Very frustrating, that, wasn’t it? I’d just come back from the annual family Boxing Day football match, in which I’d seen children of 5 valiantly holding off attackers four times their weight, only to watch Arsenal succumb pitifully, yet again, when it would have been much easier to hold on for a draw or a win.
What’s a bit consoling (yet also makes the draw even more frustrating) is that it could all have been so different. After they hit the bar three times in the first half, and then induced a spectacular clearance from Sagna (more on him later), I’d have taken the draw in a heartbeat. I might even have taken it at the start of the game.
But after Denilson slipped in and punished Reo-Coker for trying a bit of Pro Evo defending you got the feeling this might just be one of our days. Rare as they are, I was overcome by the sensation that this game might be the little bit of luck we needed, a turning point in the season. I felt this even more strongly after we got the second – two chances, two on target, two goals. Hilarious, like one of those CM games where you know the computer’s decided you’re not allowed to win.
I had real faith. After the goals we looked like a completely different side, with Denilson and Diaby looking not only sound defensively but fluid on the attack as well. What a difference a bit of confidence makes. There’s talent there, no doubt about it. They’re just not used to winning. They haven’t got that drive which says ‘right, we’re two goals up, we’re not losing from here’.
You couldn’t say the same about Ramsay, however, who I must say looked completely out of his depth up against Barry et al. I’ve seen a lot of chat online about how he and Wilshere should be given a chance in the first team, but I thought Song and Denilson both looked much better than they young Welshman yesterday. As grabs wrote so effectively the other day; just imagine if we’d just bought Song and Denilson for £9m and £6m, and think how much more patience you’d be giving them then…
Anyway, after the penalty (which was as obvious as they come and woefully incompetent from Gallas, who otherwise had a couple of good moments) went in you just felt like we could conceded again, and we dutifully did after we decided, presumably chasing the logical conclusion of attack being the best form of defence, to all hang around in Villa’s half during injury time when we didn’t have the ball. Zat Knight duly obliged when he found himself in acres of space, and a million boxing day sofas went ‘urrrgggghhhhhhh’ together.
I promised more on Sagna – what a champ he was yesterday. You don’t often notice him, but matches like yesterday make you realise that it’s basically because he never does anything wrong. Rarely injured, rarely booked, constantly running and throwing himself at the ball – how many others on the team would have got to that bicycle kick clearance? Not many, for my money. You’ve got to think that basically any club in the world would take him at right back at the moment. I hope he knows how important he is. We should think of a song for him, pronto.
As January approaches Wenger has one of the toughest months during his time as coach to look forward to. Who to buy? To sell anyone? How to convince the back four they are, indeed, a back four? He expressed this through the medium of getting cross about Villa’s assistant manager talking to the ref at half time. Honestly. What a lot of rubbish. Put it down to stress, I suspect.
Enjoy the dregs of Christmas, grabbos. And here’s to a better show tomorrow.
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