By Boris Mellor
March 18 2007

Losing in the last minute is always cruel, but the iron law kicked in as ever, if a team does not take its chances the other team will score, and I was barely surprised when it happened. Arsenal Times predicted the goal scoring problem in the preview, but then so did everyone else.

Quote from preview:

"Andy Johnson and Beattie are available, which means that Everton will have far more firepower than the Gunners"

Apart from the first fifteen minutes Arsenal often dominated, and clearly made more chance than Everton, but an inability to shoot has seized the whole team. True Everton hit the bar in the first half, but the Gunners still went in with more attempts at half – time. Sure Baptista and Aliadiere are shooting blanks, but so is Freddy, Rosicky and Fabregas.

Only one shot really stung Mr Sweary, and Mr Mad didn’t have a real save to make either. Indeed Mr Mad had a good game, especially his denying of Johnson when clear through on goal. It was a clearance of genius, at first I thought it was a penalty, but he had played the ball.

So at the end of the day it was Andy Johnson who made the difference, he knew how to finish.

It was a good game plenty of fast football on both sides, and AJ is much improved, but the longer it went you just could not see Arsenal scoring, and Everton stepped up the pace for the last ten minutes. Arsene’s substitutes were just as profligate as the players they replaced.

The defence had a reasonably good game, but both Gallas and Gilberto made some serious bloomers, especially when it came to clearing the ball. Diaby was a revelation, but the team didn’t always responding to his prompting. Fabregas had a far better second half than the first, and he had one good shot, but once again he spurned an open goal. Rosicky had a mixed game, at times brilliant, at others infuriating. Ali and the Beast have begun to find each other in the game but cannot convert the chances they make. It should be kept in mind that these two have not even started half a dozen Premiership matches together.

The kind of telepathy that the Invincibles had can only happen between players that have played a lot of games together, and know where the ball is needed, and when it is coming. It seems to me that players are never quite in the right place, balls are crossed and nobody goes for it, balls are pushed into the box and nobody chases. However let’s not over analyse, if Henry, Adebayor and RvP were playing we would have had goals. Is that an excuse? Of course it is, if we didn’t need them to win games then why bother to have them on the books.

There are times that teams need their top players, and Everton away are such a time. The Toffees are much improved, attack and defend well, but would they have won with AJ?

This is Arsenal’s first Premiership defeat in 2007, and it’s incredible that should be so, as the FA has done its best to undermine the Gunners, banning  key players for 3 to 4 games. Arsenal have also had a problem of not being able to play the same back four two games running. Without Clichy and Eboue we are not making good use of the wings.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, in spite of losing we are still third and with a game in hand. Of course it will be tough maintaining that without key strikers, but Adebayor has one or two crucial goals in him, and it may be that he can strike up a better partnership with either the Beast or Ali, than the Ali and Beast partnership.

It’s a real pity that RvP cannot recover in time, and that Walcott has to have his operation, because either of them would be a good partner for Adebayor. But meanwhile Wenger has to play Baptista and Ali, it’s important that fans encourage them. Constant moaning and carping will not improve them, it will just destroy any confidence they have.

 

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