I love Arsenal and I love watching football and I love watching Arsenal play football but last night was hard going. A dull as dishwater 0-0, the first game we’ve failed to score in all season, earned us the point we needed to ensure qualification to the knock-out stages of the competition.
As expected Arsene changed things around. Out from Saturday’s team went Rosicky, Hleb, Fabregas, Toure, Adebayor, Flamini and Sagna and in came Diarra, Song, Diaby, Denilson, Gilberto, Eduardo, Walcott and Bendtner. Big changes. Slavia Prague had a point to prove and they were not going to be spanked the way they were two weeks ago. They ran and chased and harried and put in a display of cynical fouling to stop us playing. It worked for them though and when you hear how their crowd celebrated a 0-0 you can see how different the expecations are.
There’s not much to talk about in the game. Adebayor’s 85th minute header was our first effort on target and Almunia made a very good save in the second half, putting to bed some of the demons from Saturday. They really didn’t trouble us though, nor did we trouble them. A point was a fair result and despite some people complaining about how we played I thought the objectives of the night were completed. We gave a run out and good experience to some of the fringe players, rested players ahead of the league game against Reading on Monday and qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Some of the players need games like these to bring them on.
I remember Arsene’s quote a few years back about how when you feed someone caviar it’s hard to go back to sausage. The same applies for some fans at the moment. Spoiled rotten by the fantastic football we’ve been playing they gripe and moan about a perfectly good result given the circumstances. Not every game can be all out attacking Pro Evolution Soccertastic. Some people need some perspective and I tell you what, I’m not looking forward to when we eventually lose a game. The dark clouds will come out and we’ll never hear the end of how crap some players are and how we should have bought this player or that player. And no amount of reminding them we haven’t lost a game since April will make the slightest bit of difference. I may hibernate. The only ones who have any right to have a moan about last night’s game are the people who traveled to Prague and got rained on while watching the most boring game in history in Europe’s dullest and least exciting city.
*cough*
There’s still a race on to finish top of the group though. Sevilla are just a point behind us and playing some fine football at the moment so the game in Spain will mainly be quite something something. Exciting, I think is the word. So far we’ve scored 11 goals in Europe this season, conceded none. We’re doing ok, I suppose.
Afterwards Arsene Wenger declared himself happy with the result, making the point that Slavia ‘defended very well’. I think he was being a bit kind to them there. I’ve never seen so much shirt pulling and tactical fouling but then if you’d gotten beaten 7-0 previously you’d do whatever it takes to prevent that happening again. Manuel Almunia was happy with the team and his own performance, his save kept us in it.
Not much else happening bar Arsene ruling himself out of the England manager’s job, soon to be vacated by Steve McClaren. It’s hardly even newsworthy but it does come from an interview with FourFourTwo magazine in which Arsene features this month answering questions from Arsenal fans about all kinds of stuff. Worth picking up a copy.
Right, that’s it. No point flogging a dead horse and all that. I bid you good day, Sirs and Madams.
