Arsenal Reserves 2 Pompey 0 20 September, 2006

I decided to go to the Arsenal v Portsmouth reserve game at Underhill tonight. I wanted to go for three reasons: Walcott, Merida and Denilson. It was the Brazilian kid’s debut in an Arsenal shirt and I’m sure many eyes at Barnet were on him. I did take some photos but I can’t find the bloody connector to send them to the computer, I’ll put them up if I find them.

I was late but I didn’t miss the first goal, as I walk walking along the front of the north terrace to find a place to stand I saw Walcott rocketing down the left wing at some pace. He managed to beat the defender and cut inside and delivered a short cross to Aliadiere who was waiting in the 6 yard box and it was a simple header from the Frenchman to make it one nil to the Arsenal. Aliadiere was impressive tonight and looked threatening whenever he got the ball. He also got the second goal which was quite a nice finish but he did seem quite selfish at times and wanted to take every free kick. But yeah he was good but to be fair it was against Pompey reserves. Theo also impressed in the first half, he was subbed after 45mins to beat the autograph hunters but in the 3/4 hour he did play he looked dangerous. He showed off some silky skills and some blistering pace, I can’t believe the boy’s only 17, he’s going to be one of the Premiership’s top players in his future. He might play a part on Saturday but I don’t see him starting a game for a while yet but he still has got something to offer us.

Denilson had a good game; he played some good balls and controlled the middle of the park well. He seemed to know where everyone was and knew exactly what option to take, he didn’t mind having a go at their defence either. Certainly an ambitious play, definitely one for the future. Unfortunately he didn’t last the full 90 minutes as he picked up and injury in the second half, he was fouled by one of the Portsmouth players, it didn’t look to serious but he was brought off anyways as a precaution. The Pompey reserves were quite dirty actually, there were tackles flying in all over the place and some quite bad ones, they had one man sent off for two yellows. Hopefully Denilson’s injury isn’t too bad.

Randall also stood out for me, he played some pin-point balls and some clever passes. Whenever he got the ball he was good and could possibly be man of the match. Another star of the night was Fran Merida; it was my first look at the kid and he looks like quite a skilful little player and a battler. Not afraid to have a go at people and has the ability to do it too. He also has a great determination; he lost the ball a couple of times but worked his arse off to try get it back. It’s really easy to compare the ex-Barca boy with Cesc but they are really similar players. Fran is a bit quicker but they have the same kind of attitude and flair in centre midfield. Looks like another young prospect for the future and it’s going to be exiting watching the development of this kid.

Our defence looked pretty solid too, the captain Connolly looked good as usual, and I think he’ll be a big player for us in the future. He was joined in the back four by Justin Hoyte who’s pushing for a place in the first team. He played well and got forward a few times, a good performance like this is always good especially in front of the watching Arsene Wenger who had a whole stand to himself and Stevie Bould.

Was a good evening in all, I go to quite a few reserve games as they’re just around the corner from Borehamwood and they’re free. If you’ve never been maybe you should, they play their home games at Barnet’s Underhill stadium and games are usually on a Monday night at 7pm. Definitely worth a peek, it’s also worth checking out the line-up on Arsenal.com beforehand, sometimes you get some big stars playing and in a couple of weeks we’ll probably see Lauren, Senderos, Diaby and Clichy as they look for match fitness after their injuries.

The only other real piece of news is Arsenal’s financial year’s results. That’s really not the sort of thing that interests me as a fan so if you want to know anything about it you’re gonna have to read it, all I know is we’ve got a massive debt but I’m not too worried about it. Oh yeah and another thing, Edelman has just said there’s 32,000 people on the season ticket waiting list which made me quite sad, I don’t know when I’ll get mine

More build up to the Sheffield Utd game to come this week, until then.