Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal – 14/03/07 – (Barclays Premiership) 15 March, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
Well on paper we’ve put a terrible period for Arsenal behind us. However, if you managed to watch the game we were absolutely terrible. Our makeshift back four were shocking and gave Villa countless chances. Lehmann was near by to cut out through-balls on a couple of occasions and really we were very lucky not to concede. On the other hand we should’ve got about three. Aliadiere missed two absolute sitters in the first half.
We took an early lead in the 10th minute. The goal goes down as Abou Diaby’s but it was it was only his wicked deflection that sent Baptista’s shot into the back of the net. Diaby had the ball out on the left wing and cut inside giving the ball to Baptista. Abou carried on his run into the area but The Beast found himself in space and had a shot, it was going well wide but luckily it hit Diaby on his way into the box and went in past the stranded Sorensen. 1-0 up in 10 minutes, you thought there might be something special on but if you were actually watching the game the goal suited it very well.
We had quite a few chances in the first half, not long after the goal Aliadiere got into the box well for a one-on-one but his low side-footed shot was saved well. Midway through the first half Villa had a decent penalty shout when Djourou brought down Carew. In the end the referee decided the challenge was just outside the area, the replay showed he was 100% correct. Djourou was rightly yellow-carded for the challenge but it could’ve been a lot worse.
The next best chance came just before half time when Ljungberg’s cross found Aliadiere unmarked 5 yards out. It was a nice move by Arsenal and Freddie whipped in a perfect cross from the right. Aliadiere was right in front of goal with no challenging defender, all he had to do was get it on target and it was a goal. Jeremie somehow managed to miss, heading the ball into the ground and over the bar. We should’ve gone in at half time 2-0 up with that chance but with the opportunities we’d gifted to Villa you might argue we were lucky to still be in the lead.
Villa came out looking much stronger in the second half and were piling the pressure on our terrible defence. We were quite lucky, most of the time it was a last second interception before a Villa striker was through on goal and Lehmann was called into action on a few occasions. We were terrible, truly awful. The Arsenal.com match report reads “Gallas and Gilberto had been immense all evening.” I’m not really sure which game they were watching.
Towards the end Aston Villa were committing players forward and we nearly caught them on the break but it wasn’t to be. There were more chances in the second 45 but nothing really like the first half and in the end we hung on for the 1-0 win.
There were some okay performances. Lehmann did his job I suppose even though he looked quite dodgy on occasion especially picking the ball out the air from crosses. Diaby was quite good; nothing special but he wasn’t too bad. Ljungberg was probably our overall man of the match, got around the pitch well and did his stuff. Rosicky looked threatening when he came on but was never really more than that.
As I said at the beginning, on paper this is a great result, on the television screen it was a completely different story. However, it’s 3 points, and that’s all I wanted. We will have players back for our next game against Everton on Sunday and Wenger will be looking for a much better performance at Goodison Park.
I’m going away again, there won’t be any updates on the site until Monday. I’m sure you’ll mange. See you next week.
This game was so painful to watch. I know I sound like a broken record but our strikers were just awful in the final third. And Baptista is complaining to Wenger about being taken off?? What is this world coming to. Aston Villa deserved something out of this game and they have a legitimate reason to complain and bitch about the refereeing. I uploaded the ESPN highlights.
Aston Villa was good. fine. we ve been good in so many occasions too, if considering the way you play, Arsenal despite an injury plagued season should be among the first two on the league table and probably be contesting for every silverware in england and Europe at large. thank God anyway, we ve the three points.
in all fairness, the boys from emirate deserves better kudos. it has been a very awful season all the same. Yet i am not disappointed at all.
‘…and they have a legitimate reason to complain and bitch about the refereeing.’
ffs what legitimate reason. and if ur talking about johan incident then it was not a penalty and he was not the last defender so it was not a red, leave alone a legitimate one.
god almighty, that was hideous to watch. our back was all over the place. djourou is not a right back. he really struggles there. and gilberto needs to go back in the mid-field. I know he’s been a stop-gap solution in the defense, but we actually need his steady hand in the midfield so cesc can get around more.
positives: Freddie was exactly what we’ve wanted him to be this year but he hasn’t quite managed until now. Smart and experienced. His pace was lacking, but he made great passes and clever runs.
Plus, rosicky was definitely rusty, but you could see him polishing up the scope on his rifle with a few shots on goals. hopefully, he’ll have the rust off in time for everton and pool. if we play like this again, we’ll get mangled by a halfway decent team.
i like the way that ARSENAL played bad when villa play well. Even without your top class players. arsenal still have one of the best squads. So for villa to put on preasure like they did i believe goes to show the strengh that villa have gotten to these days. still a long way to go. at the end of the day it doesnt matter how bad your playing. u still have one of the best squads and defenses to go with it.
1-0 i thionk made it sound a boring match. it was awesome to listen t and Villa showed what is to come next season after the summer signings and everyone is settled into the club and rlaxed..
Well played arsenal though. im sure if u had Henry and a few others we may have got a severre kicking. but u never know. look at what happened at the emirates on the first game against villa. and trhat was with the crap that o leary left oniel with.
well played both, apart from occasions and will look forward to playing u againnnext season
report is way too harsh, for the first 25 minutes we played very well. In the second half we were poor but held on firm, with so many players out some realism needs to be shown by fans. The team that played was about as bad an Arsenal team you can get with so many players playing out of position (not there’s but wenger’s fault for that). I doubt if either Chelsea or Man utd with eight first team players missing would have played any better and got any better result. With TH & RVP out for the rest of the season it is not going to get that much prettier up front, if we can grind out the results and then roll on next year.
hello? it was a good win. no toure, eboue, clichy, rosicky (to start), hleb, henry, van persie, adebayor available. we’ve played loads of matches and huge disappointments. and we played away to a team that has played twice in the past 4 weeks and more. we could have scored more, ali let us down. but this was a makeshift team that won a vital game and showed real determination not to lose. delighted. we’ve played better this season, and quite often too. but we’ve also lost and drawn some of those games so well done the lads.
and well done the u-18s for beating man united in the youth cup. next season’s carling cup team is taking shape!
Pabz,
Walcott got done up the bum bum by Pat Rice in inury time.
Poor lad
Still waiting to hear the story behind the little soap opera between wenger and baptista.
so if Baps goes in the summer, then that leaves us 3 strikers. Bendtner will come in, but he’ll be carling cup only. So we’ll probably need another striker. any guesses anyone?
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