Arsenal 1-0 Everton – 04/05/08 – (Premier League) 4 May, 2008

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Jesus what a snooze-fest. That was quite possibly the most boring football match I’ve been to, ever. Fuck all happened in the whole game. Everton came for the 0-0 and we weren’t playing that well either.

We started with a very different 11; Fabianski was in goal, Kolo, Gallas, Song and Clichy were in front of him. It was a Brazilian pairing in the middle of Gilberto and Denilson with Eboue and Walcott out wide. Up front we had Adebayor playing the front man in a 4-4-1 formation with Bendtner behind.

It didn’t work.

We lacked a Cesc Fabregas in midfield and the strike partnership wasn’t combining. I was surprised not to see Cesc playing but I’ve just read on the website that he’s fucking injured too! Incredible! Out for three weeks apparently, so his season is over but he should return for Euro 2008. It was his 21st birthday today and he picked up the PFA Young Player Award before the game. What a season the boy’s had.

I was interested to see how the non-regulars got on, but everyone was fairly anonymous. Everton had a corner within a minute and I thought this could be an exciting game but oh how wrong I was.

15 minutes later we had a half chance. Walcott got forward and tried to curl it inside the par post but he couldn’t put enough bend on the strike and it went comfortably wide.

There was a little scare at the other end just to keep us awake. Just before the half hour mark Andy Johnson broke through the defence. Fabianski decided to come out but for some reason changed his mind, I’m not sure why, it was a pretty tight angle and I thought he would make it. I went mental when he changed his mind, I thought Johnson would score but Lukasz got a foot to it. Then there was a moment when the ball was loose in the box but Song managed to flick it over the bar whilst on the floor.

From the resulting corner Denilson had to clear the ball off the line. It was a couple of minutes of excitement in a very dull first half. There were a few more opportunities for us in the final 10 minutes but nothing clinical.

I didn’t really know what to think at the break, I just hoped Wenger kicked some backsides in the dressing room and got the team playing.

The second half got underway and nothing had changed, there was no new enthusiasm and I thought this game was destined for a 0-0.

With 20 minutes to go Wenger decided to make a change. I saw Traore had been recalled from warming up, I turned back to the bench and noticed Lehmann was standing in his shirt waiting to come on too. Traore replaced a tired Toure and Eboue switched to right back so Armand was playing left wing. Lehmann obviously came on for Fabianski, although I don’t think anyone would’ve complained if he replaced a certain no.27.

I felt a bit sorry for Fabianski but this was Lehmann’s final goodbye. Alright, he’s been a bit of a twat at times this year but he’s been a fantastic servant for the club and almost won us the European Cup in 2006 when he went on that great run of form.

The substitutions woke the crowd a little, and to be honest they made a positive impact on our team. Lehmann’s quick and precise distribution was allowing us to run at Everton’s defence. Traore’s pave on the left was causing them problems too and after being on the pitch for just 7 minutes he made the deciding impact…

Armand got down the left, unchallenged; there was no way of catching him. He delivered a wonderful hanging cross that had Nicklas Bendtner written all over it. The big Dane rose on the edge of the six-yard box and headed it inside the near post.

A beautifully simple and nicely worked goal, from two boys just coming into the team. After the game Bendtner seemed really grateful for Traore’s assist and getting the winning goal. He said that Armand does it all the time in training and it was good they could replicate it when it mattered.

The final few minutes were played out in the same matter as the rest of the game. Senderos came on late on for a knackered Adebayor. No he didn’t go up front.

So the final score was 1-0 to The Arsenal. It was a typical end of season game, no sweat broken and the whole thing was played in a bit of a friendly manner.

There was the traditional lap of appreciation after the game but Lehmann stole the show. It was nice to see the whole stadium chanting, “Lee-man! Lee-man!” He got a great send off but he deserved it. Jens, thanks for the memories, you’ve been fucking mental but we’ve loved you. Good luck son. I heard the Flamini song start up for a second but then died off, there were no big goodbyes from him like Lehmann. They were saying on Sky Sports News that he’s having a medical at AC Milan tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll know where his future lies soon then.

Tomorrow is bank holiday, hurrah! Nope, I’m still working. Speak to you soon, thanks for reading.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. That win meant we went an entire campaign unbeaten at home, in all competitions. That’s some achievement, if we can start to build a decent home record it will really help us in future seasons for that title push. We’ve only ever lost one game at the new stadium so far and long may it continue. Well done lads.