Barnet

This game took place at the Underhill Stadium, Barnet, on Tuesday 6th August at 7:45pm as part of the club's pre-season friendly fixtures.

Final result was 2-1. Arsenal's goalscorers were Kanu & Matthew Upson.

Arsenal.com's report: "An 80th minute header from Matthew Upson saved Arsenal's blushes in Tuesday's night's highly-entertaining friendly over Barnet at Underhill. But our 2-1 victory against the Conference title-chasers was marred by an injury to striker Kanu. Our Nigerian striker was stretchered off in the 64th minute after falling awkwardly. Arsene Wenger sent out a very strong line-up at the ground that plays host to our reserve team games. Not surprisingly, all the early pressure was from the Double winners with Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henry forcing sharp saves from Barnet goalkeeper Lee Harrison. The breakthrough should have come in the sixth minute when Patrick Vieira found Kanu on the edge of the area and he back-flicked the ball to Lauren, who was hurtling into the box. Unfortunately our Cameroon defender blazed the ball over the bar from eight yards and Barnet, who included former Gunner David Hillier in their line-up, breathed a sigh of relief. Ironically, the opener came at the midway point of the first half, just after Junior Agogo had twice threatened Stuart Taylor's goal for the home team. Lauren sped up the right flank, darted inbetween two defenders and cut the ball back just before it reached the byline. His cross found Kanu eight yards out and his first-time chip arced over the leaping Harrison and floated into the net. A classy strike. We almost doubled our lead four minutes before the break when Taylor collected a Barnet free-kick in his area and quickly hurled the ball out to Wiltord on the left. Our French striker raced toward the Barnet defence and then spotted Ray Parlour galloping into the area from the right flank. Yet again the shot had sufficient power but it was directed over the bar. As expected, there were wholesale changes at half time with Vieira, Henry and Sol Campbell being replaced by Kolo Toure, Jermaine Pennant and Pascal Cygan. Also, Taylor was substituted for Fabian Carini, the first appearance on English soil for our loan signing from Juventus. Unfortunately, he had to pick the ball out of the net only 15 minutes in. Mark Gower sent over a right-wing cross beyond the far post, Danny Brown nodded it back into the six-yard box and Mark Arber thumped his header into the top right-hand corner of the goal. A few minutes later, there was even greater concern when Kanu was carried off. Although, the equaliser fired up the home crowd, we responded well. Toure volleyed over at the far post then Wiltord worked himself some space on the edge of the area before unselfishly feeding Pennant, whose low shot cannoned off Harrison's legs. Eleven minutes from the end, Moritz Volz thought he had scored when he met Edu's right-wing corner with a fierce header at the near post. However, the impressive Harrison parried his effort behind. But the Brazilian then produced a carbon copy of his first corner and Upson managed to angle his header across the face of goal for the winner."