Arsenal 2 Everton 2
Lucky Arsenal grabbed one point in injury time which we actually admitted a losing game already ..!!!
It's a first game without Song and obviously we missed him very much here and there.. Not a good sign for coming games away at Bolton , Stoke city , Aston Villa and at home against Man United in whole january.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/31188/tv-online-arsenal-v-everton-highlights
Arsenal 2 Everton 2 was a game on a very cold day.
And it was also a bad day
You know it’s been a bad day when even Wenger admits his side were "always closer to losing the game than winning it."
Outplayed by Everton, Arsenal earned a point with two deflected goals..
The manager says he is waiting for Nicklas Bendtner to come back.
Bendtner has scored one Premier League goal this season, plus one Carling Cup goal and one Champions League goal. A million Gooners are waiting for a kid who has scored three goals ! Ridiculous, but typical.
Two of my friends, who don't know each other, reckoned the game turned when Aaron Ramsey went off.
Arsenal got lucky when Man United were held 1-1 - at Birmingham, although that was not wholly surprising.
On a dismal day like this, Arsenal play possession football in two thirds of the pitch and then lose the ball before getting a shot in.
Their style of play, which many people rave about, looked so narrow, so constipated, that they made Fellaini look better than he really is. Fellaini, playing deeper than I have ever seen him, took the ball off Eduardo, took it off Diaby, off Nasri, off Ramsey and, eventually, off Arshavin.
A rugged, clumsy giant, Fellaini was the most effective player on that pitch.
Pienaar was the best player, but Fellaini was the most effective.
The first goal came when from an outswinging corner by debut boy Landon Donovan.
Cahill and Fellaini were marked but Leon Osman had a free run. A guy of five foot eight ran 10 yards to head in from 8 yards and he was unmarked all the way. Would Song have stopped him? We will never know. Song was hugely missed.
In 27, clever control by Arshavin, short pass to Eduardo, who laid it back for Denilson to fire in a shot which deflected in off Osman, wrong-footing Tim Howard.
At 1-1, Cahill was the left touchline and tricked Gallas, who then smacked him in the face with his arm. Ignoring this, Cahill went past Gallas, who pushed the Australian in the back, not hard enough to make him fall over, and Cahill proceeded to leave Gallas for dead and zoom into a dangerous position which fizzled out. If Cahill had whacked Sang in the face, Wenger would have been squealing about it all week.
At 1-1 it was siege, with Arsenal surrounding the Everton box, and then Cahill launched a breakaway with a cute shuffle and a pass into the run of Pienaar, who put Everton 2-1 up in 81 minutes with a tasty dink over Alumnia.
When Denilson collapsed in the centre circle, giving up the ball, sub James Vaughan broke away again but missed a chance for 3-1, shooting straight at Alumni.
Then Sagna was booked for a nasty stamp on Pienaar's achilles. A vicious foul but you won't hear David Moyes moaning about "anti-football."
When Arsenal were 2-1 down in injury time, Diaby, who had a shabby game, at last managed to get goalside of Fellaini. He played in Rosicky with a sweet pass and his shot was deflected off Lucas Neill over Tim Howard. A timely goal from a fine move of six passes.
Traore, lacking protection on the left, was exposed by Landon Donovan. The on -loan American is a decent little player who will prove his worth in February.
In the closing seconds, total pandemonium at the back when Vaughan broke away and Almunia raced out of his box and clattered into Traore.
Almunia was embarrassing on a freezing day that was difficult for defenders. He came and missed, rolled the ball to give Sagna a 50-50 in which he got a severe kick on the leg, and didn't come out far enough on the Pienaar goal - and went down too early.
Arshavin's artistry is wasted in this side.
Marc Overmars was a world class player but Arshavin can do many things with a football that Overmars never even dreamed of doing. If I was him I would not stay and play with Almunia, Denilson, Diaby, Eduardo, Bendtner. Life is too short. Life is far too short for that. You only get one career. I love the Russian and hope he stays but I don't think he will.
Arsenal need an aggressive, fast, mobile, experienced sharpshooter who can maximise the creativity of Arshavin and Fabregas.
Today's football is about stars and every star these days is a goalscorer.
In my view, that's wrong but that's how it is in an age of mass media. Stars make headlines, stars score goals on the TV sports news, stars c reate anticipation in a stadium, stars get people off their seats three or four times in 93 minutes.
If they don't buy that a world class striker they will soon be filling their corporate boxes with staff. And their two best players will walk.
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Traore; Denilson (Merida, 81), Ramsey (Rosicky, 65), Diaby; Nasri, Arshavin, Eduardo (Vela, 75) Subs not used: Fabianski (gk), Silvestre, Eastmond, Emmanuel-Thomas.
EVERTON (4-4-1-1): Howard; Neville, Neill, Heitinga, Baines; Donovan (Bilyaletdinov, 70), Fellaini, Osman, Pienaar; Cahill; Saha (Vaughan, 75) Subs not used: Nash (gk), Coleman, Duffy, Baxter, Mustafi.
Referee : Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).
Booked : Sagna, Pienaar.
Crowd : who knows how many fans were there?
Jan 11, 2010