Well thank fuck for that. Bendtner’s last minute goal allowed us to grab a point from a game where we probably didn’t deserve it. I’ve only just seen the goal, I had to leave early to go to work. Felt like a right Judas walking out with 82 minutes gone but I left it as long as I could, in the end I got to work just two minutes late.

The team was on the one I predicted, Diaby getting a start after returning from injury and Walcott partnering Adebayor. However we soon switched it around putting Theo on the wing and Hleb was the second striker.

We started reasonably well, we looked sharp and promising. Walcott had the best chance after 7 minutes when he stole some space and fired a shot towards goal but Carson was equal to it. The Aston Villa ‘keeper had a fantastic day, he made four or five good saves to keep them in it. It’s so frustrating watching all these goalies come to Ashburton Grove, get inspired by the surroundings and have the game of their lives. Bloody annoying.

Villa were doing alright at the other end too, it was a fairly even game in the opening minutes, both sides had some decent chances. Agbonlahor went clean through with just Almunia to beat, I was saying, “This is a goal, 1-0.” However William Gallas didn’t give up and he managed to get back and make the tackle.

They did take the lead after 27 minutes though. Agbonlahor had the ball out on the left and fizzed a ball low into the box. Senderos tried to clear it at the near post but he put the ball just inside the post with Almunia left stranded. You can’t really blame Big Phil for the goal but I’m sure he didn’t enjoy it.

I was expecting Villa to score so it wasn’t a massive shock, but at least we had an hour of football to do something about it. We didn’t do a lot in the remainder of the first half, that goal shocked the team a bit I think and Villa were on a high. The visitors had the better of the first half and a couple more chances before the break. We needed to come out with a different attitude.

Arsene sorted them out at half time and we came out with ambition and we attacked straight from the kick off, Walcott had a decent shot saved. We were passing and moving like anything and I was reminded of the game last weekend when we came out well in the second half and scored twice. That wasn’t the case yesterday, we soon lost that spark and it was more urgency and panic football than lovely and skilful.

There was 40 minutes left on the clock when I started to get worried. I was begging Wenger to make a bold change and bring Bendtner on early. 10 minutes later he did, Diaby came off. He didn’t have the best game yesterday; it was obvious who needed to be taken off.

We were having a lot of the ball towards the end of the game, however Villa were defending with 10 men, literally, and we couldn’t break them down. I was thinking ‘We have to score we have to score we have to score’ over and over. All this pressure had to be made to count. My anxiety was intensified by watching the clock tick away, I must have looked at the clock every 10 seconds.

Not only did it mean that our chance to get any points was slowly disappearing, I also knew that I really had to leave, as much as I didn’t want to. In the end it took Walcott to go clean through in the box and miss for me to go ‘Oh fuck it!’ and I got up and left.

I felt so embarrassed walking up those steps with the game going on around me. Whenever I see people leaving early like I was yesterday I don’t like it. I think why have they so urgently got to go? Well I’ve realised maybe they have got places to be, places to go or whatever. I had the choice of either not going yesterday, or just leaving 10 minutes early. I think I know what you would’ve all done.

As I walked to the station I kept my ears fully alert for a sign of anything that might be happening inside the stadium, but nothing. Along my walk I looked through the pub’s windows to check the score. Still 1-0, fuck. However when I just got to the station, a London Underground guy goes, “It’s 1-1, they just equalised in the last minute.” I replied, “Are you joking?” I was convinced he was winding me up but he spoke the truth and it was good! I got the goal confirmed soon after by text message and my journey home was slightly less shit.

9 days ago we were 5 points clear at the top of the league, now the gap is only one point. Last weekend we lost the chance to win in the last minute, this weekend we grabbed a point in the last minute.

Next up it’s AC Milan in the Champions League. I’m flying out to Italy early tomorrow morning so the match preview will have to be done tonight, I might time it so it publishes tomorrow though. Right, got to go, thanks for reading.