Entries Tagged 'Arsenal FC' ↓

Two under-strength sides were on display at the Emirates yesterday for the first match I’ve attended in person in nearly two years. With both sets of managers and players looking ahead to the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal at Anfield on Tuesday night, it’s no wonder that it was a less than stellar performance from both sides.

Peter Crouch opened the scoring just before the end of the first half, as Arsenal looked quite poor. However, the second half was all Arsenal.  Nick Bendtner started things off just five minutes into the half with a good header to level the score. There were no more goals in either team, and at full time, the skies opened and the rain came pouring down, as if to comment on the football that’d just been played. Here’s hoping Tuesday’s the cracker everyone expects it to be.

The Gunners are left frustrated as Benitez’s game-plan worked to perfection. The Scousers nicked an away goal at the Grove and then soaked up the Arsenal onslaught to earn a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Champions League Quarter-Final.

After an relatively uneventful first twenty minutes, Arsenal began to exert themselves on the match. That pressure resulted in the first goal coming in the 24th minute, a smashed header off the head of Emmanuel Adebayor.

The joy was short-lived however, as it took only two minutes for Liverpool to reply. Steven Gerrard’s whipped in cross tapped in by Dirk Kuyt to make it 1-1 after 26 minutes.

The score remained tied at halftime, and when the teams took the pitch after the interval, Robin van Persie had been replaced by Theo Walcott. It turns out that the Dutchman suffered a thigh injury. It’s been an absolute nightmare of season for Robin. Let’s hope it’s more of a precautionary measure by Wenger than an actual injury. While Walcott did provide a bit of a spark (He had an excellent shot skip past the post), he was not alone in his profligacy in front of goal.

Chance after chance came to the Gunners, and nothing was done with them. It was like watching last year’s side at points. Meanwhile, Liverpool defended in numbers, knowing that they’d done their job.

The match was not without controversy. Around the hour mark, Alex Hleb was brought down in the Liverpool penalty area, but the ref decided against the Gunners. Replays showed that it was a clear penalty, but you can’t pit your hopes on a penalty. You need to score when the chances are presented, and on the night, the Gunners managed to only convert one of those chances.

So, it’s on to Anfield, and a match I’ll be attending in person. I’ve never seen the Arsenal lose in person, so I’m feeling quite confident. All we have to do is score once and keep a clean sheet, or match Liverpool goal for goal, and we’re through.

Before that though, there’s a league match at home against these same Scousers. I’ll be at that game too, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Kickoff is at 7:45 AM ET, and the match will be broadcast live here in the US on Setanta USA.

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

The first half started well enough, with Arsenal creating a few chances, and generally dictating the play. However, Bolton played a quick counter-attack, and yet another ball in the air beat our defense, and just like that it was 1-0 to Bolton.

Things got worse around the half-hour mark when Abou Diaby made a very dumb, very dangerous tackle for which he received a straight red. 1-0 down and reduced to ten men, things looked pretty bleak for the Gunners on a rainy day in Bolton. As if things couldn’t get any worse, Mathieu Flamini got caught in possession on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, the ball found its’ way to Matthew Taylor whose shot deflected in off of William Gallas for his, and Bolton’s, second goal of the game.

2-0 at halftime and I was really beside myself. I remember thinking, “This team has given up. They’ve just given up.” The start of the second half did nothing to ease my fears, as Bolton came out of the gates looking for a third, hoping to kill off the game. Somehow, Arsenal withstood a number of corners, and Manuel Almunia made several good saves while Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott began warming up on the sidelines.

With about thirty minutes to go, Adebayor and Walcott came on to replace Bendtner and Senderos respectively. That changed the game dramatically. Within moments, Arsenal won a corner, and William Gallas found himself unmarked at the far post to slam the ball home. 2-1 Bolton with 27 minutes to go.

Five minutes later, and Adebayor found Flamini in space in the Bolton penalty area. The Flamster’s shot was saved and came back out to Alex Hleb. Hleb got to the ball, only to be taken down just a few feet from the penalty spot. The ref pointed to said spot, and up stepped Robin van Persie.

van Persie slammed the ball home, scoring his first goal in months, to pull the ten-men Gunners level at 2-2 with just over twenty minutes to go.

Now the Gunners had Bolton on the back foot, and several chances came Arsenal’s way, but the scored stayed level going into stoppage time.

Suddenly, Hleb made a great pass to put Super Cesc Fabregas in on goal. Cesc’s shot bounced off a defender and in. 3-2 Arsenal. The comeback was complete, and my whole neighborhood knew it.

If you didn’t see this game, then you really won’t be able to appreciate the enormity of the turnaround. For the first hour, Arsenal looked flat and disinterested. Then,after the substitutions, the confidence seemed to grow. Adebayor put the fear of God in those Bolton defenders, and Walcott was much more involved, using his speed to good advantage.

So, back to second, for a few hours anyway, and staying within shouting distance of Man U. Now it’s all Liverpool, all the time. At least for the next 10 days or so, as we play them three times in a row, starting with this Wednesday’s Champions League Quarter-Final at the Grove. Kickoff is at 2:45 PM ET, and the match will be shown live here in the States on ESPN2.

The forces of evil prevailed once again today as Didier Drogba scored twice to help Chelski overcome an early second-half goal by Bacary Sagna to beat Arsenal 2-1. Coupled with ManUre’s demolition of Liverpool today’s loss by the Gunners finds them fall to third in the table, 6 points behind ManUre with seven games left.

I was out this weekend with no access to Fox Soccer Channel, so I haven’t seen this game yet. I can only imagine the frustration level of everyone who did watch it was dangerously high, much like the past several league matches.

What I do know from text messages (Thanks Cam!) and reading other reports is that Boro took the lead thanks to former Gunner Jeremie Aliadiere, and then we were profligate in front of goal until Kolo’s header in the 86th minute. Thank God for that. It’s bad enough to have dropped five points to Boro, but all six? Anyway, ManUre won, Chelsea won, basically everyone but us and Spurs won, meaning we’ve dropped to second on goal-difference behind ManUre, and they’ve got a game in hand. So, as it stands, we’re now in a bit of trouble when it comes to the title race. We’ve got Chelsea away next week, and if we don’t get all three points there, we’ll be in a whole lot of trouble title-race wise.

Looks like I’m going to Anfield.

Arsenal were today drawn against Liverpool for the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. The first leg will take place at the Grove on Wednesday April 2, with the second taking place at Anfield on Tuesday the 8th.

Looking at the fixture list, the draw means that the two clubs will face each other three times in as few as eight days, as Liverpool also visit the Grove for a league match on Saturday April 5. I already have tickets for the match on April 5, and we’ve sent in our request for the match at Anfield first thing this morning. Fingers crossed!