Orient secure replay after late Arsenal slip
|A late defensive slip-up from Arsenal gave Leyton Orient an equaliser and booked the League 2 side a replay at Emirates Stadium in a fortnight’s time.
Orient substitute Jonathan Tehoue powered past Arsenal defenders Kieran Gibbs and Ignasi Miquel before striking under goalkeeper Manuel Almunia in the 89th minute to cancel out Tomas Rosicky’s header.
Arsene Wenger’s side were in total control of the match for the vast majority of the game, dominating the match both before and after midfielder Tomas Rosicky opened the scoring with a neat headed finish. But despite creating several chances, the rustiness of Marouane Chamakh and Nicklas Bendtner was shown after failing to take their opportunities.
Wednesday’s Champions League matchwinner Andrey Arshavin came close on occasions as well, most notably when he grazed the outside of the post with five minutes to go.
Arsene Wenger made the expected sweeping changes from the starting XI against Barcelona, with midfielder Alex Song the only survivor while 18-year-old centre-half Ignasi Miquel made his first-team debut and Manuel Almunia returned in goal. However, captain Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere were all on the bench.
Orient, cheered on by a capacity 9,000 crowd, were not overawed and tried to take the game to their illustrious opponents and the visitors could offer only tame efforts from Marouane Chamakh and Andrey Arshavin in their attempts to break the first-half deadlock. At the other end, Charlie Daniels sent a 25-yard effort just over following a corner.
Orient made a change for the second half as injured defender Jason Crowe was replaced by Thomas Carroll.
With an already congested fixture list, which includes Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham at Wembley, the last thing Wenger will have wanted was a replay, and Arsenal started with more urgency and finally took the lead on 53 minutes.
Bendtner’s persistence in the right side of the penalty area paid off when his cutback was glanced into the far corner by Rosicky – his first goal since January 2010.
On 68 minutes, the Czech midfielder was denied a second goal by a brilliant reaction save at the near post from Jamie Jones, who also blocked the rebound.
Tehoue injected some pace into the Orient attack and the French forward broke quickly down the right, as Alex Revell swept a first-time effort wide from the edge of the Arsenal box. Tehoue broke again and crossed to the centre where Revell fired in his shot – only for the much-maligned Sebastien Squillaci to somehow make a saving block.
Arshavin almost made the tie safe when he dashed clear down the left, but his shot clipped the far post. Orient, though, were not to be denied a famous result as Tehoue drilled in an equaliser with a minute left and Brisbane Road erupted.
Poor Poor Almunia. That’s why he should be sold
Arsenal’s squad lack depth to challenge on four fronts. Almunia is not good enough and I don’t want to get started on Denilson and Squilachi.
Alumnia…ffs, the ball was straight at him………just what we need, a replay b4 the barcelona game
Denilson is without a doubt the worst regular starter for Arsenal for 10 years (and probably a lot longer). As soon as he gets the ball, he pushes it to whoever is closest to him (generally a sideways 2m pass), in many cases putting them under unnecessary pressure. He does tackle, he does not pass well, he does travel with the ball. He is crap and I hate seeing him on the pitch.
Good game. I thought you lot played well, but were in the end let down at the front(Chamakh) and back(Almunia) of your team.
AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEE WELL DONE ALMUNIA U ABSOLUTE TURD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Poor almunia. That guy is useless.
My analysis:-
Almunia didnt have a save to make, then let one in thru his legs.
Sagna defended well as usual, didnt do much in attack, as usual.
Gibbs was okay, except for the lunge that led to the goal.
Ignasi was a pleasant surprise, great potential, too bad about the goal.
Squilaci best defensive effort came when the ball hit him in the face.
Song gave the ball away countless times. Songinho needs a reality check.
Rosicky scored, but too often he just make needless twists & turns with the ball when a quick outlet was the better option. He must have trained with Diaby too often.
Denilson is just being Denilson.
Arshavin looks the only player who wants to kill the game off. But he’s surrounded by stagnant team mates.
Chamakh looks like a scared kid lost in a carnival.
Bendtner’s first touch is still non-existent.
The Danish gum chewing (football genius),
The Brazilian midfielder, sorry but your ………div 1 at best
and him in goal
Mr W its not rocket science!!!!!!!
After the historic Barca win we only got 30 or so comments, I bet you before 12 tonight we will have about 50 comments from the so called Arsenal fans complaining about the team, manager, selection.
I hope I’m proved wrong.
Unbelieveable?, not really. Any team who can give away a four goal advantage is well capable of giving away a single goal.
I`v e said it before and I`ll say it again, Arsenal do not have a competitive second string eleven. The moment I saw the team sheet my confidence waned. More pretty football with no finishing power.
Wenger should have closed it down in the last twenty minutes and spared us another replay.
Had it not been Arsenal I would have been suspicious of the result but we`re good at dropping our bundle, aren`t we?
I can only pray Wenger doesn`t blame the playing surface, that would be more than I could stand.
So called Arsenal fans know more than glory boys!
Pastaface. Shall we celebrate having Almunia back in goal? Simple Question. As a simple man should be easy to answer for even u…..not blaming wenger at all either
Also, a replay isn’t that bad news (apart from playing an extra game before barca). Ramsey and verminator could both play, thats AWESOME news
i do not complain. we played a good game, created chances, rosicky was great almost everyone played on their level. it is just a shame that we have got to play an extra game, thats all. anyway, almunia should not play this season again. give sea a chance, look what happened with szces and lukasz.
the guy that scored the goal for orient was their best player, he got through a player who debuts and scored a goal past awful keeper. he should be marked for the return leg.
btw did anyone see the challenge on song? horrible, my stream freezed at the moment when the orient player stepped on his foot. shoul`ve been a red.
i would put shea…eboue, djourou(vermalen will be back by then, he will be a back up),miquel, gibbs… denilson, wilshere, rosicky … arsh, nasri, bentner(if everyone is fit ofcourse) we will shurely win, but there will be 90 unneeded effort fot the boys. up the arsenal! 😀