A poor first half from both teams gave travelling fans (and the five Bolton fans who bothered turning up!) a dire 45 minutes of football. The second half was a marked improvement, and we looked like scoring in spells, when Van Persie and Campbell both hit the bar in quick succession. If anyone was looking to sneak a late goal it was probably us, but predictably it was Bolton who got it after some poor marking from the midfield gave Sol Campbell no option but to leave Stellios to watch the runner and Bolton duly scored with a cross and a header.
Thankfully we can actually take some positives from this one, which we couldn't from the league game here or our last away game at Everton. The work rate and commitment of Diaby for example stood out as a highlight, especially when he proceeded to break Campo's foot!
Manuel Almunia (6) Good distribution.
Philippe Senderos (6) Did well in an unnatural position.
Johan Djourou (6) Fairly solid throughout.
Sol Campbell (6) Played Bolton onside at times as he dropped deeper than the line.
Kerrea Gilbert (6) Another good display, but he didn't get forward to such good effect as in previous games.
Jose Reyes (4) His lack of willingness to fight for the ball and take it past people was shocking.
Abu Diaby (7) A superb midfield display, which combined pace, power and a hard tackle to maximum effect.
Mathieu Flamini (5) Couldn't get his foot on the ball for large spells.
Freddie Ljungberg (6) Battled hard but lost some will late on.
Alexandre Hleb (3) A lack of will, fight, energy and commitment from start to finish. He lost the ball, played poor passes and refused to shoot when presented with the opportunity inside the area.
Robin Van Persie (7) Scrapped for the ball up front and had the beating of his man numerous times.