Glancing at the scorelines of Norwich’s last two fixtures and one tends to be mighty impressed. Travel to Old Trafford and manage a 2-1 loss and then travel to the north to see a 2-2 draw to Newcastle. Well scorelines are deceiving and that’s why you have me; to invest four hours of the last week and watch Norwich. What do I have to say after these matches….ManU and Newcastle aren’t very good. I’m sorry we were talking about Norwich, and I still say ManU and Newcastle aren’t very good.
Norwich appeared to be a good and capable 1st division side. That’s what they are! They come into the Prem after winning the 1st division and they more or less keep the same roster. Spending little in the off season they really only have Simon Charlton of Bolton to show for it. Years and years of teams not improving their side and being immediately relegated, you would think they would get the message.
Two players did impress me though and deserve a mention. First off is a young F/MF by the name of David Bentley. Just 20y/o and a shot like a cannon, he scored his first top level goal against Newcastle. He probes the top of the 18, looking for a shot but gets wide at times and delivers beautiful crosses. If he sounds familiar it’s because he’s a Gunner and on loan. The next player is Darren Huckerby. He’s a hard worker, has good sense around goal and is an experienced man around goal. He’s played for what seems every team in England.
Football is not a statistical sport like baseball but I thought three stats during the Norwich vs ManU match were telling. At the 60th minute it was revealed that shots were 11 to 1, goal attempts 16 to 3 and several 5 minute spans had elapsed where ManU held possession for nearly 90%. Norwich simply sat back and tried to keep ManU from getting any good chances. Even when the game was nearing the end and Norwich needed the goal to equalize, they still could not gain possession. In the Newcastle match it was more the Magpie weaknesses than any Canary strengths. The Magpies sliced through the heart of the Canary defense at will, only to have nothing to show for it.
Call it arrogance, pride, ignorance or the thrill of breaking a Cal Ripken type record. I didn’t see anything in 180 minutes of Canary football that made me think that the Gunners would lose points this weekend. I also didn’t see any reason to persuade me to think that Norwich won’t be relegated again.
ArseAm Predicts: The Arsenal juggernaut rolls on with a tidy 3-0 win.
15 Responses to “The Norwich Canaries”
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August 27th, 2004 at 1:56 pm
They certainly had me up and clapping when watching the Newcastle match, but I can’t see them getting more than perhaps a wondergoal on us.
Bentley’s been looking great though, already with the goal and he’s been very influential in their side.
I suppose 3-0 is our nice comfortable margin but leaving the other side not feeling too terrible about themselves sort of thing? Once we go up by that much it seems we’ll only settle for the spectacular goals, unless the opposition has the gall enough to pull one back..
August 27th, 2004 at 1:59 pm
Err… check that, ‘David Bentley will not be playing for Norwich against Arsenal tomorrow.’
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?article=222497&lid=NewsHeadline&sub=Absent+Bentley+was+not+%27farmed+out%27&navlid=&sublid=&Title=Absent+Bentley+was+not+%27farmed+out%27
August 28th, 2004 at 12:02 am
Yet another insightful preview KYG…
Again… versus these lesser type teams… we just need to keep the pedal on the medal and Finish well. With our younger players getting alot of playing time, there is a definite hunger out there to do well and not take the other teams lightly.
I have also seen a bit of Bentley… and he has been very impressive. He will benefit greatly from a year of first team play and competition.
I like us to continue scoring with regularity. I hope we keep another clean sheet, but it doesn’t really matter to me if we let in a goal… it can be a great shot…. or a bad break… as long as we keep winning… and doing so impressively.
Arsenal 3-0 sounds about right to me.
August 28th, 2004 at 3:31 pm
Well you got the first half score right, Stag.
The game today against Norwich was the first time I’ve been disappointed in Arsenal. Not because we didn’t score enough goals - four should be enough for anyone - and not because we took our foot off the pedal in the second half - I expect that. What really disappointed me was our defense, which to be honest was pretty much crap the whole game. Hoyte looked like he was in *WAY* over his head, and unless Lauren was having a tough time trying to overcompensate for Hoyte, he also had the worst performance I’ve seen in long time for an Arsenal player. I’m sure that there are plenty of you out there that think I’m trying to find the cloud in the silver lining, but you’re wrong. I’m one of the most optimistic Arsenal fans you’ll find. I guess what I’m going back to is the issue of backup for our defense - which is pretty much non-existant now. Are we signing Trabelsi? I don’t know - but if we don’t sign him, then we at least need to sign *somebody* solid or we’re going to lose points along the way. Even that wouldn’t concern me too much, if I didn’t believe that the race between Arsenal and Chelsea this year is going to be the stuff of legend. I would guess that we will be seperated by 6 points or less at the end of the year. I think if we had been playing against any of the top eight teams in the league today, our defending would have bought us a tie, and two dropped points. Can anybody give me a rundown on Trabelsi? I know too little about him to know whether I should be excited about the prospect of our obtaining his services.
August 28th, 2004 at 5:10 pm
Let me reiterate for the thousandth time:
LAUREN IS SH!TE
— Geoff
August 28th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
Geoff… thats comment is utterly ridiculous.
The fact is that he is among the mostt respected Gunners and was voted as one of the best in the EPL at his position BY HIS PEERS.
Lauren DID have to help cover for Hoyte…
and we still would have posted a SHUT OUT if Hoyte hadn’t given the penalty.
You play up to … or down to… your opponents level. Norwich posed absolutely ZERO threat… and it would be very difficult for the Arsenal to maintain any type of concentration during the 2nd half with the EASE in which we opened a 3 goal lead in the first.
how many in a row is it now?
and if we did this with a SHITE right back the whole way… now THAT would be something!!
In the last few weeks we have had the following:
Vieira can go…. we don’t need him.
Lehmann shouldn’t start… he sucks… Lets start Almunia…
and now Lauren is SHITE…
Its puzzling how we can continue to win with the crap team we keep putting out there!
I’d say there is always room for improvement…
but when its been 44 games without a loss…
there really is NOT much room for improvement.
Could have been 6-0 today, sure… but who really cares if its 4-1 or 11-0?
August 28th, 2004 at 8:45 pm
???????
I don’t agree… I am happy Hoyte got the chance to play in an actual meaningful game… he will only get/be better because of it. Lauren WAS having to help out…
This outcome was NEVER in doubt… Norwich are going down, they didn’t even prepare for the Premiership by acquiring some better talent. (Crystal Palace is much the same)…
If you want to look for reasons to worry … you can find them anywhere you want… Utterly ridiculous to do so in a 4-1 blowout, that was over at Half-time, versus one of the weakest teams in the league. We could have named the score in this match if we needed/wanted to… and … you will inevitably play down to the level of a weaker opponent that poses VERY little threat.
44 and counting.
August 28th, 2004 at 9:18 pm
Puzzling. I have been hanging around the board now for some time and have noticed a tendency by some to quickly jump down our lads’ throats when play is off, mistakes are made or behavior confounding. The whole PV4 affair was tough to wait out but some of the sniping I saw here was, while understandable to a degree, disheartening. But honestly, can you really say that anyone playing for the Arsenal flat out sucks? Having a crap game, needing more seasoning, or just not being quite up to the high profile genius-play of some of our stars is one thing, but shite is pouring it on a bit thick, I think.
I do agree our defence could use some bolstering if we are going to give Chelski the routing they deserve, but I hardly think Wenger isn’t aware of that and is doing what he’s so damn good at: taking care of business.
44! Up the Arse!!!
August 28th, 2004 at 10:56 pm
> In the last few weeks we have had the following:
> Vieira can go…. we don’t need him.
> Lehmann shouldn’t start… he sucks… Lets start Almunia…
> and now Lauren is SHITE…
Except, staggy-baby, I’ve ALWAYS said this, from the time I’ve been posting here. Go on, check the archives.
This is hardly a kneejerk reaction, rather a well-nurtured hatred
— Geoff
August 29th, 2004 at 6:44 am
Exactly, Iceotter, Senderos? I was expecting him to be first-choice cover at centre back this season. So what’s going on? Is he carrying a slight injury? I’m not blaming Hoyte but he obviously isn’t anywhere ready even for Norwich, let alone Chelsea, ManU, the CL. . . Trabelsi? Well, from the one time I’ve seen him, he looks strong, pacy and good at gettng forward, very much our type of player in fact, but the downside is that he sounds to be an egoistic pain in the bum. He fell out with Ajax to such an extent that the manager said we were welcome to take him back with us after the Amsterdam Tournament. I don’t know, maybe the agent is mainly to blame. Normally I’d be wary of signing that sort of disruptive personality, but right now, since the defence looks seriously lacking in cover, I’d be mighty relieved if he came. The local paper last week said we were looking at Oddo - fine - but nothing seems to have come of it. So what IS Wenger up to? Why these attempts to sign midfielders - first Carrick, then the Valencia 27-year-old? Is he perhaps thinking of moving Gilberto to centreback? I was worried about the defence pre-season, despite the clean sheets, but now, with it looking more and more shambolic with each passing matchday, I’m getting seriously scared. Chelsea can only grow stronger as the team starts to gel; they’ve only conceded one (slightly unlucky) goal this season; I can’t see them being beaten that often, if at all. So I definitely don’t buy the ‘we can always score more than we conceed’ argument - look at what happened to Real last season. A strong defence, with strong cover, has to be the backbone of our campaign.
August 29th, 2004 at 10:08 am
This is the same back 4 that were the best in the EPL last season. Same players, more experience playing together. How do you figure we will won’t be as good if not better???
August 29th, 2004 at 4:08 pm
Because last year that back four, plus Cygan, were fit most of the time; we were lucky. This season we may not be, even if the fitness coach (who deserves a medal, I think) performs another major miracle. With two of those five out simultaneously, we’re in bad trouble against any reasonable side, especially when the games start coming thick and fast in Feb/March.
August 29th, 2004 at 11:01 pm
Luck always plays a part in any season, for every team. Ash was out last season… and Clichy filled in admirably. Sol will be back in September… and its likely we will be undefeated, unblemished, Invincible still. With Paddy and Sol returning we will be very much stronger on the defensive end. Vieira shields the back four like nobody else does, and when he has Gilberto next to him, we are SOLID defensively. We aren’t going to need to score 3 or 4 a game to win, but it is nice to know we can.
August 30th, 2004 at 12:01 am
As I suspected, you saw my concerns as pure negativity. Excuse me Stag, but weren’t you the guy that said we were going to be in a world of hurt if Viera left? Wasn’t I the guy trying to lift your spirits? Viera hasn’t even featured in any of these games. Please allow others of us to express concern about the team we love. I still pick Arsenal to win the league, but it will not be a walk in the park, and the extent to which we are threatened will be directly attributable to our defense. Do you know how I know that? Because only a flipping madman would suggest that Henry, Reyes, Pires, Bergkamp, Lungberg, and Van Persie don’t represent enough of an offensive punch. I love Cole and Toure, and I love Campbell when he’s healthy - but that’s dubious these days, and I’m pretty okay with Lauren (let’s just say I feel about him the way you feel about Edu) - but Lauren *DID* play a crappy game on Saturday. I give him the benefit of the doubt because he was covering for Hoyte, but he *DID* play poorly. Love this team as I do, I refuse to see every game as a triumph, or every player as brilliant - any more than you do. The least you could do as long as you’re going to be critical is suggest a more plausible solution than that Hoyte should get a full season of first team starts so that he can be half as good as Campbell or Toure. Lastly, and for your benefit, “Yea!!!! 44 games in a row!!!!”
August 30th, 2004 at 12:10 am
That’s just it Stag, it’s *not* the same back four. If all it takes is Campbell being out to cause Lauren to play poorly covering for a Hoyte or whoever - or Lehmann prematurely covering a cross because he doesn’t trust Cygan…
If you think we’re playing the same back four as last year, you’ve been watching different games than I have.
That said, I’ll feel a *whole* lot better when Campbell gets back - and you will too - don’t even try to deny it. *THAT* in a nutshell is the concern some of us are voicing. None of us think the Arsenal defense as a whole is shite. None of us.