I love the “Get well soon” hoardings. Nice touch and very classy.
Diaby starts on the left, Theo starts as striker.
After a good shot early by Theo the two teams settled in.
12th minute: Agbonlahor shows his intent with a beautiful break that could have resulted in a goal had it not been for Gallas’ perfectly timed tackle.
27th minute: Senderos scores a beautiful own goal which looked to have happened after Agbonlahor received the ball in an offside position.
30th minute: Arsenal have to right this ship, it’s listing and the rats are pouring into the lifeboats.
35th minute: Another Villa player is down and out after a sustained bit of pressure. Osborne comes on and Davies comes off. It’s being reported as a clash with Diaby but it was two Villa players who came together.
42nd minute: Arsenal look like they are playing with a hangover; slow, poor marking, and poor touch. Then Maloney has a shot that Almunia deflects on to the bar. Commentator says “Arsenal in trouble here” — understatement of the match.
45th minute: Can we pack some more players into the middle of the attack? I thought Diaby is playing on the wing, if so, why does he keep receiving the ball in the middle of the pitch?
45th minute: a little hope when Theo makes a great counter, turns Laarson inside out and plays the ball to Adebayor who plays the ball to Cesc who’s easy shot is well wide.
And that wraps up the half time. A couple of good chances wasted by Arsenal. This has to be a huge confidence boost for Villa’s defense.
Straight off the break and Theo has a great shot at goal resulting in a good save and a corner. Then the other side of the coin shows up when Hleb puts in a very poor corner. Why is Arsenal unable to take corner kicks? It’s almost miraculous when the ball gets over the first defender.
60th minute: how is it that one of the best midfielders in the world is chronically incapable of putting in a corner or a cross? Cesc has two chances at putting the ball in and is unable to get enough lift on the ball to get it more than 10 yards.
70th minute: Adebayor with yet another poor header. What is that 6 in a row that he’s shoveled over the bar? The Arsenal supporters are starting to tire of the time-wasting and even I’m growing frustrated with Adebayor’s poor touch and even poorer finishing.
73rd minute: Harewood makes a run… into the corner. THERE’S 20 MINUTES LEFT DICK-WAD.
79th minute: Gilberto and Denilson come on for Flamini and Senderos. Senderos I understand, because he’s had a miserable afternoon but Flamini? Wenger must be resting him for the Champions League…
82nd minute: the match is slipping away now. A draw would be a good result at this point.
85th minute: Adebayor heads another ball over the bar. I’d say that about seals the deal there.
90th minute: 4 minutes “added” time. They keep winning these corners and getting nothing from them, at least Arsenal are clearing the first defender now.
90th minute: There it is!!! Adebayor does one thing right and softly plays the header back across the box where Bendtner is waiting. Cool as a cucumber sandwich he rescues the point in front of about 10,000 Arsenal supporters. I really hope the supporters who left early had a nice tube ride home.
And that’s it. Arsenal rescue a point and I’m sure that Villa will feel hard done by the final score but as the commentators pointed out that’s what top teams do — rescue points when they don’t play their best. It was a clean match so the only complaint I can register is with the “supporters” who left early. Now is the time that the squad need you and you abandoned them to get on the tube a few moments early; shame on you.
