ANOTHER tussle with the top four leaves us licking the sorest of self-inflicted wounds.
At Old Trafford it was Pienaar’s ‘five-aside sh*t house’ tackle which gave away the points. Against the Gunners it was a combination of uncharacteristic bad defending and finishing.
I understand and admire why Moysie was talking us up after the game, but his assertion that the better side lost was off the mark.
Ultimately the Gunners didn’t concede three cheap, bordering on the embarrassing, goals like we did.
Like Pienaar, Jagielka had been immense before his literal slip-ups. But his positioning against Arsenal’s bizarre long-ball goal, and then slip before Eduardo’s second were infuriating.
Coupled with two less-damning incidents; a miss from Neville and a glaring wide header from The Yak, I don’t think we can take too much moral superiority.
We can take a lot of heart from the first half which genuinely did see us play the better football and make the gap between us and title pretenders seem close than ever.
But annoyingly we still have the potential to shoot ourselves in the foot. Those little occasional quality gaps which can make all the difference.
That capacity to have a mental minute was summed up by the Yobo/Howard mix-up.
The blame appeared split in the Taxi club, but I’d hand it to the Nigerian. He has been top notch all season, blossoming with Lescott beside him but regardless of whether Howard made a call, he should have bladdered that ball into the stands.
His instinct as a centre half should have kicked in and over-ridden any call from his keeper.
It didn’t and we were watching our points trickle away.
A nod to the refereeing of Martin Atkinson. Terrible really. He protected Arsenal, lent heavily on Arteta throughout and the straight red was icing on the cake,
Finally, Arsenal. Previously the only London side I had grudging respect, nay affection, for because of their school of science-esque football.
Well reach for the Nytol and prepare to lose some sleep Monsieur Wenger et al because you have lost my respect.
The North Londoners were the polar opposite of what I expected. Outplayed (in the first 45), their lack of grace was matched only by a lack of guile.
Equally, Bendtner’s tackle, Clichy’s Gallic whingeing and Fabregas’s shameful antics (I counted four full commando rolls) on the floor left a sour taste.
Afterwards I’d say Arteta bottled calling Fabregas for what he really is. Best mates in football? It must be a Latin thing.....
Let’s just hope that the bubble hasn’t burst and we can respond against Boro like we did with Bolton.
I think that's why Moyes went overly positive after the game.
And before we all get too despairing let the memory of Tony Hibbert (no you weren’t that p*ssed) playing a glorious one two with Arteta in the first half bring a surreal smile to your face.
I will now officially stop moaning when I see Hibbert is picked for games against the top four.
He will never be my favourite choice at full-back but his tackling remains excellent and he had a good game.
P.S.
New Year Wish List;
Vogel,
Albelda,
Downing......
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »