Diaby heads in the lonesome? goal of the evening.
[Photo: Getty Images via Soccernet]
In a swift movement of luck the gods of football made a strange gesture to Wenger and his team as the magical combination of Chelsea losing and Man Utd drawing brought the gap to 6 points adrift. In a match that seemed pointless at certain periods, Abou Diaby headed one in to put the Gunners in advance with the minimum difference. Whether Cesc's "clear hand-ball" after the Gerrard freekick was original, is to be discussed since the ball goes to the hand exactly when the Spaniard's arm reached its highest point.
Almunia made one of his torrid performances which, in another day such as last week's match, could have ruined the day. Strangely enough, the Gunners are yet not to be out of the title race as immediate rivals took no advantage of their previous failures. With three long months to battle for the first place, the Londoners need to get the maximum of points if they are to battle well through the last day of the season. In other fronts, the Portuguese champions are the nearest stop the following Wednesday at Stadio do Dragao. We have seen the Londoners suffer too much in these kind of games in which a single mistake could throw everything over the board.
Cesc at the wall, in an unusual freekick
[Photo: Getty Images via Soccernet]
Despite the Arsenal large imposed dominion, there was no actual threat on target until 24th. Both teams were naïve and without any interest in charging the lead. The jinxed Gunners were a little too precautious as the clock reached the 30th minute. again, Wenger's furious comments form the bench reanimated a bit the team but the atmosphere outside the playing pitch was more akin to the game that what the players in it actually played. The standoff seemed to break with Nasri's first incursion on the right; the Liverpudlians managed to build some ineffective counterattacks.
Bendtner hit wide in the 26th in the first open chance. After that attempt, the flow of the match began to occur for the Londoners as the clock reached half and hour played. Maxi had a close range deflected shot, but no penalty was awarded. The match began to move as both teams found several flaws regarding marking. Samir Nasri left off the pitch injured, while the Czech replaced him with ten minutes to go. Even when the Gunner's attempts were fair to put the Liverpudlians to the sword nothing was really conclusive as two minutes were added to the injury time.
The home team, ecstatic by the Frenchamn's header.
[Photo: Empics via Soccernet]
The first attempt from the Gunners, where they already had some dominion came from the Russian midget, who shot wide the side-netting within two minutes of the second period. Two sitters came from both teams in the 53rd minute, both from late decisions: the first, N'Gog failed to shoot as Gallas saved; the other Rosicky's touch betrayed him on an open chance against Reina. As the game was growing in emotion, the home team augmented their chances, reaching the 64th minute when Bendtner got booked after some blatant diving. As the minutes passed both the manager and the crowd were getting a little more than anxious over the stalemate. Rosicky's shot went just over the bar seconds after. The Russian playmaker was replaced by Theo Walcott, as the manager showed a more aggressive attitude.
And it was in the 72nd minute when substitute Rosicky "provided" a magnificent cross for Diaby to head one in. Immediately the Gunners went on for the second but found a resilient effort from Insúa above all. As the Liverpool defence advanced their lines, the whole team left wide gaps that Walcott and Rosicky exploited, nonetheless there was no effective attempt to go past Reina. Minutes from the end, there was some controversy regarding the alleged hand-ball by captain Fábregas: to me, it was a clear penalty as he raised his hand in a clear attempt to block the kick. The problem is not the hand, but the fuss that it created as Media waged a kind of mini-war on the Spaniard's attitude.
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