Sunderland v Arsenal - Round Up

Mon, May 1, 2006, 5.15pm

We never looked threatening in the entire 90 minutes while they looked more likely the side capable of scoring. It was very important to make good use of the ball when we had possession instead we wasted our possession and never kept close control on the ball. We lacked the craft that could make our passing count as a result of which the players didn’t get even near to the box leave aside having a nice decent shot at the goal. On the other hand when the ball was not with us we lacked that defensive cohesiveness that could make it bitterly hard for Villareal to conceive openings as has been the case with our previous opponents. They constantly channeled chances from right and made us miss Flamini. Certainly, both Sol & Clichy started well but the balance that earned us nine consecutive clean sheets seemed to be non-existent. Of course, our defenders defended very well otherwise the match wouldn’t have ended with another clean sheet for us but to some extent this was also due to the extreme wastefulness of our opponents who created so many chances but could convert none.

If worthy of credit for creating numerous chances they own discredit for being wastelful with them. Apart from Gilberto, the midfield had a sloppy game. Hleb gave the ball away too much; Cesc was just about tidy, Reyes couldn’t get across their midfielders as a result Henry was starved of any worthy service playing lonely upfront. Not until Pires arrived in place of Reyes in second-half did the match look somewhat poised for us. When he arrived on the scene the midfield looked a little more stable but still devoid of any flair to manufacture chances.

The team looked disjointed and the efforts nervy. But we could definitely take solace in our defense once again as dodgy though, the defense did not cracked and got us one more morale-boosting clean sheet. By the way that was tenth on the trot and a Champions League record.

Obviously with two of four being seriously short of match practice the job was indeed applaudable and the result deserving.

Tourepedoed by Kolo, sunk by Lehmann

Villareal 0 - 0 Arsenal.
Champions League Semi-Final, Second Leg.
El Madrigal, Spain.

Whew!!!

Did u see our performance last night??? We were way short of even half a decent performance required for any European match, leave aside a Champions league semi-final and yet we are through to the final in Paris. One cant imagine that the match ended goalless when the way Villareal played they could have ended with three goals. They on their part are left to rue their missed chances but we have a lot to ponder over our utterly disappointing display before we reach Paris.

One cant imagine that the match ended goalless when the plethora of chances Villareal created / crafted were there for all to see. They could have ended with three goals. They on their part are left to rue their missed chances but we have a lot to ponder over our utterly disappointing display.

However dismal our performance may have been but a berth in the Champions League final gives joy unlimited and compels to forget how we actually secured it.

ARSENAL HAS QUALIFIED FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL ….(that’s important)

Huuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Operation - Sinking Submarine

As feared from the Spurs game, the knee injury Senderos suffered is not one that can be ignored which means he won’t be available against Villareal. Bad that is. He & Toure have certainly mustered a sound central defensive partnership amongst themselves. The two along with Eboue and Flamini have been the rock solid defense marshaled by Lehmann, which has given us a record breaking run of nine consecutive clean sheets in Europe this season. In fact the report here suggests that not only will he will miss the match against Villareal but unfortunately it appears that he has finally played his last match this season.

Hence ahead of the match the manager has elected Sol to play in place of Big Phil. While Sol is short of match fitness Wenger has preferred him to Djourou to start the game on the base of experience. Wenger sees this as the best opportunity for Sol to show his strength and capability by making a strong comeback. He explains: “I decided to go for Sol Campbell because he has that kind of experience. I had Johan Djourou but he is 18. I feel Sol may be missing a game or two but can compensate with experience. Wenger defends his selection by drawing attention to the fact that it was Sol who was at the helm of our defense the year when we won the premiership unbeaten.

This could be a gamble in terms of our defensive solidarity. Experience is vital but match-fitness is too. Going by the look of past performances I personally think that he should have selected Johan Djourou ahead of Sol because we have seen Johan Djourou playing well before and Sol is some way short of match fitness but the manager understands his selection better than us and this is a gamble which Arsene Wenger is ready to take. Sincerely speaking Wenger had not much to choose from. He had Djourou & Sol to choose from and he has chosen experience over fitness. I as a fan have no complaints over the selection if whoever the manager brings gives his best and helps us maintain our solid defensive wall.

Reyes will be available again after serving his one-match European ban while Adebayor remains cup-tied. Meanwhile there is good news therein that Gael Clichy has recovered completely from the stress fracture in his foot and is back in the squad. That and the complete squad list you can find here.

Though by the look of it appeared that Villareal seem content with the result at Highbury the matter of fact remains that they have to at least score twice today night to win. And two goals are all that The Gunners have conceded in the entire competition until now. The last time someone got past our defense was Markus Rosenberg of Ajax on 27 September. After that we have produced a record breaking nine consecutive clean sheets. So we do have the defense required on big nights such as today and we have shown it before against Real, Juventus and Villareal at Highbury. As for the attack, its there to see how lethal Henry has been banging exquisite goals week after week. In the midfield Reyes, Hleb, Fabregas, Pires, Ljungberg and Gilberto they all have been fantastic. So no doubt that we have what it takes on nights like this. It’s down to our determination and thirst to win.

Wenger is clear upon the strategy to use for this match. He has decided to go for goals rather then defending the match. That Villareal have to come out to score is for sure. We need to capitalise on that. And the best way Wenger feels to tackle that is score ourselves. He says: “The best way to deal with that is to score [ourselves]. That would be ideal and that's what we'll try to achieve. We are a team who can always score goals. But as well I think that for us it’s most important to go there, form a good defensive base every time we go forward and try to win the game.

Even if we score one goal then they will have to score 3. A single goal from us can put the game beyond the reach of Villareal and we can book our place in the Final. As such it’s obvious that Wenger expects an attacking and exciting game tonight when he says “I feel the pace of our game will be the key, we will try to play at a high pace. I think they'll try to up theirs as well so you should see a much more exciting game in the second leg.”

So while we certainly have the defense in place that can take care of Villareal when they have the ball its important that we make the most of it when the ball is with us. But CAUTION!! It’s important that we remain alert. It’s not going to be an easy task. Though we managed to take care of their key players especially Riquelme very well, he will not be the same figure as in Highbury where he was on a leash as the whole team came there to defend. Their players would be up for it in front of their crowd and will try to throw everything at us that can give them a break. Their potential is apparent from the list of Clubs they have knocked out until now. The atmosphere would be cracking so it’s vital that we don’t crack under pressure.

The time has arrived for us now when a place in the finals of the Champions League is just one game away. Having come so far and making it to the finals would be a great reward for the mammoth effort Wenger and the lads have put in recently in Europe. We have really strived to get till here and truly deserve our position. Now, though is the most crucial time. Just one game and we shall then see from there how to take on the final from there.

One can say that our entire season has boiled down to two matches. One, that which we played with Spurs on Saturday and the second with Villareal in Spain. Losing the match with Spurs would have certainly left us with no chance of automatic Champions League qualification via the premiership route. A draw has at least kept us alive in the battle for the fourth position even though we don’t have anything in our hands now. We now rely upon on Bolton & West Ham to steal something from Spurs that could reduce the deficit between them and us. However small it may seem but nevertheless the chance that still remains with the draw has made it possible for us to harbour hopes in contrast to forgetting the fourth place in case we would have lost. So we didn’t pass out of this game with flying colours but still the race is not over and has given us something to salvage from this season in the premiership. Now, the second game. The second game is the Champions League game in El Madrigal today night! On this match hang our European aspirations. Kolo Toure gave us that important lead of one goal in Highbury on Wednesday. A lead of one goal is slender but it is a lead that counts. We have been running in this race for so many years now but never have we been so near to achieving this dream. Let the gunners make this a historic night.

The Gunners have Tourepedoed the Yellow Submarines at Highbury. Arsenal waits for them to sink in El Madrigal.

The Final Derby at Highbury

The match ended in a draw with both teams scoring a goal each. How I wish that we could have won our last North-London derby at Highbury but that was not the case to be. Robbie Keane gave the lead to Spurs in the early second half and with six minutes remaining Henry, who came onto the pitch from the bench in the second half, scored an awesome goal to equalize the scores and restore our pride.

Though our goal came through some neat play between Adebayor & Henry their goal was a controversial one and it remained the much talked about issue during and after the match. We all know what happened and with whom. Diaby & Eboue collided and the latter remained on the floor while the ball in Carrick’s position who waited to decide whether to continue playing or to put the ball out of play and then decided to play and passed the ball to Davids on the Spurs left flank. In the absence of Eboue, David could get along the channel and easily put the ball in the way of Keane who arrived by the time in the box near the right-hand post. He was left with the simplest of task to tuck the ball into the goal to give Spurs the lead. When David should have stopped and put the ball out of play he continued which led to the goal for Spurs. Wenger was furious and even the players protested but the referee deemed nothing wrong with it and the goal stood. Wenger was so outraged that he confronted Jol on the sidelines. Later Davids was sent off for a second offence.

But we can’t do anything now of it. We were looking for a win but could only take a point of the game. But we have the solace in the fact that at least we didn’t lost to Spurs in the final north London derby at Highbury. Full three point should have been the order of the day but to be honest we didn’t actually put enough effort especially in the first half. Spurs created more chances than us and we weren’t able to dictate the game. Honestly we didn’t woke up until they took the lead and their goal though disputed came as a shot in the arm for us. We then began to surge forward and to create chances upfront and then later deservingly equalized. Three points would have done our Champions Leagie automatic qualification hopes much good but now we are left to wish that somebody from either West Ham or Bolton take points away from Spurs and we win all of our remaining three fixtures. We can take solace in the fact that we didn’t LOSE to Spurs. This was their last chance to defeat us at Highbury which they couldn’t. A defeat at the hands of Spurs in our last north London derby at Highbury would have dented our pride in our outstanding record against them at Highbury and in the Premier League. Hence the goal from Henry sees our pride restored by remaining unbeaten to Spurs since the last 6 years. Hahaha!!

By the way later that evening Chelsea were kicked out from the FA Cup by Liverpool in the Semi-Final at Old Trafford.

Later Wenger called Jol a liar when Jol remarked that he didn’t saw the incident. Questions were raised whether Wenger should apologize for calling Jol a liar. But the proof is here (Thanks to arseblogger) . On this page the clip shows very clearly that Jol - who claimed to Wenger that he didnt saw the incident not only sees it but also asks his player Carrick to continue with the play while Eboue remained lying on the pitch injured. So there is the answer to that.

Arsenal 1 - 0 Villareal

A win was certainly the minimum requirement in the match against Villareal to give Highbury a perfect European send-off. And the score was one that is very familiarly associated with us! Yes! With 1 nil to the Arsenal, Highbury finally bowed off from the European stage.

Also it was our first appearance in a Champions League Semi-final so it was nice to record a win rather a defeat or a draw. We defended well again as we have until now and it was crucial that we didn’t concede a goal. So another clean sheet followed with a strong performance from our defenders.

A disallowed Henry goal which by the look of it seemed to be an incorrect decision could have made the task much easier for us on our trip to Villareal next Tuesday. Two nil would have been a better score to take to our second leg but that was not the case to be.

But we have been playing extremely well in our European fixtures and in the second leg if we don’t get nervy and soak the early pressure by Villareal who shall be up for it in front of their own crowd then we are certainly capable of pulling out another nice performance that could land us well – in the Champions League Final. Lets hope so.

For the first time in this Champions league season we were favourites going into this game and we justified our position with a deserving victory achieved by a good team display and defence. The only negtaive that can be drawn is that we could have scored more. We are left only to rue our missed chances but it was not entirely due to us. We must say that Viilareal defended very strongly in the second half and their midfield indeed put up a fine display. Though it was apparent that they were relying upon their home fixture as the key but they were a good disciplined side who capabilities are well documented by the fact that have ousted Everton, Man Utd, Rangers and Inter en route to this semi final. Riquelme didn’t appeared as big a threat as he was made of to be but we also have to keep in mind that their obvious plan at Highbury was not to attack but to defend. They in a way quiet succeded in this task as a one goal lead is a slender lead to take to their ground but as I said before the vital thing was not to concede a goal and we did not.

The tie is by no means over as Villareal will be up for it in the return match and they shall be having the home advantage now. But we have nothing to fear. We have shown that we can defend at home as well away previously. It would be a tough game at their home but if we defend well as a team and be sharp and fast on our counter attack then we could definitely get an away goal as well. Its certain that now with our lead Villareal will be forced to attack and if we defend well and catch them on the counter-attack then we can nick another one there. Even one goal from us would make it a difficult task for Villareal.

So lets hope that we dont crack under pressure as one more sound performance shall land our club for the first time in the Finals of the Champiosn League.

Four minutes before half time Koulo Toure got the solitary but very vital goal for us after some neat passing between Henry & Hleb got Hleb to the byline from where he picked his man and passed the ball only to find Toure's leg which directed the ball into the net to send Highbury wild and crazy. WOW!! what a feeling!!

Ironically it was Toures first goal at Highbury but what a night to score it. We have to be very sharp in the next fixture in Spain and take our chances accurately. We can rue our missed chances at Higbury but wont be spared for that in Spain.

Also no injuries to any of the players in the game and this victory should be a massive boost for us to take on our rivals Spurs on Saturday. Just like a perfect European send-off for Highbury this victory should give us that confidence to finish off Spurs in fashion and style in what’s going to be the last ever North-London derby to be played at Highbury. Whooo!