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The forecast was rainy as the seven of us headed to Aston Villa for the last game of the day! Aston villa vs Arsenal at Villa Park… We reached early(around 3.30) in anticipation of a huge crowd for the 5.30 kick-off and were kind of disappointed to see only a handful of supporters making their way towards the stadium.
Aston Villa has its home at Villa Park (a sleepy suburb of Birmingham) with a small station and a chilly weather! The location suits the team quite well too as this is a decent mid table team whose better performances in the recent past had come under a certain Martin ‘O Neill. The team had certainly not forgotten their heydays as replays of their win over Arsenal from O’ Neill’s stewardship when Barry was still their captain were being shown. Reaching early had its benefits though, as we caught a glimpse of a few Villa players including Benkete and Stephen Ireland making their way into the stadium.
The gates opened at 4.30 and we started making our way to our seats in trinity stand. We had to climb quite a few flights of stairs to reach the top and were pretty tired by the time we reached the top. We made our way through the bars and the betting area towards our seats. I had no idea what awaited me next!
The view from the stand just blew my mind away; it was worth every bit of the climb. On a rainy Saturday evening, the view of the Villa Park pitch looked like a extra large sized LED display. The Villa goalkeepers, Brad Guzan & Shay Given, were the first ones to come out for the warm up followed by their Gooner counterparts Szczesny and Mannone. As the crowd(whatever little were present at that time) started cheering every touch of the players, the Villa team came out for their warm up next. Post the regular bit of warm up, the team engaged in a small 6-a-side game and I was amazed by the one touch passing and the ball control of the Villa players in the small area. The Gooners were out by now and had started their own warm up on the other side of the pitch.
The crowd had started filling in the stands by now and 15 mins before kick-off, both the teams went back inside the tunnels and were back in a flash for the pre-match programme.
Holte End, the 12th man
At 17:30 local time, the game kicked off. The Arsenal fans were a small group located right next to the Arsenal goal post and were quite vociferous with their taunts. The home fans at Holte end (the 12th man) were not to be outdone as they started pelting out ‘Villa! Villa! Villa!’ which drowned out the away section. The first 15 minutes of the game were quite drab, with neither team getting their play going. The 19th minute was an inspiring one with the entire stadium standing up to show their support to Stan, as Stiliyan Petrov is affectionately called(Villa captain and their #19), till leukaemia made him sit out of the game since March! It was a moving moment looking at the entire stadium up on their feet for one man!
It kind of acted as a much-needed boost for the Villans who stepped up their game with Christian Benteke causing all sorts of problems for the Arsenal back line. Gabby and Bannan were constant threats in the attacking third. Till the 30th minute, Guzan had hardly moved at his post while Szczesny was kept busy. He made a mess of a simple collection and ended up collecting an yellow for sliding out of the box trying to keep hold of the ball. The Villans looked more likely to break the deadlock and the home support erupted 10 mins before the break as Andres Wiemann bundled the ball into the net from the resulting free kick only it to be ruled out offside! Arsenal’s edginess was personified by their manager, who was a constant fixture by the touchline. Santi Cazorla started getting more involved in the game and gave a few delightful through balls to Girourd and Podolski, neither of whom made them count!
Things started to return to normal as Arsenal re-asserted themselves in the second half with Cazorla, Arteta and Ramsey starting to get more involved in the game and boos rang out from the Villa fans for every Arsenal touch on the ball. That was probably still keeping Arsenal at their edge who, for all their comfort on the ball, still looked vulnerable on the break with Gabby and Benteke proving to be constant threat! A slew of substitutions followed and La Professeur surprised everyone by hauling off the ineffective Giroud and Podolski, introducing Gervinho as the sole striker up front. Ramsey fizzed a shot past the post and the Villans returned the favour with Brett Holmann’s stinging 30-yard drive bringing out a superb finger tip save from Szczesny in the dying minutes.
There was nothing much beyond that and Arsenal were left to rue three dropped points when the whistle blew at the end of 93 minutes. The game was well summarized by former Gooner Tony Adams in his post match review, “It was quite a boring draw to be honest with you!” But I wouldn’t pass up a chance to be there on a match day even if it was a boring draw! If a crowd of 34607 at Villa Park could create such an atmosphere, we left the ground wondering about a match day experience at the “Theatre of Dreams”!
