Yesterday I went to the annual pre season friendly at Underhill to see Barnet take on Parent team Arsenal. Arsenal promised to bring a strong side and they didn't disappoint with Alumnia, Clichy, Toure, Flamini, Denilson, Walcott, Adebayor and Van Persie all in the starting line up. Eduardo was at Underhill but he wasn't named in the squad but he did chat to the fans and gave Sky Sports News at interview in which you could see me behind him which pleased me.There was a 5 minute delay at kick off due to crowd congestion but when the game did get underway it was a fast start for the first game off the new season but there weren't really many chances until the 18th minute when Van Persie hit a low corner into Theo Walcott who chipped it in to Adebayor who half vollied the first goal. Barnet could have equalised two minutes later but Alumina pulled off a great one on one save to show the watching Fabianski he wont be giving up his position without a fight.
At Half time Arsenal made six changes including Fabianski and Nordveit who made their debuts. The first half wasn't much different to the first half but the first chance came from Walcott who sprinted down field but instead of pulling the trigger himself he decided to square it to Adebayor which in my opinion was the wrong option and I was proved right when the chance went begging. Although Walcott did have an excellent game and I think he will be amazing this season and really show his potential. Adebayor should have had his 2nd goal when Flamini put him through but in akers of space but some how dragged it wide. There was a sour note in the 2nd half when Denilson got strecthed off after a nasty tackle by Puncheon but the tannoy announcer later told us it wasn't serious but that did nothing to dampen the boos every time Puncheon was on the ball.
Barazite doubled the advantage with a rocket shot into the far corner of the goal. The Arsenal youngster received the ball in the right-hand channel and his fierce drive flew into the net, leaving Harrison helpless.
The latter stages of the match saw Richard Evans a Barnet fan in his “late 40s” and from Wembley come on. He had paid £10,000 for the privilege of coming on during the game and every time he got Barnet got the ball the fans were shouting Evan's squad number of 28. He did manger to touch the ball once but not surprisingly looked out of place as he was so slow and had no clue what he was doing but he and the 5,091 fans enjoyed it never-the-less.
Just as we didn't think the day could get any better just as we were leaving the car park me saw the one and only 'Halfur' who is a legendary Arsenal Fan who got his name by every season buying the Home and Away kit cutting them in half and sowing the home and away kits together.
The highlights of the match and Arsene's post match interview are shown below.
