Sunday, April 28, 2013

Arsenal Draw First Blood ... Settle for a Draw

In the second minute of the game against Manchester United today, Walcott snuck in behind Evra and a perfect pass from Rosicky was well finished by the Englishman. That he was slightly offsides seemed almost apropos given how many bad calls Arsenal has suffered through the years and how many United have benefited from. The Gunners then dominated the next twenty minutes of the game, pressing up on the Red Devils, passing the ball around cooly and creating several half chances. But they were wasteful in the final third and the second never came. As had happened against Fulham, Everton and Schalke, they would cede the lead and never find the winner. In the 42nd minute, after a sea of yellows from Phil Dowd, most for United, Sagna inexplicitly sent a back pass too slowly in the direction of Mertesacker. RVP intercepted the pass and charged toward goal down the left flank. Sagna, trying to make up for his error, chased from behind and though RVP had run into a rather poor angle, the Frenchman tackled him in the box, missing the ball and earning our ex-captain a penalty. A minute later the score was level and momentum had shifted. Arsenal held out until halftime, but the damage was done.

In the second half, both teams charged forward frequently, but neither found a second goal and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. It was not a terrible result for Arsenal, but did seem like a missed opportunity and took the UCL place out of their power (assuming Tottenham beat Chelsea and both win all the rest of their fixtures). Arsenal will rue not taking further advantage of having more at stake, of controlling parts of the game in a way that should have led to more goals and of the Sagna mistake -- which is not the first that has cost us this season. It was a decent display holding the champions to only one goal, but could have been so much better. Aaron Ramsey put in another strong performance, Cazorla was decent at times (though not up to his usual level), Szczesny had three great saves and seems to have refound his old form and Mertesacker and Kos were again impressive in the back, though they did provide some openings for crosses and headers that United luckily failed to convert. On the down side, Sagna appears to have lost the steadiness he has displayed for the past several years, not only with the one mistake but in being too slow in the buildup and failing to put in more than one pinpoint cross. I assume we will let him go this summer and buy another right back, giving Jenkinson the chance to start next year. Gibbs was decent, but not much developed on his side of the pitch and he did let Valencia get behind him on several occasions. Arteta was steady as usual without being spectacular and Podolski was largely invisible in his second chance playing through the middle. One does wonder if he is suffering from an ankle injury, as rumoured.

In any case, the Gunners now have three winnable fixtures to finish the season and will hope that United can at least draw against Chelsea and then Chelsea draw Tottenham (or beat them). If either or both of those scenarios unfold, Arsenal will again hold their fate in their own hands. As it now stands, if everything goes against them, including Tottenham grabbing all three points at the Bridge, Arsenal will miss out by a mere point -- ruing all of the missed opportunities against Fulham (the penalty at the death), today, against Liverpool, almost coming back against Chelsea and a host of other games where they needed a little more punch to win. They have been on an impressive unbeaten run of form ever since the meaningless 2-0 win over Bayern, but could fall just short. Let's hope Tottenham continue their history of late season swoons, not hard to imagine after only gaining a point against Wigan (and a lucky one at that, given it was an own goal in the 89th minute). COYG!

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