A quick one because I am *boilked* to the max.
Three lovely points yesterday against Reading but as usual we made life a bit difficult for ourselves when we should have been putting our feet up and enjoying the ride. The first half was pretty dull – bar an incredible miss from Cesc – but in the second we took control with our Spanish midfielder pulling the strings.
We went in front after the impressive Gael Clichy – who seems to have added some kind of turbocharger to himself – was tripped in the box and Gilberto stroked home the penalty. Julio Baptista got the second with a mixture of power, miscontrol and a toe-bog finish. We had chances for more. Aliadiere had a goal ruled out wrongly for offside while Baptista was floored in the box as he went around the keeper but the ref waved it away.
Jens Lehmann was in particularly spiky form yesterday. He had a right go at Gallas but the two made up not long afterwards. He twice went mental at Alexander Hleb though. Once for not tracking back and the second time when he gave away possession just outside our box with the sort of lazy pass that is becoming too common. Hleb was taken off just after that, possibly to protect him from Lehmann – more likely to stop him giving the ball away in dangerous areas, and Senderos was brought on the right hand side of midfield.
They had a corner and it was deflected in by Cesc. Sidwell then had a great shot saved well by Jens and the final moments were far too hairy for my liking but in the end we throroughly deserved the victory. A nice way to regain some confidence ahead of PSV and hopefully it’ll let us start to build a bit of momentum. Also, a good response from the players after what has been a difficult week.
You can read the manager’s thoughts here.
In other news Emmanuel Adebayor says his agent has told him Manchester United are after him. That’s according to the News of the World. It’s certainly possible that Adebayor’s current contract doesn’t really reflect his growing importance to the team but frankly, and I do like him, coming out with shite like this does him no favours at all. Keep playing your football and you’ll get a new contract. Idle threats are not appreciated.
Meanwhile Thierry Henry, rated as 50-50 by Arsene Wenger for the PSV game, looks set to miss out according to the Sunday Mirror.
And that’s that. Too much pain in the head area. More tomorrow.
