arsenal 2 birmingham 1

By Myles Palmer

Arsenal 2 Birmingham 1
Zigic 33, Nasri 41( pen), Chamakh 47

Do English fans still hate divers?

I absolutely detest divers and cheats in football, so it was horrible to see Chamakh cheating to get that equaliser. It's such a shame because he's a good player. Is this what Arsene FC has come to?

Saturday's game started with Arsenal dominating, and when Wilshere got forward and played Chamakh in, the striker should have aimed inside the near post. Instead he shot the other way and that allowed right back Stephen Carr to block.

Then the badly positioned Djourou missed a free-kick into the box and striker Zigic headed in for 1-0 to Birmingham.

Then Wilshere fouled Hleb and the  free-kick was nodded across the goal by Roger Johnson but this time skipper Squillaci got close enough to Zigic and the shot went over.

Martin Atkinson had a nightmare.

Like a thousand other home-town refs, Atkinson fell for Chamakh's dive when Arsenal were 1-0 down.

Birmingham centreback Scott Dann was on the deck and by the time his outstretched foot actually got near Chamakh, the striker was already 75% collapsed to his knees. It was a controlled demolition by the elegant Moroccan. He floated gently towards the earth, like a falling leaf in autumn. Yes, it's a must-win game but does that excuse blatant cheating?

Nasri converted beautifully, sending the keeper the wrong way to make it 1-1 at half-time.

Arshavin was sloppy and peripheral on Saturday. When his cross was  headed out, Wilshere chested the ball to Song, who backheeled a return, Wilshere flicked through to Chamakh, who twirled past Stephen Carr, who pulled out of the tackle. Chamakh was expecting a tackle, twirled to avoid it, hoping the ball would break for him. There was no tackle, Chamakh took a touch round Ben Foster and slotted a terrific goal at the near post for 2-1. A sweet finish after a very nice move. But it looked as if Carr was inhibited by that soft penalty award.

Near the end Jack Wilshere made a dangerous late challenge on Zigic and got a straight red card.

He was angry with himself for miscontrolling a volleyed pass from Eboue. We've seen that 10,000 times before. A player's touch lets him down, he charges in for a 50-50 to rectify the mistake, misses the ball and kicks his opponent.

Let's cut Jack Wilshere some slack this week.

He gives the Emirates crowd somebody they can identify with. The fans need an English player like that. They watch  their team from a distance and don't buy Eboue shirts or Clichy shirts or Song shirts or Diaby shirts, so they need somebody they can connect to and believe in. They need one of their own, or two of their own, or five.

Reader Obaid Raza wonders if Jack is looking faster and stronger. Possibly. I think playmaker Jack will add goals to his game. When he's 19 or 20, he'll start scoring. Every time he plays as well as he did against Birmingham, my comparison with Wesley Sneijder becomes less whimsical, less far-fetched. Although Jack will never be as two-footed as the Inter ace, who is eight years older than him.

With Fabregas leaving, playmaker Jack Wilshere is becoming the focal point of the team.

The other late incident was when Eboue raced up the line and miscontrolled the ball and Zigic poked it away from him,
Eboue fell over. Amazingly, Atkinson gave him a free-kick. Ref, are you blind?

The ANR Review Section has been ｕｐ ｄａｔｅd.

Oct 17, 2010