Arsenal 1 – 1 Spurs: Second Leg Will Suit Young Guns
765 comments January 10th, 2008
Well, we got away with it. Sooner or later our youngsters were going to come unstuck, and it happened last night. And yet, incredibly, they didn’t lose.
Whether that says more about the spirit within the squad or Spurs’ ineptitude is uncertain. What is certain is that at half-time we could and perhaps should have been up to three goals down, with Jermaine Jenas’ strike coming amidst two appalling misses from Steed Malbranque.
We had started brightly enough, with Nicklas Bendtner having a powerful header saved by Radek Cerny. However, any good work we were doing going forward was being undone by the footballing equivalent of ‘The Chuckle Brothers’: Senderos and Djourou. Their “to me – to you” manner of shuffling the ball between them rather than getting it out of danger was allowing Spurs to look dangerous, with Dimitar Berbatov again pulling the strings.
In midfield we were weak throughout. Denilson and Gilberto did not have the zip, energy and quick passing of Cesc, Flamini or even Diarra. The latter was not even on the bench last night and could be on the verge of a move to the now-managerless (ha) Newcastle. Judging by the performances of the two Brazilians last night, he’d be a fool to move, as his position in the pecking order is rising all the time.
At half-time Wenger made two changes that it later emerged were enforced by injury, though had Djourou and Van Persie been withdrawn on the back of poor performances they could have had few complaints. Sagna and Eduardo came on and both played a part in a significant second-half improvement. Sagna’s arrival meant Justin Hoyte switched to centre-half, where he excelled, also appearing to make Senderos look more comfortable.
Abou Diaby, who had been largely anonymous, stepped his game up a little, but it was the other winger who was to prove our saviour: Theo Walcott. Eduardo slipped a perfect through ball to the teenager, and Lee-Young Pyo’s attempted tackle came off Theo’s arm and into the net for just his fourth Arsenal goal.
As others have said, it really is quite amazing that on a night when Spurs played very well and we played very poorly, they were still unable to beat our second string.
I truly believe the second leg is set up for our lads to do better. There is less pressure, less expectation, and furthermore – less impetus to attack. The great Carling Cup results we’ve achieved have all been away from home – the wins at Anfield and Blackburn particularly stand out. The fact that the home team is almost obliged to attack leaves plenty of space for the likes of Walcott and Eduard to exploit on the break, and I think there’s still a good chance of us making the final. After all, we only have to win the game. It’s not too big an ask.
Last night had its cost. Djourou, Senderos, Walcott and (unsurprisingly) Van Persie all picked up knocks, the extent of which should emerge tomorrow. It leaves us light at the back, and could see Hoyte or Gilberto playing at centre-back in the league against Birmingham on Saturday.
In other news, Fran Merida has gone on loan, and Jens Lehmann might be staying.
For now though, let’s just thank The Hand of Theo for allowing us all to take a big sigh of relief…
