Rewind: Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal
Welcome to Gooner Talk’s highlights feature, ‘Rewind’. Rewind will provide you with post-match highlights to every single Arsenal first team game giving you the opportunity to watch the goals you’ve missed, or want to see again.
So, sit back, relax and enjoy the mighty Arsenal on your computer screen.
Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal
Zat Knight scored in injury-time as Villa hit back from 2-0 down to earn a draw to put them fourth in the table.
Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies and James Milner all struck the woodwork before Denilson slotted in Arsenal’s opener.
Gabriel Agbonlahor’s header was cleared off the line before Abou Diaby scored a superb breakaway goal for the second.
Robin van Persie hit the post before Gareth Barry pulled a goal back for Villa from the penalty spot and Knight rescued a point with a 12-yard drive.
When Zat Knight scored in injury time Villa had 4 men in the box and 1 on the edge. We had 3 inside and 1 outside. Now read that again. 2 mins in to injury time we are leading a game which we could have lost after half an hour and we are outnumbered in our own penalty area, unbelievable!
This is not about individual errors, it is basic schoolboy defending by the team as a whole.
If the boot was on the other foot, we would see 2 banks of 4 lined up in front of their area defending like mad, and its hard to break that down.
To make matters worse as we all know this is not the first time we have adopted this attitude when we just needed to defend a lead for a few minutes. Which is why even when 2-0 up after an hour every Arsenal fan was still thinking ‘we can still lose this’
Can you imagine that if the defence Arsene inherited was still there. They would not have allowed the players in front of them to behave in such a gung ho manner, and this is where the heart of the matter lies.
There is not enough backbone and leadership in this team. Lots of silky skills which is wonderful to watch, but we badly need 2 or 3 leaders to change around the attitude of the side.
Well said
Arsene took Nasri off and put Clichy on, it was a bad decision because it made us defend to deep.
Good analysis iJemz.
Portsmouth preview coming later this afternoon. 🙂
Sagna saved our arses.
kolo youre proved hes just lost everything since the disease he suffered. johan djourou just needs a partner a couple of years older than him to form a good centre back partnership. gallas made poor decisions, toure was too crazy and ran out of posotion, where silvestre had a good game, but cant be relied on in centre back.
this january we need to buy a strong tall athletic centre back, and an attacking midfielder.
song and denilson have proved thay are good enough and can battle it out. i remember people in the summer saying denilson can only pass and cant defend and everything, now they are praising him, haha.
anyways whats your view on our title hopes, and what do you think we’re gonna do in the transfer market?
gunna, toure had malaria in the summer. He has been poor at best since the acn, so its not because of the malaria.
We wont win the league, lucky to get 4th and we probably wont buy during the transfer window because Wenger has officially lost it.
Watching the match was agonizing. The young villa squad looked ready to surrender yesterday. Their unrewarded dominance and our 2-0 lead seemed to have shaken their resolve. Just as that doubt was permeating Villa and Villa Park, the trojan horse strikes again! Billy G must go. Shocking and unnecessary challenge on the edge of the penalty area. This guy cannot be trusted. His motivations are questionable and his play is disasterous. He is grenade number 10 for the Arsenal. Ready to detonate at anytime.
Needless to say, after the Barry conversion, Villa had visions of the spuds comeback dancing in their heads. Give him a phanton injury and send Gallas home!