Sevilla 3-1 Arsenal – 27/11/07 – (Champions League) 28 November, 2007

I’ve said with some wins this season you can tell exactly what I’m about to say just by reading the title. I’m afraid that’s the case here again. We were outplayed by the Spanish side and deserved to lose. It was out first goal we’d let in all season in Europe and we collapsed.

Fabregas started and for some reason we had Bendtner alone up front with Eduardo out on the wing. Denilson started too instead of Diarra, apart from that it was the team I expected. We started quite brightly, this mix-and-match team seemed to be working together well and we got an early goal through Eduardo. Eboue played a great back heel down the line which Bendtner got onto down on the right. He played in a great cross towards Eduardo in space. Instead of heading the ball for some reason he took it on the chest and with the goalkeeper and a defender scrambling for the ball Eddy did well to finish calmly in the corner.

1-0 up after 11 minutes and I thought we could be in with a chance of winning this, never mind losing. We were cruising and looked in complete control of the game; Eboue was doing well down the right. Bendtner was causing problems and we looked like scoring again.

Until Seville equalised in the 24th minute. It all started from our goal kick; Almunia cleared it deep but it was headed back towards our goal. Senderos was in space to control it but for some reason went for a half-arsed overhead kick which he was always going to slice. I don’t know what he thought he could achieve if he pulled it off anyway.

So that mistake from Philippe went straight to an opposition player who broke down the right. We were caught out at the back but when the low cross in, Gilberto managed to get there. However he pulled his clearance back instead of knocking it into touch. Gilberto gave the ball straight to Keita who blasted the ball in the top corner.

Once this goal went in we were shocked. We never really got in the game from now on. We were misplacing passes and we just generally didn’t look confident. Seville took advantage of this and pushed for their second.

10 minutes after their first, the home side got their second. Traore made a foul out on the wing in a dangerous position. Alves took the free kick and Fabiano made a good run to find himself a free header and now we were losing.

We were lucky not to let in any more before half time. We were begging for that whistle to go and we were just hoping Arsene would sort it out in the break and we’d come out stronger in the second 45.

The second half started much the same with Seville putting us under pressure. We had ambition though but we lacked that final quality. It was quite hard to watch us just get taken apart. They were simply better than us, something Arsenal fans haven’t seen in a while.

10 minutes into the second period Fabregas signalled to the bench that he needed to come off. He didn’t look in a bad way or anything but it wasn’t your typical Cesc Fabregas performance. He was replaced by Rosicky in the hope that Tomas could add something to help us find a goal. Cesc felt his hamstring pull tight, and came off as a precaution. Even though we were losing, we could still take him off as we’d already qualified and at the end of the day, the loss doesn’t matter.

Alves was a right nuisance down the right wing. When he wasn’t diving, he was causing us problems and sending in great crosses. Somehow we managed to deal with them but it wasn’t easy to watch.

In the 64th minute Seville were awarded a penalty. It was Alves again who crossed from the right but Senderos blocked it just inside the area. The referee pointed to the spot when it clearly hit Senderos’ chest. All night, Philippe had this bizarre tactic of holding his hands behind his back when defending. I know he’s just doing it to prevent giving away a handball, but it was weird. So when Senderos blocked that cross, his hand was behind his back and here was no way it struck his arm.

Chelsea have been getting into trouble this season for crowding round the referee. However, Toure and the rest of the Arsenal players questioned the ref in disbelief, surrounding him and calling for the linesman. I know this is wrong, but if this never happened the referee wouldn’t have changed his mind. Luckily we got away with it and the penalty was cancelled and it was a drop ball.

Sagna replaced Hoyte in the 66th minute and Theo Walcott came on for Eboue to try and change things. We were still trying to create stuff and trying to get forward but it was in vain. We couldn’t score however we tried and we just had to accept defeat.

Seville made sure of the win when they scored their third from the penalty spot. Kanoute was through but Sagna and Toure were charging back and all three tumbled over in the box. I don’t know whether it should’ve been a penalty or not, I don’t really care, but the ref was delighted to be able to award them another and he wasn’t going to change his mind on this one. The ex-Tottenham man converted it, 3-1 final score.

We lost, oh well. It’s not the end of the world, we’re through anyway. Would’ve been nice to come first but it doesn’t look that way now. Wenger was sent of in the second half demonstrating against the terrible officials. He wouldn’t leave though; he just hung around at the end of the tunnel about 3 yards from our bench. Fair play to him.

Eboue for the first time impressed me. He showed that he can actually do something and was quite useful for the majority of the game. However he more than made up for this with some stupid dives and moaning but at least I know he can do something for the team. Bendtner was also good; he won every ball and looked the biggest threat to Seville’s defence.

Senderos and Gilberto were not good though. Both are lacking first team football, but still, they did not look good at all. Senderos was shaky and I didn’t trust him one bit, he made so many silly mistakes and just looked like a clown in our back four. I’m dreading it when Toure goes away in January. Gilberto had a funny game, at times he looked disinterested, but at times he looked like he had a point to prove and was getting stuck into the game. He too made some sloppy errors and last night’s performance wont help him get back in the team.

Toure also thought the referee was bad. That’s twice in a row now we’ve had bad refereeing. Hopefully on Saturday we’ll get someone who knows what they’re doing.

See ya.