Kanu goal assures Arsenal of well deserved draw at Celtic Park

Kanu (”He’s big, he’s black, he’s had a heart attack!”) scored Arsenal’s only goal of the match in the 70th minute, thus cancelling out Liam Miller’s goal which had given Celtic the lead in the 57th minute of Saturday’s pre-season friendly at Celtic Park.The Nigerian international, who perhaps could have been expected to have an “off match” after receiving news earlier this week that he would be left off the Nigerian squad for their friendly against Japan later this month, seemed to be instead working quite hard to move his way back up the “Arsenal striker food-chain.” Arsene Wenger made it quite clear at the beginning of training camp that the opportunity to be Thierry Henry’s strike partner is up for grabs, and that no one forward has the edge. There’s a chance now that Kanu may hold a slight advantage over the non-playing Sylvain Wiltord, but there’s little doubt that he most certainly has one over Francis Jeffers.

Jeffers partnered Kanu up front, and had a stinker of a game. The English international missed several clear cut chances, including a wide open goal late in the game that could have given Arsenal the win.

With the match being held at Celtic Park, it was no surprise that the Man Of The Match award went to a “Bhoy, ” Stilian Petrov. Petrov was most deserving, but, given a vote, my choice would have been Patrick Vieira(”whoa-oh-oh.”) The Arsenal captain came on as a second half subsitute for Freddie Ljungberg, and proceeded to take over the entire match. His mere presence on the pitch inspired the Gunners to draw level, and they did so within minutes of the change.

Overall, an entertaining match on what looked like an absolutely beautiful day in Glasgow.

A few notes:

- Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Sylvain Wiltord were not on the squad list for today’s match

- I watched the match via the live feed provided by Arsenal Plus, courtesy of CelticTV. I must say that I was quite impressed with the clarity of the image, and with the overall presentation. I hope that this is a sign of things to come.

- Both clubs used today’s match as an opportunity to unveil their new kits. Arsenal’s new yellow and blue away kits look fantastic, as do Celtic’s black shirt with the gold star over the crest, sybolizing the club’s victory in Europe back in 1967.