Arsenal 1 – 1 Boro: Four Bore Draws and our lead has vanished
Add comment March 17th, 2008
Birmingham (away), Villa (home), Wigan (away), and Boro (home). Four games from which I predicted we could amass twelve points. Instead, we have drawn each of them, scoring only four times and collecting as many points. In the same period, Manchester United and Chelsea have pushed on, with United now topping the table with a game in hand. Our five point lead has vanished.
If we do not win the title, this will have been the sequence where it slipped away. The players are understandably down, and after being Championship favourites just a few weeks ago, this fall from grace will be tough to take. The win in the San Siro had been an anomaly, and is indeed the only victory in our past seven games. This is a severe slump, and one that not even the return of Robin van Persie has been able to alleviate.
The Boro game itself was a horribly predictable affair. An Emmanuel Adebayor goal was controversially ruled offside as we started brightly enough, but some very poor defending from a long ball allowed Jeremie Aliadiere (of all people) to tuck away Boro’s only chance of the game. From then on it was every man behind the ball for Boro as we struggled to break down a resilient defence. Eventually Kolo Toure’s header was bundled over the line in the 84th minute, but in spite of the sending off of Mido for a high lunge on Gael Clichy, we could not find a winner.
It leaves us needing to do very well out of a daunting string of fixtures: Chelsea (away), Bolton (away), three fixtures against Liverpool, then Manchester United (away). Now granted, it’s more important to win those than the previous four, but the chances of pulling that off look very slim on current form.
We need to turn the corner, and fast, or we’re going to skid right off the road.
