Hey, did you realise that Partizan backwards is Nazitrap? Hmmm...
Anyways, we won last night. We actually did. Despite our best efforts. For many many stretches of the game, it was same old angst, anger, dismay, disbelief. But thank god for Chamakh, and may he have a nice rest ahead of Sunday.
The way we started the way, it was basically a re-hash of our West Brom malaise, mixed in with the stage fright associated with that (quite) scary setting of the Partizan stadium, and the trauma of having had to change in a dark changing room. (What the hell, right???)
It was a really scary first couple of minutes. But hey, we scored with our first real shot on goal. Wilshere again. God bless him. Quite amazingly, that goal sorta switched a switch, and for the next 20 minutes or so, we could've scored 3, should've scored at least one more. Some nice stuff, but for a decent keeper and some suspect finishing...
Then it happened, of course. That soft-goal gifted to our Serbian friends. The only clean sheet we've kept this season was against the 10-men of Blackpool at home, so hey, we had to give one away here, so why not just REALLY give it away with a dodgy handball from Denilson. 1-1, instead of 3-0, and we were in really familiar territory.
With the goal, we revert to our nervy first few minutes, and I was happy just to get into half-time at 1-1.
Second half, not bad, and 10 minutes in, we're given the perfect life-line. Penalty, red card...and of course, always one to have deep suspicions of a gift horse, we proceed to shoot the damn animal in the mouth with a sad penalty straight at the ex-Wigan goalie. Sheer agony on the part of us Arse fans, but hey...not that surprising, no?
By then, it looked like there was nothing we could do. There were stretches where the 10-men of Partizan actually looked vaguely dangerous on the offensive, and I was wondering if 1-1 was that bad a result. (Upon switching the channel and learning that Shakhtar were turning over (Sporting) Braga, the answer became clear. No, one point would be crap).
With the Partizan defensive wall looking good, it was a nice surprise to see Chamakh do what he does best with his head. Twice. Good header onto the bar, better one into the empty net. Crossed myself, and hoped for more to come in killing off the tie.
It would finally come with Arshavin off, and after his many crap corners, Nasri finally delivers a decent one onto the head of the Squid. 3-1. Game over?
No...of course not.
Why not make it interesting. When Gibbs gave away yet another stupid, preventable penalty, I swear I expected the 10-men to make total fools of Arsenal.
But they, cometh the moment, cometh the man. Fabianski saves us. Who would ever thought we'd hear that. Yes. He did. An actually quite excellent save, much better than the save from Almunia from what was a much worse penalty over the weekend.
He let out his howl, and I let out my own quiet howl.
Just so there would be no further doubt, the dude saves his defenders again with another pretty save following yet more comical defending from Djourou and the Squid.
3-1, 6 points, top of the table. I'll take it.
But problems remain, no? Not sure about you, but this habit of being charitable needs to be looked at asap. Preferably before Sunday, to say the least. Yes, we could score the goals, but the defending at times was at sea. Song went on one too many journeys up the pitch, and we too often looked too exposed at the back. Not quite right, if you asked me.
Vermaelen's one week injury is into its 4th or 5th week, so I suppose we should expect maybe 2 or 3 more. Fingers crossed Koscielny and Squid put in one of their better performances, and Song has his defensive head on on Sunday.
Wenger has said all the right things about the team and his goalkeeper, and we've got more than enough time till Sunday to think about what's going to happen then. For one, looks like we'll have Fabianski in goal again. Hey, Fabianski in a goalkeeping heat is far better than Almunia in an opposite funk.
Ciao then. Methinks I'm getting enough of frustrations. Not that Sunday's going to make things different...
No comments:
Post a Comment