Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s William Gallas!
Thursday, 18 September 08, 08:00 AM · Comments(0)
It was almost a complete disaster but it wasn’t, therefore, lets focus on the positives. It is a funny thing how one re-establishes ones priorities as a match progresses. I went into last nights game certain that we would win, then as it became apparent that a victory wasn’t going to happen I mentally settled for a draw, then when I thought that we would lose I rationalised it in the wider context of the competition (lots of games to go etc), and then in the end a draw felt like a victory! Therein lies the rollercoaster that is Football.
I enjoyed the first half, except for our poor finishing. Our woeful conversion rate is something that previously I would have worried about, but given the number of goals we are scoring generally at the moment I don’t see it as cause for concern. To resurrect the popular cliché – it was just one of those games.
I thought that generally everybody acquitted themselves quite well. Song came in and did a good job, he looks a little bit rough around the edges but that will improve with experience. RVP and Cesc were a little under par but showed some great moments of skill and both bring composure to the side. The little fella Theo was kicked all over the shop but came through admirably, not fading into invisibility as he would have done last season. His cross for the goal being the perfect slap in the face to the Kiev roughhousing.
If there is something that annoys me about Adebayor its his touch. It is awful. Last night there were a number of quick breaks and when he received the ball, he laid it off and turned for the run, but he laid it off with such miscontrol and power that it made it back in to the centre circle and killed the pace of the move. This must have happened 4 or 5 time last night and considering that much of our game is based on pace it causes me no end of frustration. He scores a shed load of goals but the price of that is that our brand of beautiful football isn’t as nice on the eye as it used to be. The ball is constantly bouncing off his knee/shin/arse/back/shoulder etc… I think I am still spoiled by Henry, whose first touch was virtually always inch perfect. Ade isn’t Henry (that much is obvious) and he never will be, but he does score a lot of goals. I wonder if that’s enough though. Henry scored an equal number of goals but also had a crazy amount of assists and his general play was more creative. Personally I was disappointed when we didn’t cash in on Adebayor in the summer and replace him. However, he stayed and it is up to us as fans to support him. We shouldn’t follow him blindly though, he has significant faults as a player and I hope that he works to rectify them in training.
Kiev were a cheating bunch of little sh*ts weren’t they? Poor old Sagna was shat on from on high with that penalty.
Today the club releases its financial figures with an anticipated increase in profits again. It will be interesting to see what they have to say, particularly in light of the global financial meltdown that is occurring at the moment. How this will affect the Arsenal is beyond my expertise, however, the sale of the flats at Highbury is a key part of the Arsenal financial plan so hopefully this is not too badly affected. I suppose we’ll find that out today.
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