Even the morning after the game I’m still somewhat flummoxed at what went on. A point with 10 men away from home is decent, especially when you consider how long we were playing that way, but ultimately the feeling is one of more points dropped and chances wasted.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a valiant effort by the lads who really knuckled down and worked hard to ensure we got something from the game. All credit to them for that but you just can’t help feeling that with a full compliment this was a game we could have won.
Emmanuel Eboue’s sending off deprived us of the chance to bring on Arshavin or Eduardo, two players who, even in a brief cameo, have the quality to make something happen. Instead we had to consolidate, make sure we didn’t concede, then try and nick something. The first two tasks were accomplished, the third, and most vital, was beyond us today.
And so we come to Eboue. For the first 20 minutes or so he was probably our best player. He was popping up all over the place, driving towards goal and positive in everything he did. Afterwards Arsene Wenger was furious that the goal he apparently scored was disallowed and while there didn’t seem to be much wrong with it the whistle had gone long before he put the ball in the net. But there are two distinct sides to Eboue and the one most familar to Arsenal fans emerged shortly after.
He talked himself into the first booking. After Sp*rs had been given a free kick he kept chatting to referee Mike Dean, the most card happy ref in the league, and didn’t take the hint. I was looking at it thinking ‘Shut up Eboue. Shut up!’, and eventually, after being told three times and not stopping he was given a yellow card.
At that point I wanted Wenger to take him off. Dean had dished out 7 red cards before today and I had no faith in Eboue to not get another one. Perhaps Arsene thinks his players are intelligent enough to calm themselves down, to realise they’re dealing with a referee who doesn’t think twice before delivering a card, and perhaps most of them are intelligent to realise that. I don’t think that’s the case with Eboue.
Shortly after Adebayor had pulled up with a hamstring injury Eboue got himself sent off. His kick out at Modric was an act of crass stupidity and selfishness, his patting of Modric on the back after the Sp*rs player was booked was frankly embarrassing as he thought he gotten away with it, and the red card was really no less than he deserved.
He let the team, fans and manager down badly and the hastily arranged damage limitation exercise on the official website is even more maddening. Instead of fully taking responsibility for his actions, something which might at least appease a certain number of fans, he has chosen to blame the referee. And such is his way. He won’t ever change and to see somebody like him in an Arsenal shirt is hard to take for me. He’s a serial cheat who lives in his own little world, where what happens to Eboue is the most important thing. At a crucial time of the season and in an incredibly important game he proved himself to be nothing more than a liability.
To be honest I’d be just as happy if I never saw him in an Arsenal shirt again. He’ll serve a one-match ban and hopefully at that stage Arshavin will have established himself on the right hand side of midfield. Wenger can talk all he wants about how the red card was harsh but we could all see it coming a mile off. Perhaps there’s some scope to question the manager but when he didn’t really have a right midfield option (Arshavin not being fit enough to do more than 20 minutes), ultimately the blame lies with Eboue.
In the post match press conference Arsene was asked if he thought Eboue had the temperament for big matches. While normally he backs his players fully he was hesitant and said:
“I don’t know. I believe … if he has retaliated today … we’ll see. I want first to see before I assess the situation”.
It will be interesting to see what happens when he does see because the evidence is right there. I don’t think there’s another top flight club where Eboue would have played as much, been given so many chances, so often the benefit of the doubt. And yet he continues to let down the man who gives him these chances. Arsene’s patience with him seems endless but surely this must be too much.
In the second half we really dug in. There were some very good performances, Gallas and Song both played very well and overall the effort was good. We even had a couple of chances. One which fell to Song from a corner which he really should have scored from – to put it wide from 6 yards was a poor effort. I know he’s not a striker but he should have done better with that. Robin van Persie cracked a shot wide and late on Bendtner forced a good save from Cuducini.
Sp*rs could have won it right at the death too. They broke from an Arsenal corner, the ball was played to Modric but Manuel Almunia capped a fine game by making a very good save. So in the circumstances the point was well earned but in the end it comes down to more ground being lost on those top 4 positions.
We’ve only scored one goal in our last four games. We’re struggling desperately from an attacking point of view and we can only hope the arrival of Arshavin and the reintroduction of Eduardo will go some way to addressing that. Adebayor will be out for at least three weeks with his hamstring strain and maybe that’s no bad thing. He was poor again yesterday and maybe if he has to fight his way back into the team when he’s fit again it’ll be to everyone’s benefit.
The bottom line though is that we need to start winning games. We’ve drawn 6 of our last 9 league games and while being unbeaten is a good thing, of course, too many draws and you start losing ground in a hurry. In the last 7 games we’ve only conceded 3 goals so perhaps the defensive improvement has come at the cost of attacking verve.
As it stands we’re 5 behind Chelsea, 7 behind Villa, and Liverpool and United are out of sight now. Our next league game is not until the 21st of the month. There’s a round of internationals this week then the FA Cup replay against Cardiff this day week.
With many players away it’s going to be a difficult week for the manager to get his team together and work on the things that obviously need to be worked on. Cardiff is a hugely important game but in the longer term Sunderland is where we really need to get going again.
Have a good Monday.
