Burnley 1-1 Arsenal – 16/12/09 – (Premier League) 17 December, 2009
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
Last night I was pretty angry about the result but I’ve cooled down now, enough to write a sensible match report! I pretty much thought our title chances were over – simply from dropping two points away from home a difficult ground to visit. Today I can see that it’s not the end of the world but a win would’ve been a great bonus.
We didn’t really deserve the three points anyway last night, we played well for about the first 10 minutes and then we were awful. It puts us back in the position we were before Chelsea drew to Everton last Saturday, which is 8 points behind them with a game in hand. Still a bit of a distance but not unreachable – Chelsea have shown they can drop points.
We opened the scoring in the 7th minute. Cesc Fabregas worked his way through the defence to score a fine individual goal. The captain was the life of the team last night, he was at the centre of everything good we did and really looked up for the game. He knew that if we wanted to win this league then this is the sort of game we have to win and was trying to set an example to the rest of the team.
However I’m sure you know how things work as an Arsenal fan – as soon as something good happens there’s only something shortly around the corner to bring you back down. Cesc got injured just before half time and had to be taken off, we’re not sure how long he’s out for yet but he will definitely miss this weekend. Fingers crossed it’s not too bad.
Back to the game and we were level at 1-1 in the 28th minute. The goal came from the penalty spote, Vermaelen the culprit flying in with a tackle and we can have no complaints about the decision. Almunia had no chance but I never expected him to…
We came close to regaining the lead a few times whilst Fabregas was still on the pitch, but after that we hardly threatened. Just shows how much we’ll miss him while he’s out through injury.
At half time I was not happy. In fact I was probably angrier than we were 1-0 to Liverpool on Sunday. This might’ve had something to do with my temperamental internet and trying to watch the game over a stream but the football was hardly satisfying. I wasn’t expecting Wenger to have another go and the players last night but something needed to be done at the interval. At Anfield we came out for the second half with new life and dominated the game but nothing such happened last night and Burnley were the bigger threat.
I find it hard to admit that they outplayed us – but they did. They came close to taking the lead a few times in the second half and even had a goal disallowed. If you’ve seen the game back you’ll see Almunia making an incredible mistake allowing the ball roll to the back post for them to make it 2-1. Luckily for us we were saved by the lineman’s flag but Manuel would’ve had that one to answer for had it been allowed.
It finished up 1-1 and it felt like all the efforts against Liverpool had been thrown away. However Turf Moor and Anfield are difficult places to go and 4 points out of 6 aren’t that bad with all things considered. We took a point more than Man United at Burnley and with how our form has been recently four out of six is ok. We just have to accept that we dropped two points and get on with our next game which is Hull at home.
I came up for this fixture last season and watched us slump to a 2-1 loss. That won’t be acceptable again this year – three points is a necessity and anything else is not acceptable. I’ll be there again on Saturday and I’m hoping Arsenal will put it right.
We’ll be without Fabregas but we’ve just about got a few players left that are more than capable of winning a game so lets hope we can pull out another good home performance.
I’ll speak to you tomorrow to preview the game and talk about the Champions League draw which would’ve taken place in the morning. Until then.
first! i just wonder why wenger insists on starting walcott…fair enough, been injured, gaining match sharpness…but the boy, in my eyes, lacks the basic footballing brain…his pace can only get him so far…to me, he’s in the same brackets as diaby…every now and then they will have an awesome game, and then its back to square one for a couple matches running, then that awesome game again. walcott is much better off the bench…in games like burnley, i would’ve preferred to see eboue start, at least he gets past defenders a couple of times and is a much better crosser of the ball…hope the line-up for hull is:
almunia
sagna vermaelen gallas silvestre
song
denilson ramsey
eboue arshavin nasry
lasagnechef, what stream were you using mate?
I painfully watched the MOTD highlights, and all i can say is that it’s 1 point gained to be honest, and it’s certainly not over.
We’re not even halfway throught the season, let’s see where we are come the vital January going into February period.
Can’t wait for the draw, Stuttgart please!
Two things struck me about the Burnley game. The first, and most serious, is that compared with Burnley we were not a team. We had the talent to win easily. Why didn´t we. Was it a lack of commitment, effort, or perhaps something more intangible? Myaybe these players are not really playing for each other. Each is trying to do his best but an essential ingredient is missing, a do or die commitment that makes a team of talented individuals, like Barcelona, more than the sum of its gifted parts. How is it that a gifted footballer like Diaby can play like a novice. Sometimes he looks lost. like a fish out of water
The other thing that struck me was that we were trying to do everything through the middle, as if everyone was “hoping” (a disastrous emotion for a successful team) that Arshavin would somehow save the day. We achieved nothing on the flanks. Apart for Theo´s substandard performance we really missed Clichy, Gibbs and even Traore. What does anyone else think about this?
i agree.. we were far too narrow yet when you look at the hight there really was no recipient of a cross anyway…
too much of our play is in front of defenders..this is easy to play against… oh well.. point gained and onto a Jimmy Bullard-less Hull.. Three points is neccessary.. and i think we’ll get it
So, Porto.
Well, I think we shouldn’t underestimate them, it will be tough match.
Anyway it’s far away now, and by then hopefully we’ll have a fully fit team
Holy shit, just noticed the snowflakes… I thought I was having a stroke.
Yeah, so… Porto. Could have been worse, I suppose. By then we should be fielding some of the players on the Ladies squad to fill in for our injuries, along with Vic Akers at left-back, so it should be interesting. Can’t wait…