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Arsenal were still missing Diaby, Gallas, Rosicky, Henry and Lauren but ‘Arry Redknapp was also short of a few forwards; namely Cole (Achilles), Lua Lua (thigh) and Benjani (hamstring) who were all out but Kanu passed a late fitness test to overcome a knee problem. Aliadiere replaced the rested Adebayor in our line up. So the question was were we set for another 1-1 or 3-0, or just maybe Pompey could become the first away team to grab all the points at Ashburton?Arsenal opened with an Eboue cross that was well met by Van Persie's head and saved by James. A low shot from Johnson was easy for Lehmann. Six minutes in and Freddie had to retire with an injury; the good news was that Theo replaced him. Portsmouth caught offside to the tune of ‘Red Army'. Kolo on a charge upfield. Hleb was working hard and stole quite a few balls with effective blocks. One such block set up an attack that saw Theo chopped for a free kick on our right. The angle was narrow and Van Persie's free kick was cleared.
We were on top in the early stages but it didn't remain like that. Portsmouth adjusted to our 4-4-2 and worked their way back into the game with a useful spell of possession. Cesc with the odd good ball and a shot saved, but he wasn't dominating today. Van Persie forced another save and James seemed to be working harder than Lehmann, although Pompey had a lot of the play. Pamarot headed clear from a corner awarded against Kolo that didn't look to be a corner.
Clichy with a great tackle on O'Neil who was through on goal, shades of Winterburn covering across. Pompey continued to press and won a corner that Jens was forced to punch out from under his bar. Another corner saw Kanu fouling Lehmann as Pompey attempted the old crowd the German ploy. A marginal offside against Robin. An awkward clearance by James set up an Arsenal attack that ended with a free kick to Robin on our right. Van Persie took it and fired this one over. Thompson, who looked a tad lardy, volleyed one into the crowd. Another Pompey free kick and an easy take for Jens from Kanu's header. Cesc to Robin won us another corner, which came in low to win yet another corner.
Porstmouth broke and Eboue responded with a wild tackle that looked bookable from the other side of the pitch. Pompey won a free kick courtesy of the lino, this looked a poor decision. The ball in from Taylor was flicked on by a head, Thompson I think, it hit the post and fell to Pamarot to head home for a 0-1 lead almost on the stroke of half time. Pompey deserved their lead on the balance of play but had hardly created an abundance of chances. The Arsenal crowd was not exactly ecstatic at half time. Overall we'd been pretty poor and had rarely showed our now classic flowing fast touch game. We've been seriously spoiled haven't we?
The second half started with a Portsmouth cross come shot from their right. Arsenal responded by fart-arsing around in the right back spot with Eboue being the prime culprit. The end result was a lost ball and ultimately a volley from Taylor that had top-corner written all over it. Hardly any of the Club seats had been refilled and we were already two down at home. 0-2 Pompey to the delight of the south coast fans whom thankfully were minus that highly irritating bell today.
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And come it did when Hleb played a great ball for Turbo-boy to run on and hit the perfect cross which Adebayor struck home. 1-2 and the home crowd were wide-awake now as Arsenal attacked with gusto. Kolo was rampant and hit a rocket that James did well to stop, but it fell to Adebayor who managed to find Theo beyond the far post, Turbo-kid scrambled it back for Gilberto to hit a shot that beat James at his far post. Two goals in two minutes, it was 2-2 with half an hour to play.
Theo went on another run. Van Persie put Adebayor through again but he was stopped by some fine defending. More corners to Arsenal, Hleb into the box. Van Persie from a narrow angle into the side netting. Thompson was replaced by Kranjcar. Hleb worked the ball into their box again but at the other end there was a fine cross across the face of our goal that could have spelt danger. Van Persie was breaking fast, Walcott was taking them on but Adebayor to Walcott only resulted in a fairly tame shot from Turbo-kid. Eboue had been struggling after getting a knock and so was replaced by Flamini who didn't quite have the same rapport with Turbo-kid down our right. Flamini did find a terrific through ball for Gilberto to chase though, but his shot went past the far post on the wrong side. Van Persie was taken out by Knajcar for what should have been a yellow card but instead Bennett booked Johnson for something he'd presumably done earlier.
Van Persie got power into his free kick but it went over. Kanu was replaced by Hughes and went off to warm applause from the home fans. Timewasting by Portsmouth was now at epidemic proportions as Hleb found Flamini on the charge but his left foot shot was off target. On ninety minutes Bennett acted all too late as O'Neill became the recipient of a belated yellow for timewasting. Four minutes added time and two more fouls on Van Persie. Adebayor chased a good ball into the box and was clearly held back but Bennett only awards iffy penalties to the Mancs as I recall.
So a poor first half with some key players on the bench. Resting players is fine, and indeed very necessary, but I'd rather we used them first half, went ahead and then let them have a break. An exciting second half had got the crowd to their feet but we couldn't quite snatch the winner.
Remember last season when some people said we'd never find an additional twenty-two thousand fans? Well this was our ninth League game at Ashburton and our eighth where the attendance has been in excess of 60,000. Impressive stuff that but it means the touts are back in numbers, there were loads of the bar stewards between the Arsenal tube and Highbury House on Saturday – how are they working the system with electronic tickets?