Arsenal 1 Aston Villa 1

Arsenal 1 Aston Villa 1

Postby Fordy » Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:39 am

That is the worst performance I've seen from us at home since we have moved to the Emirates. The passing today was so poor and not just from a few players, but everyone. Cesc and Hleb were really poor today and we lacked creativity with both of them playing so bad. Wenger got his tactics wrong in the second half and Diaby was clearly unfit and his lack of a left foot was such a problem today, as Villa showed him onto his left foot everytime and he lost the ball or was simply forced to go back. A point is not a great result, but after that performance and being behind to grab a point I'm happy with.

When I saw the line up I was suprised Wenger had gone with Theo up front, but he was our best player in the first half. He ran at the Villa defence and caused them problems. He had the first effort of the game after turning Laursen I think it was and forcing Carson into a decent save. We nearly conceded at the other end however when Senderos just let Agbonlahor run away from him he broke clear, but Gallas made a superb tackle to save the day. From a corner we had the best chance so far though when the ball fell to Senderos six yards out and he sliced wide. The last person you would have wanted the ball to fall to was Senderos. Was a great chance and really should have seen us go one up.

We were made to pay for that, because Agbonlahor broke on the left hand side and put a low ball into the box and Senderos guided it past Almunia. What he was attempting to I don't know, as surely he should have been attempting to clear the ball with his right foot and not his left. He could have even just put the ball out for a corner, but instead gave Villa the lead. Maloney had a pop from 30 yards out that hit the bar, which was a decent effort, but I'd have expected Almunia to save it anyway.

We nearly caught Villa on the broke when Senderos cleared to Theo who gave Laursen all sorts of problems, Theo gave it to Ade, who gave it to Cesc and all he had to do was put it in the back of the net, but instead he hit it wide and high. Was an awful effort and the goal would have been such a boost going into the break. We were definitely not out of the game and we've come back from a goal down plenty of times at the Emirates so I still thought we would have enough to come back into the match.

We came out in the second half and Arsene had moved Theo to the right and Hleb in the hole. Theo had been playing really well up front so why Wenger chose to move him to the right I don't know. He should have brought Diaby off, moved Hleb to the left and brought Denilson on imo, or even put Bendtner up front.

We nearly got straight back into the match when Theo tested Carson again. Cesc wasted the corner, as he did with nearly every corner he had on the day. With Rosicky and Robin both out of the team we're so lacking at set peices and with that also being one of Villa's main strengths we didn't cause them enough problems from plenty of set peice opportunities.

Ashley Young forced a good save from Almunia on the break. I'd expected him to have saved it, but it was a reminder that another goal and we would be in a lot of trouble. The game seemed to go by with us just having a lot of possession and doing nothing with it. We brought Bendtner on and as soon as he was on we improved. Bendtner sent a header over and Hleb forced Carson into another save, Clichy also worked Carson. Adebayor had a great chance to equalise when Theo crossed and very much like Milan he sent the ball over. Ade then set up Flamini who fired over and to be honest I thought that was it.

Then in the 93rd minute Clichy crossed and Ade headed down superbly and Bendtner put it in the net. We deserved at least a point out of the game, despite the fact we played so bad, the least we deserved out of the match was a point. We were missing big players today and we felt that today. Wenger got his tactics wrong in the second half and we really lacked something today.

We're still top, but by only one point. The fact we scored a last minute equaliser is a lot better than conceding one though as we know from last week. Hopefully this will improve the confidence and allow us to get back on track next week at Wigan. We've got Milan to look forward to and getting through to the next round is the most important thing right now.

by rodney
Fordy
 

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