Birmingham City vs Arsenal
Match pulse
BIRAttacking pressure by 5 minutes
Who won: Arsenal 4-0
Arsenal beat Birmingham City 4-0 on Sunday, January 12, 2003 at St Andrews Stadium. Goals for Arsenal: Thierry Henry (6', 70'), Robert Pires (29') and Michael Johnson (own goal) (67').
Play by play
Despite defeat Bruce will be pleased with new signings Dugarry and Clapham, who both made their mark on the match, but less so with Clemence and Coly - who made his home debut.
Job done for Arsenal. Easy 4-0 winners at St Andrews and they move five points clear of Manchester United at the top the Premiership.
- 91'
...Henry rolls the ball to Wiltord, who shoots into the wall and the final whistle blows.
- 91'
Henry stands over a freekick 25-yards out and this must be the last kick of the game.....
- 90'
Johnson fells van Bronckhorst in the centre circle and gets a yellow card for the foul.
- 89'
Savage skirts the edge of the box. He sets up Kirovski, who passes to John....nobody wants to take the shot and Arsenal clear their lines.
- 88'
Arsenal go straight dwon the other end. Henry plays a through-ball to Wiltord, who is wrongly adjudged to be offside.
- 87'
Devlin, who has been brilliant since he came on, drives down the right once more. He skips past Cole but the linesman raises his flag to say the ball was out of play.
- 86'
...John blasts the ball way over the bar after some good work from his teammates.
- 85'
Devlin drives down the right and plays the ball infield to Kirovski, who evades two challanges on the edge of the box before setting up John for a shot......
- 84'
Birmingham make their final change. Dugarry goes off, to a standing ovation, and is replaced by Kirovski.
- 83'
Lauren is on his feet and the game restarts as Devlin drives forward for City.
- 81'
Lauren is down in his own penalty area. The ref stops play so he can recieve treatment.
- 80'
Henry is looking for his hat-trick. He comes in from the left and skips past two players before curling a long-range shot just wide of Vaesen's lefthand post.
- 79'
The Birmingham City fans are still relentless in their taunts of the Arsenal players, despite being 4-0 down.
- 78'
Pires, who has had an excellent game, is replaced by Toure.
- 77'
Arsenal make another change. Bergkamp is replaced by Jeffers.
- 76'
Henry has no support so he whips in a cross. M.Johnson stoops to head clear at the back post and somehow manages to head the ball against his own goalkeeper. M.Johnson is having a nightmare.
- 75'
Jeffers is also warming up for Arsenal as Henry attacks down the left.
- 74'
Arsenal make a change. Edu, who has taken a few knocks, is replaced by van Bronckhorst.
- 73'
Clapham plays a cross-field ball for Devlin. However, its about 20' over his head.
- 72'
Dugarry is still trying to make something happen, but his tired legs can't get a cross past Lauren.
- 71'
Manager Steve Bruce makes a couple of substitutions anyway. the Hapless Coly is replaced by Grainger and Clemence is replaced by Devlin.
- 70'
It all over for City now.
- 69'
....Henry shoots across Vaesen and it's number four for Arsenal. GOAL!!!!
