Archive for February, 2008
February 24th, 2008
Yesterday 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.
February 23rd, 2008
And when I say that, I speak not just for the fans, but the players too. It’s clear from our first-half performance that we are suffering from the emotional consequences of a terrible injury to the Croatian.
Let it be in no doubt who is to blame for this tragedy – Martin Taylor made a quick horrific challenge, which I am able to show you here:
The injury that followed was horrible and potentially career-ending. It looks to me like a dislocation and a break. Those you choose to can see evidence of the damage at these links. WARNING: these images are not for the faint-hearted. You choose to follow the links at your own discretion.
If we lose today, I can forgive the players. They are, after all, only human. But I hope we go out there in the second half and win the game for our friend Eduardo. It’s the least we can do.
February 23rd, 2008
We have four Premier League games before we travel to play Chelsea on the 23rd March. They are against Birmingham, Villa, Wigan and Middlesbrough. Whilst I’m not counting any chickens, there is no reason that we should not be able to keep (or even extend) our five point advantage during that run.
In the first of that run of highly winnable games, we travel to St. Andrews to face a Birmingham side who have not won in their last eight games. That’s not to saw they’ve been playing poorly – that run includes creditable draws with both us and West Ham – but it may prove significant that both those results were achieved away from home.  At St. Andrews, they’ve won just three games this season – only Derby have a poorer home record.
After the disappointing draw at the Emirates, we owe Birmingham a beating. Here’s hoping all goes to plan.
Aleksandr Hleb (who along with Adebayor and Almunia is fit to start today’s game), has spoken out on the liberating effect of Thierry Henry’s departure:
“Until last summer, we had just played for Thierry Henry. He was running the show. Whenever I got the ball, I was looking up, ‘where’s Henry?’
I did not dare to go for goal myself! And if once in a while I dared to pass the ball to someone else, he would shout, ‘hey, I was free!’ When he was on form, we won everything. When he was off form, we lost.
That has all changed. We are not a one-man-band any more. Nobody complains when I risk some dribbling. That’s the reason for our good performances — we were set free.”
One has to say that Hleb is possibly the player who has benefited most from Henry’s departure. After a fairly poor season last year, he has become arguably the league’s most potent playmaker, and his interlinking with Cesc Fabregas is an absolute joy to watch.
Hopefully after today, Birmingham will concurr.
February 22nd, 2008
It’s back to Premier League action tomorrow with an early kick-off at Birmingham City – the side who snaffled a costly draw from us in the reverse fixture. Winning would take us eight points clear of United, putting serious pressure on them to win their game later that day – a tricky match away at Newcastle. All things being equal, tomorrow could be a pivotal day in the title race.
The bad news is that not only is Kolo Toure out (though not for as long as first feared), but Aleksandr Hleb and Emmanuel Adebayor, two of our best players this season, are described as “uncertainties” by Arsene. With Eboue also suspended, it might be that we have to go into tomorrow’s game with Theo Walcott and former Brummie Nicklas Bendtner both in the starting line-up. Hopefully Arsene’s press conference later today will alleviate some of those fears.
I wonder if Manuel Almunia will be well enough to return to the starting line-up. Admirably though Jens Lehmann has performed, I just don’t think the Spaniard deserves to be dropped. He has kept goal superbly, and in his absence I’ve noticed how much we’ve missed his speedy and accurate distribution. His return would be a welcome one.
It’s clear that moving to the Emirates Stadium is reaping some tremendous financial rewards, with profits up 54% in the space of a year. Unfortunately, as usual Red & White are determined to spoil any good news by reminding anyone who’ll listen of their existence and purchasing a couple more shares. Asmusingly, the Lock-Down Agreement prevents them weilding any real power at all, for now at least.
More tomorrow. Fingers crossed on those injuries.
February 21st, 2008
Watching Arsenal last night was a bit like watching the Arsenal side of the previous couple of seasons. Brilliant, intricate football, but lacking a cutting edge. Looking back at the 90 minutes it’s hard to believe that Milan enter the second leg as favourites – for large portions of the game, they were clinging on.
Yesterday I talked about the vital midfield battle, and I think it’s safe to say Arsenal came out on top. Cesc Fabregas was particularly outstanding, putting in several inch-perfect tackles and the odd breathtaking pass to boot. If a couple of long range efforts had shared that degree of accuracy, the scoreline might’ve been very different.
We played a 4-5-1 with Eboue and Eduardo on the flanks – arguably neither is a natural winger, though it didn’t seem to matter. Fabregas was ably assisted by Mathieu Flamini and Aleksandr Hleb in winning the ball and keeping it from Milan’s assured clutches. The first half was a fairly even affair, with both sides taking the opportunity to size up before the opposition in what is essentially a 180 minute match. Although it was a scoreless draw after 45 minutes, Arsenal had suffered a loss: that of Kolo Toure, who was withdrawn with a calf injury, and could be out for up to a month. Philippe Senderos came on as his replacement, and put in an assured display – the Swiss defender seems to thrive on the slightly less frantic European stage.
As the first-half drew to a close, Arsenal were in the ascendency, and that pattern continued for pretty much the rest of the game. The second half was a barrage of Arsenal pressure. I can’t underestimate how good a performance it was: Clichy and Sagna (who showed tremendous spirit to play so well after the loss of his brother) were bombing on, whilst Adebayor was visibly worrying the ageing Milan backline. As the minutes ticked by the pressure increased exponentially, and it seemed only a mattter of time until we broke the deadlock, even more so when Nicklas Bendtner replaced Eduardo and we switched to 4-4-2.
There were two clear-cut chances to win the game – the first was an Emmanuel Eboue shot that squirted wide (not dissimilar to Tomas Rosicky’s miss at Portsmouth earlier this season… Rosicky – remember him?), and the second looked such a certain goal that I think there are probably still people stood dumbstruck in the stadium wondering how it didn’t go in. In the 93rd minute, substitue Theo Walcott produced an excellent run and cross to find in-form Emmanuel Adebayor three yards out. Somehow (and I don’t think I’ll ever use that word more aptly), the ball cannoned off the crossbar and away from danger. I suspect that after all those satanic prayers and sacrifices I made to prevent Gallas getting suspended, this miss represented a little bit of karmic retribution. So be it.
It really was one of those whereby you stick your head on it, and 9999 times out of 10000 it’s a goal. However this was that 10000th time, and a game that deserved a goal remained 0-0.
Which, it should be added, is never a bad reuslt in a home leg. It now means that a score draw in Milan would take us through. Crucially, Milan didn’t score, so any away goal we can muster in the San Siro will have a very profound effect on the tie.
Milan came for a draw and they got it. But I think they perhaps underestimated us, and will be nervous ahead of the second leg. For our part, we need to go there and attack them – unlike Milan, we don’t have a good enough to defence to sustain the kind of onslaught they survived tonight.
Overall, I’m very proud of the players. It was an excellent response to the trauma of Saturday, and a good stepping stone towards what I genuinely believe to be the most important game of the week: the Premier League match at Birmingham…
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