Wolves v Arsenal
Published in the Express & Star, Monday 9th Febraury 2004

Every home game this season has had its memorable moments, some good, some bad and some quite magical.

Here we were entertaining Arsenal, currently league leaders and undefeated so far in the Premiership this season. So again there was an air of excitement at the Molineux. This was no second string Arsenal: all the big names were there because Arsene Wenger was taking no chances with this fixture. Unfortunately for us, Paul Ince was missing due to suspension.

The game kicked off with Wolves making all the early running but then Arsenal scored with their first attack of the game. They broke very quickly and exposed gaps on the Wolves right hand side. It was from this area that the ball was crossed and Bergkamp cleverly steered it into the net with the outside of his right foot. This was a considerable body blow to the Wolves as they had experienced most of the play but now found themselves one-nil down.

Led by Alex Rae (once again) and Colin Cameron, our lads simply tore into the Arsenal and with the Molineux crowd very much behind them, they put their opponents under all sorts of pressure. However, with Arsenal so dangerous on the break, it was not all one-way traffic and Paul Jones was called upon to make a couple of great saves. It was exciting stuff and with almost half an hour gone, Wolves won a corner on the left. Cameron took it, over to the far post and Craddock headed the ball back. There was Ganea to steer it into the net, his first league goal for Wolves. The crowd went mad and it was end to end stuff for the rest of the first half.

So at halftime it was 1 goal apiece - no more than the Wolves deserved. As a supporter you definitely felt that we could get something from the game at that stage.

When the second half kicked off it soon became apparent that Arsenal had raised their game. They were having a lot more possession with Thierry Henry becoming more involved. I felt that perhaps if we could weather the first ten or fifteen minutes, we could come back at them. Then after 55 minutes, Arsenal substituted Bergkamp for the new Spanish ‘wonderkid’ Jose Reyes and it seemed to change the game. He had only been on the pitch for 3 minutes when Pires slid a delicate ball to Henry who seemed to dance like a ballerina through the Wolves defenders and he calmly flicked it into the net, sheer class.

Three minutes later, Arsenal tied the game up when Viera received a deep cross that looked as though it was going out for a goal kick to Wolves. He simply crossed the ball back into the box for Toure to score.

The Wolves did not give up but in all honesty, two goals against in a four-minute spell left them shell-shocked. Arsenal basically played possession football to ensure their victory and, what turned out to be the best ever start by a club in the Premiership – 24 games without defeat.

As a supporter I felt a little deflated at the end as I had been so buoyed up at half-time but it had been great entertainment with Henry simply outstanding.