Pompey cause Gunners to misfire
Arsenal 1 Portsmouth 1 [ Saturday 13 September 2003 ]
A sunny afternoon in Highbury saw a spirited Pompey side bring the best start Arsenal have had in 56 years to an unexpected hault. Statistically, this means that the 'Arse' have now lost the only 100% record still remaining in the country.
During the initial stages of the game Pompey showed why they have had such a great start to their Premiership campaign. Compact and solid in defence and razor sharp on the break Pompey proved that they were more than a match for the League leaders.
Pompey nearly took the lead inside of just 3 minutes when new signing Amdy Faye, who incidentally won a Champions League medal at Highbury last year whilst playing for Auxerre, deftly took hold of a sloppy pass by Edu in the centre of the park, before finally delivering a whipping cross into the Arsenal box. Keeper Jens Lehmann punched clear, allowing the ball to fall invitingly to Nigel Quashie who shot disappointingly high and wide. A early wake up call for Arsenal!
Arsenal seemed unable to get themselves going, whilst Pompey were looking continually dangerous after Arjan De Zeeuw latched nicely onto a corner after just 15 minutes, but unfortunately shot narrowly wide. Sadly Ayegbeni Yakubu's miss just 7 minutes later proved achingly disappointing - released by Quashie and profiting by a slip from Sol Campbell, the youngster found himself in acres of space with just Lehmann to beat before launching a week effort directly into the keepers arms.
A fired-up Pompey kept piling on the pressure, and their persistence was rewarded just after 26 minutes following a dazzling display of intelligent football. Sebastian Schemmel played a clever ball in beind Ashley Cole which Steve Stone reached first, before whipping in a dangerous cross to the near post. Teddy Sheringham was quickest to react with a diving bullet like header - nothing less than Pompey deserved for their continued persistency.
Portsmouth were on cruise control towards the half time interval when totally against the run of play Robert Pires was released by Edu within the Pompey box, and having knocked the ball away from the defence looked to have been tripped by Boris Zivkovic. Thierry Henry stepped up to spank the pen convincingly into the back of the Pompey net, even after being ordered to retake the penalty following a suspected infringement by Shaka Hislop.
The second half commenced at a frenetic pace, with Pompey giving as good as they were getting from a fully revitalised Arsenal side. The home side gifted a great chance after De Zeeuw misjudged a deep Lauren cross which although clearly going for a goal kick was back healed into the path of Denis Bergkamp who thankfully was too close to Shaka Hislop for the shot to prove dangerous.
The game now became tense, with the outcome wide open. Both teams stood toe-to-toe like a couple of heavy weight boxers slugging it out. One minute Pompey were launching a series of long range efforts against the Arsenal goal, before Denis Bergkamp was proving equally dangerous unleashing a fierce shot which Shaka Hislop did well to parry to safety. Edu proved an equal threat after releasing a left-footed free-kick on target of the Pompey goal from just outside of the 18 yard box.
Towards the close of the game, both managers tried to tip the balance by bringing on a series of subs. First-up was Freddie Ljunberg who was bought on to replace the ineffectional Edu for the Gunners. Shortly after Redknapp brought on new Baggies loan signing Jason Roberts for the visably fatigued Yakubu. In the last quarter Wenger introduced the very much in-form Sylvain Wiltord who after a few mintues of his introduction came dangerously close to sealing Pompey's fate when he cushioned Henry's 79th minute corner in the path of the charging Kolo Toure, who miraculously (and thankfully) missed the target from all but 2 yards!
A superb result for Pompey!
Arsenal (4-4-2)
Lehmann, Cole, Campbell, Edu (Ljunberg 70), Lauren, Vierira, Pires, Toure, Parlour, Bergkamp (Wiltord 74), Henry.
Subs (not used) Keown, Aliadiere, Stack.
Booked Campbell, Toure.
Portsmouth (4-4-2)
Hislop, Schemmel, De Zeeuw, Stefanovic, Zivkovic, Stone, Faye, Quashie, Berger (Smertin 34), Yakubu (Roberts 72), Sheringham (Sherwood 90).
Subs (not used) Wapenaar, Foxe.
Booked Stefanovic, Schemmel, De Zeeuw.