A contentious final North London derby at Highbury saw the points shared with a 1-1 draw. A controversial Robbie Keane goal was equalised late on by Thierry Henry but all the talk afterwards was about their goal.
It was midway through the second half when Gilberto and Emmanuel Eboue collided leaving the full back injured. Michael Carrick had the ball and the referee and the Arsenal players seemed to stop in expectation that they would pull the ball out. They didn’t, Carrick gave it to Davids whose cross took a deflection of Kolo Toure to put it into the path of Keane who tapped him home.
Wenger was furious calling the goal a ‘disgrace’ and he almost went head to head with Jol on the touchline. Jol said he didn’t see it – and how can we as Arsenal fans really complain about that one – Wenger said he was lying and when pressed about it again said “Of course they lie.”
There’s not much we can do about it now though, however unseemly it might be. Personally I think they should have put the ball out but then I suppose I would. The strength of the reaction from Arsene Wenger shows what he felt and Thierry Henry afterwards said that the Sp*rs players said they didn’t see our players lying injured and he wanted to believe them but….
Maybe Wenger’s reaction was a little bit strong but this wasn’t a mid-table nothing affair. This was a massive game against our local rivals where three points was vital and they score a hugely controversial goal, whatever your opinion of it, so it’s understandable tempers are going to be frayed a little bit. Some people suggest AW should apologise. I would suggest that he should only apologise if he said something he didn’t think was true. If he really thinks that Jol lied about not seeing it then he’s got nothing to apologise for.
Our equaliser was an excellent goal. Great work from Adebayor down the left saw him slip a ball through to Henry who finished like nobody else can. The quickest feet in the game clipped it past Robinson in the Sp*rs goal. I think 1-1 was a fair result on the balance of the game, certainly first half they created a lot more than us. So we’re now left in a position where we need somebody to take points of Sp*rs and for us to win our final three games to finish 4th. Maybe Bolton can do that having come back into a bit of form with a 4-1 win yesterday. Maybe what goes around will come around for our lily-white rivals. Karma. The circle of life. They’ll drop points to a handball goal by some Bolton cunt and we win all three games and finish 4th. That would be funny.
What I should probably mention is that although we ‘dropped’ a point yesterday it’s not Robbie Keane’s goal that will dictate where we finish. It was miserable away days at West Brom, Everton, Boro, Portsmouth and Blackburn and horrible nights like West Ham at home that made yesterday’s three points so vital. So we can rage all we like but at the end of the day we put ourselves in this position. Which is a pain in the arse but that’s just the way it is.
Sunday round-up
Amy Lawrence on Philippe Senderos – “Criticised for resembling a rabbit caught in headlights….Senderos reacted in the only way he knows how. Broad shoulders, a steady head and a big heart saw him through the tunnel and out the other side. One thing he did not do was hide.”
The bad news from yesterday is that he picked up a knee injury which looks likely to put him out of Tuesday’s game against Villarreal. It is a shame because the partnership he has built with Kolo Toure has been outstanding and has given us a platform on which to base our form in Europe. I suppose this means we’ll see Campbell back, provided he’s recovered from his broken nose, otherwise Djourou will step in.
Real Madrid have joined the ‘chase’ for Thierry Henry according to the People and they’re willing to offer him a billion pounds a day to play for them. Arsene Wenger says “He is much more mature, much more tolerant, much more team conscious than he was and I think it was a very good thing for him to become captain. He said he would come and do it in May, we will do it in May, you have to respect that.”
Villarreal warmed up for the second leg on Tuesday by resting almost their entire first team against Real Sociedad yesterday. They lost 2-0.
And that’s it. Lots to talk about tomorrow and look forward to. For now it’s the papers and some breakfast and a hair of the dog. G’luck.
