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Generally speaking the opening period was one where we failed to get the ball forward at speed during a half in which Henry lurked on the left wing and Van Persie was quite often our most forward player in a standard 4-4-2 formation. Our somewhat lightweight midfield, physically that is, did battle well enough but without ever dominating proceedings. We threatened on occasion to get the rhythm going but it was always in fits and bursts and our final ball, although promising, always seemed to be just a yard or so off target for the runner.
The only real threat from Villa came from Baros, or would have done had he ever managed to stay onside. Quite why the offside decisions continually upset the home fans can only put down to ignorance. As was their booing whenever a thug such as McCann, Bakke or Delaney whacked someone in the back. Uriah Rennie gave Arsenal numerous free kicks in areas of the pitch that threatened no danger but which basically gave Villa time to retreat. The Holt End however declared that he didn’t know what he was doing, no change there then.
Kolo Toure had to defend with real pace at one point when he stopped Moore getting through at the expense of a corner. Jens had a marginal moment against Baros when he had to dummy him following an iffy back pass from Ralph. But apart from one powerful shot that really moved in the air Lehmann only had to deal with a few crosses, many of which sailed behind his goal. The shot was from either Barry or Milner because they were the only players in claret and blue capable of a powerful shot. One nasty challenge by Bakke on Fabregas counted for nowt because Villa had already been awarded a free kick. There was a poor kicked clearance from Jens, his only mistake of the match, but it only resulted in an easy save from Milner.
Our best and probably only clear-cut chance of the half came when a well-timed run by Flamini from a pass by, I think, Cesc put him clean through, but he blasted over with only Sorensen to beat. It was best described as a Parlouresque moment I suppose. Nil-nil at half time then, with not too much to shout about from either side.
After the break Villa had more of the play and had us pressed back for fairly long periods but our back four always seemed to be in control. Numerous Villa long throws and quite a few corners saw Sol heading or hacking clear. If it wasn’t Sol it was Pascal, Kolo or Lauren all of whom did what was required of them.
Baros had a good chance to put Villa ahead when Moore sent him clear but after finding no one to pass to he blasted over instead. Arsenal came closest when Freddie hit the bar with a fine effort; Van Persie also had one good shot on target that Sorensen saved low to his right. But most of our half-chances came from angled shots, any free kicks around the box were either wasted or hit against a wall that was all of five yards away. Henry was rather subdued although he still managed the odd piece of amazing skill.
Bergkamp, Reyes and Pires arrived at various times to replace, respectively, Van Persie, Hleb and Ljungberg, but nothing much changed. If anything Villa finished the stronger and late on, following a corner, Bakke had a chance to win the game but fired over.
The locals seemed quite pleased with the result but I was frankly unimpressed with either team although it was a long way from being the worse match I’ve seen, even this season. We will definitely need to up our game against United on Tuesday night however. When I fear the result may well depend upon who is officiating at Highbury.
McCann was voted as man-of-the-match by the day’s match sponsors – presumably for getting away with his usual thuggery without getting booked by the ever-erratic Rennie. In truth it was hard to pick a man-of-the-match, but Cygan did fine for the most part, not as well as Sol or Kolo but well enough.
Highlights of our day trip up to the Midlands were: not getting stuck in traffic on the M6, a half decent Balti pie, a decent parking spot and a quick getaway back to London. Lowlights of the day were an uninspiring match, moronic stewarding, all the other Premiership results and our third goal less draw of the season.