So a point against the Mugsmashers wasn’t exactly what we were looking for but given the circumstances it was a decent result.
I thought we played the first 30-35 minutes really well. We controlled the game, Liverpool weren’t much of a threat and we looked pretty comfortable. We scored a really fantastic goal to go ahead. Samir Nasri played a ball in to Robin van Persie whose control and turn bamboozled Jamie Carragher and the right foot finish was reminiscent of the goal against Chelsea. Not bad for his chocolate leg.
But the last 10 minutes of the first half proved very costly. They equalised when a hacked clearance from the back caught out the centre halves and Robbie Keane, the mallet headed cunt, smashed home on the half volley. It was a fine finish but once again our defence looked suspect to the ball over the top – and it wasn’t as if we hadn’t been warned. Early in the first half we were caught out similarly.
We were lucky not to go in behind too. Gael Clichy was caught in possession by Kuyt whose cross found Gerrard unmarked at the back post but he contrived to put it wide. I really like Gael Clichy but he has developed a worrying tendency to overplay at the back when he should just concentrate on getting it clear. It nearly cost us again yesterday. Then Almunia made a fine save from Kuyt and we were on the ropes a bit.
The most costly moment of the half though came as we were breaking from defence. Cesc went into a 50-50 with Xabi Alonso and injured his knee. How ironic that the bloke who should have been playing alongside him was the one who injured our captain. He looks set to be out for some time and his absence is going to be a massive blow for us.
In the second half I thought they continued where they left off and they certainly had more possession than us. Lucas forced a decent save from Almunia and then it became the Howard Webb show. Emmanuel Adebayor had been booked, harshly I thought, in the first half, and after a tussle with Arbeloa Webb showed him a second yellow card. At first I thought it was for playing on after the whistle but it seems he bought Arbeloa’s theatrics which made it look like Adebayor had elbowed him. Frankly the red card was a joke of a decision and it means we’ll be without the Togonator for the Villa game on Friday.
So, down to 10 men, with Liverpool in control and it was really worrying, for a few moments. But the red card galvanised us and we responded brilliantly. Alex Song, who had been stinkingly average for the whole game, put in a tremendous shift for the last 25 minutes or so and, for me, what made our post-red card performance so fantastic was the fact that we essentially carried Abou Diaby for that whole period. It says a lot about Diaby that he can’t even get a game in central midfield when Cesc is injured and he was abysmal yesterday, in my opinion.
You knew when the ball came to him that it would end up with a Liverpool player sooner rather than later so for us to play so well was an absolute credit to the rest of the players. You expected Liverpool to turn the screw – they had a brilliant opportunity to stick the knife in but they were not good at all. ‘Utter muck’ were the words the Mugsmasher used after the game and it’s hard to disagree. You don’t look at them and think title winners on that kind of performance.
So overall I think we’ve got be relatively happy with the point under those circumstances. We can look at those last 30 minutes and be very proud of the players and what was also enjoyable was that the frustration of fans was focussed elsewhere, rather than internally. Howard Webb, what a complete masturbatory expert he is. It’s good to remember than no matter what our own failings are there are always bigger cunts out there.
Afterwards Adebayor was unhappy about the sending off and Arbeloa’s antics, saying:
I cannot say he cheated, but what he did was not fair play at all. The defender threw himself on the floor as if I put a knife in him. At the end of the end of the day he [Webb] has made a mistake and he has to recognise that what he has done is a little mistake.
While Arsene Wenger was also less than impressed with Webb:
It was not a red card, it was not a second yellow card. I don’t know what it was for and I’m sure he doesn’t know. I am convinced we would have won with 11 players. Today we had the ‘Be a Gooner, Be a Giver’ charity appeal — you cannot say the referee was a Gooner today but he was a giver because he gave us yellow cards we did not deserve.
Heh. I don’t think there’s any way to appeal the red card so we’ll be without Adebayor when we play Villa on Friday. He’s a big loss for such an important game which is what makes the decision to send him off even more frustrating. I think Webb got this one badly wrong.
Of more pressing concern is the injury to Cesc. Optimistic estimates put his return at 3-4 weeks but you never know with knee injuries and we’ve just got to hope that it’s not any more serious than that. If it is the manager’s need to spend money in the transfer market in January is even more pressing. So fingers crossed on that one. I imagine he’ll go for a scan today, if he hasn’t had one already, and we should find out the real extent of the injury soon enough.
Right then, that’s about that. There’s plenty to come despite it being Christmas week so we’ll leave it there for today. Till tomorrow.
