What a f*cking shambles.
Arsenal do their best to fight their way back into the championship race, to f*ck it all up against Birmingham.
In the last 12 games of the season, the only thing that mattered was the results. I’ve said since this run started that we needed to win every single one to stand a chance to lifting the Premier League trophy come May. And amazingly Arsenal have been sublime against Sunderland, Stoke, Burnley, Hull and West Ham but threw away a massive two points yesterday.
You need luck, fight and desire to win the league and yesterday Arsenal were severely lacking.
People will talk missing Gallas to injury and Vermaelen to suspension, and the dreadful tackling from Birmingham but all of that was deemed completely meaningless when Nasri scored that superb goal to put Arsenal in the lead.
Arsenal had the 3 points in the bag, only to literally throw them away.
Almunia’s whole role in Birmingham’s equaliser still makes me livid. I haven’t been in such a bad mood in a long time when it comes to Arsenal but what the hell was he doing?
The fact is, with a top class goalkeeper we would win the league this season. A world class keeper like Reina or Van Der Sar would make a huge difference, and we would be around 6/7 points better off. Instead we have Basil Fawlty in goal who at times makes fantastic saves but at others, and far too regularly, makes a howler. He is not good enough for a team that is going to win the Premier League.
I think the infuriating thing is we’ve seen this all before. I know a lot of Arsenal fans are divided by this, but I blame him for the goals we conceded in that Champions League final. And I remember going to Old Trafford to watch the young guns in the Carling Cup, only for Almunia to concede one of the worst goals I’ve ever seen in the first 20 seconds. Arsenal lost that game 1-0. He’s had to many terrible games in the past and he is not good enough. My patience has just run out.
To add to my anger, Arshavin missed a sitter, completely mis-hitting the ball in the 6 yard box. I’ve seen him miss about 5 or 6 open goals now, most of them flying well over the cross bar from inside the penalty area. What the hell is wrong with Arshavin recently? Is this guy even concentrating? You don’t see these kind of blunders in Sunday League Football. It’s fine to f*ck up when you beat Porto 5-0 or Nicklas Bendtner steals a last minute winner against Hull, but when it actually matters then it stops being funny.
And to top things off, Nasri had a golden chance to kill off the game in injury time but somehow tried to play it square when all he had to do slot it passed the keeper. The decision to pass is even more puzzling when the man in support was Arshavin. Surely anyone paying attention would realise that Arshavin can’t score open goals or chances from only several yards out.
It’s just so annoying when Arsenal literally drag themselves from the dead, put themselves into a fantastic position and then throw it all away with a combination of idiotic goalkeeping and stupid profligacy.
People will talk about how winning 6 games from 7 is still a great run but it’s not good enough.
The chances of winning the title were slim even if we kept winning, as Manchester United and Chelsea had their destiny in their own hands. We had to rely on both of them dropping points, and although they play each other before the season is out, surely the victor of that game would be odds on favourite to lift the Premier League trophy.
Arsenal are running out of games and are now 4 points off the top. United and Chelsea both need to simultaneously collapse for Arsenal to win it, and considering they battered Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers without Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney, you can consider the title challenge over for another season.
Same old Arsenal, flattering to deceive.
If Arsenal did somehow manage to get back into the title race again this season I will happily eat my words. But unfortunately, with 7 games left and a 4 point gap, the challenge is over.
Chin up though, we’ve got Barcelona and Messi in the Champions League on Wednesday.