Aston Villa 0 – 1 Arsenal: A win is a win is a win is a win is a win is a win
231 comments March 15th, 2007
Well, it wasn’t pretty, and we were a little bit fortunate, but when you consider our luck with injuries etc this season, maybe we had something good coming. Even the goal was a fluke – Julio Baptista’s shot deflecting in off Abou Diaby for an early winner, and a goal for the Frenchman in his first Premiership start in a year.
We went on to have a decent first-half, with Jeremie Aliadiere missing a hatrick of excellent chances. His movement was outstanding, but if you don’t have the sharpness to finish it off, what’s it worth? Just one Premiership goal in his entire career speaks volumes.
A makeshift back four was having trouble dealing with John Carew, and in the second half Villa cranked up the pressure. Freddie Ljungberg cleared off the line and Carew missed several chances to punish our wavering high line. But in the end, we held on for a valuable three points which takes us above Liverpool and into third place.
I’m in a bit of a hurry this morning, but it’s probably worth commenting on a bit of controversy surrounding Julio Baptista last night: he didn’t have the best of games, and in the 65th minute was brought off for Mathieu Flamini, leaving us without a conventional striker on the field. As he trudged off the field, Baptista confronted Wenger, clearly furious at being brought off. Wenger then indicated towards his lower back, either suggesting that the Brazilian had a back problem, or perhaps hinting that he felt he’d been standing around with his hands on his hips too much.
After the game Arsene gave a particularly cryptic response, even for him:
“I felt he had a bad back. We have checked that and he’s really badly injured.”
Hm. Something tells me we might not see too much of Baptista in an Arsenal shirt again, though I hope I’m reading something into nothing.
Finally, a word on Myles Palmer, who had plenty to say about two foul throws by Johan Djourou:
“The kid is a disgrace to Switzerland and he shames his African ancestors by taking two foul throws in a Premiership game.”
Granted, the foul throws were stupid and sloppy. But Djourou is a centre-back. Do you know how often a centre-back takes a throw in? The answer is never. Even if Djourou had taken his shorts down and shat on the penalty spot, the abuse above would still have been out of order. As if to compound his foolishness, Myles gets Arsene’s defensive lineup all wrong (the switch he suggests never occured), and delicately observes that the 38,000 who got to the FA Youth Cup Semi-Final were “mostly kids off the council estates”.
I don’t know you, Myles Palmer, but that won’t stop me from saying that you sound like an idiot.
