Well, what can you really say about that? We played some fantastic football but we couldn’t finish for toffee or any other kind of sticky sweet. We should have won, we didn’t and now we’ve made qualification a little bit more complicated than it should have been. We have to beat Hamburg and even after that we’ll probably need something from the Porto game to make sure.
There’s no point me going through them all, I don’t have enough webspace and bandwidth, but the best two chances in the first half fell to Cesc and Tomas Rosicky. Cesc went round the keeper and although he was off balance he should have scored and Rosicky had an open goal but managed, somehow, to knock the ball right back into the keeper’s arms.
In the second half Robin van Persie almost got on the end of an Henry cross, he then made a great run into the box for a cross which he headed just wide and Gilberto had another good header saved by the keeper. We had Jens to thank for saving the day when he made a good save from Vagner Love as we pushed forward but we just couldn’t put it away for the goal the rest of our play deserved.
Afterwards Arsene Wenger was quick to highlight the positives and I do understand that. He praised our overall play which, for most of the game until we started worrying about conceding a late goal which allowed them back into it, was just fantastic. We ripped them to shreds. He said:
Overall, the team played exceptionally well – maybe the best in the Champions League since I was here. We have to take the result tonight with big frustration but a lot of encouragement for the future. What this team has shown tonight, I have not seen for many years in the Champions League. That’s why we have to take this result in a positive way and continue what we’re doing.
I think, more than anything, he’s trying to make sure that the way we finished, or didn’t finish, doesn’t become an issue or some kind of psychological problem. I know people will accuse us of trying to walk the ball into the net again, something that is beyond tiresome now, but there’s no arguing with the fact we don’t score enough scruffy goals. But when a team is making so many chances what more can you do? These are players that can score from 10, 20, 30 yards on a regular basis so why do nights like last night happen with what seems like increasing frequency? There aren’t too many games where we don’t score though. I’d love to see the stats on that for the last two or three seasons.
Last night’s draw was down to shit finishing, nothing more. It doesn’t deserve more analysis than that. The shit finishing might be worth a closer look though but that’s something for another day. Gunnerblog has his say and it’s interesting reading. I think everything we do nowadays is over-analysed. There’s no doubt some people need to remember they’re watching human beings play football and not Soccerbots who are programmed to do everything perfectly every single time. It wasn’t like the Everton game. We made clear cut chances, we tore their defence apart, it wasn’t about not breaking down a defence. It was, in the cold light of day, just one of those nights. We could have played till 11.30 and still not scored.
Anyway, we do like a challenge, don’t we? Why make life easy for yourself when you can complicate things? It’s the Arsenal way!
Thanks for all your emails regarding superstitions. There have been some interesing and bizarre ones which will feature on tomorrow’s arsecast. Also, don’t forget the incredibly difficult Perry Groves competition. To win a copy of his book ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’ just answer the following question:
Is Perry’s book better than Ashley Cole’s piece of shit? a) Yes or b) No and I’m not Ashley Cole or anyone working for his agents, I swear
Simply email your answer to [email protected] and on Friday I’ll announce the 6 winners.
Right then, it’s gone cold here. I’m not used to this at all. Only another 8 months of winter to go till the three days of summer. Joy. Oh, and thanks to Ricey for the headline.
