ARSENAL RESERVES 4-0 COVENTRY CITY RESERVES BY KEV MONKS
Coventry City Reserves were treated to a master class in possession and skill as they crashed at Arsenal.
In a game that was re-arranged by the Premiership champions at short notice, Steve Ogrizovic had to make changes from the team that had beaten Leicester following the departure of Andy Marriott to Oldham and Gary McSheffrey to Luton on loan and the unavailability of "birthday boy" Andy Whing.
Ogrizovic named a very youthful side with a number of players who appeared in the Academy side which had beaten Chelsea on Saturday joining the ranks of Scott Shearer,Stuart Giddings,Claus Jorgensen and Eddy Johnson.
The reason that this game was moved was to give Sol Campbell ninety minutes as part of his comeback from a lengthy injury and the England defender was named by caretaker manager Neil Banfield in a side made up of first team fringe players such as Gael Clichy,Mathieu Flamini,Jermaine Pennant, Quincy Owusu-Abeyte and Robin Van Persie.
Watched by a crowd of 1400 of which seventeen were Sky Blues, the game started after a minute silence to respect the death of legendary manager Brian Clough.
Arsenal,who don't charge an admission price for the reseve team matches at the Underhill, were straight at the City defence with Clichy tearing down the left wing past Liam Nicell and before crossing for Jermaine Pennant to fire wide in the third minute.
With Craig Reid spending most of his time trying to force the Arsenal right back inside rather than attacking, Sky Blue chances were always going to be in short supply.
However, in the seventh minute, City won a free kick some 30 yards out in front of the Main Stand. Anthony Barry sent over a kick which just missed the incoming Claus Jorgensen at the far post by a matter of inches.
City's defence were remaining strong under pressure from the North Londoners and a well executed tackle from Isaac Osbourne gave away a corner rather then a fourteenth minute goal.
His partner at the back was Rikki Bains who was making his first appearance of the season for City Reserves and he was confident under pressure and heading or clearing away any balls played forward.
With Justin Hoyte having limped off with a leg injury in the 16th minute,Arsenal's next attack saw Clichy getting down the left and cutting the ball back for Robin Van Persie to stab wide of Shearer's goal.
On the twenty minute mark, Craig Reid won possession on the left,found Anthony Barry who squared for Claus Jorgensen who tried to curl the ball around a defender but only succeeded in firing into the arms of Gunners keeper Stuart Taylor.
Robin Van Persie went well wide from twenty five yards and Claus Jorgensen followed suit with a speculative thirty yarder.
Another Bains clearance gave Arsenal a corner in the 27th minute, this was well dealt with by the Sky Blues back four and led to a free kick which City's Faroe Islands international sent over over Taylor's bar from thirty yards.
Bains was doing his reserve team career no harm as he got his body in the way of a 37th minute Pennant effort to concede a corner.
Stuart Giddings was toiling hard on the left flank and in the 43rd minute,he crossed for Eddy Johnson who got his header on target but could not get enough power to beat Taylor from six yards.
We were now deep into time added on when Clichy got down the left,made it to the by-line and cut the ball back for Mathieu Flamini who controlled the ball before hitting a low shot from twelve yards past Scott Shearer and give Arsenal the lead.
It was a cruel blow for Steve Ogrizovic's team who had done so well to keep Arsenal at bay up until this point and eight minutes after the restart,City were two down when Quincy Owusu-Abeyte got down the left,cut inside and superbly chipped the ball into the roof of the net from 35 yards with Scott Shearer a mere spectator.
They increased their lead in the 56th minute when substitute Frank Simek won the ball in midfield, played it out to Swede Sebastian Larsson who slipped the ball through for Robin Van Persie to net at the far post.
Arsenal were now firmly in control, playing some neat and very entertaining football. To be honest, after three and a bit season's of non-top flight football,I'd forgotten how good the top players can be,teasing the Sky Blues with a game of chase ball as they passed the ball around with a high degree of accuracy,
flair and skill.
Scott Shearer had been blameless for the goals and made two good saves in the 59th and 64th minute when he saved a superbly struck free kick from Flamini and dived to get to a Philippe Senderos header from a corner.
Three minutes later, the Scot produced his best save of the night when he dived full length to push away a Van Persie shot.
Like Jermaine Pennant, the Dutchman was full of tricks and in the 76th minute, Robin Van Persie turned Giddings inside out before hitting the ball high into the net with the outside of his right foot from an acute angle some ten yards out.
Sol Campbell who earns close to £100,000 a week was having an easy time of it, never having to run and if he had ten touches of the ball in the entire game then that was it.
One included blocking an Eddy Johnson shot which was bound for the roof of the net in the 79th minute.
Arsenal replaced Owusu-Abeyte and Larsson with seven minutes left as Shearer made two more good saves on his left from efforts by the show-boating Dutchman
Ben Mackey came on for Craig Reid in the 86th minute as Van Persie skipped round the City defence before firing at Shearer.
The result shows the difference in class between the two sides but I was not too disappointed as there was plenty of effort from the Sky Blues and we won't be the only team this season to be outclassed by the best team in the country.
HT AFC 1-0 CCFC FT AFC 4-0 CCFC
ATT 1400
Goals Mathieu Flamini (45 mins)
Quincy Owusu- Abeyte (52 mins)
Robin Van Persie (56 & 76 mins)
Booked None
Man Of The Match - Rikki Bains took the share of the votes.
TEAM
Shearer,Nicell,Giddings,Barry,Bains,Osbourne,
Hall,Jorgensen,Johnson,Thornton,Reid (Mackey 86) SNU Belford,Partridge, Davis, Wall
Arsenal
Taylor, Hoyte (Simek 16),Clichy,Flamini,
Senderos,Campbell,Pennant,Cregg,Owusu-Abeyte (Karbassiyoon 83), Van Persie, Larsson (Stokes 83) SNU Fowler,Howard