coat and proudly showed them his Arsenal shirt. The boy is a legend.

Arsenal left backs - A potted history.

Arsenal have a history of great left backs, going back to the days of Eddie Hapgood in the 1930's, but such has been the consistency of the players in that position the club has only had 6 regular left backs over the last 45 years.

Bob McNab was signed by manager Bertie Mee from Huddersfield Town in 1966 and went on to make 365 appearances over the next nine years, scoring 6 goals. He helped the club win the European Fairs Cup in 1970 and the League and FA Cup double the following year. He also played in the 1972 FA Cup final defeat to Leeds United and the League Cup final defeats in 1968 and 1969, to Leeds and Swindon Town respectively. McNab left for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 1975, before ending his playing career in the United States, where he still lives.

Bob McNab - won the double.

Sammy Nelson, a Northern Ireland international who came through the ranks at Arsenal, was understudy to McNab for several years before finally holding down a regular spot after his departure in 1975. He played a total of 338 times for the club, scoring 12 goals, and won an FA Cup winners medal in 1979 with victory over Manchester United. He also played in the losing finals of 1978 and 1980, against Ipswich Town and West Ham United respectively, as well as the final of the European Cup Winners Cup, also in 1980 - a penalty shoot-out defeat to Valencia. He joined Brighton and Hove Albion in 1981 and played in their FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United two years later, before retiring. He now works in the insurance industry.

Sammy Nelson - an FA Cup winner

Manager Terry Neill paid over £1million for Crystal Palace left back Kenny Sansom in the summer of 1980, in a swap deal for Clive Allen, and he quickly became Nelson's successor. Sansom was a regular in the England side during his 8 years at Highbury and held the record for most capped player at the club until Patrick Vieira surpassed it 20 years later. In total Sansom played 394 times for Arsenal, scoring 6 goals, and won a League Cup winners medal in 1987, captaining the side in the 2-1 victory over Liverpool. He also played in the final the following year, a 3-2 defeat to Luton Town. Sansom moved to Newcastle United in the summer of 1988, but he never recaptured his best form in the North-East and returned to London to play for Queens Park Rangers a year later. He later played for Coventry City, Everton, Brentford and Watford and now works in the Arsenal media department.

Kenny Sansom with the League Cup in 1987, his only success at Arsenal.

Nigel Winterburn had been signed by George Graham in 1987 and initially played at right back until Sansom's departure. His first full season in the side saw Arsenal win their first League title in 18 years, and Winterburn played in every match. He went on to become one of the most successful players in the clubs history, winning further League titles in 1991 and 1998 and the FA Cup in 1993 and 1998. He also played in the European Cup Winners Cup final success over Parma in 1994, and the final defeat to Real Zaragoza the following year. In total Winterburn played 579 times for the club, putting him fourth in the all-time list behind David O'Leary, Tony Adams and Lee Dixon, and he scored 12 goals in his 13 year career at Highbury. The only real surprise was that he did not play more for England, the consistency of Stuart Pearce restricting him to just 2 caps. He left in the summer of 2000 to finish his career at West Ham United.

Nigel Winterburn - won 3 titles, 2 FA Cups and a ECWC

Brazilian Silvinho briefly replaced Winterburn in 2000 but manager Arsene Wenger was unable to hold back the progress of Ashley Cole, and he became a regular in 2001. Often described as the best left back of his generation, Cole became a regular in the England side and made 224 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 9 times, in his six years in the first team. He won league title medals in 2002 and 2004, as part of the Invincibles side, and lifted the FA Cup in 2002, 2003 and 2005. He also played in the side that lost to Liverpool in the 2001 FA Cup final, and to Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final. He left for Chelsea in acrimonious circumstances in August 2006, where he has since added to his honours.

Ashley Cole - part of the Invincibles team.

Frenchman Gael Clichy had been understudy to Cole since 2003 but made the left back position his own after the laters departure in 2006. He qualified for a Premier League title medal in 2004 and was in the squad for the FA Cup final success against Manchester United a year later, while he played in the League Cup final defeats to Chelsea in 2007 and Birmingham in 2011. In the end he actually made more appearances for the club than his more famous predecessor, 256 in total, scoring just twice. Clichy left in the summer of 2011 to join Manchester City.

Gael Clichy - the last link to the Invincibles left this summer.

So who will be next in line? This season has seen Kieran Gibbs and new signing Andre Santos fight over the left back slot. Gibbs came through the ranks at the club and has played over 50 times since making his breakthrough in 2008, while Brazilian Santos joined from Fenebache on transfer deadline day in August and has scored twice for the club already. Of course they both have a long way to go until they can join the illustrious list mentioned above, but it does appear as though the club has once again found the players to continue this great tradition.