Agony at Eastlands

 

The beginning of the end… Manuel Almunia helps Man City’s first goal into the net and Arsenal
face another uphill battle.

By NIGEL BENSON

It was another weekend of frustration for Gooners as we saw Arsenal again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in yet another match we had dominated.
Arsenal had 53% possession and fired 20 shots at the Man City goal – double what the home side managed – at Eastlands at 2am on Sunday morning (NZT).
Our domination was so complete we won 12 corners to three.
Yet we managed to lose 2-4 and have now sit eighth in the table, having won two and lost two.
It could, and should, be looking so much different.
Man City adopted the Man Utd tactic for beating Arsenal, with constant fouls and off-the-ball obstruction, as the home side led the way in yellow cards and fouls.
But once again, it was our goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia, who got our opponents underway.
The Spaniard was criminally late in reacting to a looping Micah Richards’ 20th minute header, pushing the ball onto a post, from where it bounced off his head and into the goal.
Sitting at home on my couch in Dunedin watching the match, you just knew what was about to transpire.
As far as I’m concerned, protecting the Arsenal goal is the most important job in the world and Almunia is a pale shadow of the confidence-inspiring keepers that Arsenal have always had as custodians.
Men like Jack Kelsey, Pat Jennings, John Lukic, David Seaman and Jens Lehmann must just
shake their heads at the peroxided Spaniard’s antics.
The unfortunate thing was that, as usual, that Arsenal were well on top until Almunia’s blunder.
City took massive confidence from the goal and were a different side from that moment on.
For motivation, they only had to look to their 25 million off-season capture from Arsenal, striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who played a perfect target man role and was a predictable and popular (well, amongst City fans) man of the match.
However, the Togo striker went from hero to villian when he stamped on the face of Robin van Persie in the 72nd minute and should have been instantly red-carded.
But, once again, referee Mark Clattenburg failed to notice the incident (what is it that blinkers referees in Manchester?).
Nine minutes later Adebayor ran 100m to celebrate City’s third goal in front of the visiting Arsenal supporters, leading to angry scenes among the away fans and leaving stewards to restore order.
He was immediately booked by the referee.

Van Persie was furious with Adebayor’s cowardly act.
“I am sad and disappointed by my former team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor’s mindless and
malicious stamp on me,” van Persie said three hours after the match.
“He set out to hurt me and I feel lucky that I have not suffered a greater injury. The contact
was only centimetres from my eye. I knew he was aiming for a collision because he changed the angle of his body to allow contact to be made. He moved backwards when his natural momentum would have taken him
forward. I find that deeply disrespectful,” he said.
“I have not received an apology from him, there were no words exchanged afterwards. He had
his own agenda today and that is bad for football. It’s bad for the game we all love.
“He has shown a real lack of class today, to me and the fans. We do not hide from the
disappointment of losing the match, but I need to speak out about his behaviour.”
Adebayor seems certain to face official sanction over the ugly incident.
If so, he looks likely to be suspended for next Sunday’s Manchester derby.
Adebayor apologised after the match.
“I’m very sorry for all this. Sometimes, the emotion takes over. That’s what happened. I was
very happy to score the goal. Before the game, people have been saying and writing things and
the emotions took over.”
The highlight of the match for Arsenal fans was the return of “the Little Mozart”, Tomas Rosicky, after 18 months out with injury.
He made an immediate impact, feeding van Persie for the first equaliser before popping up with our second in the 88th minute.
Welcome back, Tomas.

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna (Eboue 77), Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy, Diaby, Fabregas, Denilson (Rosicky 52), Song Billong (Eduardo 77),  Van Persie, Bendtner. Substitutes: Mannone, Silvestre, Eboue, Gibbs, Rosicky, Ramsey, Eduardo.

Arsenal’s next match is against Standard Liege in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, September 16 at 19:45GMT.