Arsenal held at Home | Viera Returns

What promised to be an entertaining encounter, turned out to be as boring as Ben-Hur in slow motion. Both sides canceling out each other resulting in a slow midfield battle won by the referee, who was surprisingly not at his best tonight. The game was so dull that the man of the match award was given to the physios and medical team.

The match was mainly built around Adebayor’s return and Viera’s home coming. Unfortunately Kolo Toure had been left out, so he had to come out saying the reason he left Arsenal was only due to lack of love with his defensive partner Gallas.

Clearly, Mancini showed his Italian style (Don’t lose, Win if you can) when he picked 3 defensive midfielders in the team and left Adebayor on the bench. A poor decision by the City manager, given the current form of Arsenal’s aging defense and with a keeper behind them who has to prove that he is better than a well trained German Shepherd at goal, the visitors should have gone for the win rather than settle for a draw especially when Tottenham are leading the race for the 4^th spot.

Robin Van Persie started his first game since November and was handed the captaincy. He was supported by Rosicky and Theo on either side with Nasri just behind the front three. Song who made his come back after missing last 3 games looked calm as ever distributing the ball with ease, while shielding the defense.

Arsenal legend Patrick Viera started along with Barry and De Jong in the midfield, making life difficult for Wenger’s men. It brought a smile when the referee blew the whistle within the first minute for a foul in the center of the park, it was none other than our dearest Patrick, snapping at the heels of midfielders, teaching Diaby a trick or two.

The game continued to bore with Arsenal enjoying most of the territorial possession but like so many times this season, were unable to penetrate the well organized defense. Tevez leading the line hardly got involved and was the only City player who was not behind the ball when home team kept passing the ball side wards. And rightly the score remained 0-0 at half time with Arsenal hitting the target once through Samir Nasri.

Things got livelier in the second half with the introduction of Adebayor who got a well deserved reception for his award winning hair style which looked like someone had sewed a poodle to his big head and his infamous celebration in front of the Arsenal fans. He replaced Viera who got a standing ovation from everyone in the stadium which was quickly followed by boos and jeers for the ex – Togo International.

With Tevez free to roam the field like he does best, the visitors looked a bit more interested after the substitution but they hardly tested Fabianski and in turn making him look calm and confident.

Arsenal did play a tidy game with very few errors but also taking very few risks. Major part of the second half turned into a ‘passing in front of the defense’ drill for Arsenal. With about 18 minutes to play in the normal time Diaby forced a save from Shay Given which resulted in the keeper injuring his left shoulder. Sadly, he could not take part any further in the game and had to be substituted immediately.

The main concern for Arsenal fans would have been the center back pairing of Sol and Silvestre. With 67 years of experience between them, they exceeded everyone’s expectation by producing a good performance and defended well against this vibrant City team. Agreed, the reason could lie in the return of Song as an anchor man added with Mancini’s tactical approach to sit behind and hit Arsenal on counters. But credit given where it is due and the oldies did a good job.

Wenger made a double substitution by bringing on Bendtner and Eboue for Theo Walcott and Rosciky. Arsenal shifted to a 4-4-2 with Eboue and Nasri running the flanks while Van Persie played in the Bergkamp role. Rosciky had a half decent game, but he still needs time to get back to his best. Bendtner did get into good positions, but was not able to produce anything worth mentioning. In the last 15 minutes, it was just attack vs defense with Man City sitting deep and allowing Arsenal to keep possession in the middle of the park.

Couple of shots on target along with few corners and free kicks was all that Arsenal could muster in this tight tidy tactical game. After 8 long minutes of stoppage time, the game died out gradually with no change in the score line.Two more games this season before we can start the transfer avalanche.