Golf GTIs are good cars. They look OK, are easy to manage and perform reasonably well too, but they are not Ferraris. Put a Golf next to a Trabant then people will stop, stare and appreciate it for its merits. Put a Golf next to a Ferrari and people will stop, stare and appreciate…the Ferrari, whilst nonchalantly sat on the bonnet of the crummy Golf.
Arsenal are the sleek red personification of footballing arousal. On Saturday against Villa, they made an ordinary side look less than ordinary with an awesome display of skill, strength and poise. As ever, Thierry Henry was in marauding mood, and once his form was confirmed, the game was all but over as a contest. By then though, the visitors had impudently taken the lead, when in the third minute when Lee Hendrie completed a quick counter-attack with a low skimming drive.
By the this stage, Arsenal had already grazed the woodwork through Sol Campbell and when Henry and Dennis Bergkamp began to find their feet, the result seemed inevitable. The French striker lured Mark Delaney into a needless challenge inside the area on nineteen minutes and, as he does not seem to like to pick himself up to take them, the spot-kick was left to Robert Pires, who coolly converted.
Although, David O’Leary’s side did not really embarrass themselves from this point, they were simply no match for an Arsenal team in imperious form and the stats tell the story. Villa managed one shot on target all game, while Arsenal managed 16, eight of them saved by Stefan Postma in a remarkably assured display in his first senior game for 14 months. The portly Dutchman could do nothing to prevent the home side taking a two-goal lead on the cusp of half time though, when José Antonio Reyes cut out three defenders with a crisp pass that Henry stroked into the far corner in trademark side-footed style.
The second period began in the same vein and the Arsenal strikers combined again with a couple of backheels before the Spaniard was somehow denied by the ample frame of Postma, who must surely have asked enough questions of his manager to justify a place in the side against Fulham next weekend, regardless of Thomas Sørenson’s fitness.
The third did come 18 minutes from the end though when Villa’s stubborn back-line was bamboozled by a French connection when substitute Mathieu Flamini, on for Patrick Vieira after the captain had been scythed by Jlloyd Samuel, passed to Henry on the edge of the box. The striker managed to attract three defenders before offloading to Pires and the 30-year-old had an easy finish to make it three.
Villa have now failed to win in six, but will no doubt continue to plod on, while Arsenal, whose unbeaten run now stretches to 49 games, career on to Old Trafford to try and make it 50. But first Arsene Wenger’s side must first negotiate a trip to Panathaniakos on Tuesday. At the moment, for all their brilliance Arsenal are, like Ferrari’s, predominantly a weekend pleasure and are seldom viewed on weeknights. It is a pity.