30-Yard Screamers, Controversy – Just Another Day At The Office…

Apparently that’s the 12th time Arsenal have conceded the lead in a match and comeback to win – a fantastic show of character from this young team who never give up until the final whistle.

And with typical Emirates tradition Arsenal conceded the first goal and Wigan lead 1-0 going into the half time interval.

Wigan were well organised and played well as a unit, putting Arsenal in all kinds of bother throughout the game with swift counter attacks and the willingness to push men forward to support their attacks.

In the first half Arsenal made several guilt edged chances, with Henry, Rosicky and Baptista having decent opportunities skewed wide.

But then on 35 minutes Arsenal hit the self-destruct button once again and went a goal down at home. A seemingly harmless long ball caught out Djourou who let Nigerian Aghahowa slide past him and turn to cross the ball. The young defender recovered well and blocked the cross, but it fell to Dutch International Denny Landzaat who controlled the ball with his first touch and hit a simply outstanding effort from 25 yards to give Wigan the lead which was probably just about deserved.

So yet again Arsenal had the arduous task of coming back from a goal that was against the run of play in terms of possession but was out of the top drawer.

Why does it happen to Arsenal?

Remember goals from Matt Taylor and Rafael van der Vaart? Teams seem to score the sensational to open the scoring at the Emirates!

As expected, Arsenal pressed and pressed in the second half but for large portions Wigan coped well and Arsenal just couldn’t get through.

And the frustration started to show.

Arsenal and Arsene in particular were not happy with the time-wasting antics of Wigan and Chris Kirland as we searched for an equaliser.

Then another controversial moment happened on 80 minutes when Emile Heskey was put through and substitute Mathieu Flamini looked like he pulled down the Wigan forward.

When the incident happened I thought the referee was going to give a penalty but luckily play was waved on, and in Arsenal’s next attack it was Flamini (who looked offside when played through by Rosicky) that setup the equaliser for Fitz Hall to turn into his own net.

And when the equaliser went in Henry goaded Kirland for his time-wasting and had to be dragged away by his team mates.

Now it was game on!

After the game Sky had a go at Henry for his reaction to the goal but in all honesty I couldn’t blame him. Arsenal were frustrated by a resiliant Wigan team and football would be a boring sport if players didn’t show their emotions.

Arsenal sensed a Wigan collapse and with only 5 minutes of normal time Adebayor played a smart through-ball into the path of Julio Baptista who did well to pick out Rosicky in the centre in a penalty area full of Wigan players.

The Czech emphatically headed the ball into the net for the winner and scored his first ever Premiership goal.

The last portion of the game was heated and Lehmann was booked for ‘time wasting’ as Chris Kirland did, although the Wigan keeper was unpunished.

A hell of an emotional rollercoaster – has any other Premiership team have had as many ups and downs as Arsenal?

Not sure to make of the game to be honest after that. While the display was below par and nowhere near the Arsenal of last month we did managed to nick a point with a sublime finish from Thierry Henry.

Are Arsenal a one month wonder?

January was fantastic with wins against Charlton Athletic, Liverpool (twice), Spurs, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers.

But today Arsenal were disappointing, with Fabregas and Henry the main culprits.

And it was particularly disappointing because before the game Arsenal were 5 points behind Liverpool (who drew in the Merseyside Derby earlier in the day) with 2 games in hand. But Arsenal failed to capitalise on Liverpool dropping two points.

Too many Arsenal players were on the periphery of the match and a well-organised Middlesbrough side found it quite easy to cope with Arsenal’s attacks which lacked any killer instinct in the final third and with the final ball in particular.

It was disappointing to see Boro’s young second keeper Bradley Jones hardly have a save to make in the entire 90 minutes.

Arsenal badly missed Hleb and Arsene opted to play Flamini wide on the right when Aliadiere would have probably been a better offensive option. To many moves broke down and as hard as Flamini tried he’s just not able to play on the right side of midfield.

The only player that looked like making something happen was Tomas Rosicky, would tried to take control of the situation and made some decent passes and actually tried to shoot and test the keeper.

But far too many players had off days.

For me Arsenal’s best player was Gael Clichy and that tells you something about the overall team’s performance.

Fabregas was woeful, and looked second best to Boateng in midfield and therefore couldn’t impose himself on the game. Thierry Henry (the goal aside) was no better, trying fancy flicks and strolling around the pitch when the game needed an injection of urgency – it’s days like today Arsenal need to step up their play but it didn’t happen until Middlesbrough opened the scoring after 65 minutes!

For an hour Arsenal were predestrian and it was just like the game against Sheffield United. Arsenal seemingly turned up thinking that just being there would win them the match and I could see Boro scoring from a mile away.

With Arsenal strolling they got hit by the sucker punch on the break and conceded the opening goal (sound familiar?). Yakubu was played through and Senderos was judged to have pulled down the striker and Mike Riley awarded a penalty. Replays showed that Senderos had his arm on Yakubu but the Middlesbrough forward fell very easily. There was contact but you would have to say it was pretty minimal, and for some reason Senderos was sent off. I can guarantee that any other referee would have booked him, and I felt like Lehmann when Phil was sent off!

Anyway, Boro scored and finally Arsenal kicked into gear, spurred on by going a man and a goal down. Lehmann made a brilliant save from Mark Viduka and he was the man who started the Arsenal move for the equaliser. Lehmann threw the ball out and a long ball found Adebayor who headed the ball on to Henry, who controlled the ball brilliantly with his right foot and scored with his left in the bottom corner.

A great goal to level the scores!

It was a great response from conceding the first goal, but should we have even been in that situation in the first place? Anyway, after Henry’s goal the game petered out after that with both sides seemingly content with a point each.

After the game Henry and Viduka were laughing and smiling, swapping shirts and hugging. Am I the only one that was pissed off with that given that we only got a point from a game we could win if our performance was even half decent?

But maybe we’re a team that should be happy with a point?

Arsenal made hard work of the game by conceding an equaliser 5 minutes from normal time but the determination of the youngsters – and the introduction of Rosicky and Fabregas did no harm either.

With the Carling Cup having the strange rule of implementing the away goals only after extra time, Arsenal had to play an extra half an hour to make it to the final against Chelsea.

While Arsenal dominated possession for most of the match, Theo Walcott was guilty of poor final passes all night – and while I know he is only a kid I have to honest and tell you I was more than pissed off with his rubbish crosses and in particularly his corners where from about 10 attempts he never beat the first man!

On the other side of the coin, Denilson was simply sensational – and for me the Man of the Match. He was so composed, intelligent and kept things simple. He rarely lost possession and having only just turned 18 is going to be a fantastic player for Arsenal.

Arsenal had bossed the game for the majority of the match but it wasn’t until Theo was taken off for Rosicky after an hour and from then we looked much more dangerous in attack.

Some smart play on the edge of the area by Rosicky resulted in a stinging shot saved by Robinson and then the Czech fed Adebayor with a cool through ball in a tight area for the Togan to coolly slot the ball into the far corner with his weaker left foot.

And although Arsenal kept the ball well Spurs had to come out and obviously attack and they brought on Mido who caused a few problems with his trickery and it was he who scored the equaliser from a freekick only a few minutes before the end of the 90.

But when you thought the kids would tire in extra time it was then when they excelled. Arsenal simply dominated the whole 30 minutes and played some fantastic attacking football in the process.

As the pressure mounted and mounted it was inevitable that Arsenal would be the team to score the next goal and after Spurs defender Roche couldn’t defend a simple cross the in form Aliadiere scored a well deserved goal. And once Spurs were forced to look for a goal Arsenal simply exposed all the space to get the third and it was Rosicky who waltzed through to force the goal by hitting the post with his shot which bounced in off Chimbonda or whatever his name is.

So the kids did Arsenal more than proud yet again by beating a full strength Spurs side and made it to the Carling Cup Final against Chelsea.

And I’m just watching Match of the Day while I write this and Cashley Cole looked like he suffered a nasty injury so it couldn’t have been a better night all round really!

Well done Arsenal!

Well Arsenal let the opposition score the opening goal at the Emirates YET AGAIN as we came back against a well organised Bolton side who probably could have nicked the win.

Sunday was an example of how much Alexander Hleb keeps the team moving and how important he is to the team with his runs and short passes. We severely missed him against Bolton and they found it pretty easy to defend against us – I’m don’t think their keeper had that many saves to make!

So Theo Walcott started and before the game you could see why as the kid needed an injection of confidence a start would give him, but he couldn’t really get into the game. The other winger Rosicky did okay, and made some smart runs but at the vital times over hit his passes or mis-placed them.

It was a performance where Arsenal were not at their fluent best, and a game where all their good work against Liverpool could have gone to waste – if it wasn’t for Kolo Toure’s header 10 minutes from time.

As usual, Bolton played long diagonal balls to Davies on the right which Clichy couldn’t handle and Anelka always offered a threat on the break and they actually had the majority of possession in the first half!

Which is amazing since Arsenal were at home!

But that just showed what we miss in Gilberto’s absence. And without Hleb linking the midfield to the attack Adebayor and Henry had very little service.

I haven’t been a fan of Aliadiere but he should have started on the right side instead of Walcott, and Baptista looked good in the centre next to Fabregas when he came on. He has been scoring goals for fun recently, is strong in midfield and offers a threat in the air so I was surprised he didn’t start the match.

And now we have to visit the Reebok Stadium in an already congested fixture list.

But on the bright side we’re still in the draw and if we get through we wll be at home to another Premiership side – this time Blackburn Rovers.

And I also noticed that Chelsea have either Norwich or Blackpool in the next round. The difference between Chelsea and Arsenal’s run in the FA Cup could not be further apart! IF we can beat Bolton and Blackburn I wouldn’t be surprised if our next opponents were Manchester United!

What a game – Arsenal with their kids, are losing 2-0 at White Hart Lane and what is the response?

To claw back 2 goals and almost steal the winner!

The first half Arsenal made defensive mistakes to gift Tottenham 2 stupid goals – the first from a mix up between Toure and Almunia (who looked dodgy all night) and the second was an unbelievable mis-kick from Baptista who scored in the wrong goal!

But even by gifting Spurs two goals they couldn’t beat our kids with their first team!

Brilliant!

It’s nights like this you can’t help but love football!

But the character and determination yet again shown by Wenger’s kids was frightening and this current Arsenal squad just do not know when they are beaten.

2007 has been a fantastic year for Arsenal and let’s hope their outstanding form continues on Sunday against Bolton in the FA Cup.

Despite being 2-0 away from home and against a daunting crowd Arsenal’s young guns started the second half brightly and Fabregas was fantastic. He was against a 5 man Spurs midfield but still made them look poor, running the midfield and creating numerous chances for Arsenal.

Another surging Fabregas run from midfield just after the hour mark resulted in a smart one-two between Walcott and Baptista for the Brazilan to slot the ball past the helpless Robinson and make the tie 2-1.

Then only 15 minutes later Fabregas had the ball in the centre of midfield and for some crazy reason Spurs stood off him! The young Spaniard literally had so much time and space and he punished accordingly by floating a brilliant ball over the top for the quick Justin Hoyte, who crossed the ball past Robinson (who was in no-man’s land) for The Beast to score his second for Arsenal and to equalise against the odds!

What a comeback in the North London Derby!

And as Arsenal dominated the entire second half Fabregas had a chance to win the game with a header, and so did Walcott who only succeeded in scuffing his shot wide of the near post.

Wenger said he will continue with the kids in the second leg and on this performace you can’t blame him!

The kids will get a lot of praise for the second half performance and they should do, playing so well and with so much confidence against a very strong Spurs side!