Arsenal 1-0 Everton – 04/05/08 – (Premier League) 4 May, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
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.
Boring game, boring season, predictable outcome. We are done. Flam has left and will not be replaced with quality. I am sick of it. We are no longer a big club.
Since Veira left AW said ‘Trust us’. We have won jack shit since.
Then after we lost the CL final he said we ‘would be back stronger with the desire to win it’. We were knocked out by PSV. Then this season he said it was the ‘biggest challenge of his career’ to beat Liverpool. He and the club failed. We are not good enough simple. Three years with nothing at all. Is that a big club? Yeah right! And it will get worse with Flam gone. Fab will follow for sure next summer after another season of nothing. He has already stated how fed up he is of it all. I don’t blame AW only blame his 40%. Board gets rest of it for me. You do have to ask though why our record in Europe is such a joke.
Chelski about to become first London club to lift the CL while we are a joke. 11 years of Wenger and only made it to semis or beyond just ONCE. Pathetic. Ppl talk…talk…talk…and while they talk we contiue to win sweet FA. Carry on making excuses though and watch our best performers leave the sinking ship. I have had enough of this shit. We are better than the Mancs or Chelski twats but our small squad limits us. And all cos AW refuses to pay more than 10p for a player.
Bored and fed up of winning FA:
Stop the bloody whining you stupid drunk: we had a great season, all things considered.
Support the lads ’til the end or sod off to Derby; there, you’ll really know pain….
As for Flam…
While it doesn’t look likely after today’s loss, it’s possible Fiorentina may pip Milan before the end of the season for the fourth CL spot–which would be a great vindication for his departure to “greener pastures”. I doubt it, after Fiorentina’s departure from UEFA Cup Semi under emotional circumstances (I think they’re similar to Arsenal in that they do not have the mental strength), but you never know. I would prefer if Milan had to pay him is staggering wage and not get a CL birth. Goodbye Flam–we thank you and you owe us nothing in return.
Wake up Goons, Bored has a legitimate gripe and you are just delusional for saying we had a great season. As for AC Milan, you are forgetting that the Italian League has been and will always be rigged and there’s no way Milan will not take the last UCL spot. Expect both Drogba and Flamini at Milan next season. As for moneyfaces Hleb & Flamini I say !@#$ off as the last thing we need in this team for next season are Cashley-like characters.
So Flams gone then. While not unexpected i really did hope he would stay on. You cant blame him though if the wages he will be on are true. And lets not forget its AC Milan, a world renown club. Whatever about Arsenal wo are building towards something great, Ac have been an emmense club for an age now. Its hard to turn that down. While the club should never have let it got to the current state, all the best Matty on your free transfer.
So it looks like on top of Wengers 2 or 3 top players – we will need a Flam replacement.
Mad Jens gone – Almunia(no2 at best) is our no1 backed up by Fabianski and Manone ?
Are we really on the trail of Krancjar from pompey ? I think hed fit right in. Barry from Villa ? Another who would be instantly useable with no settling in time needed. To expensive though ?
How will Vela cope ? A season like Theos is the most i would expect from young Carlos.
Wenger says we need to shore up defensively so will he spend big ona centrehalf and drop either Kolo or Gallas. Gallas backup to Clichy at left back ? Will he stand for that ? Will he be captain. Will Cesc be captain ?
Its over to you Wenger – a big summer in prospect. Will le boss get it right ? Its going to be a nightmare waiting to find out , thats for sure….
Why are some of us so bitter towards Flamini? Last season we would have not bat an eyelid had he left. He was the one who worked hard, never complained, and increased his worth.
It just goes to show how much a player can change over the summer, Who is to say that, Diaby, Denilson, or even Senderos couldn’t do the same?
We’ve all been conned by wenger and the board, constant claims that the team will be better “next year” and how AW trusts in his youngsters. How long before people stop thinking about wenger as some sort of god and more like a manager that has won us fuck all for three years and even then it was on the back of dismal performance that we was lucky to win on penalties.. Flamini has shown his real colours today and i am glad he is going but i think he has also seen the light as will hleb and with a bit of luck eboue. Arsenal cannot hold on to players whatever their quality and you would never see this state of affairs at liverpool, united or even dare i say it chelsea. Wenger is the mouthpeice of the board but aybe we are all beginning to tire of the same old stories.
Flamini isnt even a world class player that Arsenal are losing, perhaps that tells us more about the size of Arsenal football club and the pecking order in europe. I heard wenger in an interview mention the world wide credit crunch being a reason why we wont be spending big in the summer and he also said that money would be tight, yet 2 years ago we was told that a substantial budget was available for transfers so now that budget must be incredibly massive? more excuses that we must just accept because “in Arsene we trust”, what a joke!
Michael,
Whos to say that diaby, denilson and the rest of the fringe players wont do the same as flamini if they get one good season under their belt? We desperateley need to change our wage structure and transfer policy otherwise the class that we bring through will constantly just use us as a shop window in the champions league and then jump ship.
Does anyone really think that cesc will hang around when all his teamates are leaving, cesc could command a 100k a week now and to see flamini leave and earn more must make be hard to swallow. Cesc is ten times better than flamini as is hleb and i reckon its odds on he’ll be next out of the door otherwise wenger wouldnt have complained to uefa about inter sniffing around.
Arsenal should lump on elano and bojinov from man city, both are class players, bojinov has missed most of the season through injury but is pure class, elano has long been admired by arsene-pooh for ages. “go on arse, let loose wih some of that lolly” !!
In 6 months we will have lost Diarra Flamini and Helb.Next season if not this summer we will lose Cesc.Come on Arsenal board.As well as having money to spend we need money to keep our players.It needs Wenger to tthreaten to resign for them to change this “tight arse we aint got no money” policy
Arsenal have lost Diarra and Flamini, but they will NOT lose Hleb, Fabregas, or anyone else. Arsene Wenger said so himself–”I’ve lost one [Flamini], I’m not losing anyone else[Hleb].
Eat that “Treasa Green!”