Out Of Shape Gunners Make Point
Sep 17th, 2008 by 'holic
A curious contest exploded into life in the final half hour as Arsenal recovered from an extremely harsh penalty to secure a late equaliser.
A safety first approach saw Alex Song promoted to a starting berth in front of the back four, and a strange mix-and-match role for Robin van Persie as Arsenal switched from four to five in midfield throughout a first hour that the visitors largely dominated.
At half-time the only surprise was that the contest remained goalless after van Persie, Adebayor, and Fabregas spurned clear cut opportunities to score.
Arsenal had a warning early on after the break when Almunia was almost beaten at his near post, but just about got his angles right as the woodwork intervened.
The momentum however swung almost decisively just after the hour when Vukojevic cleverly pulled Sagna down behind him in the box, and the referee adjudged the Frenchman to be the offender. It was clearly shown to be a poor decision on the television replays, but in normal speed the officials may not have had the clearest view.
Bangoura, who was proving a handful for his marker, finally produced a cool finish from the spot. The skipper would claim his revenge three minutes from time by putting the finishing touch to almost the last frantic Arsenal attempt to equalise.
You will not be surprised to hear that, having calmed down, I am fairly upbeat about the draw given our previous record in the region. This was our first ever Champions League point in Ukraine. True, the current Dynamo team do not measure up to their great sides in the past, but they were organised and difficult to break down. In the harsher weather of winter I fear we may have struggled to get even a point.
We could also point to a solid display from Song, who surely did enough to keep a starting berth at Bolton on Saturday, and although he failed to score I have to say Adebayor worked his socks off up front, often alone. His attitude, quite reasonably questioned during the summer, seems absolutely spot on.
Three home wins should now secure progress, with anything from the two other away games clearly viewable as a bonus. Given the champions failure to take maximum points from their opening home game (viva Bobby Pires) we are in better shape than some.
22 Responses to “Out Of Shape Gunners Make Point”
I’ll have a pint of Star please barman.
Molluscs on poncy lager. What is the world coming too?
No, my name is not Basil. Why do you ask?
I agree completely. We should have had the game won in the first half. having wasted 3 very good chances. Kiev did not look that bad a side and a point was a fair reflection. Adebayor was superb and ran all night. Theo was wasteful but the experience will do him good. Great final ball for the goal shows that although he was not on form and was clearly targeted for some rough stuff, that he is prepared to still fight for the cause. Soemthing we may not have seen last year.
Song I thought was excellent. You could see the amount of work he had got through when he was not there and large gaps appeared. Good point in the end in a group with some tricky games to come.
Any drink that could make me have quality sleep (if a short night) would be welcome.
Thanks for all, ‘holic 😉
gallas was aufull. a blind man can see this guy is finished.if we were playin chelsea ,barca inter ,real even liverpool we,ed have been beaten 4 or five with those 2 clowns tuore and gallas at the back. they caused us the league and champions league last year. gonna be over by christmas this year
I didn’t see the match but a number of fans seemed to be worried by Cesc’s performance. They say he looks tired and lethargic. Is this a fair reflection? Does it have much to do with Denilson being alongside him rather than a true DM?
The offensive effectiveness in the second half picked up when Eboue came in. Song was a strong presence, and needed to be; how can Wenger get both him and Eboue into the side?
The penalty call was shocking. It might have been an honest mistake by the referee, but that forward is shameless cheater, and the commentary that I was listening to, even when it was showed in slow-motion replay, described it as “a needless challenge by Sagna.” I am outraged by that description. That really bugged me. Hopefully none of you had to suffer a similar commentary.
The commentary on TV Online was the same, then. “A needless challenge.” They did have a good point though that Toure needed to remain more central to be in front of the attacker when the ball came in, rather than forcing Sagna to try and make the play from behind. Then the attacked cheated. That’s 3 poor penalty decisions against the arse in the last 3 champion’s league matches.
That’s Arsenal TV Online, fyi.
Poor Sagna really felt hard done by that penalty – he was set up!
But in the end, it was a point well fought for. Kiev were troublesome and hard to break down and the lads did not enjoy the space and time they would’ve liked but despite not giving a sparkling performance (even Cesc was slightly underpar), i thought the team did well. thank god we don’t have to go there again anytime soon.
Excellent fight back, never doubted we’d equalise. song provided good cover for back 4. penalty a very clever cheat – can’t blame the ref. should have won but a good point. Cesc is just hungover from a long summer, he’ll be fine. All in all can’t complain, on another day we take our chances and win 4 – 0.
I thought it was a good point under the circumstances.
The midfield was a bit unbalanced. I thought AW would have been better off going 4-5-1 with Ade alone up front and a midfield of Eboue, Cesc, Song, Denilson, Walcott.
I would have also moved Theo to the left a bit to see if there was a bit more space for him down that side.
The penalty was a clear cheat, you can see Sagna is jerked off balance after the player has already started going down.
One thing, why do Gooners always like to have one of our players as a punch bag?
Billy has had his bad moments, like any player does.
He’s been constantly slated for not being a “proper” captain, and every time he makes a mistake, he gets slated, but when he DOES step up to the plate like last night and come back with an important goal, just like a CAPTAIN should, there’s a deafening silence.
Isn’t that a fairly good example of genuine hypocrisy?
Mike, once a player is disliked people only see the things that confirm their prejudice and anything that dispels it is overlooked. Gallas stepped up and saved our bacon as he often does. I say well done.
Mike (13)…great points all round. I completely agree. Gallas previous performances and his roll in losing possession leading to the Kiev goal has done him no favours but he should be given respect for working tirelessly and scoring the equaliser.
The difference between the two teams was finishing against opportunities to be honest. We are still profligate in front of goal and that must be improved. Had we taken our scoring opportunities the final score would have been 3 or 4-1.
Although I am pleased with the final score, it galls with me to say that some of our rivals WOULD have taken those opportunities.
Finally, I’m not too worried about Cesc. Yes he has been a little below par but the quality will soon return. Despite his lathargy, he was still spreading the ball and controlling play in the midfield area beautifully. It can only get better as far as I’m concerned.
Morning Mentards!
*Reads the ‘holic blog*
Pack of Pork Scratching and a double of your finest whiskey please.
cesc will be fine, I would like to see a defensive coach come in ala Martin K. or even Tony Adams, that could only help….. Ol Pires stung Man’ure last night and I loved it, I miss seeing him streak down the left side of MF, anyone else? Up the Arse!
eastcoastgooner
All in all a fairly satisfactory evenings work. Of course we should have scored three in the first half, and to go behind to such a joke penalty was galling. Just as I was fearing the worst, Theo managed to set up the G man for the equaliser. Thank god Eboue failed to make contact with the ball! Still, a reasonable start and if we win our home games we should comfortably qualify. Of more concern was the appaling treatment dished out to poor Theo. Any player with his murderous pace must expect to be targeted in this way, but at least one of the challenges deserved a straight red. I expect he will get much of the same at Bolton on Saturday, and we can only hope for better refereeing.
I shouldn’t really but another kir please, ‘holic
You’re right… You shouldn’t!
A pint of Theakstons Old Peculiar please.
I gave up on OP when I found that drinking eight pints of the stuff made me do strange things on the way home.
I need a hot toddy, ‘holic, please….