Arsenal Suffer Some Real White Hart Pain

Well what can you say about that?

After going a goal down from a Robbie Keane header on 31 minutes, Arsenal reacted in the perfect way by dominating the rest of the game – which was mainly due to the introduction of the simply superb Cesc Fabregas just before the break.

The first half was scrappy but once the second half started Arsenal were bossing the game and put Spurs under so much pressure with attack after attack.

But poor finishing looked like it could come back to haunt Arsenal yet again.

Toure had a header from a corner smash against the post and Adebayor also had a header hit the bar after a superb cross from Clichy.

But Arsenal got what they deserved on the hour mark when Toure stole in behind the Spurs defence and converted one of many excellent deliveries from a Fabregas free-kick.

And with the equaliser Arsenal kept the pressure on and another Fabregas free-kick found Adebayor in the centre who finally got his goal when he headed right into the top corner.

At 2-1 Arsenal looked comfortable and it was no exaggeration to say that Lehmann did not have a single save to make until the 94th minute when Jenas scored Spurs’ undeserved equaliser.

After Game Thoughts?

The problem is that with the way Arsenal dominate games they create a lot of very good chances but fail to finish them – which is the story of our season really.

Adebayor, Gilberto and Baptista in particular missed golden opportunities to kill off the game when it was 2-1 and as long as the opposition are only a goal down then they’ll always have a chance to steal something.

I’ve had sympathy for Baptista but today just confirmed that he has absolutely no chance of being at Arsenal next season. He missed two very easy chances and you wonder if he practices finishing at all! It doesn’t really matter when you’re 4-0 up but when you need to kill a team off you’ve got to find the back of the net and the free header which Adebayor setup for him was such a poor miss.

A defence has to be a bit of a concern at the moment as well. With Eboue, Clichy, Toure and Gallas we had our first choice defence on the pitch – but somehow we concede sloppy goals. There’s just isn’t that belief we can keep a clean sheet and especially this season you just expect the opposition to open the scoring!

But there were a few positives from todays performance. Fabregas and Gilberto were outstanding and stepped up their game in the second half. Clichy and Eboue were also excellent in helping Arsenal’s second half revival and Diaby looked decent in the middle of the park.

Toure and Gallas did okay but I’m not sure if they can actually play together. There seems to be this uncertainty whenever the opposition attack and we are susceptible to giving away that first goal that makes things so much harder.

Hleb and Rosicky (along with Baptista) looked lost again. If it wasn’t for Fabregas and Gilberto in the middle we wouldn’t have got back into the game. Adebayor did well on his own up front running for every cause but needs to be more clinical in front of goal.

It looks like 4th place has been secured now with only 3 games left so I guess all eyes will be on the Chelsea game, where we can help decide the destination of the Premiership title.

 

3 thoughts on “Arsenal Suffer Some Real White Hart Pain

  1. I think a lot of the uncertainty of the defence is down to their lack of confidence in Lehmann. The amount of goals he has let in as a percentage of the shots that have come his way is horrendous.
    With a dominant and unflappable (in more ways than one) keeper you would see a different Arsenal defensive performance. Just imagine someone like Cech in our goal; we would have been up there with the Championship race if we had. Ah well – dream on.
    I just hope that a one year contract is not offered and accepted.

     
  2. Fabrigas was awesome cant believe a few weeks ago there was people on here saying he was over-rated, s#it etc etc, lets hope they were watching today, what a difference he makes!
    Was good to see 2 goals from set-pieces dont see that much anymore, always thought we should make better use of set-pieces when you look at the size of our squad.
    I just hope we go out & buy an out-&-out goal scorer for next season to go with henry & van-persie, as i honestly think that is all we are really missing, once others have settled in abit (Rosisky, gallas) & its clear now baptistas not up for the job.

     
  3. At least 4th place is secure now and providing we qualify for the Champions League we should be much stronger next season.

    Great performance in the second half, but we can’t play without Fabregas! We’ve all been asking Wenger to give the kid a rest as he looks burnt out but we know why he keeps playing him now – we cannot function without him. In the first half we were very poor.

    I’m not sure if Henry and Van Persie is the problem, I think our biggest problem is our teams finishing as a whole. Gilberto, Fabregas, Baptista, Adebayor, Aliadiere, Rosicky, Freddie and Hleb – players who should be scoring more goals – cannot shoot! We make so many chances but continue to miss them time after time. Unless that changes we’ll keep being a top 4 team and won’t challenge for the title. Chelsea and United only need a couple of chances to punish teams but we keep missing them which keeps the opposition in the game!

     

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