Arsenal vs. Aston Villa Highlights: Third in the Premiership!
Posted by Arsenalist on March 14, 2007
It was the first game after the Champions League setback and a chance to leapfrog Liverpool in the standings for third place and put a stronghold on a Champions League qualification spot. Just some random thoughts from this game:
We really saw the reason why Aliadiere will never be a real first-team player for Arsenal, his brutal header off of Freddie Ljunberg’s cross just showed his lack of finishing skill. First he misplaced the header by putting it into the ground and even then he put so much on it that it bounced over the open goal.
Villa had success carving out the Arsenal back four with Carew and Barry wasting more than a couple chances. The back four were defending a very high line that Villa just couldn’t time correctly and when they did, the referee helped us out. Abou Diaby’s goal was a complete fluke, he did not intend to shoot and it just kind of accidentally flicked of his foot. Lehmann came about with some very crucial saves on Barry and Carew which preserved the flaky 1-0 lead.
Villa dominated the second half without creating any chances, when Arsenal did get the ball and made runs, it was the same old story - nothing of fruition comes of us in the final third. Baptista was taken out of the game and questioned Wenger for doing so - shut up, sit down and start packing your bags. I know I sound pretty pissed off for a guy whose team just won but our lack of finishing really is frustrating. Who cares about creating chances when you can’t put them away? We need Eto’o.
First Half Highlights - Abou Diaby Goal 1-0
Full Time Match Highlights and Analysis
March 14, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Very poor game. That’s why we need a bunch of super star players as wenger put it in the summer. We really luck that finish striker who will bury the ball into the net. This shit of missing and creating useless chances pisses me off. I dont know why aliadere cant emulate his Carling cup form to the premiership. As usual, flamini was shit! Wenger needs to sell a load of players and buy some quality. It doesnt matter wether we were missing 7 starting players, we are still arsenal. I’m happy we have earned those 3 points but still pissed about our performance.
March 14, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Yeah, it was a pain to watch this. Every time they come forward, regardless of how good the passing is in the midfield, you just know the final touch or final pass will be off and it’ll be all worth nothing.
March 15, 2007 at 12:44 am
Thanks for the highlights. Yeah, I think Baptista is finally done. Too many bad games between the two-three good ones he had in the cups; add to that mouthing off at Wenger, and I think even our ever-patient Yoda Arsène might have had enough.
And Aliadiere too. Wasn’t it amusing that our best chances in the second half were after at least one if not both of them had been taken off?
We were lucky in this one — very lucky. But I’ll take the three.
March 15, 2007 at 2:48 am
“We really luck that finish striker who will bury the ball into the net.”
Players like, ooh, Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie?
March 15, 2007 at 6:24 am
we just need to keep the injuries to a minimum level. That’s all, but we also need a Plan B for that.
March 15, 2007 at 12:45 pm
What Ausgunner said. If we were playing your 4th and 5th ranked strikers and DIDN’T have finishing problems, it would probably be time to jettison our highly paid top strikers, wouldn’t it? We pay them for a reason.
March 15, 2007 at 3:52 pm
The player I miss most is Robin van Persie. He actually shoots the ball when other Arsenal strikers would just have passed it off for a “better” shot and probably wasted an opportunity. He probably would’ve scored a couple tonight. That chance against PSV that Adebayor had on the break, RVP would’ve buried that.