Happier days

By Boris Mellor
February 8 2009

On about 92 minutes Modric bore down on an Arsenal goal defended only by Almunia. I groaned, all that hard work against jammy Spurs was about to be blown away. However the Arsenal keeper threw himself in front of the ball and an undeserved Spurs victory was denied. The lone Spur's supporter in our part of the pub was serenaded by "England, England's number one, England's number one".

 It has often been said that Almunia is not a match winner, well it wasn't his fault this match wasn't won, but he certainly ensured it wasn't lost. It kept Arsenal's unbeaten run going, and the one point could prove to be valuable.

Nearly Hero to Absolute Zero

It is ironic that Eboue was having the game of his life; just imagine if his goal was allowed? He would have been a hero - instead a moment of lunacy saw him sent off, and could have cost Arsenal the game.

I must say I hope this player will now go, his sending off may be a blessing in disguise. Surely we can now do better on the right.

Spurs played like it was a cup final, it was rush and rush, my feeling is that we would have won the game if Eboue had stayed on, however this was a spirited performance. Indeed the ability to keep a clean sheet, but rarely score, does prove that it is a creative player that is required. Arshavin could be the catalyst.

I realise it is important to criticize absolutely everything Wenger does, only mega pessimism is the badge of the true fan,  but I don't see how he could have brought Arshavin on for this match. The injury to Adebayor, and the sending off of Eboue, closed the door to any other substitutions.

Sure with ten minutes to go the adding of Eduardo, or Arshavin might have won the game, but with both of them not match fit, it could have cost the game as well. Then we would have to endure a Spurs DVD on their first victory against us in 19 games. The shape of the team was good in the last twenty minutes; it was no time for experiments that can be done in the FA Cup.

It is 19 games since we were last beaten by them, and then it was a case of ten men. It was a good team performance, and there were a lot of good individual performances, especially the defence. The reason fans feel disgruntled is that we only got a point.

Nonetheless there are still 39 points to be won, and this team is showing resilience. If creativity can be added to that resilience then a fourth place could still be possible. It would be foolish to allow irritation with the Ivorian clown to deflect us from our mission. At the same time the arrival of Arshavin, and the fitness of Eduardo should allow for hope.

Meanwhile let's laugh at Spurs, will they ever get a better chance to end our unbeaten run. A lot of them really believed they are better than us. Not even with one arm behind our backs you muppets. When does the DvD come out?

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