We Shot Ourselves!

First of all, I wish Eduardo a good recovery. It was sad seeing him gone for the rest of the season and also his participation in the European C'ships.

But... What the *#@&! I really empathized with Gallas, kicking the signboard!

Clichy was at his usual self, defending well but not his crosses tonight. But, what was he thinking letting the ball roam in the penalty box, IN THE 92nd FREAKIN MIN! Because of that, it allowed Parnaby to take advantage and Clichy's best effort to clip the ball away, felled the player. 10-man Birmingham's 2nd attempt on target was also their 2nd goal, McFadden not missing from the spot..

Yep, we shot ourselves in the foot!

Creating so many chances, all gone to waste. Ade and sub, Bendtner, were wasteful in their chances - especially our star striker who was not at his best in this game. Hleb did his usual tricks on the ball but failed to shoot when it mattered. As usual, it was Arsenal in defence and midfield and sadly, it was Arsenal too infront of goal. At moments like this, how I long for RVP's return to turn those chances into goals.. Oh how we miss him, especially now with Eduardo gone for the season.

The only good thing to take away from the game is Walcott's first goals of his Premier League debut season. It should hopefully help his confidence and bring him to the next level. Birmingham fans must be screaming "What luck!" and Arsenal handed the tie to them, literally..

I don't know what Wenger will do but I hope he gets his attackers together and practice those shots-on-goal more often. Nothing wrong with how they get the ball up-field but everything wrong when making the best of them..

Almunia (5/10) - 1st goal should have been saved. This amplifies the fact he cannot be our No. 1, period!

Gallas (7/10) - Assured at the back but I felt his heartbreak at the end. No signboard for me to kick though..

Senderos (7/10) - Won alot of headers and did very well in this game.

Clichy (6.5/10) - Only mistake was giving away the injury-heartbreaking-time penalty. For that he gets a -0.5 on my ratings.

Sagna (6/10) - Good overlapping runs and decent crosses into the box. Not much impact.

Flamini (7/10) - Wasn't as good as he was in the Milan game. Gave an average performance.

Cesc (7.5/10) - Some dangerous and accurate passes which was wasted by our strikers. Had a good shot on goal which was saved by Maik Taylor.

Hleb (Gilberto) (8/10) - Hardworking and industrious, coupled with his skills makes him my man-of-the-match. Only downside was a great chance he had which he spurned by not shooting at goal.

Walcott (Denilson) (7.5/10) - Glimpses of his skills was on show and two great goals - the equalizer deflected into goal off Ade's header and the 2nd a brilliant side-step and left footed shot past Taylor.

(Eduardo) Bendtner (6/10) - Was poor tonight. Had chances to score but didn't take full use of it. Pairing with Ade still needs work.

Ade (6/10) - Not his usual self. Too many times competing for headers with Bendtner. If this is going to be our starting strikers, it might be disastrous.

Overall: Godsmacked disappointed! What can I say...

I am sadly starting to feel Man U will overtake us and win the title and I can only say that this match might be THE match that turned the tables and favor our great rivals.

Go Arsenal, you can't give up yet!

UCL: Arsenal 0 AC Milan 0

77.71 mins! That's about as much as I got from my hubstation recording...

Damn SCV schedules really pisses me off at crucial times like these!

Nevertheless, the Gunners did bring the best out of themselves in this match. Even the "much-hated" Eboue had a good game. All it needed was a goal and the home side really looked good for it. Milan's expected world-class defensive display was the only highlight of their meek performance in this match but I expect them to be different at San Siro. Kalac was the busier of the two 'keepers and the 6-7" giant was equally strong in the air and ground to twart all that Arsenal threw at him. I missed the last quarter of the match but based on reports, Ade had a header against the bar? Well, here's my 3/4 player review:

Lehmann (7/10) - Had one of his better games this season and never made a mistake. Solid all-round performance, that's what we need from him 'till the end of the season!

Gallas (7/10) - Drove the team on well from the back and occasionally went forward with confidence, though didn't have much of an impact in the final third. Defensively solid but his lack of pace against wonderkid Pato is sought of a concern..

Senderos (Toure) (8/10) - Sendy played one of his best games. Replacing injured Toure very early in the game, he will be proud of his performance against the attacking team led by Kaka. Won numerous headers and broke up crucial passes with timely slides. Thank goodness!

Clichy (8/10) - His crosses and passes has been magnificent in this match, proving that he has definitely worked on this for awhile. Some tricks down the flanks was a delight to watch and his defensive duties was done superbly. Nothing less from our 1st choice LB.

Sagna (7/10) - Didn't perform as brilliant as Clichy but did enough to twart the Milan forwards with his positioning and pace. We have seen how effective his runs down the right and into boxes could hurt oppositions but didn't see much of that here. Well, it's his 1st season after all yeah?!

Flamini (8/10) - The Rock of Arsenal's midfield has done it again. Popping up everywhere and giving Gattuso his own medicine, Flamini certainly proves that he belongs in this team. In the past seasons, I never could quite imagine him being the Vieira for us but he certainly has done it with displays like this. Whenever Cesc loses the ball, Flamini would be behind sweeping up the loose balls or putting in Gattuso-like tackles. If there was ever an award for Top Miles Covered, he would get it. A great chance for a goal when he turned a defender inside out and layed off a short mid-cross from the touchline but Kalac did enough to punch it away. Brilliant performance!

Cesc (8/10) - As I've mentioned before, whenever Cesc gets pumped up for a game you would most probably see a great Arsenal performance. Milan did not try to play him off the park so Cesc had the space to play his game. Great crosses and passing put Milan on the backfoot for much of the game. Tackled hard when he needed to and was behind most of the moves. Brilliant!

Eboue (7.5/10) - He has finally shown why Wenger still keeps faith in him. One of his better performance and his dribbbling skills managed to get him past Milan's defenders a few times. Missed a great chance to score in the 2nd half but has done enough to pleased us fans for this match.

Hleb (7/10) - I felt he didn't really contribute alot in making chances but he certainly did perform well. His quickness of feet had left some Milan players confused and his passing had been on target. An important player for Arsenal nonetheless!

Eduardo (Bendtner) (6/10) - Didn't have a great game, not good even. Fluffed chances and a miserable shot to the corner flag before being replaced by Bendtner (whom I didn't have enough time to watch in action) in the 2nd half. Should be a good learning experience for him.

Ade (7/10) - Missed alot of chances which could have killed Milan off and bring great confidence for the return at San Siro. But it was not to be and the youthful Gunners know they have to do even better come the 2nd-leg. His headers and runs were carefully dealt with by the world-class Milan defence (marshalled by the great Maldini and Nesta) and on any given day, Ade would have scored against lesser opposition. Good learning curve for him too.

Overall: Arsenal did us proud despite not scoring and IF we were to bow out in the 2nd-leg, I would not be too upset about this as it will bring hordes of experience to Cesc & Gang. Right now, and hopefully, the Gunners can bring this performance for the remainder of the Premiership season and we would be home & dry..

What do you think? Are my player reviews accurate?

Photo courtesy of arsenal.com

Cesc the Key?

Alright, I know I am late with this match being played over the weekend and you don't need to read another blog with another critique. But man! was I numbed!

Previously, I had problems logging on to my blog because I forgot my email had a letter "h" in it - idiot! And I was so hopping to vent it all on my blog on how the Gunners disappointed so many of her fans around the world with an inept display against our old great rivals.

We all know the scores and the suspects in this best-forgotten play. We all know that come later today against AC Milan, we might be kicked out of our 3rd competition if we ever played like we did on Saturday.

The BPL is our most assured chance of winning something. 5 points is not really alot to be confident about at the moment and neither is the tie with Milan.

Whenever Cesc has failed to perform, the team has always suffered. Remembering the two trashings in our cup competitions, Cesc had MIA-ed! The opposition knows what he can do and they all came out with a gameplan - stifle the provider and we will have a chance to beat them! I had been left with a NATO (No Action Talk Only) feeling whenever he says how important it is to be this or that and then gave a mediocre midfield display.

I know how important he is to us now and the future, no doubts about that! And I haven't forgotten he is yet 21 and still learning. But we must remember, other than Cesc, we do not have someone who can take over from him. Rosicky comes to mind but he is going to enter into his late 20s soon. Denilson is talented but it will take a longer time for him to fill the playmaker's shoes perfectly. Gilberto is too defensive minded and should be leaving us end of this season and Diaby dribbles too much!

I've watched our wonderkid in all the matches he had played in and even if he had produced half of what he could, the team could still win. Half as in like, incomplete passes and stray shots - which he did produce quite alot lately. But when he doesn't turn up or his soul has left his body on the pitch, it did make a difference. The team do lose focus when they can't get their A-game going and B (aka direct play) gets us desperate.. Well, even though it did help us draw against Man U and win a couple matches.

Reviewing the team and at the same time not trying to be the Professor, everyone do feel we need a new No. 1 and an established backup centreback for Gallas. Artur Boruc from Celtic comes to mind but I have no idea which star CB is willing to wait behind Gallas. An established youth international with great prospect, ala Nordveit with a recent writeup on Young Gunners blog - being the likeliest of filling that position. True that both Swiss internationals (Sendy & Djourou) are capable to fill in at this time but the former is too slow on the turn against today's Walcott-type strikers and the latter seemingly wanting to do a Diarra..

Whatever the Great Professor decides in the summer, we all know that he will never be willing to spend huge EVER! So Cesc's idol, Samuel Eto'o, should not make the grade.

So is Cesc the key to our success on matchdays?

Player Ratings : Man City 1 Arsenal 3

Alright, I know that there are TONs of Arsenal blogs out there and many of them real quality ones. You must be asking yourself "Right... nothing much here, i'll just move along then..".

As difficult as the task maybe to make my blog different, I might just start by doing this: Instead of just touching on matches, transfers and the current Gunner news - Why don't I give my own rating to the players too?

Let's start with the last match:

Jens Lehmann (6/10) - Put in a couple of critical saves. Other than that, nothing much for him to do. Conceded that single on-target Man City goal after Clichy's error. Almunia got himself injured so old Lehmann gets to take the gloves back. Its a blessing in disguise he did not leave us recently. Let's hope we see more of the best of him in the next few games.

William Gallas (7/10) - Cpt Gallas, assured as usual. Didn't do much wrong in the game but couldn't do much about Man City's goal after Clichy was caught out by Corluka at the bye line. Gelson Fernandes drilled a shot past Lehmann and him.

Phillipe Senderos (7/10) - Has been an able stand-in for irreplaceable Toure so far. Very solid display at the back with Gallas but I still feel he needs to work on his balance. More confident in his passing instead of hacking balls away every time.

Bacary Sagna (7/10) - Haven't been seeing the best of him in recent matches and Hoyte has come in recently to challenge his place. Didn't do much wrong in this match and AW would still trust him with the RB spot. Put in a couple of fantastic crosses for Manu and his runs into the box was critical.

Gael Clichy (6/10) - Expectations of him is high, especially his midweek call-up to the French A team. Was unusually sloppy in the build up to City's only goal in the 1st-half. Is still my favourite and Arsenal's best LB. Irreplaceable!

Mathieu Flamini (8/10) - After that brilliant midweek man-of-the-match performance, he justified it again in this game. Was covering back and forth throughout the match and plug gaps in defence, eg. whenever Gallas gallops forward to attack. His passing and decisions has improved so much. High workrate and intensity. Provides the engine for Arsenal. I really have to take back my pre-season rating on him being a Gunner misfit and wanted him to be sold. Guess I'm no Arsene Wenger eh!

Cesc Fabregas (7/10) - Wonderkid Cesc hasn't been producing his early season form and his passes hasn't been the usual defence splitting kind but his average performance was enough to direct Arsenal to another victory and climb back above Man U.

Abou Diaby (6/10) - He is such a silky player. Too silky, I feel, for the English game but Arsenal do need him. He's still young and learning and if he can get his aggression up a few notches and be quicker in making decisions, he will be a big asset. Lost the ball too many times again!

Alex Hleb (6/10) - Trademark dribbles were on show again, helping Arsenal to get past the City defence time and again. Not much influence on the right-hand side, ala Eboue, as he loves to cut back into the middle. Would love to see him score goals again. Replaced by Hoyte late in the game.

Eduardo (7/10) - Brilliant second goal for Arsenal! His true form is appearing and AW has rewarded him by naming him in the starting 11 for the last several games. But once RVP is fit again, he would most probably warm the bench. Well, unless he starts scoring hat-tricks! XD

Manu (8/10) - What can we say? Scoring 2 more goals to inch closer to Ronaldo on the top scorer's chart, he assured Arsenal of another league win. He has improved alot this season and has shown what he can do. A deflected shot off a Sagna's pass opened accounts and his 2nd late in the game was good enough to end City's unbeaten home record.

Overall: Arsenal dominated the game and Eriksson was getting his players to play with more intensity and to get forward more. Not much they can do as the visitor's showed why they lost just once in the league so far. I was kind of nervous before the game as City has been tremendous at home and we need to win to keep pace with their rivals, United. I hope the Gunners keep this form 'till the end of the season and not lose focus, as we have seen they can this season.

Photo courtesy of espnsoccernet.com