The Halloween Frights Come Early As The Arsenal Self-Destruct (w/ Player Ratings)
Arsenal (4) - (4) Tottenham Hotspur
Silvestre (37′), Gallas (46′), Adebayor (64′), Van Persie (68′)
The Emirates Stadium, London
Well first of all what a game.
David Bentley scored the opener with a stunning effort on 13 minutes, and that seemed to set the tone of the game. The ball was bouncing around in midfield and Bentley controlled the ball with his first touch and volleyed in a speculative effort from 43 yards with his second. While it was a fantastic piece of vision you really thought Almunia should have parried the ball wide rather than try and tip it over the bar when you see how low it dipped into the net.
From then on Spurs sat back and tried to get us on the break.
And as if to keep with the Halloween theme it was the Addams Family’s very own Gomes who seemed to continue his very own personal nightmare from crosses. As the Arsenal pressure mounted it took a corner from Van Persie to get the equaliser. His dipping cross was headed in by Silvestre after Gomes was in no mans land.
Then the second half saw Arsenal take the lead after only 50 seconds of the restart, again after a fantastic corner from Van Persie. William Gallas connected well with it and while Gomes got a hand on the ball it wasn’t strong enough to keep out the header.
With the game at 2-1, it took another 20 minutes before we saw another goal. In between though, Adebayor had a fantastic chance to score when he flashed his effort wide of the left post and Bentley had a low shot well saved by Almunia.
And then on 64 minutes the game burst into life.
A simply stunning through ball from Van Persie made it through to Nasri who found himself through on goal. His chipped effort beat Gomes but it took the finish from Adebayor to make sure it made it into the net. And with that you thought the game was over.
Like hell it was.
In a hectic period, Almunia made a howler from a Huddlestone effort when he pushed the ball straight to Darren Bent to score a simple tap in. Luckily Spurs were also in a generous mood as Alan Hutton passed the ball to Adebayor who played in Van Persie to emphatically smash the ball home.
4-2 and Arsenal were cruising, so Wenger brings off Walcott, Van Persie and Nasri to rest them for the weekend. Maybe they should have stayed on a little longer.
Because in the last 5 minutes Arsenal were all over the place.
Call it inexperience, call it poor concentration - the last few minutes of the game were unacceptable and really re-enforce the fact that this set of players isn’t up to mounting a real title challenge. What happened was just insane, and Arsene must be absolutely fuming.
On 89 minutes, Clichy dawdled on the ball and slipped letting in Jenas to run on goal. He waltzed through without anyone putting in a proper challenge and he curled the ball with his left foot into the corner.
Then when you thought Arsenal would have learnt their lesson, they just simply lost the plot. Instead of holding onto the ball they tried to pass it around and continually gave away possession. Then on 93 minutes, a shot from Modric deflected off Silvestre, and Lennon creeped in score the equaliser and make it 4-4.
Player Ratings
Manuel Almuna: 5/10
Was out of sorts today. Could have done a lot better with Bentley’s pop shot and gifted Darren Bent of all people a simple tap in. Unlucky with the final equaliser but that summed up his day.
Bacary Sagna: 7/10
Solid as usual and can’t really be blamed for any of the goals.
Mikael Silvestre: 7/10
Did well to score his goal but looked shaky alongside Gallas at the back, but then again who doesn’t? Not the quickest player and got caught on a few occasions.
William Gallas: 7/10
Had his usual strop at full-time but did score a vital goal. Should probably concentrate on defending a bit more though.
Gael Clichy: 8/10
Once again was full of running and yet again put in a fantastic performance. Made a mistake to let in Jenas which opened up the floodgates.
Theo Walcott: 8/10
Caused Spurs all kinds of problems on the right and you could tell the dynamic of the game changed once he came off.
Denilson: 7/10
Popped the ball around well but seemed to struggle near the end.
Cesc Fabregas: 7/10
Put in another decent performance but hasn’t seemed to reached top gear since coming back from the European Championships.
Samir Nasri: 7/10
Looked bright at times but always on the periphery.
Robin Van Persie: 9/10
Arsenal’s best player by a mile. Lively, inventive and always a threat. Made Arsenal’s first two goals and scored a fantastic effort to seemingly kill off the match. The team lost their killer instinct once he game off.
Emmanuel Adebayor: 7/10
Never really in the game. Poor touch throughout and really should have scored more than the one goal after wasting a couple of decent opportunities.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:30 am
cant believe none of the pundits picked up on almunia’s poor keeping for bentleys goal. what you said is exactly what i said. he went for a save for the camera’s when he should have been tipping it wide.
this was proof, if we ever really needed it, that this squad is brilliantly talented, but totally undermined by a lack of experience, nouse and the blatent absence of a defensive minded midfielder in the squad. i thought denilson was better than cesc, but he just isnt what we need!
back to the drawing board. we might have a chance in the champions league if wenger brings in a def mid in the new year. there is no way we can maintain a challenge in the league with all the big games we have ahead. weve made a very poor start considering the teams weve played.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:32 am
So you reckon we dont need strengthening, WENGER open your fucking eyes you bellend!
October 30th, 2008 at 12:34 am
big- gun,
really mature post, well done.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:43 am
clichy 8 - best mark of the defence ???!!! you are having a laugh
you say sagna can’t be blamed for any of the goals and give him 7 then give clichy 8 after his howler.
if clichy hadn’t made that mistake we would have won - simple as.
same type of mistake that he made against Man city away last season and birmingham which i believe was one of the main factors as to why we didn’t win the league
he’s a very good player but he’ll never be a great player unless he learns from these mistakes
October 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am
you stupid fucking gooner scumbags, 4 goals at your own fucking stadium, laughing my arse off, tonight all you scumbags will have nightmares about a greaT huge throbbing cockerel
THERES ONLY ONE DAVID BENTLEY
COME ON YOU SPURS
4 GOALS HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
October 30th, 2008 at 12:47 am
EDDIE - check this out…
18th Wigan
19th Bolton
20th Tottenham
touch
October 30th, 2008 at 12:49 am
“HAHAHAHAHA” YA SUCK YA MOTHA DRY DUSTY PUSS! YOU STILL LAST PLACE YOU FUCKIN’ IDIOT! WE’LL DO THE LAST LAUGHING WHEN YOU’RE GETTING FUCKED IN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS YOU PIECE OF YID SHIT!
October 30th, 2008 at 12:49 am
ONE DAVID BENTLEY, THERES ONLY ONE DAVID BENTLY.
THE PROBLEM WITH YOU SCUMBAGS IS YOUR MANAGERS LIKES KIDS, OOH TO , OOH TO BE A..PAEDO
COME ON YOU SPURS
4 GOALS HAHAHAHA
43 YARD GOAL BY AN EX ARSENAL PLAYER, CANT GET ANY BETTER
October 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
YOU SAD GOONER SCUMBAGS YOUR TEAM SELECTION IS ALL RELIANT ON A PAEDOPHILE.
4 FUCKING GOALS AT YOUR OWN STADIUM AND YOU WERE LEADING 4-2 HAHAHAHAHAH
October 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Shows what you know manuel, its because of AKBs like you that wenger gets the green light to do what he likes when its so clear to EVERYBODY that the policy is not working, WE HAVE JUST LET IN 4 GOALS AT HOME TO THE ONE OF THE WEAKEST TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE and your going on about well we might win the champions league, well you might not give a shit, but i do!
October 30th, 2008 at 12:54 am
DAVID BENTLEY A TRUE SPURS FAN
October 30th, 2008 at 12:56 am
I thought fabrigash (and the other mouthy goons) were joking about playing the ARSEnal ladies, but the way they kept falling over; looking for free-kicks… it was like they were wearing heels.
Maybe next time; they should keep their mouths shut?
Hanson & Shearer ‘hit the nail on the head’ (and bought to light; something Spurs fans have known for years)… ‘ARSEnal only look good, when teams sit back and let them play’!
“Was anything more true, ever said”!
October 30th, 2008 at 12:57 am
its a shame to be held to a draw against the spuds due to so many sloppy mistakes, but at least we can take comfort in two simple facts:
1. we did play them off the park as per usual, maybe one day this will translate into actually winning consistantly.
2. we’ll never be as pathetic a fan base as one that consists of the two “fans” above
October 30th, 2008 at 12:58 am
aaah poor gooner scumbags arguing with each other
DAVID BENTLEY…43 YARDS….GOOOOOOOOAAAAL
COME ON YOU SPURS
October 30th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Is wenger that tortoise, that used to do the advert for the central heating in the 90’s?
October 30th, 2008 at 1:02 am
THE LOOKS ON THE FACES OF THE SCUMBAG GOONERS FANS AT EMIRATES WAS FUCKING HILARIOUS
YOU BNCH OF STUPID FUCKING CUNTS, SUPPORT A DECENT TEAM, DAVID BENTLEY DOES…
COME ON YOUR SPURS
October 30th, 2008 at 1:02 am
big- gun, either gather other dissenters and protest for wengers removal outside london coloney or STFU and get behind the team AND wenger. bitching about wenger online doesn’t help anyone
October 30th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Decent teams tend not to be rooted to the bottom of their league.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:04 am
MAYBE IF YOU SACK WENGER YOU CAN GET RAMOS
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
COME ON YOU SPURS
October 30th, 2008 at 1:07 am
*sigh* is there any point in trying to argue with people like eddie? might aswell just be talking to a deaf oaf.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:12 am
DEAR ARSENE,
PLEASE KEEP HAVING FAITH IN THE KIDS THAT YOU LIKE OH SO VERY MUCH,
GO TO SLEEP NOW GOONER SCUMBAGS AND TRY NOT TO CRY TOO MUCH
COME ON YOU SPURS
October 30th, 2008 at 1:13 am
make that a mentally ill deaf oaf.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Arsene says he’s angry at our negativity - well who the hell put on Diaby, Eboue and Song and took off Nasri, RvP and Walcott????? Look in the mirror Arsene and be man enough to admit that you were the one who screwed up……
October 30th, 2008 at 1:17 am
I’m an Arsenal fan and must say we’ll never win league with these inconsistant performances tonight was absolutley unacceptable the defence is trash no experience in the defensive midfield role Wenger’s to hard headed and it seems like he is not serious about winning now and is focusing on silverware in a few years time(if this is true he should say so and stop giving false impressions and causing undo stress)I personally don’t how much longer I can take this garbage as much as I would love to watch Arsenal games I might have to boycott watching and just wait to hear the scores as any disappointment would be easier to accept because the game tonight has literally made me feel sick all over I still wish for the best but I only have one heart and it can only take so much
October 30th, 2008 at 1:23 am
To Eddie Diaz I must say you here making small minded comments to let you know small things amuse small minds
October 30th, 2008 at 1:23 am
If we had put on “Gilberto” and not Song for the last five minutes we wouldnt have conceded twice in five minutes. This is the maturity we are lacking at the middle of the park.
Silvestre is a good signing but I dont think he should be first choice.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:25 am
too bad we drew after outplaying and got the shit team chasing shadows in the second half. 6 shots, 4 goals , 2 of the rebound goals. we brought it upon ourselves, couldnt keep the ball for 10 mins.
it’s so embarassing losing to spurs.
none of the midfield/defenders closed them down for all the shots, too complacent and too cocky!
arsene, why did you bring off theo, rvp and nasri when they were the ones playing well.
song is so lazy/slow it’s unbelievable.
please spend in the jan transfer window. A good dm will do. an experience one at that.
And i read in some blog by true encounters with fans that bentley;when he was still an arsenal players; were in a pub filled with gooners. when the gooners sang some anti hotspur chant, bentley gladly joined in and sang it with full of passion/hatred. But apparently he claimed to be a spurs fan growing up. thats spurs ‘through and through’ right there.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Why does every draw that you yids manage against us seem like a victory to you?? Is that all it takes to make you sad little puppies happy??
October 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am
That was no spirited comeback. It was a gift to a team that were dead and buried and waiting for the final whistle. All four goals, total gifts allowing yet another small team to take points off us that should have been in the bag.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am
those are different definitions of the meaning of the word negativity phil, look in a dictionary. Wenger wasn’t accusing the fans of being too defensive when they play football.
Derbys have little or no bearing on a season overall, just as the form book doesn’t influence them. Performances be they positive or negative don’t represent a team’s condition either. Although a good win can be great for morale, a loss as long as we bounce back against stoke is not a big deal at all, Liverpool are the only team we don’t go ahead of if we beat, and they will drop points, we’re just as much in the title race as any of the big four, Utd still have to win their game in hand to even go one point ahead of us.
The performance tonight was very strange, Almunia cost us the first two goals completely, they should not have been scored, simple as that, Clichy cost us the third, and the fourth was a lucky deflection then a lucky bounce off the post straight to lennon. Our defence has been talked about alot, and it sounds weird to say, but it actually worked well today, they didn’t make a single clear cut chance all game, all their goals were ridiculous. Take away the goals and we stopped them creating a single thing.
Theo, VP, and Denilson were all sensational tonight, Nasri, Cesc, Sagna, Gallas, and Silvestre were all good. A defender has to be judged on his concentration and as a result gotta say Clichy was bad, Almunia was very poor, and Ade was attrocious. Apart from offering nothing up front, Ade couldn’t hold the ball up at all, gave it away pretty much every time it came near him, and incredibly got offside when we should have walked it into the net on the break, shortly before they got their third. His inability to hold on to the ball resulted in them having all the possession at the end and being able to put pressure on us, and I really hope Bendtner comes in for him at the weekend.
The nature of this draw was devastating, but once the dust has settled and we look at things, it really isn’t the disaster it feels like it is now, as long as we bounce back at stoke we are absolutely fine, and no harm done.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Oh by the way, without that strike at goal which Almunia should have saved, Bentley was total crap.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I can do Your player ratings… “No charge”! ;o )
1. Manuel Almuna: Gay hairstyle… fucking useless
2. Bacary Sagna: black as Newgate’s knocker, gay hair… fucking useless
3. Mikael Silvestre: Always has been, and always will be CLASS!
4. William Gallas: Overated!
5. Gael Clichy: Good player who will get better when he leaves
6. Theo Walcott: most overated player that ever lived, for club & country
7. Denilson: Waste of space, but does a blinding baboon impression
8. Cesc Fabregash: All the glamour-boy did was talk… goon’s all over
9. Samir Nasri: What, did he play? I never noticed
10. Robin Van Persie: cheating little nonce… should be locked up
11. One season wonder and lucky he didn’t get booked for his fowl on HUTTON for his goal
Coach. ARSEHOLE VINEGAR: Slimey, French, tortoise necked, kiddie fiddler.
“How’s that for accuracy”!
October 30th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Arr ’steviegoon’, go to bed and lick your wounds… and don’t be afraid to let those tiny salty tears flow!
October 30th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Don’t know if it’s common knowledge yet… 2 packed out goon pubs in the ARSEnal area were totally taken; before the game by a couple of groups of Yids. “Tut, tut, tut… Oh dear”!
October 30th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Do You mean that strike from 43 yards?
I’m sure someone else scored against you mugs; with a very similar goal, and your goalie ended up looking like a dolphin in a tuna net… if only I could remember? ;o )
October 30th, 2008 at 1:46 am
3-1 and u fooked it up 4-2 and u fooked it up muhwahhhhhhhhhh whos the lady now cesc fiberglass hehe DB from the halfway line nayim from the half way line oooooooh arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
October 30th, 2008 at 2:07 am
We have no excuse for letting the lead slip away from us. I thought it was sown up for sure. It must be lack of experience. Will we learn something from this, I hope so.but I feel very gutted after gaining points over the weekend.
Hey, Eduardo is coming back soon !
October 30th, 2008 at 2:44 am
clichy had an excellent game apart from the mistake. he supported the attack well and didn’t let bentley cross it. almunia was poor for two goals. the reason we conceded the last goal was because of eboue trying to play in adebayor who was 10 yards offside instead of running into the corner. van persie was brilliant tonight, I thought adebayor was our worst player apart from manuel. he was lazy and too casual although he did show desire for his goal.well done to denilson, he worked his ass off. and why are people blaming wenger? he got the selection right, it was the players fault for thinking the game was in the bag… they always get nervous in the closing minutes of games (Sunderland). if we could just see out games we would have won the league last year (old trafford, Stamford bridge)… the only way the players can learn is from experience, hopefully tonight is all the experience we need. we did deserve the win.
as for you spurs fans, the fact that you are so happy with your draw, which means you are still bottom of the league, shows how small a club spurs are compared to arsenal. you may want a dictionary to understand some of the words there, as from your comments you seem to be suffering from some form of dimensia.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:32 am
OMFG all the spurs fans getting hard over a draw your bottom of the fucking table. Wow you got a draw
October 30th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I was gutted the way arrogant players lost 4 goasls agaisnt spurs and to see them celebrate in emirates. I switched off then looked at the table at our position which was fourth waiting for two main teams toi slip, Then i looked at bottom hahhaaha that made me laugh wickedly. 6 points and last even stoke are better spurs are going down . It actually make my day to see them relegated hate them . But on negative side please arsenal players keep your big mouth shut that commnet about arsenal ladies must have stired a sleeping cockerel. LOOL sPURS FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
October 30th, 2008 at 7:29 am
That little point has shot Spurs to ‘fourth’ place in the table. We were naive to gift Bottomham Spurs and Liverpool won’t be so generous. We still need a good defensive midfielder and Wenger should have not let Gilberto leave, it is costing us outright victories and I am afraid it will be the same trophyless season. I don’t blame Wenger for not buying big coz that does not guarantee success ask that bottom of the table team but I blame him for letting experienced and established players leave, especially Diarra and Gilberto.
Whatever the celebratory comments about last night’s match the bottom line is that Spurs are not in our class, I just checked the table and it does not lie.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:31 am
It definately says something about the calibre of Spurs players and fans, to be so over excited about a draw. lol. I’m upset today as agree with A above who says our defence worked well and all goals were flukes, pretty accurate in my opinion. Unlucky lads, It could have been worse, still, heading for 10 years without the Spuds beating Arsenal at home in the prem!
Almunia was rubbish today, a better keeper would have kept all of the spuds efforts out.
Tottenham are a very strong team, I mean they are propping up the 19 teams above them in the table!
Peace.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I LOVE it when ‘goons’ desparately try to hide their sadness; with statistics and very old jokes… but we all know that you all want to ‘kick the cat’ (just like Your kiddie fiddling manager wanted to do; by the look on his zombie looking ‘boat’, when he was interviewed! ;o )
October 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
4 goals conceded at home of the mighty AR5Ena1?
“Oooh that’s gotta hurt”! ;o )
October 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
You’re obviously enjoying it while it lasts Deano, which is fair enough considering how sh*te Spurs are this season. You laugh at our collapse in the last few minutes of the game (which I’m sure every Arsenal fan will admit to) but how about your failings?
The fact of the matter is you have one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premiership. Alan Hutton gifted us a goal and overall your defence from set-pieces is a complete joke. The only team you have actually beaten is Bolton Wanderers, who are one of the worst teams and along with yourselves are likely to struggle all season.
But hey, if you can get a lucky bounce off the post in every game then you might draw a few more games
Tell me Deano, what can you take from last night’s game which was encouraging for your season? Because while our inconsistency brings us both negative and positive results, all you guys seem to be doing is achieving negative ones. I’m sure you’ll be fine this season if somehow Bentley manages to score a lucky goal from 43 yards in every game.
October 30th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Horrible, horrible defeat. We have lost at least 8 pts now (2 wins and this draw) that we shouldn’t have, given the strength of the opposition. We simply cannot keep doing this and expect to finish even 3rd.
Our whole problem lies in midfield. Or rather: the space just between midfield and the back 4. The defensive midfield positions. The problem is not that we have bad defensive midfielders. Denilson, Diaby and Song are actually good there. They make mistakes because the “offensive” midfielders turn off way too often, leaving the defensive midfielders under far too much pressure. The problem is Cesc, Narsi and especially Eboue and Walcott not taking defensive duty seriously. Once we score, or when the score is nil-nil…they cant be arsed to defend
October 31st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
i heard spuds are going to rename their new stadium WRIGLYS because its stuck to the bottom of the table!
November 1st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
That’s a coincidence, I heard ‘Big-guns’ sister takes it up the arse?
I now know intimately; this to be true (like mother… like daughter)! ;o )