A game of two halves at Villa Park last night. The first saw us play some really fantastic football, the second saw us play not so well coupled with a vast improvement in the performance of the home side. Villa scored first when Gallas got a touch on a Carew cross which helped it right into the path of Craig Gardener who sidefooted home.
It wasn’t a big problem for this Arsenal side though and we had Villa on the backfoot for the duration of the first 45. We equalised through Mathieu Flamini’s left footed rocket after Rosicky got a touch to an Eboue cross. To me that really summed up Flamini (new deal please). He gave the ball away at the start of the move which led to Villa’s goal but made up for his mistake by getting us back on level terms. He really is having a great season. Then Adebayor thumped in a header from the ever impressive Bacary Sagna’s cross to make it 2-1. I think the possession stats showed us with 75% at certain periods and the way we moved the ball around and kept possession was just fantastic at times. Another goal would have been nice but it wasn’t to be and it did make the second half quite nervy.
We didn’t come anywhere near the level of performance of the first half and Villa played a lot, lot better. Carew was always a menace in the air, although he went unchallenged at times, and we gave the ball away much more than usual. We can’t really write off the second half as just us being crap though, Villa were good. They are a decent team, O’Neill has them organised and hard-working and their league position going into the game wasn’t a lie. Our cause wasn’t helped when Carew’s crude hack on Hleb saw the Belarussian taken off on the hour. Theo came on and played wide left while Rosicky moved into Hleb’s position but didn’t get into the game at all.
There were some nervous moments. Carew hit the bar, there was at least one goalmouth scramble which we managed to clear and Almunia made a couple of decent saves from long range efforts which, given the rain and slippy conditions, weren’t exactly routine. When Gilberto came on he made a difference, I thought. They were far less threatening, Carew stopped winning everything in the air and while Diarra showed flashes of good stuff I’d have preferred to see the Brazilian alongside Flamini at the start. With Cesc set to miss the Newcastle game on Wednesday he may well get his chance.
Afterwards the manager praised his team, saying:
We were brilliant and resilient. In the first half we played some absolutely amazing football. Maybe in the past, games like that have been our Achilles heel. But we have improved, have more experience and resilience and we panic less.
Adebayor and Flamini (NDP) talk about Alexander Hleb who was apparently left with two gashes on his calf after Carew’s ‘tackle’. Writing it off as a ‘striker’s challenge’ doesn’t work. It was very poor indeed no matter what position you play in. Hopefully he won’t be out for too long but Wednesday could be a push.
A word about Jens Lehmann who stayed on the bench during half-time and whose relationship with Almunia is non-existant. He doesn’t warm up with his goalkeeping colleague and sulking on the bench during half-time is nonsense. I understand him being upset and frustrated about not playing but you have to ask whether or not his behaviour is something that should be tolerated. When you read Almunia saying how he’s much happier now that he doesn’t speak to Lehmann anymore then it’s probably the kind of influence you can do without around the club. I think it really would be best for all concerned if he moved on in January.
No time to check around the Sunday papers for other snippets, I’m off to play a match this morning. Have yourselves a good Sunday and I’ll talk to you on tomorrow’s blog.
