Archive for February 24th, 2008

Birmingham 2 – 2 Arsenal: We wanted to win for Eduardo. We still can.

3 comments February 24th, 2008

A sad sad sightYesterday was probably the most emotional experience I’ve had watching Arsenal since the Champions League Final in Paris.  Indeed, I went through the wringer so much that my reaction at the final whistle was, much like William Gallas, to sit in a traumatised slump reflecting on a turbulent ninety minutes.

There’s nowhere to start but with Eduardo’s injury.  Today has seen video footage (Caution: not for the faint-hearted) of the incident emerge, and it’s not remotely comforting.  After the game Arsene Wenger called for Martin Taylor to be “banned for life”, but he later retracted that statement, saying it had been spoken “in the heat of the moment”.

It’s a typically classy move from the most erudite of managers, but in many ways I’d rather he’d stood by his initial quotes.  Perchance a life-ban would have been “excessive”,  but raising that point underlines the fact that Taylor can recieve a maximum of a three-game ban for a transgression that could cost Eduardo his career.  As arseblogger points out: how can it be right that Taylor and Jeremie Aliadiere, who was sent off yesterday for tapping Javier Mascherano’s face, will recieve the same punishment?

More depth needs to be added to the charge of “violent conduct”.  The FA need to be granted powers to look retrospectively at cases, and add to bans based on the severity of the incident.  I know it’s easy to say this now, but perhaps in bringing about a rule change that protects his fellow professionals, some ‘good’ can come of Eduardo’s injury.

Watching it on the television, it was deeply distressing to see.  My thoughts were not about the match, our ever-shrinking squad, or even the title-race – all of that was put into perspective by tragedy of what happened to Eduardo.  This is a guy with a young family, about to reach the peak of his career, and who was set to be one of the stars of this Summer’s European Championships.  Hell, it’s his birthday tomorrow.  Quite seriously, we do not know if he’ll ever be the same player again.  It is heartbreaking.

After Eduardo was stretchered off, our players’ minds were clearly not on the game at hand, and it was no surprise when we went in at half-time trailing to a James McFadden free-kick that Manuel Almunia might have been slightly disappointed not to get to.

In the second half, however, we were fully focused, and battered Birmingham.  Fabregas and Hleb both came close before we got an equaliser – an amazing leap by Adebayor nodding the ball down for Theo Walcott to turn the ball into the bet.  No foul, and 1-1.

It was Walcott’s first Premier League goal, and it seemed to give him a real lift: within minutes, he’d doubled his tally.  Latching onto a Liam Ridgewell clearance, he skipped inside and fired low into the near-post with his left-foot.  2-1.

It was a great day for Theo and he deserves congratulations.  Without wanting to put to much pressure on the young lad, he’s going to have to perform now that we’re without Eduardo.  When you consider that Eboue is also suspended, with Van Persie and Rosicky perennially injured, Walcott is going to be a regular starter for the next few games at least.

We had other chances to score.  Adebayor went through on goal and his effort was saved when a square pass to  his mate  Nicklas Bendtner looked like a safer bet.  Cesc Fabregas flicked an effort against the post, and Bendtner dragged a shot wide.  Adebayor also appeared to be denied a clear penalty in the dying moments.

And then, a moment of madness from Gael Clichy.  In the 94th minute, Flamini chested a ball back to him,  and Clichy inexplicably let the ball run past him to Stuart Parnaby.  I’ve watched it back several times, trying to understand Clichy’s thought process, and I can only guess he either thought he heard a whistle or simply didn’t see Parnaby sneak in behind him.  Even so, Clichy then made a perfectly good challenge, but his guilty look and the cries of the Birmingham players influenced the referee enough for him to give the spot-kick, which McFadden duly tucked away.

The Arsenal players were distraught, and none more so than William Gallas, who has come under fire for his conduct – kicking a hoarding and sulking on the pitch post-game.  Now whilst I will never condone the fact that he did not attempt to defend the penalty should Almunia have saved it, I do sympathise with Arsene here.

Today was an exceptionally emotional day, and Gallas’ actions were certainly exceptionally emotional.  He, like the rest of players, desperately needed the consolation of victory to deal with what was an unbelievable end to a very challenging week.  At full-time, players and fans alike were disconsolate, as their rollercoaster experience finally took its toll.

Obviously I can’t speak for the players, but today feels entirely different.  We might not have been able to win for Eduardo yesterday, but we can still have a triumphant season in his honour.  We need to use yesterday to help forge that ‘us against the world’ spirit that can drive a team to titles.

The gap is shortened.  We lost the battle.  But we’ll win the war.  And we’ll do it for Eduardo.


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