VILLAREAL 1 – 1 ARSENAL
Scorer:
- Adebayor 66
Adebayor's stunning bicycle kick for Arsenal's away goal
Hello again.
This week showed us some great football in the Champions League and I can assure you the return legs are gonna be more interesting to watch than ever. Now, let’s talk about the Arsenal against Villareal match. Two words is more than enough to describe our display in the first half. WE SUCKED. It was painful to see Villareal dominating the match from the get-go and our boys were just clueless on how to take control of the game. As a result of our “sucky” play, Villareal drew first blood with a stunning strike by Marcos Senna. It was obvious that our defense was all over the place which allowed Senna so much space to unleash a wonderful shot. Villareal continued to take charge after that goal and we were extremely lucky to not concede a second. Rossi was proving to be a menace to our defense.
Have you had a feeling that whenever you team’s losing, things start getting worse? For example if your team’s trailing by one and playing some excellent football to catch up, the clock starts ticking faster and before you knew it, the 90 minute’s up. Somehow, it’s always like this. Something like that happened on Wednesday. With Senna putting Villareal ahead, we suffered two injuries. One to Almunia and another to Gallas. As if that wasn’t enough, we collected 3 yellow cards. Plus, the half-time mark took ages to come. As I sat in my living room watching, I thought maybe it just wasn’t our day.
But we were not undone. Come the second half, Arsenal was a changed side. Changed not by substitutions but most probably by the half-time talk. The Arsenal players took more control of the pitch and worked on the ball with more confidence. Fabregas and Adebayor looked more lively upfront and Walcott was just a constant threat on the right. Capdevilla, honestly, was no match for the Englishboy. Suddenly, the match became so much more enjoyable to watch. Soon enough, our moment came. One perfect pass followed up by a sublime overhead kick gave us what could be a vital away goal to bring into the second leg. Fabregas lobbed a beautiful pass in which Adebayor (with his back to goal) chested before doing some brilliant acrobatics to send the ball in. Believe me, Adebayor’s goal made Senna’s first half strike look second class. Again it was this partnership that combined well for us just like they did against Manchester City. Both of them can give Gerrard and Torres a run for their money.
Arsenal immediately had the chance to score again but Nasri’s powerful shot went wide. Towards the end, Villareal made some good runs which did well to penetrate our defense but failed to score anymore. All in all, it was a good result for us and we of course have a better chance to win at the Emirates next week. I would also like to commend on Djourou (on for Gallas) and Fabianski’s (on for Almunia) performances especially the latter’s. I have faith in these two to step in for our injured ex-captain and No. 1 goalkeeper. By the way, Gallas has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury but I’m not too sure about Almunia’s condition.
Chelsea did very well in their game against Liverpool and came from a goal down to win 3-1 at Anfield. Everyone knows to win like that in front of the Kop is amazing stuff. That could mean we are going against a very strong Chelsea team this weekend in the FA Cup semi-final. Coming out of our respective Champions League games, Chelsea should be more confident but I feel although it’s an uphill task to beat them, we can still do it. So bring it on, Chelsea.
